Eight Myths About Pansexuality, Debunked
It’s hard to deny that ignorances and misunderstandings about pansexuals exist, and the bisexual community is not immune – despite facing plenty of myths of our own. Myths around bisexuality and pansexuality overlap, but pansexuality also attracts some unique prejudices. It’s time to put them all to bed, starting with eight of the most common panphobic myths.
MYTH: Pansexual is a new term
FACT: We’ve been seeing the word pansexual since at least 1924. It’s shifted in meaning since it was coined, of course, just like the words ‘bisexual’, ‘homosexual’ and even ‘furniture’, ‘girl’ and ‘manufacture’. That’s just how language works.
It was first used by contemporary critics of Freud such as Otto Rank and Wilhelm Reich in derision, as an ironic validation of Freud’s suggestion that “that the sex instinct plays the primary part in all human activity”; or that our libidos either directly or indirectly, drive… Continue reading
Five Things to Watch if You Don’t Want to Watch Stonewall
By now, you’ve probably seen the trailer for Stonewall, the film accused of whitewashing, ciswashing and bierasing events that took place on Christopher Street, New York, in June 1969. If you’ve decided to #BoycottStonewall, consider watching one of these films instead.
1. Pay it No Mind – The Life and Times of Marsha P Johnson
Marsha P Johnson was an African American, bisexual transwoman, famed for being photographed by Andy Warhol and for her role in instigating the Stonewall Riots. This documentary tells her story though original footage of interviews with Johnson as well as interviews with her family and friends. You need to see it immediately.
(full doc)
2. Stonewall (1995)
Stonewall, the final work of director Nigel Finch who died shortly after filming finished, is a fictonalised account of the riots written by Rikki Beadle Blair and based on the memoir Stonewall by Martin Duberman.… Continue reading
You Didn't Hear it from Us 20/06/15
Here’s a round-up of some of the news, blogs posts and comment we missed this week.
- Bis of Colour launched their survey report.
- Kristen Stewart’s mother maybe outed her…
- … or maybe didn’t.
- We read a beautifully written piece about being queer at Ramadan.
- An ex-Surgeon General of the US wants bi people to come out to their doctors.
- Activists supporting trans* women of colour halted Boston Pride’s parade.
- A photographer shot portraits of 65 LGBT survivors of discrimination worldwide.
- We learned the truth about sexuality in Ancient Greece and Rome.
Did we miss any other must-see stories? Let us know in comments…
Image: “Joseph Kawesi, 31. Uganda, MARCH 2015 ” by Robin Hammond. Shared under fair use. Via Time.com
Hoisting our colours: A brief history of the bisexual pride flag
The bi pride flag has become internationally recognised symbol of our movement, so it’s surprising that so many people don’t really know where it came from of what it represents. Now, we can’t have that, so with a little help from thewaybackmachine, and the good people at BiNet USA, Biscuit presents a history of the bisexual flag.
There are lots of symbols that represent homosexuality. From the (pun not intended) gaiety of the rainbow flag to the somber significance of the inverted pink or black triangles or the mythological connections of the labrys, you can usually find a motif that suits your purpose.
But until 1998, when Michael Page designed the flag that would become a global shorthand for bisexuality, there was no universal symbol under which the movement could unite. Many bisexual people did not feel a connection to the already iconic rainbow flag, which seemed to belong… Continue reading
"Risky changes": A coming out story – Part 2
Bisexual artist Norma Furman, 80, shares the second of a series of extracts from her memoirs. In Part 2, the cracks begin to show in Norma’s relationship with her first female lover, Audrey, when they embark on an action-packed road trip in Audrey’s husband’s car…
I joined Audrey’s consciousness raising group where women from different lifestyles met weekly to discuss and share feelings and experiences most women have in common. It opened my eyes and my mind. The unmarried women and the ones without children envied those of us who had the “traditional” family, while we longed for the freedom we had given up. We knew we had it better than any other generation of women in history (except for maybe the primitive matriarchal societies) but questioned why that was supposed to be good enough. Why were our rights not equal with the men? Why would a just, fair God or a just, fair society for that matter give one group of humans fewer opportunities than another group? Especially if that other group consisted of their own mothers, sisters, daughters and lovers.
Some of the rights that were denied to us in those days were important like “equal pay for equal work” and “equal physical activity programs”. Some of the rights that were denied to us were silly, seemed arbitrary and made no sense such as: we could smoke cigarettes but we could not inhale from cigars or pipes, we had to wear short skirts and shear stockings in the dead of winter when the winds blew our skirts and often revealed our frozen “tootsies” and we were called “immodest” if we wore slacks!
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