Shaming statistics for the 175
Stonewall 100 and Bisexuals At Work
Stage 2* of the Bi’s of Colour History Project is…
Stage 2* of the Bi’s of Colour History Project is underway. I aim to interview bisexual people of colour on their lives and on the common themes that arose in the Bi’s of Colour survey report. I also want to include photographs of the interviewees, alongside ephemera relating to bi/pan/fluid people of colour.
I am based in London, but I am able to travel to carry out interviews in the following places: Brighton, Manchester, Nottingham, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Bristol, Cardiff, Dublin and Belfast. For interviewees outside of these cities, I can email a list of questions.
This is where your help is needed. I’ve set up a Go Fund Me page where you can donate for this campaign: http://www.gofundme.com/bochistory
Individuals: I know money is tight for all of us, but if you can donate even a small amount, it will help this campaign.
LGBTIQA organisations, you can help me to complete this work. If you’ve read the Bi’s of Colour Report, you will know how vital this is. Your assistance will be added to the Stage 3 exhibition/display. You’ll get publicity for supporting a very marginalised group of people.
Your donations will help to pay for travel, and to reimburse participants for their time. I need to pay for photography and printing. I cannot do this without your help. There is currently nothing like this out there. It doesn’t have to be like that.
If anyone wants to contact me to discuss how to get involved with this project, email me at bis.of.colour@gmail.com
*Stages
Stage 1: Bi’s of Colour survey and report
Stage 2: Oral history interviews
Stage 3: Travelling exhibition/display of Bi’s of Colour History
Stage 4: A published book of the project!
Bisexual women in the UK have worse mental health than lesbians
Sexual health researchers from LSHTM analysed the responses to the 2007 Stonewall UK Women's Health Survey from 5,706 bisexual and lesbian women. Respondents were all living in the UK and aged 14 or over. Of these, 937 were bi-identified.
The research showed that bi women were far more likely to experience poor mental health than lesbians. Lesbians, in turn, have worse mental health than do heterosexual women.
This quoted information is straight from the press release.
Bisexual women are more likely to experience poor mental health and mental distress than lesbians, according to new research published in the Journal of Public Health.
Bisexual women were 64% more likely to report an eating problem and 37% more likely to have deliberately self-harmed than lesbians. They were also 26% more likely to have felt depressed and 20% more likely to have suffered from anxiety in the previous year than lesbians.
The study found bisexual women were less likely to be ‘out’ to friends, family and work colleagues and also less likely to be in a relationship. According to the results, bisexual women were less likely to experience sexuality-related discrimination from work, healthcare services, education and family than lesbians, but more likely to experience discrimination from friends.
Study senior author Dr Ford Hickson, at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said: “Bisexual people are at particular risk of invisibility and marginalisation from both gay/lesbian communities and mainstream society. Although bisexual women in our study reported experiencing less sexuality-based discrimination than lesbians, this did not benefit their mental health. Mental health services should be aware of both the differences and the similarities in bisexual and lesbian women's mental health care needs, and tailor the services they provide accordingly.”
The authors also found that older bisexual women had more suicidal thoughts than younger bisexual women.
I strongly recommend reading this paper in its entirety – there is some academic jargon and statistics but it is comparatively easy to read; the information in it is both saddening and important.
A few questions and speculations
The authors report that things have changed since a previous report of 2000-2002, when bi women were not reported as having a greater prevalence of psychological distress than were lesbians. They suggest that greater public awareness and acceptance, and legal changes, have meant that lesbian relationships are more tolerated. These changes have not had the same beneficial impact on bi women.
But what has changed since 2007, when this research was carried out? Social media, which was in its infancy in 2007, has – I think – had a definite impact on the invisibility and erasure that is known to have a negative impact on bi people. Social media has the potential to connect people to the great benefit of all. It can also enable bullying and can cause even worse stress to people who are feeling vulnerable.
These are “bi-identified” women. What about women who are sexually/emotionally bi but for whom identity as such is not important. Or, indeed, who identify as pansexual or queer?
To what extent and in which ways would these findings be similar for bi/gay men?
In what ways do other oppressions – race and class, for instance – have an impact on bi women’s “mental distress”? Or the intersection of trans* and bi identities.
To what extent and in which ways would these findings be similar for bi/gay men?
