In recent years the idea of bisexuality, especially concerning women, has become more prominent in the public conciousness. Who can forget the summer that Katy Perry’s ‘I Kissed a Girl’ came out, or Jodie Foster’s recent liberating speech at the Golden Globes? Events like this seem to have paved the way for more and more female celebrities to come out as bisexual, including Angelina Jolie, Megan Foxx, Drew Barrymore and Lindsay Lohan. In light of Exeter University’s Pride and Diversity week, we question whether it is seen as more widely accepted for women to identify as bisexual, and whether or not it’s true that bisexuality is more common amongst women.
An article published in Psychology Today presented some interesting figures: 15 % of young women today openly identify themselves as bisexual or lesbian, comparable to a only 5% of boys. So why do women seem to be more open to a relationship with either sex? Professor Roy Baumeister, from Florida University studied these phenomena and discovered that women’s sexuality appears to be more malleable than men’s. According to the survey, women are more likely to fall for someone’s personality than men, and so if a person has an attractive persona it appears from research that it doesn’t matter so much whether this person is male or female – and rightly so.
Bisexuality sometimes appears to get hard press, with insensitive comments on online bisexuality forums such as “you’re either straight, gay, or lying” showcasing this negativity. Opinion on this seems to suggest that women may just be more open about bisexuality – “I think men are more likely to be accepting of having a bisexual girlfriend than women are about having a bisexual boyfriend” which may contribute to the recent statistics. Female relationships certainly appear to be experiencing more media coverage recently, for example in July 2012 Tatler hosted their “Lesbian Ball”, a female only event which aimed to ‘celebrate and normalise’ lesbianism. Kate Reardon, editor of Tatler, is quoted as saying “It was based on a simple but overwhelming observation that in ‘high society’ there are many wonderful happily out gay men, whereas gay women seem to be rarer than hen’s teeth.”
Talking to girls from Exeter who identify themselves as lesbian or bisexual, they agree with this idea of malleability – “I never had a moment when I realised I was bisexual, and it’s not even a label that I’d give myself now. I’ve always been very open-minded and thought that I may end up in a relationship with a woman one day. It just happened that I was put in a flat during my first year with a woman who was gay, and from that our relationship began. For me it really is about the person and not the gender.”
Despite Exeter being a smaller, less cosmopolitan city where perhaps these couples are less common, this does not mean that relationships of this kind do not exist. Despite this there are still some people out there who treat bisexual, gay and lesbian people differently to those who consider themselves heterosexual, and this need to stop. As one girl commented, the ‘lad culture’ prevalent at university can be troublesome when it comes to the debate: “We did have one guy say “That’s so hot!” when he saw us sharing a quick kiss in Arena, things like that are quite annoying because you’d never say that to a straight couple.”
Any negative press surrounding bisexuality, particularly towards women, needs to be fought. Whilst Exeter Pride last week was one step towards educating people about homosexuality, more needs to be done on a worldwide level to break down often negative stigmas attached to being bisexual. As the people that we interviewed have said, at the end of the day, gender should not be a defining factor in a relationship. The messages of Exeter Pride should not be fulfilled for one week of the year, but all 52. HCX has PRIDE and we want you to have it too.
Picture Credits
Sources:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/sax-sex/201004/why-are-so-many-girls-lesbian-or-bisexual