Bisexuality, Visibility, and Fanfic Labels, or, Being the Blue M&M

Meta
Title:	Bisexuality, Visibility, and Fanfic Labels, or, Being the Blue M&M
Creator:	dunmurderin
Date(s):	April 13, 2009
Medium:	Online
Fandom:	Fic-writing fandom
Topic:	Bisexuality
External Links:	LiveJournal Archived version
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Bisexuality, Visibility, and Fanfic Labels, or, Being the Blue M&M is a 2009 meta essay by dunmurderin on the subject of bisexual visibility in fanfiction. It was crossposted to dunmurderin's LiveJournal and InsaneJournal accounts.

Some Topics Discussed

• Fanfic labeling practices
• Bisexual invisibility in fandom
• Bisexual invisibility in wider society
• Biphobic stereotypes and tropes
• OTP and mono-fannishness
• Portraying bisexuality in fanfic

The Essay

There's been some recent discussion as to why bisexuality tends to fly under the radar in fandom, particularly as it relates to slash fandom where characters with canonically heterosexual love interests/relationships/tendencies are frequently written as being closeted homosexuals rather than bisexuals.

My pet theory is that, in part, this has to do with how fandom labels fics with romantic/sexual pairings. As it stands, there are only two widely accepted labels for romantic/sexual pairing fics: Het and Slash, both of which tend to imply/reinforce monosexual portrayals/attitudes in fanfics. We'll get to my reasoning in a moment but first...

Long Ass Disclaimer Time:

For the purposes of this discussion, the following should be accepted as givens:

Given #1: "Slash" is intended to be read as broadly and generically as possible and includes within it the following: m/m slash; f/f slash (whether described as femmeslash, femslash or saffic), yaoi, yuri, shounen-ai and shoujo-ai.

Given #2.: Male/female and man/woman are intended to be read as broadly as possible and should be taken to include cis- and transgendered and intersexed individuals. As well as genderless characters who can be/still are read as being male or female (for example (but not limited to) robotic characters from fandoms like Transformers, or WALL-E).

Given #3: When "pairing" is used, it is used because most fanfics in my experience deal with two-person relationships. It is not intended to slight or ignore poly relationships of any sort.

While it is my belief that much of what I am saying is applicable in some shape or form to other marginalized sexualities (asexuals, transsexuals, polysexuals, etc.) my focus is on bisexuality. This isn't intended to be exclusive, it's just that I am bisexual and that is where I'm choosing to place my focus. I apologize in advance for any sense of exclusion this attitude may cause. I am not an expert on human sexuality, if my ass shows, I apologize in advance.

Getting On With It:

The problem with "het" and "slash" as labels for fics with bisexual characters is that both carry an implication about the sexuality of the participants.

Het is defined as "sometimes short for heterosexual sex/relationships/situations"[1] and as a "story or fanzine with explicit scenes of heterosexual sexual acts." [2] as well as "the opposite of "slash" [...] classifying a romance and/or sexually explicit story which has as its main focus a heterosexual relationship.."[3]

Slash is defined, in the same sources, as: "implies homosexual relationships between characters" [1]; "stories about homosexual pairings" [2] and, "a subgenre of romance fanfiction which exclusively deals in homosexual or male homosexual relationships; [...] most fans use it to mean specifically to [sic] same-sex pairings or even, to exclusively male same-sex pairings." [3]

On the surface, it can be hard to see a problem with these definitions -- after all, it's not like any of them come out and say "No Bisexuals Need Apply" or "Monosexuals Only". They're not saying bisexuals can't appear in het and slash fics, they're just not mentioning bisexuality at all. Instead of being mentioned separately, the case could be made that bisexual relationships are just being grouped with heterosexual relationships in those cases when the pairing is male/female and with homosexual relationships when they involve two males or two females.

Which still doesn't sound terrible, except that not mentioning bisexuality and/or categorizing it with heterosexual or homosexual behavior depending on the genders of the pairing in question is effectively a way of making bisexuality disappear. It may not be malicious or even intentional, but that doesn't make it any better. An unintentional snub doesn't hurt any less.

Part of the reason bisexuality is invisible and/or marginalized in fandom is because bisexuality is invisible and/or marginalized by society at large. Fandom isn't some special, separate place where we leave the biases and prejudices we carry around with us outside of fandom at the door. Those things come in with us and it's not surprising that they get reflected in fanfic.