I’d love to know how individuals feel about these issues in their own lives.
Bisexuality, age and mental health
So does this differ with age or generation – and if so, how and why? The authors do say that “older bisexual women had more suicidal thoughts than younger bisexual women” which is a sorry situation indeed. In the UK population at large, incidences of suicidal thoughts go down with age.
Why might this be?
Invisibility and marginalisation is surely at least part of it. If this increased mental distress is true for bi women as a whole, how much more true is this for older bi women. For sexual minority people in general, not being out, being invisible, hiding important parts of yourself – these are all known to have a negative impact on mental health.
As the report says, “If felt and internalized stigma were commoner among bisexual than lesbian respondents, this may help explain the bisexuals’ greater mental health distress.”
Older bi people/women – as this blog as argued often – continue to be as invisible as they were 20 years ago. Bi people/women are far less visible than younger bi women, or younger bi people as a whole. When they are visible, they are viewed with contempt or bafflement. When they are invisible, it is because they don’t exist. A truly vicious circle, that surely helps no one.
I also think it is likely that growing up at a time when bisexuality was even more unacceptable, when there was even less of a bi community, and even less visibility, may have a profound and long-lasting psychological impact on some women. For those who came out later in life, they may find dating and finding new friends and partners who accept them more difficult than younger women. Those are just a few reasons, most of which the report recognises.
But this is NOT inevitable.
A few years ago, I wrote a draft post for this site on “How to be a happy bisexual” which I never finished because I was concerned it was too light, too perky. I think I will revisit it.
To read the original research, click here.
Eight reasons why more women in the UK are having same-sex than they were 20 years ago
Women in the 1990s: less likely to have sex with other women |
Lesbian power couple: Alice Arnold (left) and Clare Balding |
But to be fair, I think it is also true that some parts of the lesbian community, anyway, are more tolerant towards women who aren't 150% lesbian, though understandably perhaps not towards women who are "experimenting".
Katy Perry |
Bisexuality and ageing
A Decade On: Bi Life in Manchester
Selling to bisexuals
October. With polls still close in the Presidential election, and polling showing bis split 12:1 in his favour, Barack Obama railroads the "Bis Vote Twice" bill through Congress. The plan comes unstuck in November when bisexuals with a preference are nonetheless allowed to vote both ways.
November. Prof Debunked of the Dodgy Research University publishes his latest findings about bisexuality. He explains that subjects were shown gay and straight porn on different smartphones while sensors attached to their genitalia recorded whether that type of phone was doing it for them.
December. The New York Times retracts its "iPhoneite, Androidite or lying" headline admitting the findings related more to how attractive the research assistant looked in a white lab coat.
January. Apple announce their response to the findings that bisexuals are more likely to buy £100 android phones than functionally-similar £400 iPhones. "Clearly the problem is in our marketing feeling excluding to bi people," says a spokesPad, "and so we will be updating our rainbow striped apple logo to include a pink stripe next to the purple and blue ones." The new biPhone will cost just £75 extra, and is available in five shades of purple.
February. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne slaps 20% VAT on valentines cards purchased by bisexuals, thus milking the Purple Pound for all it is worth. "Woody Allen told me the bisexuals have twice the chance of a date on Friday night, and that means they must be buying twice as many valentines cards" he explains in an emergency budget statement.
Stung by Apple's cornering of the bi market, Google releases a customised version of its phone operating system called pandroid.
March. Not to be outdone by cheap pandroids, Apple launch the new biPhone2, with an extra button that speed-dials the complaints department at Stonewall. A new app for smartphones lets biphobic people automatically block calls from biPhones.
April. After the quarterly economic figures reveal the valentines card ruse failed to raise a single extra penny, on account of the bis all being far too busy playing on their biPhones to remember to send one another cards, George Osborne goes on television to admit he's not the real Chancellor, just to be a schoolboy on a really long Jim'll Fix It.
May. Apple takes Google to court over pandroid phones, claiming they are a blatant rip-off of the biPhone. Google's lawyers defend the clear and vast difference between the two: "it is not just another word for the same thing. The pandroid phones are a touchscreen with a suffusion of purple, whereas biPhones are a suffusion of purple with a touchscreen". The judge listens carefully and throws the case out of court on the grounds that everyone knows there is no such thing as a bisexual.
