“Julie D’Aubigny was a 17th-century bisexual French opera singer and fencing master who killed or wounded at least ten men in life-or-death duels, performed nightly shows on the biggest and most highly-respected opera stage in the world, and once took the Holy Orders just so that she could sneak into a convent and bang a nun. If nothing in that sentence at least marginally interests you, I have no idea why you’re visiting this website.”
Harriet Sohmers Zwerling at the Black Mountain College. Zwerling was a figure model, an expat, a beat poet, teacher and all-around hero of the Bohemian lifestyle.
“Anita Berber was born into a middle-class family with artistic leanings. Her father, Felix, was First Violinist of the Municipal Orchestra, and her mother Lucie was a dancer and aspiring actress. After her parents’ divorce, Berber lived with her grandmother. In 1913, she attended a modern dance school where she learned rhythmic gymnastics. She later studied traditional ballet in Berlin.
Germany from the end of World War I until the rise of the Nazi party in 1933 was a time of both economic instability as well as artistic creativity. The art world embraced Expressionism, and the cabaret scene exploded with risque performances thanks to a loosening of censorship laws. By the age of 20, Berber was performing nude in many of these cabarets.
In 1919, Berber married the wealthy screenwriter Eberhard von Nathusius. They divorced after she fell in love with a lesbian bar owner, Susi Wanowski, who became her manager as well as her lover.
Besides dancing in cabarets, Berber also made more than a dozen appearances in film, including a role in the 1919 silent film Different From the Others. This film is often considered the first sympathetic portrayal of homosexuality on screen. The movie was a direct challenge to Germany’s laws against homosexuality, and the Nazis later banned it.
Berber’s bisexuality and her overall defiance of traditional gender norms were often the subject of the tabloids. Berber reportedly had a brief liaison with a young Marlene Dietrich, the Hollywood star known for her sexy androgynous style.
In 1922, Berber married the dancer Sebastian Droste and the two of them created a book of poetry and photography titled Dances of Vice, Horror and Ecstasy, which they also performed in various nightclubs. They both struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, most notably cocaine, and their performances and poetry often included references to drugs.
Berber and Droste’s performances continued to shock and outrage the public. She was jailed for several weeks after personally offending the king of Yugoslavia with a nude dance performance. As a result they were both banned from performing in European venues for several years. Reports of scandalous behavior followed Berber wherever she went. She was often seen around town with her pet monkey draped around her neck. There were reports that she visited restaurants naked but for a sable coat. After Droste was jailed for fraud (he also stole Berber’s furs and jewelry), Berber met and married American dancer Henri Chatin-Hoffman in 1924, two weeks after they met.
In 1928, Berber collapsed during a performance at a Beirut nightclub. A few months later she died from tuberculosis, most likely the result of years of drug abuse. Following her death, an unflattering and largely fabricated biography emerged, which shaped Berber’s legacy for decades. More recently she’s been seen in a new light, thanks to LGBTQ+ and feminist studies. Berber was an early performance artist at a time when that label didn’t even exist.
I’m confused about how we’ve let our history get stolen, ignored, and redefined.
I’m confused about why our community has let others tell us who we’re supposed to be.
I’m confused about the way we’ve split and distanced ourselves from each other.
We’re all attracted to all genders. We’re all bisexual. Only we can define ourselves, if we so wish, and only we can make our history.
We’ve come so far from the days where the only options were gay or straight. We’ve come so far from the judgement and disbelief of both oppressive cishets and the gay community. We’ve come so far in advancing concepts of gender and trans inclusivity.
Now, there are too many labels encompassed by bisexuality to count. Now, others confining us to misconceptions is acceptable. Now, our trans-inclusive history is being twisted.
We need to remember who we are—bisexuals and biromantics. We need to remember why the LGBT community was formed—to fight lesbophobia, homophobia, biphobia, and transphobia and to achieve equality between all sexualities, romanticisms, and genders/gender statuses. We can’t do this if we’re separated and fighting.
Your bisexuality is not dirty or limited, so don’t you succumb to biphobic lies. Your bisexuality is lovely, it is honest, it is broad, it is inclusive, it is home, and it is what we make it together.
In my experience, the best way to confront biphobia, including internalized biphobia, is by being as loudly bisexual as possible. I don’t think enough bisexuals realize how much pride affects how others treat us. The word “pride” is used a lot in LGBT vocabulary, but do we truly understand what it means to have pride?