Outside of fandom, bisexuals are stereotyped as being confused, greedy, promiscuous, fence-sitters who are only dabbling with both genders until they make up their mind and pick a side. Bisexual women are stereotyped as a straight man's fantasy while bisexual men are cheating dogs who fool around with men behind the backs of their poor unsuspecting wives. Bisexuals of both genders are frequently characterized as 'half-straight and half-gay' rather than as having a separate and distinct sexuality. [4]

In fanfic, where pairings are usually the driving force behind the creation of stories and can be a source of fierce loyalty and furious debate between rival 'ships,' bisexuality can get lost in the shuffle because most fics aren't meant to be a serious exploration of a character/s' sexuality. Many fics are written or pairings are created simply because the author wants to see these two (or more) characters together for happy fun-times.

Note: There's NOTHING wrong with pairing characters for no better reason than 'I felt like it.' I've done it (Huffer/Pipes in Transformers -- the characters never met canonically) and some of the best fanfic I've read features pairings that have no canonical backing. I know of at least two pairings that are highly popular within their respective fandoms that have zero basis in canon (Beachhead/Cover Girl in GI Joe and Jazz/Prowl in Transformers).

It's when you get to the OTP, the One True Pairing that things can get sticky. For most people, their OTP is just their favorite pairing, the two (or more) characters they like to see together for various reasons. But for some people, the OTP is a cause that must be defended unto the death and the unbeliever must be either converted or shunned for not having the sense to realize how perfect Frick and Frack are together.

"One of the common tropes of OTP-ism is that all relationships pale in comparison to the OTP, of course Character A's real sexuality can only be that which pairs them with B. Since all relationships with the gender B isn't are by definition lesser than [sic] A can't really be attracted to that gender. It's stupid logic, but that's OTP-ism for you." (source: alixtii from his essay "Bisexuality and Fanfiction") [5]

OTP-ism stems largely from the fact that many romance stories are, generally speaking, not about real-world relationships. They're about a fantasy and when it comes to fantasies, things can be highly idealized and much more dramatic than they are in the real-world. Characters in books and movies and on TV, no matter how realistic the show is, live in a world that is created to showcase them and as such, things are a whole hell of a lot neater than they are in the real world. This is the reason why Everybody Loves Raymond, even though he's kind of a douche at times and it's the reason why Horatio Caine can always crack the case and why Chuck hasn't been stuck in 'protective custody' in Gitmo.

So, on the one hand, the idea that a person has that one special, perfect person they are destined by fate to be with is an understandable trope. It's been a constant for thousands of years because it speaks to us. Romeo and Juliet probably wouldn't have become a classic if the two had survived because where's the drama in "Our folks decided our happiness was more important than some stupid feud!"

On the other hand, think about the same conceit in terms of hair color: Character A is involved with Character B who is a redhead. A fic writer pairs Character A with Character C, a long-term friend with whom A has had some chemistry in the past. Character C has dark hair.

Now, imagine that the writer claims, either in the fic itself or in their justification of the pairing that Character A never really liked redheads, that A was confused about their hair color preferences but now they're with Character C and they've decided to stop lying to themselves and be honest about their preference for dark-haired individuals.

Better yet, imagine the mocking the writer would be in for after suggesting that Character A could never again be attracted to a redhead after being with Character C and their fabulous dark hair. Because the idea that somebody's ability to be attracted to one hair color could be negated entirely by falling in love with (or just having sex with) someone of a different hair color is ridiculous.

People make these distinctions about gender preferences all the time -- in fics, in the media and in life. "Character A can't be gay s/he is/was married/in a relationship with/once spoke to a man/woman!" is a common argument against slash pairings that is not only bi-phobic, but also demonstrates a lack of understanding about the diversity of human sexuality to boot.

This argument is often refuted with "Yes Character A can, s/he is bisexual!" -- which at least acknowledges the existence of non-monosexuality, so there's points for that. Though I find myself wondering how many fics use bisexuality as just a convenient lampshade versus how many use it as an actual facet of the character's personality?

Granted, the difference between "convenient lampshade" and "actual facet" is going to be a highly subjective one, even among bisexuals. But my guess, which comes right out my ass, is that many fics feature characters who are called bisexual but who are portrayed as being monosexual.

If I write a slash fic about Cyclops and Wolverine where I justify the pairing by saying that both men are bisexual, but essentially refuse to acknowledge any possibility that either character might still have or might one day again be attracted to a woman in any way, shape or form then I'm not really writing two bisexual characters. Instead, I'm writing about two once-closeted gay men who've come out, stopped deluding themselves and become safely monosexual again. Bisexuality, in this case, is being used more to preempt any one who tries to sink my ship, not as a part of who the character is.

