Monosexuals, this one's for you

Meta
Title:	Monosexuals, this one's for you
Creator:	trobadora
Date(s):	Apr 3, 2009
Medium:	Online
Fandom:	Slash fandom
Topic:	Bisexual invisibility in fanfic
External Links:	LiveJournal Archived version
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Monosexuals, this one's for you is a 2009 rant by trobadora on the subject of biphobia and bisexual invisibility in fanfiction. It was posted on LiveJournal in response to chasingtides' essay Biphobia: It's What's For Dinner, where it received 135 comments.

It served as the impetus for several subsequent meta essays by other fans, including alixtii's Bisexuality and Fanfic and dunmurderin's Bisexuality, Visibility, and Fanfic Labels, or, Being the Blue M&M.

Some Topics Discussed

• Bisexuality in slash fandom
• Bisexual erasure
• Biphobic stereotypes and tropes
• Polyamory and monogamy
• (In comments) Self-identification as a slasher, misogyny, homophobia, WNGWJLEO, and more

The Rant

[trobadora]
Biphobia: It's What's For Dinner by chasingtides

And because I feel like it, here's a bit of a rant on the subject.

I love slash. But I don't always love slash fandom. And one of the reasons is this: the tendency to erase bisexuality. As I said in the comments to chasingtides's post, I get more and more impatient with it.

In fanfic, all too frequently characters who have had heterosexual relationships are presented as gay and closeted. (Not bi and closeted.) In fannish squee, slashy subtext is generally welcomed as "gay". It hardly ever seems to allow for bisexuality.

Why?

What is it with this obsession with binaries?

Let me be perfectly honest – to me, monosexuality is incomprehensible. It seems like a weird fetish for a particular set of genitals. It makes no sense to me.

But does that give me the right to walk around claiming that you don't exist, that you're all just deluding yourself and are all bisexual underneath, really?

Because that's one of the two standard responses you can expect whenever bisexuality comes up: the idea that we need to make up our minds one way or another because it's all just either/or, there can't be anything else..

Strange dualistic worldview.

The other response ... well. I remember coming out to my then-best friend, once upon a time. I remember her reaction when I told her I was bi. She tried to be accepting, but - wasn't it a problem, not being able to be faithful?

*headdesk*

That's the assumption that bi = non-monogamous = cheating = slut.

Maybe that's why characters in slash are so rarely bi? *eyerolls*

Newsflash, people: Bisexuality and monogamy are perfectly compatible. (As of course polyamory is perfectly compatible with being faithful to your partners.) Are you incapable of resisting half the population, just because they're the correct gender for you to be attracted to?

Plz to be rethinking. Thank you.

Reactions and Responses

A number of commenters agreed with trobadora's premise and shared their own experiences in slash fandom.

[carmentalis]
Amen.

I suspect slashing characters by interpreting them gay is simply easier to do. That way, known attitudes and feelings towards the relevant gender can be taken from own experiences. Bi, for a lot of authors, is probably harder to interpret. Which isn't an excuse by any means. There might also be a good bit of aversion towards the token female love interests; better turn the men completely gay so there is no chance he'll look at her that way.

I got quite a bit of flak in a fandom for writing a character as bi (Treize in Gundam Wing - it's hard to deny he's interested both ways). Somehow, it was seen as tainting the character and turning him unfaithful. But at the same time, it was perfectly acceptable to toss him into a m/m/m threesome. Fandom sometimes gives me a headache.

[trobadora]
better turn the men completely gay so there is no chance he'll look at her that way

I hate that - don't people see it undermines the slashy relationship?! As if they could only choose someone of the same gender if everyone from the opposite gender was eliminated. :(

Somehow, it was seen as tainting the character and turning him unfaithful.

That kind of thing just makes me sick.

[lunabee34]
Yes.

This.

I am completely sympathetic to arguments that because bisexuals can "pass" for straight, we enjoy the privilege of the heterosexual while still being queer. And I understand why that is problematic for gay people. I don't know a good way to solve this problem.

But I can't change the fact that I like girls and boys. While I am married to a man, I have had relationships with women and if my husband were to die I would be equally likely to move on from his loss with a man or a woman. I do know that it makes me very sad that because I don't enjoy women exclusively, my sexuality is not queer enough to matter to some.