Even just the word “bisexual” puts a dirty taste in some mouths. But only at first. You see, unfamiliarity is often the root of disgust, which is often the root of hatred.
I used to avoid using “bisexual” in favor of “bi” because something about it made me cringe. Saying it in public made me self-conscious of what others thought. I would anxiously shrink myself and say the word quietly to draw the least attention. I was thinking too much into it giving the biphobes what they wanted: fear. I shouldn’t have to falter at all about saying a word. More than a word, in fact.
An identity. A statement. A weapon.
For every biphobic comment I hear—regardless of from or to whom—I say the word to their face at least twice. I say it loudly. I articulate. I make sure that they hear it and that they get used to hearing it. I say it obnoxiously and uncomfortably often, because that’s the only way to make the word normal and comforting. Eventually, the word does not bring out such strong reactions or feelings from biphobes, or myself.
❝As bisexuals, we experience pressure from both sides to make up our minds, to make a final choice. If we don’t, we incur a collective contempt.
Bisexuals deal with homophobia, biphobia and even heterophobia. The desire to identify with a community often forces bisexuals to repress one side of themselves.
It is a key element in the overall strength and wisdom of the lesbian/gay community that it include and validate bisexual people, and the bisexual movement as an ally in fighting the common enemy, heterosexism.
It is clear that homophobia is at the root of biphobia. Bisexuals have no intention of undermining the gains made by lesbians and gay men in the struggle to be a free people. Coming out as a bisexual is not something that is done to acquire or flaunt heterosexual privilege.
I am bisexual because I am drawn to particular people regardless of gender. It doesn’t make me wishy-washy, confused, untrustworthy, or more sexually liberated. It makes me a bisexual.❞
— Lani Ka'ahumani. “The Bisexual Community: Are We Visible Yet?” Out & Outraged: Non-Violent Civil Disobedience at the U.S. Supreme Court, 13 Oct. 1987, pp. 47–48.
Published2019-02-16 Elizabeth and Lynnette speak with Ashley Gallagher, writer of Manicita and the Songkeeper,featured in the upcoming LGBTQIA+ anthology, Shout Out, by TO Comix Press. Download Episode
Above page image used with express permission by TO Comix Press. Want to see more? Buy a copy when it comes out in May. Totally worth it.
Published2019-01-24Lynnette, Amy, and Elizabeth discuss bi visibility in video games with Mata Haggis-Burridge, Professor of Creative and Entertainment Games at Breda University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands. He is the External Consultant for the game Fragments of Him.Download Episode Links:
Published2018-11-26 BiNet USA VP Faith Cheltenham and Lynnette McFadzen speak with Bree Mountain and Amber Loomis about the new #Bseen campaign coming out of Australia Download LinkLinks:Instagram: @biplusvisibility Twitter: @biplusvis Facebook.com/biplusvisibility [email protected] Check…
A lot of bisexual history has been erased so I figured I’d remind you all of some quotes and clear up any misunderstandings about bisexuality.
Bisexuality has been described as attraction regardless of gender for decades
“I am bisexual because I am drawn to people regardless of gender”
-‘The Bisexual Community: Are We Visible Yet?’, 1987
“In the midst of whatever hardships we [bisexuals] had encountered, this day we worked with each other to preserve our gift of loving people for who they are regardless of gender.”
-Elissa M., “Bi Conference,” Bi Women, 1985
“To be bisexual is to have the potential to be open emotionally and sexually to people as people, regardless of their gender.”
“Being bisexual does not mean they have sexual relations with both sexes but that they are capable of meaningful and intimate involvement with a person regardless of gender.”
-Janet Bode, “The Pressure Cooker,” View From Another Closet, 1976
“Over the past fifteen years, however, [one Caucasian man] has realized that he is ‘attracted to people — not their sexual identity’ and no longer cares whether his partners are male or female. He has kept his Bi identity and now uses it to refer to his attraction to people regardless of their gender.”
-Paula C. Rust, “Sexual Identity and Bisexual Identities,” Queer Studies: A Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Anthology, 1998
“In the midst of whatever hardships we [bisexuals] had encountered, this day we worked with each other to preserve our gift of loving people for who they are regardless of gender.”
-Elissa M., “Bi Conference,” Bi Women, 1985
“To be bisexual is to have the potential to be open emotionally and sexually to people as people, regardless of their gender.”