Please Note: This is NOT to say that all characters must be written as bisexuals or that monosexuality is wrong. In the first place, I don't subscribe to the idea that everyone is bisexual. I think the Kinsey Scale helps make the point that attraction and desire exist on a continuum rather than as clear-cut divisions, but that a person's sexuality is what they say it is, not where society finds it convenient to put them.

But I'm talking about fiction, which unlike reality, has to make sense to work. If you include something in a story, it should be there for a reason and/or have an impact on what's happening. I believe it was Chekhov who said something to the effect of "if you have a gun on a table in the first act, it should be fired in the third." [6]

Meaning, if Cyclops and Wolverine are said to be bisexual in the fic, there should be some evidence to support that claim within the fic itself.

It doesn't have to be huge, glaring evidence like Cyclops and Wolverine invite Emma Frost over for a three-way (though if anybody writes this/has written this, please post a link below so that I may examine it for scientific purposes -- and by scientific purposes, I mean seeing how much drool my keyboard can stand). And there doesn't have to be an "as you know" conversation that runs "As you know, Logan, being bisexual these days is very hard since monosexuals tend to presume our choice of relationship partner equates to our true sexual preferences, little realizing that one can be in an exclusive relationship with a member of one gender and still feel attraction to individuals of the opposite gender..." -- unless, of course, it's followed by "Where the hell did I leave that ball gag?"

The acknowledgement could be something as simple as "Hey, Summers, check out the rack on that one!" "What is with you and high school girls?" "High school? She's twenty, easy!" "Yeah, you hope she's easy.." "Awww, shut up...you know I love you." Or Scott and Logan helping each other deal with a year of firsts after losing Jean Grey -- first Christmas, first New Years, Jean's birthday, things like that. Just so that there's something that shows that their bisexuality means more than just "used to sleep with girls."

Of course, even if the fic in question does treat bisexuality respectfully, there's still the problem of how to classify it once it's ready to post. Is a fic about Cyclops and Wolverine building a relationship together while dealing with their grief over Jean Grey het because it's about their past m/f relationship or is it slash since it deals with a current m/m relationship?

If it were me, or at least the 'me' I was a week ago before I started this essay, I'd likely label the story slash for the current relationship and make mention of the past m/f relationship in the summary and my author's notes. A friend of mine says she labels fics 'slash' and 'het', depending on the fic's pairing, and presumes that readers will clue in to the fact that the character(s) are bisexual since they're beng shown with partners of both genders.

While I think this type of labeling (or perhaps lack of labeling) can work and work well, I also wonder if maybe there shouldn't be a label for bisexual characters and/or stories? On the plus side, a label would make these stories more visible and easier to find. Sure, chances are there wouldn't be many of these stories and the overall effect would be like throwing a handful of blue M&Ms into a popcorn bowl full of red and yellow ones, but those blues would still stand out. I'd know they were there and it would be nice [7]

The label would work just like 'het' or 'slash' do now, in that it could be used to describe fics ranging from G-rated hand-holding up through triple X-rated PWP. It'd be voluntary, just like any other label is and could be used in addition to 'het' or 'slash' or even as a modifier for a character to indicate that one half of a pairing is bi (Bi!Cyclops).

As for the downsides, well, I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that if a 'bi' label were adopted and caught on, it would be misapplied left, right and center. Or, more correctly, it would be applied to the types of fics that would make me crazy because they'd reinforce bi-phobic stereotypes and clichés. But to be fair, slash and het are applied to stories that reinforce homophobic and sexist stereotypes respectively. A bi label, just like slash or het, would be a mark of content rather than quality.

Another problem is that the label might not be accepted or even widely used, meaning it would be about as useless as no label at all.

Hell, even after working in this essay for over a week, I'm still not 100% sure we absolutely need a label. Part of me wonders if a recognition that 'het' and 'slash' apply to acts rather than preferences would serve instead of a label -- though another part of me balks at this since a person or a character still bisexual no matter who they're sleeping with or not sleeping with. If I write Cyclops as bi, he's still bi regardless of whether he's with Logan or Jean Grey or is living a celibate life in order to avoid racking up any more kids from alternate dimensions.

This isn't a simple issue -- if it was, this essay wouldn't have taken me over a week to write -- but I think one of the ways for bisexuality to become more visible is for those who write bisexual characters to make those stories easier to spot. Because it would be nice to see more blue M&Ms.

