Bisexual Characters

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Noizchild

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I had an interesting thought. I came to notice that majority of main characters are either straight or gay. We rarely see any bisexual characters. Do any of you have bisexual characters in your works and how many are the main character?
 

Roxxsmom

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Bisexuals do seem to get ignored. I've run into people who dismiss the orientation as either being straight people who are experimenting, or gay people who are still in denial, or they shrug bisexuals off as people who can, and probably will, end up in hetero relationships, so they've got what amounts to straight privilege.

I don't agree with their assessment.

I do wonder if the under representation of bisexuality in fiction is because there's a tendency to focus on one relationship in a given story, and if it's with someone of the same gender, readers assume the character is 100% gay/lesbian, and if it's with the opposite gender, readers tend to assume the character is 100% straight? Explaining about the character's past relationships or attractions to other people, of course, is possible, but if the person isn't a pov character, or if there's no focus on their backstory, then it might not come out at all.

Of course, it's much more complex than that, because even if one is monogamously involved with someone of the opposite gender, that person would still have the attractions they have to your own gender too, and that's part of who they are (or vice versa). But there's such a tendency to paint people in fiction as if their "true love" is the only person they're even remotely attracted to or think about sexually, which is pretty unrealistic for someone of any orientation.

My own novel I'm shopping has a pov character who is gay. He's had some affairs with women in the past, but his dominant romantic and sexual attraction is towards his own gender. He's not the plot-driving protagonist in the first book, though in the sequel he becomes more important as a character who drives part of the lot, and he ends up in a long term relationship with a man who is bisexual.

One novel (started a while back, so there are some ways the situation is portrayed that might be less than ideal) where the main characters are bisexual is Lynn Flewelling's Nightrunner books. One of the two men in the central relationship seems to have a strong preference for his own gender, but occasionally has had dalliances with women. The other two seemed to be more frankly bisexual, as in he maybe even leaned a bit more towards women overall, but he fell for the other man and ends up in a monogamous relationship with him.

Some of MZB's stuff has bisexual female characters as well.
 

Layla Nahar

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I'm with Roxxmom - there are most def bisexual people. & I imagine there are might be much more than we think.

Interesting point - I *have* seen bisexual minor characters, but yet to see any major ones.
 

TessB

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I'm most definitely in the romance genre, so that may skew things. But one of the main POV characters in my current release is bisexual (albeit homoromantic) -- he freely admits to having had sexual relations with women before, but prefers relationships ​with men. Two of the three in the menage in my second book are bisexual women, though, again, one prefers relationships with women to those with men. The other is about 50-50.

(And for the record, I'm also bi. We're around. ;) )
 

DancingMaenid

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I write about bisexual characters pretty frequently. I'm bisexual myself, so I think it comes pretty naturally to me to imagine my characters being bisexual. I have a few who are absolutely either straight or gay, though.
 

Emermouse

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I've written about a character who is bisexual. Initially when I created her, I saw her more as a villainous character, that she was in a relationship with another girl more out of manipulation rather than love, but between thinking and actually writing, her character changed into a more heroic character, and the relationship between the two characters became a genuine one.
 

Viridian

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Here's a new idea:

I think there's more bisexual characters than we realize. The problem is that they're not viewed as bisexual. For example: in the TV show How I Met Your Mother, Lily occasionally fantasizes about kissing another woman, but I bet most viewers would probably consider her straight.

In the Marvel universe, Starfire has had female lovers.

In the Scott Pilgrim comic books, Kim Pines and Knives Chau have drunken sex. Most readers probably consider them straight.

When a male characters has sex with other men, it's assumed he's gay. When a female character messes around with other women, it's brushed off as experimentation. Super frustrating to deal with in real life, let me tell you.

Lynn Flewelling's Nigthrunner series handles bisexuality really well, IMO.
 
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SBibb

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I've seen reference to bisexual characters in Tamora Pierce's Will of the Empress. I have a hard time really thinking of anyone in other stories, though.

In my own stories I do have bisexual characters.

One is the main character in a science fiction space story. Rough draft complete, but I still need to make edits. For that one, she shows interest in both male and female characters, though the romance subplot veers toward a woman in my outline for the second book. She is still interested in both genders, though.

In my YA/NA science fiction story, one of the antagonists is bi. She flirts with the MC (who shows more inclination toward men, but in all fairness doesn't show much sexual interest in anyone), and in a later story we find out she's had a strong relationship with a male character. She remains interested in both genders.

Another MC in that same universe (unwritten story, but I have the plot), is either bi, leaning toward women, or lesbian. Not sure yet.

But their orientation might not be super obvious in those stories since the romance isn't really at the forefront of anyone's mind.
 

gingerwoman

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My two published novels both have bisexual characters.
 

Usher

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Yes - if I have a gay main or major character then giving them a bisexual main or major character as a partner or love interest can make creating tension easier later.
 

KateH

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I do wonder if the under representation of bisexuality in fiction is because there's a tendency to focus on one relationship in a given story, and if it's with someone of the same gender, readers assume the character is 100% gay/lesbian, and if it's with the opposite gender, readers tend to assume the character is 100% straight? Explaining about the character's past relationships or attractions to other people, of course, is possible, but if the person isn't a pov character, or if there's no focus on their backstory, then it might not come out at all.

I think this is part of the reason for the lack of bisexual characters, yeah. And it's also why they're sometimes mistakenly labelled as either gay or straight by readers.

