Posted inbi erasure bisexuality Queer etc
Labels, bi erasure and Tom Daley’s words
Some people who are not Tom Daley are very keen to insist that he calls himself gay.
Posted inbi bi erasure education lgbt Miscellaneous Category That WP Won't Allow Me To Delete, Damnit. queer stonewall trans
Stonewall messed up. Let’s fix it.
Stonewall have just released a new guide for parents who think their kids may be LGB. Called So you think your child is gay?, it’s chock-full of the same erasure of the right-hand-side of the LGBT acronym we’ve come to expect from Stonewall. I’m not sure what I’m more angry about. Is it the fact […]
Posted inbi erasure bisexuality diatribe guardian Touch of Cloth
Anne Oldman: Latest in a long line of victims of bi erasure
Really Guardian? I was only two weekends ago defending your editorial integrity.
Then you spring bi erasure on me.
In your recent interview with Surrane Jones, her character in 'A Touch of Cloth' is described as "herbal tea-drinking lesbian caricature Anne Oldman" even though the character states in the TV show itself that she is in fact a bisexual.
Yes, I have already reported this factual error to your readers' editor, in an email dated 20th November. I haven't received an auto-response so I don't even know if you've received it, hence this post.
Try again please.
Edited to add:
The Guardian responded to my comment (on 4th March 2013) about this article:
Yes, I have already reported this factual error to your readers' editor, in an email dated 20th November. I haven't received an auto-response so I don't even know if you've received it, hence this post.
Try again please.
Edited to add:
The Guardian responded to my comment (on 4th March 2013) about this article:
Hannah says that Suranne referred to the character, Anne, as a lesbian, in terms of telling her she would be getting a new girlfriend in the next series, and that there would be more "lesbian ringtones". Hannah took this to refer to a running joke in the show, where each time her phone rings a song by an iconic lesbian artist such as KD Lang is heard. Anne is in a live-in relationship with a woman in the show and Hannah thinks the "bi" reference is one of the many puns, such as the one you cited, there to get a laugh:So, that would be bi erasure then Guardian?
"So you're a lesbian?"
"Bi, Jack."
"OK, I'm going!"
So in that sense, and primarily as a joke, she does define herself as bisexual. She is, however, only seen having relations with women.
Bi Visibility
Bi visibility is always an odd one. We’re constantly on about being erased, and we’re hyper-critical of anyone who is openly bi. We expect perfect behaviour from our role models. Can’t be too stereotypical. Can’t be seen to be sleeping around too much. If they dare be in a monogamous, long-term relationship, they lose either…
The Wrong way to challenge Bi Erasure
The other day, BiCommunity News tweeted a link to a year old article about Santana's sexuality in Glee.
The gist of the article is that the writer is disappointed that Santana was getting labelled as a lesbian and not a bisexual because of her history with boys. A choice paragraph is as follows:
Even clueless Brittany tries to help Santana’s self-identify by making her a T-shirt that says “Lebanese” (oh how I want one of those, early birthday present anyone?). Now hang on one cotton-picking minute. It’s not the first or the last time that someone in the show alludes to Santana being a lesbian, but everything Santana has done and said so far screams bisexual. A bisexual girl who doesn’t like labels (welcome to the club), and is firmly in a closet, but most definitely bisexual.
However, this isn't the case with Santana, the author correctly quotes Santana as not liking labels, but during the very same episode Brittany gave Santana the Lebanese T-shirt (Born This Way), Santana identified herself as a lesbian. Also, when Santana said she wasn't interested in labels (during Sexy), she was so far in denial that she couldn't even admit to herself that she was in love with Brittany.
It's true that Santana had had trysts with boys before she was with Brittany, but they never seemed to matter to her like Brittany did and still does. And I don't mean just that she wasn't in love with them, she didn't seem that in to the sex, having looked bored after sleeping with Finn (The Power of Madonna) and only wanting to be with Puck if he could get her things (breaking up with him for not having a good enough credit rating in Acafellas).