[1] Source: Ye Olde Jolly Jolly Anal-Retentive General Fandom and Fanfiction Glossary

[2] Source: Ms. Nitpicker's Fanfic Glossary:

[3] Source: Glossary of Fan Fiction Terms @ Wikipedia

[4] Bi-phobic stereotypes taken from "Some classic elements of bi-prejudice" and "7 popular myths of bisexuality countered &/or analysed", both by Jennifer Moore. Her site, Jennifer's Bisexuality Index Page is full of other resources as well.

[5] alixtii's article was written in response to trobadora's article Monosexuals, this one's for you, which was itself written in response to chasingtides' article, Biphobia: It's Whats For Dinner.

[6] Actually, he didn't quite say it quite like that -- you can read more here: Chekhov's Gun @ Wikipedia

[7] Once again, I’m speaking about bisexuality, but I honestly believe that this idea can and should apply to other sexualities. There’s no reason not to add more colors of M&Ms to the bowl.

Responses and Discussion

[beckyh2112]
Interesting essay. It's made me think about some things, and one of my in-progress fics is probably going to include some evidence of actual bisexuality now. Once Sokka gets old enough to care about that sort of thing. (Snogging Zuko and still flirting with the pretty girls. That's our Sokka.) (And by in-progress, I mean 'sequel to the in-progress one', because it occurs to me it'd be neater that way.)

May even use a bi label on the story just to see how people react.

Tangently related, but I've noticed that I give my Avatar characters a lot more diverse sexualities than my Transformer characters. With the Transformers, I just tend to stamp them as bisexual and move on. With Avatar OCs, I vary across a spectrum of firmly monosexual, mostly monosexual with exceptions, bisexual, and asexual.

I think either the genderlessness or gender disparity of Transformers actually discourages me from doing any serious exploration in varied sexualities with them.

[dunmurderin]
I'm not going to say much on this at the moment 'cause it is late (ok, early) and I need to go to bed and this might be the start of a new essay but I think you raise a good point about TFs and gender and sexuality. It seems to me that since for TFs gender is likely more a mental state rather than a physical state, sexuality would be more fluid among them. That and the fact that males tend to outnumber females means if you're not at least willing to consider bisexuality, you're going to be spending a lot of lonely nights.

[kyuuketsukirui]
I really think alixtii was right on in saying that most of it comes down to OTPism, because you talk about having the characters acknowledge their bisexuality by thinking a girl is hot, yet in 99% of slash fic (and presumably het, though I don't read as much), there will never be acknowledgement that the characters find anyone attractive other than the person they're paired with, because they're zomg soulmates! you know. The characters are not only monosexual in being attracted to one sex, they're monosexual in being attracted to one person. (This is why so much slash not only doesn't read as the characters being realistically bisexual, it doesn't read as them being realistically gay. They are gay for one person and will never look at anyone else ever. To do so threatens the speshulness of their lurve.) I'm also not sure where a bi label for fic would come in, since I never see fic labelled het or slash. Het and slash are terms used to talk about fic in general, but they are not terms that appear on the fics themselves. (It's redundant to put "Cylops/Wolverine" and "slash".)

[beckyh2112]
While I've recently removed all such labels, I used to put 'het' or 'slash' in the summaries of stories on FF.Net where I had established what two (or more) characters were involved without otherwise saying they were in a relationship. (Ex.: "Smokescreen takes charge of Bluestreak after the Autobots rescue him from the destruction of his home city, Kalamata. Slash.")

[dunmurderin]
You're right, most OTP fics regardless whether they're het or slash will never acknowledge the possibility that a character can be attracted to anyone else ever because that would destroy the romance. But, when you're justifying a slash pairing by saying that one of the characters is bisexual and then write the character as being completely monosexual, that's offensive to me because it's saying that 'bisexuality' really just means "sleeps with girls." Not to mention that it's lazy writing, to say the least.

I'd love to see people stop using 'He's bisexual!" as a justification for slash pairings if they're not going to have the decency to make the character actually bisexual. I don't expect it to happen, but I'd love to see it. But that's as much a part of me disliking unrealistic relationships regardless of sexuality as it is me just wanting to see more fics featuring bisexuality as something other than a lampshade.

I've redundantly labeled fics of mine as het and slash and I've seen others do it. Not everybody does and it probably varies by fandoms and by how paranoid someone is about having someone bitch at them because they didn't realize that Cyclops/Wolverine was going to be about two guys kissing, OMG! There's been enough rants about that sort of idiocy at fanficrants that it seems to be fairly common.

