Bisexual Themed Books

Did you know there are books out there either with a bisexual character or written by a bisexual? Well here is a list of three new ones. I have not read any of them, but you can read about the books here. Also if any of you have suggestions for good books with bisexual characters or by bisexual authors, send them to my e-mail, and either you can write a post or I can! Also if you can find more male themed books would be great!

The Ikki Twins Replace Tila

So I saw a post on a news forum that I follow, and I hoped that when I woke up in the morning it would be nothing more than a bad dream from staying up to late. However, I woke up to find that an actual article had been written for the subject, which fits because we were just talking about one of the issues here last night.

In case you haven’t heard, MTV’s bisexual-exploiting show, A Shot at Love, which featured Tila Tequila as the face of bisexuality, has been picked up for a third season. But to make things more “interesting” it is now A Double Shot at Love, featuring the Ikki twins…If you have never heard of them (like me) they started model after working at Hooters, and their highest accomplishment is working for Playboy, and they proclaim themselves to be “the world’s hottest twins.” The site claims that the two are bisexual, but they only list boys on their interest and have only had boyfriends. While they could be bisexual, it feels more like a ploy. Then there is the issue of the incestuous overtones. Which is kind of ironic since we talked about incest, polygamy, BDSM, and other sexual practices that the Queer community usually tries to distance itself from.

For me the incest is not my main concern, my concern is that these two women will be the face of bisexuality to people who have never met a bisexual, and that SCARES me. I thought Tila was a bad representation, but I would much rather she hosts this third season. There are so few representations of bisexual individuals on TV as it is, and MTV reaches a large audience, and I’m worried about the affect this will have. MTV is playing into the myths that help create biphobia. Hopefully I am being overdramatic, but feel free to leave comments with your thoughts on the Ikki Twins, and the impact they may have for the rest of us.

To read the article go here (it is very well written and touches on most of the concerns I brought up)

Bisexuality in the Animal Kingdom

The following Scientific American MIND article concludes that many animal species in which same-sex mating behaviors have occurred are really more bisexual than homosexual; they do not display the stark division between "homosexual" and "heterosexual" that we tend to see in human adults (especially men), but rather a fluid continuum of bisexuality---the kind of thing that we in the LGBT community keep saying exists, but psychologists haven't really found in humans:http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=bisexual-species

Where should this new knowledge lead us? If all penguins are bi, should we also conclude that all humans are bi? Where should we fit in "situational homosexuality," such as the disproportionate amount of gay sex which occurs in sex-restricted environments like boarding schools and the military? (Yes, that's right; according to studies, even under Don't Ask, Don't Tell, a higher percentage of US soldiers have reported homosexual contacts than the general population!)

Is the continuum a more accurate representation, or are humans different from other animals? Why is it that research has shown human sexual orientation to be substantially less fluid than either what the LGBT community has suggested or what we seem to find in other animals? (Typically studies find that human sexual orientation is about 90% heterosexual, and maybe 5% homosexual and 5% bisexual, and that it usually does not change throughout adulthood; whereas bonobos or penguins seem to be roughly 80% bisexual, 15% heterosexual, and 5% homosexual.) Are the studies biased? Is culture holding us back?

Thoughts?

--Patrick.

Amanda Palmer is Coming to Town

Amanda Palmer is going to be performing at the Magic Bag (Ferndale, MI) on December 2. For those of you who are not familiar with this amazing woman, she is a truly inventive and unique musician. She is part of the dynamic duo that is the Dresden Dolls, but has just released her first solo album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer. She has also revolutionized a movement known as Punk Cabaret. And she keeps a very candid intriguing blog.

If you don’t know her I’m sure you are probably wondering why I’m spending so much time on this one musician. The answer is that she identifies as bisexual. She toured last year with the True Colors tour, and was just recently listed in Out Magazine as one of their Hot 100. Here is a quote from her taken from Wikipedia, “I'm bisexual, but it's not the sort of thing I spent a lot of time thinking about…I've slept with girls; I've slept with guys, so I guess that's what they call it! I'm not anti trying to use language to simplify our lives…I actually tend to like really femmey girls… You can deconstruct this with armchair psychology and really nail me, but I like girls about my body type and about my mix of masculine and feminine."

If you ever get the chance to see her perform live it is an experience worth having.

Here is Amanda Palmer (second from the right) along with Tegan and Sara Quin, and Amy Cook in their photo shoot from Out Magazine.

