What is the definition of “Bisexual”?
“Attraction to more than one gender” is the most common answer given by these 17 international bisexuality researchers.
Bisexual awareness week is from September 16th - 23rd. It is an extension of Celebrate Bisexuality Day, held annually on September 23. To celebrate, the Bisexual Research Group are posting this article trying to answer a very common question… what is bisexuality? Experts from around the world tell us their definitions.
Dr Meg-John Barker has close to 20 years of experience researching bisexuality and related topics, and was the founder and chair of BiUK (the UK bi research group) for over a decade. They have also worked as a psychotherapist with bi and queer clients for 10 years. MJ is now a full-time writer and podcaster, creating content about queer issues.
How do you define bisexuality? Attraction to people of more than one gender (seems to be the most popular definition from bi people themselves). It only relates to one dimension of sexuality (gender of attraction) and there are many others. We can also separate out sexual vs. nurturant attraction - e.g. bisexual vs. biromantic. And we can separate solo vs. partnered attraction - e.g. what people fantasise about vs. what they do.
Dr Julia Shaw is a Research Associate in Psychology at University College London. She is the founder of the bisexual research group and is writing a book about bisexuality.
How do you define bisexuality? Attraction beyond gender. In research settings, and for many bisexual individuals, the “bi” in bisexual refers to “same gender” and “other gender” rather than to men and women. This definition accommodates attraction to non binary and trans individuals. Some people use bisexual interchangeably with other terms, including pansexual and omnisexual to describe themselves - although these are also separate identities.
Dr Duc Dau is a researcher and activist, and an Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia. A lot of her research in literary studies is on queer representation. She is one of the coordinators of UWA BTW (Bi the Way) and Bi+ Community Perth.
How do you define bisexuality? Attraction to more than one gender.
Olivia Wood is a third year Ph.D. student in English at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. Olivia’s current focus is on bisexual and pansexual people as rhetors, rather than as rhetorical objects,
How do you define bisexuality? Attraction to more than one gender. I like the Robyn Ochs definition, and I also like "bi means two, but the two aren't men and women. They're 1. genders like mine and 2. genders not like mine." I don't see a clear difference between bisexuality and pansexuality, and I'm very interested in the various reasons some people choose to use one term rather than the other. For example, my sister uses the word pansexual, but the way she describes what it means to her could just as easily apply to me and bisexuality.
Tara Pond is a PhD Candidate in Psychology at AUT University, New Zealand. Her thesis examines bisexual and other plurisexual identified women's identities and experiences.
How do you define bisexuality? I personally believe that describing bisexuality as the attraction (or potential for attraction) to multiple genders as the most befitting.
Jacob Engelberg is a doctoral candidate in Film Studies at King's College London. His doctoral thesis aims to reveal the usefulness of cinema's bisexual transgressors in understanding sexual signification.
How do you define bisexuality? I am a fan of Robyn Ochs's definition of bisexuality as "desire towards people of more than one gender. Not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, not necessarily to the same degree."
Dr Aurelio Castro studies the social construction of sexual orientation and masculinity in bisexual and straight men in Italy.
How do you define bisexuality? I consider the Bi+ umbrella as the most versatile and inclusive term, defining bisexualities as "attractions/desires to more than one gender". Regardless of having the chance to translate these desires to actual behaviours and, following Robyn Ochs insights, not necessarily at the same time, in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree. Let's not try to hold a river of experiences with just two hands. There are infinite possibilities for non-exclusive attractions and identities.
Mel Reeve is an archivist and writer with an MSc in Information Management and Preservation from the University of Glasgow. She also runs the Bi History research and archive project.
How do you define bisexuality? Attraction to people of the same and different genders.
Idil Ugurluoglu is a Clinical Psychologist in Turkey. She is writing her master’s thesis at Middle East Technical University on bisexual women’s relationships.
How do you define bisexuality? Bisexuality is a sexual orientation involves various characteristics of identities. It is a range of an attractions to multiple gender identities.
Ursula Oliver is studying towards a master's in psychology. Her research explores young LGBT+ people's experiences with sex and relationship education in the UK.
How do you define bisexuality? I would define bisexuality as an attraction to more than one gender. For me that's an important caveat because saying "attraction towards men and women" excludes non-binary and gender-fluid people.
Allison Cipriano has a Masters of Arts in social psychology and is currently a social psychology PhD student at the University of Nebraksa-Lincoln. Her focus is on women’s and gender studies.
How do you define bisexuality? I define bisexuality as attraction to more than one gender.
Sam Lawton is a sexualities researcher at the University of Glasgow. He is completing a PhD project looking at bi+ men's relationships, experiences of prejudice, and negotiations of identity.
How do you define bisexuality? I define bisexuality as attraction to more than one gender. I also view it as an umbrella term encompassing a variety of sexualities in which attraction (romantic or sexual) is not limited to a single gender.
Sakura Byrne is completing her PhD at The Open University in the UK. She researching the experience of monogamous bisexuals in relation to mental wellbeing and bi identity.
How do you define bisexuality? Attraction to more than one gender. For myself, someone's gender doesn't play much of a role in my attraction to them.
Julien Grub has a master’s degree in contemporary history from the University of Freiburg, Germany. His research has focused on the history of media coverage of bisexuality, and the approach towards bisexuality in sex education within a historical context.
How do you define bisexuality? Bisexuality is the sexual and/or romantic attraction to more than one sex and/or gender. This attraction can vary over time.
Rebecca House is a PhD researcher at the University of Brighton (UK). Her research is based on the experiences of bisexual+ (plurisexual) women in sport.
How do you define bisexuality? I define bisexuality as attraction to more than one gender.
Misty Farquhar is a PhD Researcher at the Curtin University Centre for Human Rights Education. Their research explores how people living outside binary ideas of sexuality / gender experience recognition in Australia.
How do you define bisexuality? Gender is not a relevant consideration in my attractions to other people.
Abigail Nappier Cherup is working on her PhD in Marketing. She has an MA in Gender & Women's Studies and does research on bisexuality.
How do you define bisexuality? I prefer Robyn Och's definition that states bisexuality as the ability to be attracted (in many different ways) to more than one gender.