Lily - Final Presentation

MISREPRESENTATION OF BISEXUALITY IN ENTERTAINMENT MEDIA 

by Lily Schempf

topic: representation of bisexuality in the media, specifically focussing on entertainment media

Thesis for this project: Popular culture, specifically through mainstream entertainment media, perpetuates a culture that reinforces negative bisexual stereotypes. This in turn invalidates bisexuality as a valid sexual orientation and contributes to negative feelings toward those who identify as bisexual. In the media, bisexuality has become a shorthand for sexual adventurousness instead of a valid and complex sexual identity.

Project: 

collage with images of characters from movies and TV shows that are bisexual who reinforce these stereotypes and actresses who have publically come out as identifying themselves as bisexual

• Annalise Keating (How To Get Away With Murder) and Catherine Trammell (Basic Instincts) are both characters who are dark, manipulative, and calculating. However, their sexuality isn’t part of their identity and is not explicitly revealed, it is more just a result of their dark psychological issues. However, Catherine Trammells behavior is tied to her sexuality. When she has a relationship with a woman, their sexuality and lust is exploited for a male characters gaze. 
• Oberyn (Game of Thrones) is a character who instead of being portrayed as a man who happens to be bisexual, is portrayed as a man who is sexually insatiable. He is promiscuous and over sexualized to the point where he does not care if he engages in sexual behavior with both men and women. 
• Tila Tequila is a bisexual woman who had a popular reality tv show. She is extremely oversexed as well as all the other individuals on the show. They are often scantily dressed and engaging in risky behavior. 
• Thirteen (Olivia Jones, House) is revealed to be bisexual in the series. Her character is seen as more secretive and rebellious than the other doctos and many of the doctors assume she has had many sexual partners. 
• Samantha Jones (Sex and The City) is the most promiscuous character on the show, frequently engaging in sex with men. In one season she engages in a sexual and emotional relationship with a woman only to revert back to dating men. This is a common trope used in movies and TV
• Piper Chapman (Orange Is The New Black) identifies as a “former lesbian” on the show.
• Maureen Johnson (RENT) is portrayed as driving her lovers insane and is bad at committment. 
• If a show does portray a bisexual character, often times the writers or producers will deny this fact or completely ignore it -- bisexual erasure 
• Frank Underwood (House of Cards) has revealed that he has had romantic relationships with men. Most of his sexual encounters tend to revolve around the idea of gaining power over the other person and asserting his dominance. 
• images of characters and celebrities are surrounded with common stereotypes of bisexual characters and people 
• “bisexual women are just tourists”
• “all women are bisexual”
• “girls just pretend to be bisexual to get attention from men”
• in the margins I have written the hashtag “#BiIsNotAStereotype” along with several other hashtags to question our cultural views and the stigma surrounding bisexual individuals
• used a hashtag because it is instantly recognizable and a way to get a message across using very few words. it can connect hundreds of thousands of people to have a conversation pertaining to one serious and important issue such as this topic
• chose to do a physical collage because I am someone who benefits from physically touching and working with a medium 
• I also believe the scale to which I was able to create this on creates a bigger impact
• I hoped to make people consider that these stereotypes do exist and they are in direct correlation to how bisexual individuals are presented in mainstream entertainment media
• important to recognize how these can be extremely harmful to those who are struggling with their sexuality 
• in a generation who is making strides to deflect from this idea of “binaries” to recognize that sexuality is more complex and fluid than we could have ever imagined, the recognition of this is the first step to doing something towards changing this misrepresentation '