Are You Gay, Bi, or Simply Enjoy Celebrating the Beauty of Women?
Sexuality is a spectrum, and the reality of what others are attracted to isn’t always either-or. So, what does it mean to not adhere to binary rules? There are many ways to define what you are into and even more ways to express it. However, we must discuss the stigma placed on women who are attracted to other women, and how it affects the way bisexual women view themselves, and how the outside world views them.
To be bisexual means that you are attracted to more than one gender. To experience biphobia means that someone has projected their fear or hatred onto you, and it is an issue that will be discussed. The Human Rights Campaign “Bisexual FAQ” talks about how others may perceive bisexuality as a phase or others being greedy, within and outside of the LGBTQ community. This may bring feelings of invisibility or feeling excluded to those who identify this way.
This article notes that “Because of biphobia and bi-erasure, bisexual people suffer significantly higher rates of depression and anxiety, domestic violence, sexual assault and poverty than lesbians, gay men or straight cisgender (non-transgender) people.” The HRC Foundation has run a study on bisexual youth and suggest that “biphobia and sexual harassment” start affecting those who identify as bisexual at a very young age.
External factors:
Many factors contribute to biphobia including religious views, cultural views, and societal pressure. Despite being a country that is separated from church and state, Religion proves to have a major influence on what we perceive as acceptable and or, unacceptable behavior. This factor is heavily influenced by the patriarchy, cultural imperialism, and generally false beliefs.
Consider Jezebel as a firm example. Jezebel was mentioned in the original Hebrew bible as the Phoenician Princess of Sido who married Ahab, The King of Israel BCE. Her story starts and ends in conflict. She was a woman with power, who married into power, and as soon as she moves into her new home, she’s met the conflict. The conflict becomes ongoing, and when it’s time to meet her death, she makes it her business to look her best before her life is taken away.
The men surrounding her call her a whore, and make false claims on her narrative, assuming that her desire to look beautiful before her death was to seduce her way out of it. Overlooking the fact that she was dying as the Queen of Israel, and the Princess of Sidon. It was traditional and expected of her, to always look her best, as she was born into royalty, and leaving the same way.
Even so, scholars began to view her narrative as a woman who was unwilling to submit to the cultural norms of the new land she married into. The men of her new foreign land could not accept her ways, and vice versa. This ongoing conflict led to her death. This story will later become a narrative about the oppressors and the oppressed, but not before...it oppresses black women, in The United States.
Internal factors:
The Jezebel Stereotype reflects the Colonizers' cognitive skills, and their ability to absorb and relay information from one culture to the next. If we are being transparent, their cognitive skills (where this area is of concern), are poor. The Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia publishes an article on “The Jezebel Stereotype” that discusses in great detail, the over-sexualization of people with African Descent by Europeans, the history behind the phenomenon, and how it has negatively affected how our society views black women, and how we begin to view ourselves.
No thanks to the stereotypes that have affected this country’s popular belief, black women are not whores, or exclusively sexual beings. This false narrative has pushed modern-day black women to suppress their sexual desires, identity, and curiosity out of fear of being mislabeled frowned upon or abused.
Sexuality is a spectrum, and women deserve the privilege and freedom to explore their own spectrum, without their bodies, or identities being overpoliced by people who do not have the right. If you are a woman experiencing feelings for the same sex, or other adults that may be considered “outside the norm”, know that that is okay. Don’t let someone's limited view of the world, impact the limitless potential you have to be yourself.