June. Concerned that it is missing out on the purple pound and that the bi- and pan- prefixes have already been snapped up, Microsoft launches Windows Mobile Omnishambles. Following the flop of a youtube 'viral' ad campaign where Gerald Ratner observes "people ask me how Microsoft can sell a phone this cheap, and I say: it's because it's total ...er, totally purple" it is reviewed as both completely unusable and the best implementation of Windows yet.
July. At a star-studded television awards ceremony, the heads of Sky, BBC and Virgin make a joint statement on the findings that 73% of bi women and 44% of bi men regularly see biphobia in the mainstream media. They pledge to make the negative portrayal of bi men that bit more obvious to help the boys catch up.
August. Despite the market research claims of a year earlier, sales figures of biPhone, pandroid and omnishambles handsets reveal the purple pound to be as yet a myth and the bisexual community resolves to go back to taking all research about itself with a pinch of salt.
September. Market research work begins to find out what kind of salt bisexuals find most reassuring.
Selling to bisexuals
October. With polls still close in the Presidential election, and polling showing bis split 12:1 in his favour, Barack Obama railroads the "Bis Vote Twice" bill through Congress. The plan comes unstuck in November when bisexuals with a preference are nonetheless allowed to vote both ways.
November. Prof Debunked of the Dodgy Research University publishes his latest findings about bisexuality. He explains that subjects were shown gay and straight porn on different smartphones while sensors attached to their genitalia recorded whether that type of phone was doing it for them.
December. The New York Times retracts its "iPhoneite, Androidite or lying" headline admitting the findings related more to how attractive the research assistant looked in a white lab coat.
January. Apple announce their response to the findings that bisexuals are more likely to buy £100 android phones than functionally-similar £400 iPhones. "Clearly the problem is in our marketing feeling excluding to bi people," says a spokesPad, "and so we will be updating our rainbow striped apple logo to include a pink stripe next to the purple and blue ones." The new biPhone will cost just £75 extra, and is available in five shades of purple.
February. Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne slaps 20% VAT on valentines cards purchased by bisexuals, thus milking the Purple Pound for all it is worth. "Woody Allen told me the bisexuals have twice the chance of a date on Friday night, and that means they must be buying twice as many valentines cards" he explains in an emergency budget statement.
Stung by Apple's cornering of the bi market, Google releases a customised version of its phone operating system called pandroid.
March. Not to be outdone by cheap pandroids, Apple launch the new biPhone2, with an extra button that speed-dials the complaints department at Stonewall. A new app for smartphones lets biphobic people automatically block calls from biPhones.
April. After the quarterly economic figures reveal the valentines card ruse failed to raise a single extra penny, on account of the bis all being far too busy playing on their biPhones to remember to send one another cards, George Osborne goes on television to admit he's not the real Chancellor, just to be a schoolboy on a really long Jim'll Fix It.
May. Apple takes Google to court over pandroid phones, claiming they are a blatant rip-off of the biPhone. Google's lawyers defend the clear and vast difference between the two: "it is not just another word for the same thing. The pandroid phones are a touchscreen with a suffusion of purple, whereas biPhones are a suffusion of purple with a touchscreen". The judge listens carefully and throws the case out of court on the grounds that everyone knows there is no such thing as a bisexual.
June. Concerned that it is missing out on the purple pound and that the bi- and pan- prefixes have already been snapped up, Microsoft launches Windows Mobile Omnishambles. Following the flop of a youtube 'viral' ad campaign where Gerald Ratner observes "people ask me how Microsoft can sell a phone this cheap, and I say: it's because it's total ...er, totally purple" it is reviewed as both completely unusable and the best implementation of Windows yet.
July. At a star-studded television awards ceremony, the heads of Sky, BBC and Virgin make a joint statement on the findings that 73% of bi women and 44% of bi men regularly see biphobia in the mainstream media. They pledge to make the negative portrayal of bi men that bit more obvious to help the boys catch up.
August. Despite the market research claims of a year earlier, sales figures of biPhone, pandroid and omnishambles handsets reveal the purple pound to be as yet a myth and the bisexual community resolves to go back to taking all research about itself with a pinch of salt.
September. Market research work begins to find out what kind of salt bisexuals find most reassuring.