But, even if people don't put 'het' or 'slash' in their summaries, fandom still tends to divide relationship and/or sexual fics into two broad, monosexual categories. Even Cyclops/Wolverine is seen as a slash label.

[doro_chan]
here via metafandom @ delicious

First of all, to me, het and slash are definitely labels for the acts/relationships themselves and say nothing about the sexual orientation of the characters involved (so slash includes things like WNGWJLEO). Just like m/m, f/f or variations thereof. I think it's not so clear if you look at professionally published media where the people like to use the word "gay lit" or something like that, referring to the orientation as well. I remember reading the wikipedia page about Brokeback Mountain, which included the abridged version of discussions about whether or not Jack and Ennis were gay, bisexual or heterosexual. My reaction was more or less wondering why anyone would care about that. They love each other, everything else is open to speculation until Annie Proulx drops an anvil on someone. Which I hope she will never do, the story doesn't need that label.

I do understand the labelling problem, though. The main character of my current WIP is bisexual, and the story starts with him in a relationship with a woman. They are going to break up, not because the character realises that he is OMG gay but because they want different things in life. Then the character will meet the other half of my OTP, and he will fall in love with him (that will take at least two thirds of the story). I don't plan on stating that he is bisexual at the moment because it's really not that relevant to the story (see Chekhov's Gun), but I do have the labelling problem. Because the story will start as het and end as slash.

This is part of why I love the labelling system of the OTW archive. Not only does it have the options het, slash and gen, there's also femslash, multi and other. My story should probably be labelled multi, but in other contexts I just don't have that option. One archive demands a label for anything containing slash (not het and gen, though), and in a LJ context, "multi" isn't yet an accepted label because we don't have that category where we put het/slash/gen/etc., it ends up either in the warnings or in genre. And to be honest, I've never seen a story labelled as het & slash in equal measure. It's always "slash with minor het pairings" or "starts as het but is really slash". I wouldn't say my story is "really slash", because it's not. It contains both het and slash, and there's the dominant gen plot as well.

So I really don't think I need a bi label. I think I need a label that allows me to mix het and slash elements in a way that makes neither of them the dominant one, just like "multi" of the AO3 does (though I would prefer the term "mixed"). That would be the best option for the Cyclops/Wolverine fic that deals with their love and grief for Jean Grey as well, in my opinion.

[dunmurderin]
Het and slash being applied to the acts, doesn't bother me too much but, when they're applied to relationships, ehh, that makes me uncomfortable but that's mainly because I have a knee-jerk reaction to being told I'm a lesbian because I'm in a relationship with another woman. But that's a rant for another day and another time.

[...]

I haven't really seriously checked out OTW but that labelling does sound interesting and useful. What does "other" entail?

As far as 'multi' not being an accepted label on LJ, point but on the other hand if people started using it here too, it might catch on. Though, again you and other posters have a point that there isn't one set spot in LJ-style journals for a slash or het label.

[...]

And hell, I'm all for another...okay, maybe label was a bad choice of words, maybe what I really mean is more a separate term for fics with bisexuality -- and one for a fic that mixes het and slash, as you mentioned. Multi or mixed seem to get the idea across that there's more than just A or B -- and I think that might work well for my example fic.

[doro_chan]
when they're applied to relationships, ehh, that makes me uncomfortable but that's mainly because I have a knee-jerk reaction to being told I'm a lesbian because I'm in a relationship with another woman.

Which is what I really don't think when I apply the term femslash to a relationship between women. Femslash, at least to me, says that the story is f/f. Both of them could be bisexual, heterosexual, homosexual or asexual. But that's just me.

I think people don't really know yet what to make of "other" and "multi", so there's a bit of an overlap. But "other", among other things, seems to contain sex with/between non-humans (including cars), genderswap and threesomes. The threesomes are categorized as "multi" sometimes as well.

[dunmurderin]
Which is what I really don't think when I apply the term femslash to a relationship between women. Femslash, at least to me, says that the story is f/f. Both of them could be bisexual, heterosexual, homosexual or asexual. But that's just me.

In real-life, the presumption that I am a lesbian pisses me off because most of the time, it's a case of people telling me what my sexuality is. They don't ask, they just assume two women = two lesbians. It's...frustrating, to say the least.