Kristin Cashore's Fire is a YA fantasy novel with a bisexual protag. It's been a while since I read it, but IIRC, the only acknowledgement that the main character was bi was a mention of a past relationship with a woman. She had a romantic storyline in the book with a man. I've encountered readers who forgot or misinterpreted that mention of her past, so they assumed the character was straight.

Malinda Lo, an author whose books have bisexual and lesbian protagonists, wrote in a blog post:
Finally, I think there may be a perception floating around our culture that bisexuals are sort of a watered-down version of gay, and this is a big problem. This perception enables mainstream cultural creators to think: Oh, I should have some LGBT representation, let’s stick in a bisexual girl (this would never happen with a bisexual boy, because of a host of issues around homophobia). Then that bisexual female character can have a fling with another girl to attract attention/check the “diversity” box, but meanwhile she can mostly be involved in a relationship with a man, so she largely appears straight. (This has been the story line of so many TV shows involving “bisexual” characters over the decades.)
In case it’s not clear, I want to underscore the fact that I think this is wrong. This kind of representation of “bisexual” women essentially erases the existence of people who are bisexual.

(To be clear, that quote wasn't about Cashore's writing (or anyone's in particular), just about the general issue.)
 

EMaree

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I have a few bi characters, but sadly none of them are in print yet.

THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS series has bisexual warlock Magnus Bane, but (as ViridianChick mentions) he's frequently mis-labelled as gay. The fandom seems quite good at correcting that though, thankfully -- I know they called me out for 'bi erasure' when I mentioned him casually on Tumblr as a gay warlock, and I really appreciated the correction.

Laura Lam, a regular poster around here, includes bisexual main characters in her PANTOMIME series, and Malinda Lo includes them in all her works.
 
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Julia Joy

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Another contributing factor to the lack of bisexual representation in fiction is the unwillingness to just use the word "bisexual", ever. So characters that otherwise might be termed bisexual instead "don't like labels" or are just assumed to be gay or straight. There's a perception that the word carries a negative connotation along with it.
 

EMaree

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Gilroy Cullen

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Another thing to consider, I think, is the fact that many people, when they see a character with more than one person (say the bisexual person has both a same gender and an opposite gender lover at the same time), it's immediately assumed to be a love triangle. Which throws all sorts of problems into the actual characterization that might be part of having a character in the two relationships.
 

mayqueen

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I think there's more bisexual characters than we realize. The problem is that they're not viewed as bisexual.
I suspect the same reason that we don't see many bisexual characters is the same reason we don't see many bisexual people in our regular lives. I'm bisexual and I'm in a long term relationship with another woman. Most people, even close friends, tend to default to lesbian. So being bisexual is, for me, a never-ending process of actively reminding people, hey, yeah, I'm bi. It's the same for the bisexual women I know in relationships with men, except they get the default "straight".

So I think that unless the writer labels the characters bisexual and keeps reminding the reader (which honestly I would probably find tedious), it would probably slide past most people.

I mostly read historical fiction, though, so relationships tend to go unnamed or just are (when there isn't some sort of gay tragedy death thing going on). That's how I tend to write my characters, too.
 

Viridian

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Another thing to consider, I think, is the fact that many people, when they see a character with more than one person (say the bisexual person has both a same gender and an opposite gender lover at the same time), it's immediately assumed to be a love triangle. Which throws all sorts of problems into the actual characterization that might be part of having a character in the two relationships.
That sounds more like a poly problem than a bisexual problem.
 

TessB

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Definitely. That can also be a problem, of course, but it's not directly related to bi erasure -- I have the feeling that our proportion of poly folks is about the same as in the monosexual groups.
 

Melanii

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I'm bi, so I tend to make my MCs bi as well. I'm a bit nervous about putting it into print one day since certain people don't know I'm bi, but whatevs. I think the book FAR FROM YOU by Tess Sharpe, the MC is bi. My memory is poor, but yeah.

They aren't represented well at all. :(

Like I mentioned in another thread, I tend to see more gay/bi males than females. Probably because females are often labeled as "experimenting" like someone said above.
 

Viridian

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Definitely. That can also be a problem, of course, but it's not directly related to bi erasure -- I have the feeling that our proportion of poly folks is about the same as in the monosexual groups.
Yeah, exactly.

("Monosexual." Heehee. That's wonderful.)
 

Jo Zebedee

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I have a bisexual male in mine, although we don't learn that until book two. He's not the mc, but one of the three central characters. No plot reason why, it was just the way the character developed. It forms part of his conflict but not because of a love triangle (although he has more than one lover) - I'm not convinced our sexuality impacts at all on our relationship approach. ButI might be incredibly naive.
 
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TGrace

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As someone who is bisexual, the urge to read and write about bisexual characters is super high. Whenever I come across one and the representation is well done, I get all starry eyed. (It's astonishing to me how little the word 'bisexual' is actually used, especially in television/film. It may be silly, but I want to hear/see the word!!!!)

In my current wip the boyfriend of the main character is bisexual. It's stated clearly because a major part of the story revolves around his previous relationship, which was with a woman. (Although if he were bisexual 'just because,' I would still want to make it clear that he was bisexual, not gay, in some way that was natural for the story.) One of my more important minor characters is also bisexual, and it's mentioned as part of the storyline.
 
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