[cherrycoloured]
First off, as someone who is rather anti-sexuality-labels, but labels herself as bisexual if she has to, WORD!

We clearly are reading in different fandoms. More often than not I see, "I'm not gay, I just like this one guy! I'm still straight!" That's more of a combination of bisexual erasure and homophobia. Of course, that happens in real life, but it's usually written in fic as a guy trying to deny he's gay, not a guy deeply and seriously trying to figure out his sexuality.

In one of my OTPs, one of the guys is married with children. I guess I feel differently than other slash fangirls in that I'd feel guilty if I just kind of wrote her out and said her husband and the father of her children was a closeted gay and never loved her, so I make him bi, with the other half of said OTP as gay. I never understood the whole "get the woman out of the way thing"- even she's not his love intrest, if they had a very long, intense relationship and/or kids, she'll still be in his life in some way. Plus, wouldn't pairing the woman up with another character be a better way of doing that? It's not misogynistic and makes it more likely that fans of that character who also like the pairing you wrote will read your fic.

[kazaera]
Here via metafandom

Man, with people throwing the term around I've been trying to figure out whether I count as monosexual or not for the last couple of days. (Asexual here.)

Thank you for this - biphobia is something I hadn't thought about before, but after reading this and chasingtides' post I can see where it pops up in slash and it honestly disturbs me that this hadn't been clear to me before (possibly because I tend to lump gay, lesbian and bi together as "alternate sexualities actually widely accepted to exist", which is a bad habit I should curb). I have read excellent stories where one or both of the guys involved were clearly shown to also be attracted to women in the fic, but I've also read a lot of the terrible kind. It honestly doesn't make much sense to me - what on earth is so weird about someone being sexually attracted to *both* genders? I mean, if you're going to be sexually attracted to people in the first place, why is it zomgnecessary to only be attracted to one gender ever? Bah.

[trobadora]
Heh. I think asexuals have it the worst of us all with the "you don't really exist" arguments. So no, I wouldn't lump you in with the monosexuals at all!

I'm very glad my post was helpful to you. :-)

I mean, if you're going to be sexually attracted to people in the first place, why is it zomgnecessary to only be attracted to one gender ever? Bah.

I've never been able to figure out what the hell is so complicated about it, either.

Others disagreed or offered their own interpretations.

[glitteryfairy25]
I have to disagree with some of what you've said here. I don't think it's an obsession with "binaries" as such. I think first off, there's a lack of canon bisexuality, so it seems like it's less "normal" in the fannish world; making a character have homosexual tendencies can sometimes be so far removed from the charactrer itself, we've got over it, and now Fandom can make any character gay. Whereas bisexuality... not so much.

I guess it's also something to do with realism. I mean, if a character is bisexual, that means they're kind of "half straight" if you like, and that means they're not that different from their (I'm presuming) straight canon. It's arguably a bigger jump to explain that someone who *could* be bi isn't going for another character that a fan wants them to, than to explain that they're in the closet.

I don't see bi-sexuals at "greedy" or slutty or anything like that. Bisexual doesn't mean you go for both, it means you don't have a gender preference in your partners. Maybe I'm showing my ignorance there, I don't know. I've never seen it as "not being faithful" and people that do... well, that's just idiocity.

To 'answer' your question about why characters in slash are so rarely bi, well I think it goes back to what I've said before, but I think it's also a bit about fear and approachability. From what I'm picking up from popular culture, any sort of queer person is not mainstream. We might be getting more open and easy with sexuality, but it's certainly something that's still seen as different. There are some gay characters creeping in to things, and that's great, but someone who's neither gay or straight? I just don't think the public is quite ready for that yet.

[fluffyllama]
I just don't think the public is quite ready for that yet.

I think it's just as bad from the other side, actually. I think a lot of people who are gay or support gay rights see it as 'watering down' a character's sexuality if they could be but aren't entirely gay. I sympathise since there are still so few out there, but it annoys me at the same time. Probably because I saw so much of this attitude 20 years ago in my uni days -- bi's were excluded from our Lesbian and Gay society so as not to 'confuse' the issue!