And on the one hand, I'm not talking about real-world relationships, I'm talking about fanfiction -- but on the other hand, how people think about fiction is influenced by real-life and fandom isn't some magical safe place where prejudice and bigotry don't happen. So while it's possible that two characters in a f/f relationship could be bisexual women, the language of fandom is such that slash seems to be often read as 'gay' and bisexual characters are NOT gay. I am not a lesbian because I'm in a relationship with a woman and I don't want to read fics where that stereotype is perpetuated.

But on yet another hand, the language we use to talk about this stuff is slippery and confusing and I don't think there are any easy answers that will make things fair for everybody.

Which is also frustrating because damnit, easy answers are easy!

[elspethdixon]
Hmm... I think, rather than having a seperate label for fics where the characters are bisexual, I'd rather have an archive allow me to label a fic as both slash and het (speaking as someone who also occasionally writes m/f/m or f/m/f threesomes, which are both het and slash simultaneously, and hard to categorize in a binary system), the way that lj tagging on some comms will let you. (Also, since I often have more than one pairing in a fic, and a m/f and m/m or f/f pairing don't automatically cancel one another out and make the fic gen, no matter what some people seem to think).

To me, the terms het and slash have always indicate the gender of the people in the relationship (het means a man and a woman, slash means two or more men or two or more women, femslash means two or more women), rather than sexuality, but since I'm bi myself, I might be automatically assuming that of course bisexuality is understood to be included as an option where an exclusively straight or gay person might be assuming that of course the characters are all either straight or gay and bisexuality doesn't exist or only applies to slutty characters.

If we're defining het/slash labels as describing the characters' sexuality, and were going to add a "bisexual characters in a relationship" term, would it accomodate situations where one partner's bisexual and one's monosexual? Like, a bisexual Gambit is sexing up a heterosexual Rogue, or a gay Northstar is falling in love with a bisexual Bobby Drake -- would those be the same for labeling purposes as a fic with two bisexual characters (like, bisexual Fraser gets it on with the bisexual Ray of your choice), or would they be somewhere in between het and [newterm] or slash and [newterm]? Or would the bisexual label be used in combination with a het or slash tag, the way threesomes or multi-pairing stories can be tagged with both slash and het?

Because if I had to apply fanfic genre labels to my own relationships, I'd have called both me/otherbisexualgirl in college and me/lesbiansignificantother right now as femslash, and me/hypotheticalguy as het, but thinking about it, me/hypothetical guy does erase the queerness aspect (I don't know that I mind the heterosexual aspect being erased in a same-sex relationship as much, because liking guys is a part of my sexuality, yes, but not a part of my sexuality that I face discrimination for - well, not unless I dedcided to go hang out with a bunch of radical feminist lesbian seperatists who didn't want me talking about men at all or something).

[dunmurderin]
If we're defining het/slash labels as describing the characters' sexuality, and were going to add a "bisexual characters in a relationship" term, would it accomodate situations where one partner's bisexual and one's monosexual? [...] Or would the bisexual label be used in combination with a het or slash tag, the way threesomes or multi-pairing stories can be tagged with both slash and het?

Y'know, I'm not sure how a bisexual label would work in the case of a bisexual/monosexual relationship. Because in fairness, a monosexual person doesn't magically become bi because they're sleeping with/attracted to a bisexual person. The main idea in my mind about having a label would be to make bisexual characters more visible, so perhaps if it were adopted, it'd be best used in conjunction with other labels. Or forego labels entirely and stick a mention in the summaries.

One thing I think would just add to the confusion would be to have yet another label for bi/mono fics because I think once you start down that road, you're on the way to labels that are so narrowly defined and precise as to be next to useless for the purposes of finding anything.

[valentinite]
(here from metafandom)

I tend to label with pairing and physical acts -- the genders are clear from the characters (if one's writing genderswap or a story where a character is transgendered (and that's not already canon) then you probably need more labels).

That tells the person in search of their OTP and the person just looking for some breathplay with two women and a ballgag made from an everlasting gobstopper (who doesn't care what fandom) that they've come to the right or wrong place. And makes no presuppositions about sexuality; that belongs in the story, not the labels, IMHO.

[kutsuwamushi]
(here via metafandom)

You make some interesting points, but I think that our perspectives are different, because in many of my fandoms, bisexual characters seem to be more common than heterosexual or homosexual ones. This might be because of heterosexual relationships in the canon, and better slash writers will avoid being inconsistent with what canon shows - i.e., that the character actually cares for the opposite-sex partner quite deeply.