Bisexuality doesn’t have to mean a person “sees gender”
“[S]ome bisexuals say they are blind to the gender of their potential lovers and that they love people as people… For the first group, a dichotomy of genders between which to choose doesn’t seem to exist”
-Kathleen Bennett, “Feminist Bisexuality, a Both/And Option for an Either/Or World,” Closer to Home: Bisexuality and Feminism,1992
“Some bisexual respondents bypass the issue of ‘degrees’ of attraction to women and men by defining bisexuals as a humanistic, gender-blind way of relating to others. They see bisexuality as a way of loving the person, not their sex, or being nondiscrimintory in their attractions to others. For example, Ludwica wrote, 'I feel as if I’m open to respond to the person, not just the gender.’ ”
-“Bisexuality and the Challenge to Lesbian Politics: Sex, Loyalty, and Revolution” by Paula C Rust 1995
“I believe that people fall in love with individuals, not with a sex… I believe most of us will end up acknowledging that we love certain people or, perhaps, certain kinds of people, and that gender need not be a significant category, though for some of us it may be.”
Ruth Hubbard, ‘There Is No ‘Natural’ Human Sexuality, Bi Women’ ,1986
“Some women who call themselves ‘bisexual’ insist that the gender of their lover is irrelevant to them, that they do not choose lovers on the basis of gender.”
-Marilyn Murphy, “Thinking About Bisexuality,” Bi Women, 1991
“Some of us are bisexual because we do not pay much attention to the gender of our attractions.”
-Bisexual Politics, Quiries and Visions, 1995
Bisexuality is inclusive of all genders
“Who is this group for exactly? Anyone who identifies as bisexual or thinks they are attracted to or interested in all genders… This newly formed [support] group is to create a supportive, safe environment for people who are questioning their sexual orientation and think they may be bisexual.”
-“Coming Out as Bisexual,” Bi Women, 1994
“It’s easier, I believe, for exclusive heterosexuals to tolerate (and that’s the word) exclusive homosexuals than [bisexuals] who, rejecting exclusivity, sleep with people not genders…”
-Martin Duberman, 1974
“The bisexual community should be a place where lines are erased. Bisexuality dismisses, disproves, and defies dichotomies. It connotates a loss of rigidity and absolutes. It is an inclusive term.” -‘Essay for the Inclusion of Transsexuals’, Kory Martin-Damon, 1995
“Bisexual — being emotionally and physically attracted to all genders.”
-The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network, “Out of the Past: Teacher’s Guide” 1999
“Bisexuality is much more than, and different from, the sensationalized 'third choice, best of both worlds’ phenomena it’s made out to be. Bisexuality is an inclusive term that defines immense possibilities avalable to us, whether we act on them or not.”
-“Bi Any Other Name”, Loraine Hutchens and Lani Ku'ahumany, 1991
“Bisexual consciousness, because of its amorphous quality and inclusive nature, posed a fundamental threat to the dualistic and exclusionary thought patterns which were- and still are- tenaciously held by both the gay liberation leadership and its enemies.”
-“The Bisexual Movement’s Beginnings in the 70s”, Bisexual politics, Naomi Tucker, 1995
Bisexuality historically and currently includes transgender and nonbinary people
“With respect to our integrity as bisexuals, it is our responsibility to include transgender people in our language, in our communities, in our politics, and in our lives”
-Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions by Naomi S Tucker, 1995
“Bisexuality is here defined as the capacity , regardless of the sexual identity label one chooses , to love and sexually desire both same - and other - gendered individuals . The term other-gendered is used here deliberately and is preferable to the term opposite - gendered , because other - gendered encompasses a recognition of the existence of transgendered and transsexual individuals , who may embrace gender identities other than [male and female]”
-“Bisexuality: The Psychology and Politics of an Invisible Minority” by Beth A. Firestein and Dallas Denny, 1996
“From the earliest years of the bi community, significant numbers of TV/TS [transvestite/transsexual] and transgender people have always been involved with it. The bi community served as a kind of refuge for people who felt excluded from the established gay and lesbian communities.”
-Kevin Lano, “Bisexuality and Transgenderism,” Anything That Moves, 1998
“Bisexuality means having the capacity to be attracted to people of both major genders ( don’t forget: there are gender minorities, too) .” “As with the word Bisexual, they usually also imply that relations with gender minorities are possible.”