[trobadora]
Oh, thanks for bringing that up! The whole "watering down" - we're not some weaker, diluted kind of gay (or straight)! I do understand not wanting to have taken what few representations of gayness there are taken away from you, but hell, we have even fewer.

[trobadora]
and now Fandom can make any character gay. Whereas bisexuality... not so much.

But why? Seriously, I don't see any reason.

It's arguably a bigger jump to explain that someone who *could* be bi isn't going for another character that a fan wants them to, than to explain that they're in the closet.

That's a good point, but if someone's repressed and in the closet ... why can't they be bi and in the closet about it? Somehow that never seems to happen in fic.

Incidentally, calling someone who's bi "half straight" (or "half gay", for that matter) makes me cringe. We're not half-and-half! You can't split us apart and get half a gay person and half a straight person! We're not fence-sitting. We're not dipping our toes anywhere. We're just there, all across the spectrum. (Sorry - that's not all directed at you, you just hit a sore spot there.)

I've never seen it as "not being faithful" and people that do... well, that's just idiocity.

It's completely idiotic, and yet people actually believe it for some reason. It hurts my brain.

There are some gay characters creeping in to things, and that's great, but someone who's neither gay or straight? I just don't think the public is quite ready for that yet.

No one ever seems ready for us. Not in the real world, and not in fic either. If people could make Spock and Kirk make out with each other in the friggin' 70s, is it such a stretch to make characters bi today?!

[isiscolo]
Huh, I guess we read different stories, then, because it seems to me that in most of the slash I read, a character's prior canon het relationships are explained by the character's being bisexual. (I can think of one instance in a story I wrote where a character uses the word "gay" to apply to himself, but what he means is that he is also gay, not exclusively gay.)

[trobadora]
We must read very different stories, yeah! I wish my experience had been more like yours.

[slippery_fish]
It's the same reading experience for me. Usually, the characters are bisexual from the start or their sexuality remains undefined after the first homosexual experience.

[eveningblue]
I agree, but I'm thinking maybe that's because I avoid (that is, hit the back key whenever I come across) fic in which the characters are suddenly gay. Bi just seems more plausible to me when a character has had lots of het canon relationships. I can accept gay rather than bi in au stories, though, because then there isn't that same history of canon.

[penguin_attie]
Yes, that. I think I see about half & half of "always been bi" & "suddenly gay". I mostly read Harry Potter lately, and the situation comes up a lot with the epilogue.

[anoel]
Two things. One, when people say, so and so slash subtext is gay, it's not that it means these characters are gay but that their behavior is gay. So it's not saying bisexuality doesn't exist but just that that behavior isn't indicative of them liking guys and girls at that moment but rather only their current love interest. Second, I think making characters gay instead of bi and ignoring their past behavior with women is because they see the women as threats to their pairing and want to completely deny that possibility. Personally I would always say their bi and I actually do see that a lot in fic but there's always going to be those people who woudld like to say it doesn't exist. Totally agree on bisexuality not having anything to do with monogamy though and I actually see a lot of people in fandom who do believe that and do support it a lot more than the real world.

[trobadora]
One, when people say, so and so slash subtext is gay, it's not that it means these characters are gay but that their behavior is gay.

I generally see it as "X character is so gay (for doing Y)". Sometimes as "X is totally gay - no straight person would do Y!" Which, yes, does erase bisexuality.

Agreed about seeing past relations as a threat to a pairing. I'm as OTP as they come, and I still don't understand it myself.

[rotaryphones]
here via metafandom

I've been thinking about this topic since reading chasingtides's post, and I want to add a few things from a lesbian viewpoint.

I think what slash generally fails at is queer issues. Period. Even though so many stories go with the "I guess I'm gay after all" storyline, and prefer monosexuality to bisexuality for whatever reason, it's not like those stories get it right anyway. Sure, there are plenty of fics that deal with 100% gay characters, but stories that actually reflect what it's like to be gay? Ridiculously few and far between.

As someone who identifies as gay, I enjoy reading stories that deal successfully with gay characters. I also enjoy reading stories that deal successfully with bi characters, which is a different experience that comes with its own set of obstacles. And in fandom, both of these are horribly misrepresented.