Anyway, I mostly wanted to comment on this -

I also wonder if maybe there shouldn't be a label for bisexual characters and/or stories?

I would be confused by this label. I interpret "slash" and "het" as describing the relationship that the story is focused on, rather than describing the characters' sexualities. I suspect this is also how most other people in fandom interpret it, given the plethora of stories about a bisexual man involved with another man labeled "slash." My first thought if I see a label for bisexuality is that there is a threesome.

Meaning, if Cyclops and Wolverine are said to be bisexual in the fic, there should be some evidence to support that claim within the fic itself.

I disagree with this. It would be nice for bisexual characters to sometimes show that they are attracted to both genders, but I think seeing it as a requirement marks bisexuality out as something that has to be supported; it makes homosexual the default assumption in slash stories.

Where I'm coming from: I'm bisexual, but I tend to read mostly slash.

[dunmurderin]
You make some interesting points, but I think that our perspectives are different, because in many of my fandoms, bisexual characters seem to be more common than heterosexual or homosexual ones.

Out of curiosity, what fandoms do you write for? I have noticed that fandoms tend to vary as to whether slash is accepted or if it even exists (GI Joe fandom, last I'd looked into it, had next to no slash whereas A-Team fandom has slash in metric Huttloads).

I would be confused by this label. I interpret "slash" and "het" as describing the relationship that the story is focused on, rather than describing the characters' sexualities.

That's what several other folks have said too and on the one hand, I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the idea that a relationship between a bisexual and a monosexual of the opposite gender is 'het' while one between a bisexual and a monosexual of the same gender is 'slash' because that could be read as saying that the bisexual is straight or gay depending on who they're with...

On the other hand, a relationship between people of opposite genders is technically heterosexual even if one of the people involved is bisexual. My girlfriend and I are a homosexual pair, even though both of us are bisexual. I think part of the problem is just how damned slippery the language can be.

I disagree with this. It would be nice for bisexual characters to sometimes show that they are attracted to both genders, but I think seeing it as a requirement marks bisexuality out as something that has to be supported; it makes homosexual the default assumption in slash stories.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'supported' in this statement -- could you clarify? Because I have a response in mind but it might be complete and utter BS since I'm not sure how well I understand what you're saying.

As for the idea that homosexuality is the default assumption in slash stories, that is kind of the original premise that started the article that led to the responses that eventually led to this. Most of the time, or so it seems, when someone talks about 'slash' it is used as being synonymous with 'gay'.

[kutsuwamushi]
Out of curiosity, what fandoms do you write for?

Well, I hardly ever write fanfiction, but I read in a wide variety of fandoms. Many of them are anime. Honestly, there have been times when I asked in exasperation, "Where are the stories where the characters are gay, rather than just 'in love with one guy' or bisexual?" I like stories that take sexual identity seriously, and so the huge number of stories that make characters bisexual can sometimes seem like an easy out - the author wants to write their fantasy but doesn't want to explore a switch from heterosexual relationships to a homosexual one. They just want to get on with it. That's okay; it's just not what I want all the time.

I also help maintain fanficrants, and so I see what a lot of people - most of them in anime fandoms, but some in Western-based fandoms - are complaining about and wish to see. There have been as many rants about lack of gay characters as there have been about lack of bisexual characters.

I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the idea that a relationship between a bisexual and a monosexual of the opposite gender is 'het' while one between a bisexual and a monosexual of the same gender is 'slash' because that could be read as saying that the bisexual is straight or gay depending on who they're with...

I don't agree, because "het" and "slash" describe the story not the characters involved. A character isn't "slash," unless perhaps his canon falls within the slash genre. There is nothing about the word "slash", in my experience, that implies that the characters involved are homosexual and not bisexual. T

It's confused a bit by "het" being used to describe a sexual orientation as well as a type of pairing in a story, but I don't think that means that "het" means both characters are straight, either. Someone who reads more het might have a better idea of what the prevailing attitudes in het fandom are, though.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'supported' in this statement -- could you clarify?

By supported, I mean that the character can't just be bisexual. He has to behave in certain "bisexual" ways or it doesn't count. This is counter to my own experience with bisexuality; most people do not know until I tell them, because I don't express my sexuality openly much at all.

I can see where you're coming from. If you want more representation of bisexuals, it's unsatisfying if all you get is a mention that he likes women sometimes. But if you see it as a requirement, I think it makes bisexuality a non-default; like straight is in mainstream media, a person is assumed to be homosexual until proven otherwise, and in order to be bisexual, they must behave in certain ways.