Here are some more links if you are interested in finding out more:

Her Wikipedia Page

Her Blog

Ticketmaster link to her show

A music video from the Dresden Dolls

A music video from Who Kill Amanda Palmer?

Wanda Comes Out

Wanda Sykes, a comedian, just came out and announced that she got married to a woman. She has said she is a gay woman. However as the member who passed on the article mentioned, she was married to a man before. You can read about her coming out here. It could be that she is bi and is just not announcing that or she is a lesbian, it’s up to her. Either way Congratulations to her on her marriage and for her courage to come out!

An Ally Speaks Out

Sometimes you just need an Ally. I saw this and just wanted to share it with all of you, in the hope that you in turn might pass it on. This is a video of MSBNC talk show host Keith Olbermann talking about the passage of the same-sex marriage bans. I think his argument is VERY well thought out and impassioned. He is showing that you don’t have to be queer to support same-sex marriage, because really who would it hurt? Slavery didn’t end just because the slaves wanted it to, women didn’t get the right to vote without male allies. We have reached another time when allies are needed, and I think this video shows they are out there!

Rally

This is mostly for anyone nearby to Ann Arbor, MI. This is a note about a rally this Saturday (November 15). Please get the word out, and show your support in any way you can.


Dear Community,
Due to the recent proposals passed in Arizona, Arkansas, California, andFlorida that target our community, a coalition of student groups at TheUniversity of Michigan is organizing a rally for equality tomorrow indowntown Ann Arbor. The rally is in conjunction with protests takingplace throughout the country.The gathering is scheduled to start at 3:00 pm at the post office, 200East Liberty Street, with marching to ensue.More information is available on the following webpages:http://jointheimpact.wetpaint.com/page/Ann+Arbor
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=53233230752
In solidarity,The Spectrum CenterUniversity of Michigan - Division of Student Affairs

What is Lindsay Lohan?

So it’s been a poorly kept secret for some time that Lindsay Lohan was dating Samantha Ronson. Recently Lindsay has opened up a bit, and admitted that she is indeed dating Samantha. In an article today Lindsay opens up a little more and talks about her relationship. Lindsay does not consider herself a lesbian, and only said “maybe” when asked if she is bisexual. You can read the article here.

Lindsay is an interesting topic because she raises the issue of who is representing bisexual and other non-monosexuals to the public. For good or bad Lindsay has not classified herself as anything. It gives us a little more time to decide if she’s helping or hurting.

Also on another site, AfterEllen.com, they also mentioned Lindsay. They bring up the point that most people are classified by the public as either gay/lesbian or straight, and forget that there is something else! You can read this article here.

Bisexual on Bones

So there aren’t very many bisexual characters on TV. In fact there are not a whole lot of queer people on TV, especially interesting and not just comic relief. So it’s interested that on the show Bones, they are fleshing out Angela’s bisexuality, or at least her bisexual past. Here is an article about the recent episode. This was taken from AfterEllen.com, which is a great place for news. So we don’t own this article, but think you should read it!

Find out more about the Bones episode here.

Chelsea

Movie Night

Bilateral will be hosting a movie night this Saturday, November 8. It will be held at 6pm (not on college time) in the Spectrum Center (on the U of M campus). The movie we will be showing is Queen of the Damned, in the spirit of Halloween.

While the movie is not specifically queer, the books that this is based on are not straight. Lestat is portrayed in the books as ominsexual, so this is why the move was chosen. Below are some links if you are curious about the movie and characters.

IMDB link

Lestat link (the main vampire)

Hope to see some of you there.

Chelsea

Hot Topic and Pride Merch

So in case you have never stepped foot in a Hot Topic store they have a surprising selection of pride merchandise (or at lest rainbow colored items). I just thought I would share some of the products they offer.

Bisexual specific

Pride in general

Keep checking back with them, things tend to cycle through the store pretty fast, and they add new things!

Chelsea

Welcome to the Blog

This blog has been a long time coming. It is finally up and running, but it will still take sometime before it is up to full capacity. I still need to figure all of this out, but luckily it seems pretty user friendly. Expect updates soon of some bi news, and other links and such. Also for now we will use the word bisexual (or bi) but we are really talking about anyone who is to some level attracted/able to love/etc with persons of different genders/sexes/gender expression/ or people who don’t fit into the binary of gender. So this covers a lot of people, and a lot of different identities, so for our ease we will continue to use Bi since that is one of the better understood terms (not that that is saying very much). If anyone has a big issue with this or has a better suggestion, feel free to let me know.

For now this is all the time I have.