Again in Sexy, after Brittany tells her she can't break up with Artie, Santana retorts:
Of course you can. He's just a stupid boy.
Not exactly words I'd expect to hear from a bisexual girl!
In fact, for me, this is the conversation that cemented in my mind that Santana is a lesbian but Brittany is a bisexual, because Brittany loved Artie at the time and didn't want to hurt him and Santana didn't care about any of the boys she'd been with. If you want to read more of the coming out speech from Santana, I posted it here.
Putting aside the author's presumption to decide Santana's sexuality for her, what disappoints me most is the fact that she didn't write about what an amazing character Brittany is and what a positive portrayal of a bisexual teen we have in her. By doing so, it seems to engage in bi erasure which is apparently what the author was railing against (I will put this right in a later post as I think the portrayal of Britt deserves its own post).
By complaining that a lesbian character was labelled as a lesbian and citing this as an example of bi erasure the author has managed to weaken the whole argument for challenging bi erasure, which is a very real and important issue. Because of this, I'm disappointed the article was published in the first place, and even more disappointed that whoever handles the Twitter account for the magazine chose to tweet a link to it almost a year later, particularly as Santana has now publicly declared she's a lesbian.
The Wrong way to challenge Bi Erasure
The other day, BiCommunity News tweeted a link to a year old article about Santana's sexuality in Glee.
The gist of the article is that the writer is disappointed that Santana was getting labelled as a lesbian and not a bisexual because of her history with boys. A choice paragraph is as follows:
Even clueless Brittany tries to help Santana’s self-identify by making her a T-shirt that says “Lebanese” (oh how I want one of those, early birthday present anyone?). Now hang on one cotton-picking minute. It’s not the first or the last time that someone in the show alludes to Santana being a lesbian, but everything Santana has done and said so far screams bisexual. A bisexual girl who doesn’t like labels (welcome to the club), and is firmly in a closet, but most definitely bisexual.
However, this isn't the case with Santana, the author correctly quotes Santana as not liking labels, but during the very same episode Brittany gave Santana the Lebanese T-shirt (Born This Way), Santana identified herself as a lesbian. Also, when Santana said she wasn't interested in labels (during Sexy), she was so far in denial that she couldn't even admit to herself that she was in love with Brittany.
It's true that Santana had had trysts with boys before she was with Brittany, but they never seemed to matter to her like Brittany did and still does. And I don't mean just that she wasn't in love with them, she didn't seem that in to the sex, having looked bored after sleeping with Finn (The Power of Madonna) and only wanting to be with Puck if he could get her things (breaking up with him for not having a good enough credit rating in Acafellas).
Again in Sexy, after Brittany tells her she can't break up with Artie, Santana retorts:
Of course you can. He's just a stupid boy.
Not exactly words I'd expect to hear from a bisexual girl!
In fact, for me, this is the conversation that cemented in my mind that Santana is a lesbian but Brittany is a bisexual, because Brittany loved Artie at the time and didn't want to hurt him and Santana didn't care about any of the boys she'd been with. If you want to read more of the coming out speech from Santana, I posted it here.
Putting aside the author's presumption to decide Santana's sexuality for her, what disappoints me most is the fact that she didn't write about what an amazing character Brittany is and what a positive portrayal of a bisexual teen we have in her. By doing so, it seems to engage in bi erasure which is apparently what the author was railing against (I will put this right in a later post as I think the portrayal of Britt deserves its own post).
By complaining that a lesbian character was labelled as a lesbian and citing this as an example of bi erasure the author has managed to weaken the whole argument for challenging bi erasure, which is a very real and important issue. Because of this, I'm disappointed the article was published in the first place, and even more disappointed that whoever handles the Twitter account for the magazine chose to tweet a link to it almost a year later, particularly as Santana has now publicly declared she's a lesbian.