Where is the line between treating bisexuality as normal and giving it more representation? Well - for me, I don't perceive many anti-bisexual attitudes in my fandoms. In fact, a more common complaint is that authors make character bisexual rather than gay because being gay is icky and ruins the author's fantasy of hooking up with the character, or something.

There are many different interpretations of past heterosexual relationships available. I've read wonderful stories where a character has been gay or bi. I've read stories where he's just said to be bisexual, and stories where the bisexuality is represented with past relationships.

That's why I think we're coming from different perspectives, because you see that there aren't any bisexuals, that bisexual isn't seen as a possibility and is maybe even rejected to make the OTP stronger. That's just not my experience at all.

[green_rat]
I've seen "bitextual" used as a category for "stories that contain both same sex relationships and relationships between people of opposite genders" (excluding threesomes) in the Stargate Wraithbait archive. It doesn't seem to have caught on in the wider fandom.

[facetofcathy]
I had to make a decision when tagging Leverage fics on Delicious, and I chose to label multi fics as Slash, Het--two separate tags. I was thinking to label the relationships depicted, not the character's identity. I'm almost thinking I should have added a multi tag, or made a single Slash+Het tag. I am going to think about that, because visibility would be damn nice. I don't like the term threesome, or moresome since it implies, or people infer, that the fic is a kinky PWP. While I agree with other posters that labeling of fic is less common on LJ, I still see fics that warn for slash, so I think it rather depends on fandom and practices vary. But the other issue isn't labeling so much, as what comm do you post in? If your fandom has a divide between Slash and Het and never the twain, well then, where to you put your f/m/m fic?

[kassrachel]
I'm not sure I would find a "bi" label helpful, but that might be because I understand terms like "slash" or "m/m" to refer to what I'm going to find in the story (e.g. a romantic or sexual relationship of some kind between two men -- or, broadly-defining "slash," two women) but not to refer in any way to the sexual identities of the characters in question. I could write a story where one guy is bi and the other is gay, or both men are gay, or both men are bi, or one of them has been bi since he was a kid but the other one is only now figuring it out -- and all of those would be labeled m/m, because in all cases, the story is about two men together. Whether one of them has been, or still is, or could conceivably be, also interested in women doesn't make a difference, in terms of how I'd label the story. Over the years that I've been in fandom, I've seen progressively less fic which presumes that a man's previous relationships with women simply disappear and he becomes 100% gay upon falling in love with his male (partner/friend/whatever) -- I'm finding it increasingly common for stories to make at least some token nod to acknowledging that many of the characters we write can be written as bi, especially if there are canonical relationships with women to navigate somehow. But I don't know that I'd want to be alerted to that kind of thing before going into the story; I think I'd rather just read the m/m story and be pleasantly surprised when I see how the author handles the sexuality question this time. Mileage, naturally, varies... :-)

[snowgrouse]
Over here from Fanlore, and several years late, but thanks for this--some good points. It's actually interesting to see how much *has* changed in the past six years what with Ao3 and how one can now label things as whatever. I'm bi myself and tend to write all my characters as bi by default simply because it leaves more shipping opportunities open and expands the characters' experiences into all kinds of directions (so I can, say, have a het ship where a guy knows to be careful when he's giving his wife anal sex because he knows what it feels like to take it up the bum from a man). But I must admit I'm still paranoid as to whether the slash-only fans hate my poly fics where the main pairing turns out to be het if they just came there for the femslash bits or something--there's no clear way to denote how much of a given story is het and how much is slash and how much is femslash or whatever. And like you, I'm iffy about labels that'd mean sexual acts corresponded to orientations (she's nomming a woman, and now, poof, it's all 'lesbian' and all her male loves have magically disappeared). But yeah, this is a nice article and I might link to it from elsewhere if that's okay--but if you're still here on LJ, I'd love to know if you thought if any of this had changed much in the recent years. If anything, I think I've just seen (on Tumblr in particular) a greater trend towards female erasure and misogyny in fandom and only slash and gay male identities (whether fic or RL) being seen as valid, which is unnerving to someone like myself who identifies as female, feminist and who likes to read and write het, slash and femslash, all of it. Hell, when I write het, that's pretty much always bisexual, so it does make me feel iffy when people still seem to assume het=fluffy normative stuff. So I do wonder if we should, indeed, have a more descriptive tag than just "mixed" that Ao3 now gives...