-‘Bisexuality: A Reader and a Sourcebook’, 1990
“There were a lot of transvestites and transsexuals who came to [the San Francisco Bisexual Center in the 1970s], because they were not going to be turned away because of the way they dressed.”
-David Lourea in “Bisexual Histories in San Francisco in the 1970s and Early 1980s,” Dworkin, 2000 Journal of Bisexuality
“The actual lived non-binary history of the bisexual community and movement and the inclusive culture and community spirit of bisexuals are eradicated when a binary interpretation of our name for ourselves is arbitrarily assumed.”
-“Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out” by Lani Ka’ahumanu
“In the bisexual movement as a whole, transgendered individuals are celebrated not only as an aspect of the diversity of the bisexual community, but, because like bisexuals, they do not fit neatly into dichotomous categories.”
-“Bisexuality and the Challenge to Lesbian Politics” by Paula C. Rust, 1995
seriously though bisexuality being defined as attraction to men and women is a heterosexual’s definition of bisexuality actual bisexual groups and organizations have been defining it as attraction to two or more genders or same and other genders since the nineties and plenty of nb people actually id as bi and refusing to accept how we define ourselves is so absurdly biphobic and heterosexist and jfc it’s 2014 can other queer people fucking realize and acknowledge this
The purple stripe on the bi flag is meant to represent attraction to nb genders and the bisexual manifesto published in Anything That Moves includes the lines “Do not assume that bisexuality is binary or duogamous in nature … In fact, don’t assume that there are only two genders.” That was published in 1990. It’s older than a lot of people here, including me, and older than terms like “pansexual” and “polysexual” by at least a decade. Bi history is important.
In 1933, Dietrich crossed the Atlantic in the SS Europa making headlines for dressing in a gorgeous white pantsuit. The Parisian police warned her that she would be arrested if she wore menswear in the French capital. In response, Dietrich stepped off the train and onto the Paris platform wearing her most mannish tweed suit, complete with her hair slicked back under a beret and sunglasses fashioned after the monocle, a coded symbol of lesbianism.
Images and text taken from the Dietrich exhibition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington (x)
So did she get arrested? What is the ending of this event?
Since you asked what happened:
That evening, Dietrich attended the police’s annual charity event, organized by the wife of the head of the police, Jean Chiappe. The site was decorated in the style of the famous German film Der Kongress tanzt, starring Richard Tauber. Dietrich convinced Tuber, a former lover, to attend. As a thank you and an apology, Chiappe gave Dietrich a sandalwood bracelet.
(The picture on the SS Europa is by Paul Cwojdzinski (I think) the other is credited in the exhibition to the New York Times Paris Edition May 1933 but I can’t find a photographer credit.)
In 1933, Dietrich crossed the Atlantic in the SS Europa making headlines for dressing in a gorgeous white pantsuit. The Parisian police warned her that she would be arrested if she wore menswear in the French capital. In response, Dietrich stepped off the train and onto the Paris platform wearing her most mannish tweed suit, complete with her hair slicked back under a beret and sunglasses fashioned after the monocle, a coded symbol of lesbianism.
Images and text taken from the Dietrich exhibition at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington (x)
Alice Walker is a fierce, bisexual, african american poet and author. You’ve almost certainly heard of her most popular works, but read more about what else she has done here:
Brenda Howard was, by all standards, a badass. Regarded as the mother of modern-day pride, Howard worked furiously to organize pride events and groups around the country that celebrated the inclusion of bisexual people (not just Gay & Lesbian) in the LGBTQ+ community. Learn more about all of Brenda Howard’s activist badassery here:
Every day in June, I will be posting an illustration that highlights an LGBT+ activist who I believe everyone should know. This series will be in no way comprehensive, & will include a multitude of identities, races, sexualities, and genders.
Published2019-02-16 Elizabeth and Lynnette speak with Ashley Gallagher, writer of Manicita and the Songkeeper,featured in the upcoming LGBTQIA+ anthology, Shout Out, by TO Comix Press. Download Episode
Published2019-01-24Lynnette, Amy, and Elizabeth discuss bi visibility in video games with Mata Haggis-Burridge, Professor of Creative and Entertainment Games at Breda University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands. He is the External Consultant for the game Fragments of Him.Download Episode
Links:
Links:Rakefet’s IMDb pageJax In LoveHelp fund Rakefet’s next project, “Boo”.
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