I think my point is this: if you're not going to look at the complexity of queer identity, it's probably easier for an author to stick to the simpler, binary labels. Gay. Straight. Male. Female. So even though bisexuality seems like it would be easier to incorporate into canon, it's being suddenly gay that becomes the cop out.

[facetofcathy]
So even though bisexuality seems like it would be easier to incorporate into canon, it's being suddenly gay that becomes the cop out.

But as you said, not realistically gay in any of the myriad ways that can be written. I don't think the authors we're talking about here really want to look at the complexity of queer identity. I don't think they really want to write a gay character, they want to write a slash couple.

I think some lip service is being paid when characters are explicitly labeled gay, the result of the complaints that some kinds of slash fic erases real gay identity and superimposes some other artificial construct.

Within the story itself, the character is only gay in the context of their relationship, nothing else changes, their revealed sexuality has no impact on any other part of their life or their behaviour, and the fannish expectation of wedding bells and children and lifelong manogomay as the default end result is clear.

[rotaryphones]
I don't think they really want to write a gay character, they want to write a slash couple.

Right. Only it's easier to label that slash couple "gay" than the murkier "bisexual."

I think some lip service is being paid when characters are explicitly labeled gay, the result of the complaints that some kinds of slash fic erases real gay identity and superimposes some other artificial construct.

Are you saying that more gay characters are written so the author feels like s/he is appeasing the gay community, even when it's not done correctly? Because that's an interesting thought - maybe some authors try to seem more liberal and open-minded by writing "real" gay people instead of bisexuals.

Within the story itself, the character is only gay in the context of their relationship, nothing else changes, their revealed sexuality has no impact on any other part of their life or their behaviour, and the fannish expectation of wedding bells and children and lifelong manogomay as the default end result is clear.

So, so true. And, you know, I read those stories also. Ha.

[facetofcathy]
I'm not sure appeasing the gay community is really it, more like appeasing the voices within slash fandom that were uncomfortable with the amount of the love that dare not speak it's name, still not speaking it's name, even in a slash fic. So now, if you just have a scene where the character calls himself gay, you're good.

I think there is some of the game of fanfic telephone here too, the more people called their characters gay, the more other people did, without a lot of examination of what that meant to a given individual.

I do read in a fandom where the, oh yeah, didn't you know, I'm bi, is a common way of presenting the characters. It doesn't come off as any better thought out or intrinsic to the character than Willow's imfamous gay now line, and is at the same time a fandom rife with rigid heteronormative sexual dynamics within the slash pairings.

I'm just being cranky and wanting more than the labels to be diverse. And yeah, I read those stories too, and often they're pretty damn good.

[trobadora]
Only it's easier to label that slash couple "gay" than the murkier "bisexual."

This common idea that bisexuality is somehow "murky" makes me twitch. It just makes no sense to me! It seems far more straightforward to me than monosexuality. *g*

Some specifically wondered whether misogyny played a role in slash fandom's aversion to bisexuality.

[executrix]
I can certainly understand why someone would find it inconvenient to have a RL partner who was a trashy slut, but when it comes to writing porn, I like trashy sluttiness in a character. I think that fannish biphobia is complicated by fannish fetishism of conventional gender behavior. That is, a lot of fans think of masculine-behavior-by-males, and feminine-behavior-by-females as normal, and variations as abnormal, with accompanying delusions about always being able to identify gay people on the basis of these stereotypes. That makes a bisexual person with conventional gender performance a sort of secret agent. If they're not wearing the uniform--shoot 'em on sight!

[nymphaea1]
What really bothers me about this is that I have the lurking suspicion that it's not bi-phobia that's motivating the lack of bi characters in fic so much as misogyny. It's yet another way to erase the inconvenient women from our stories. I do think there's some anti-queer sentiment to it, but it's the variety that leads so much of fandom into treating male homosexuality like this cute private joke we can all congratulate ourselves for giggling about. Admitting that a character's sexuality is probably reflected in his actual romantic or flirtatious interactions with others and not in his choice in curtains just shows how asinine all of that sparkly curtain shit is.

