Bisexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by
romantic and/or sexual attraction to people of one's own gender, and to genders different than one's own.
Bisexual people experience unique challenges, such as monosexism, bi-phobia and bi-erasure. These damaging social values are highly gendered, meaning that bisexual women experience them differently than bisexual men do. However, bisexual people are rarely the focus of
academic study, and when they are, bisexual women,
men, and nonbinary folk are rarely examined separately. Speculative fiction television is an excellent medium
through which to examine dominant social norms and
values are, as it reflects our cultural ideas of what ‘could be’ and what ‘should be’, by exploring alternative
realities.
This research project explores the ways in which bisexual women are portrayed in speculative fiction television, in order to gain a deeper understanding of prevalent social narratives about bisexual women.
Many of the characters examined shared the following traits:
• extremely competent in combat, often snapping to violence without warning
• murderous tendencies, ranging from killing
individuals to attempting or committing large scale genocide
• monstrous qualities, including being non-human, possessing unnatural powers or abilities, or being inarguably evil
Many of the characters examined were oversexualized in the following ways:
• sexualized presentation, including revealing clothing and sexualizing camera work
• possessing sexual expertise, and/or being highly sexually experienced
• shown in a variety of sexual situations, with a variety of sexual partners
• subject to the implication that they will be sexual with almost anyone or anything
Many of the characters examined engaged in manipulative behaviour, such as:
• lying to the protagonists for their own gain • adopting a false identity
• seducing protagonists in order to manipulate them for their own gain
The initial findings demonstrate that speculative fiction
television tends to reinforce damaging stereotypes about bisexual women, such as the idea that bisexual women
are hyper sexual, promiscuous, manipulative, and
untrustworthy. It is especially important to note that many of these characters are portrayed as monstrous,
inhuman, and/or villainous, as this finding highlights the extent to which biphobia and sexism has tainted our
cultural concept of bisexual women. These stereotypes are not without consequence. Bisexual women currently experience higher rates of intimate partner violence,
mental health challenges, and suicide than do bisexual men, gay men, or lesbians, because of the biphobia they face (Flanders, Dobson, & Logie, 2015). It is therefore
critical that we challenge these negative stereotypes by
creating more positive representations of bisexual women in our media, so that all members of the LGBTQ+
community can be embraced, accepted, and celebrated. Seventeen female bisexual characters from fifteen
speculative fiction television shows were examined using a critical discourse analysis. Iterative coding based in
grounded theory was then used in order to identify common character traits and storylines.
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Candace Woodland February 2020 Department of Sociology JCURA Recipient
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Vampire Slayer.
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Galactica.
• Bo Dennis / Lost Girl • Caitlin / Teen Wolf
• Caprica Six / Battlestar Galactica
• Claire Bennet / Heroes • Clarice Willow / Caprica • Clarke Griffin / The 100
• D’Anna / Battlestar Galactica
• Delphine Cormier / Orphan Black
• Emperor Philippa Georgiou / Discovery
• Gina Inviere / Battlestar Galactica
• Inara Serra / Firefly
• Mirror Universe Kira Nerys / Deep Space Nine
• Saffron / Firefly
• Sara Lance / Arrow & Legends of Tomorrow
• Sophie-Anne Leclerq / True Blood
• Willow Rosenberg / Buffy the Vampire Slayer
• Yara Greyjoy / Game of Thrones