In response to a since-deleted comment, trobadora and uncledark elaborated on and clarified some points.

[trobadora]
if you're okay with straight and gay, then why should bi bother you?

I suspect it's that people can deal with "like me" and "not like me", but "somewhat like me, except when they're not" is too complicated, and makes it too obvious that the borders of our sexuality are fluent - even their own.

[...]

I can see why some writers leave bisexuality out of stories. It's the gun-on-the-wall theory. If I point out a character's trait, then it seems to me it ought to factor into the story

Well - if you can mention them being gay, you could just as easily mention them being bi. (Totally agreed on the Dumbledore thing, although of course we all knew about him and Grindelwald. The subtext was so thick you could cut it. *g*)

If I write a bi character, I want that to be part of the story--not necessarily in a front-stage way, but the same as I'd want a person's culture or gender to factor in.

Yes, that does make sense. Only, people being gay is often dealt with in stories, whereas being bi, if it turns up at all, is generally used to dismiss identity issues - as if there's nothing more to be said about that. For example, much as I'm not a fan of the "repressed character" trope, you don't get people writing about bi characters being repressed, or coming out of the closet. If there's any of that, it's always about being gay. Why?

Making a character bi complicates things, in the sense that you've brought in an element that ought to play a role into a story where you're not really interested in taking the time to explore it. And they'd just rather take the easy way.

Why is it easier writing them gay than writing them bi? If anything, bi should be easier because it doesn't require you to argue away any canon love interests ...

Or--here's where I risk foot-in-mouth syndrome--the emphasis on the story is such that bringing bi into it would do a disservice to the story and the characters.

Sure, there are stories that require a character being monosexual. But most of them? Don't.

Or maybe it's better to give it a half-assed nod than none at all?

Better than nothing. Honestly, much as I'd love to see some actual exploration of bisexuality in fic, I'm still glad when it turns up at all.

[deleted]
[deleted comment]

[uncledark]
whereas if they're bi, then you have to go to efforts like bringing in another character to show it or have discussions about it or something

Why? You can't have [male1] simply ask [male2] what was up with the apparent attraction to [previous female love interest(s)], and have [male2] answer something like, "yeah, I like girls too. Your point?" and leave it at that?

The assumption that it's something that has to be explained at great length is part of the problem. Even worse is the assumption that it has to be explained at great length in order to reassure the audience that [male2] isn't going to cheat on [male1].

A few commenters had a discussion about how they felt about self-identifying as slashers.

[etrangere]
this yes. I think, also, it's one of the reason I don't identify as a slasher.

[trobadora]
*hugs* Same here. I'm just not invested in the gender or orientation of the characters; it's the specific dynamic between these particular characters that interests me.

[fluffyllama]
While I agree with your post, but I definitely identify myself as a slasher! It's 95% of what I read and write, and I rarely feel the need to actively look for anything else even if I do read outside it on a whim sometimes. The world is just heterosexual enough for me, maybe *shrug*

[trobadora]
Hi'! *hugs* I just got back in. :-) Yeah, the slasher thing is way more complicated than that. These days, it's a large percentage of what I read, too, and yet ... As you know, I've just never been able to see any meaningful difference between slash and het, at least not in the way they work for me.

[etrangere]
Yes, that exactly. I do read mostly slash (well, these days I haven't read much), but it's all about the characters and their interaction. Antagonistic pairings FTW! I'm often weirded out by the PoV of people who identify as slashers and how they relate to show as if the only thing that mattered there was whether or not there was slashy subtexts between characters.

[trobadora]
as if the only thing that mattered there was whether or not there was slashy subtexts between characters. Yes! That gets to me as well. Slashy subtext is cool, but it's not a draw for me in and of itself, and certainly not the most important thing about a fandom. (I suppose it goes with the fact that a lot of people are more in it for the fic than for the canon.

alixtii made a mutli-part comment prior to repurposing the comment into his own post, Bisexuality and Fanfic. trobadora declined to respond to him:

[trobadora]
I was going to answer your comment, but frankly, I have neither the patience nor the inclination after seeing your own post and the kinds of things you have allowed to go uncontested in the comments there. That's ... really not okay. At all..

Links

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