summary, the women who participated in this study overrepresent highly educated White Euro-American women, although women who did not attend college and Women of Color are represented. In terms of social class, income, age, sexual identity, sexual history, and sexual experiences, the participants are a diverse group. We can learn a great deal from the women who participated in this study, if we keep these facts in mind. Now, it’s time to find out what they had to say.
4 LESBIANS’ VOICES: WHAT DO LESBIANS THINK ABOUT BISEXUALITY AND ITS ROLE IN SEXUAL POLITICS?
A few of the women who participated in this study might have, on occasion, written a letter to Out/Look or an article for a regional lesbian newsletter, but most have not. The women who participated in this study are the women who read these letters and articles and respond to them privately. If they care about the issues raised, they might discuss them with personal friends; if they do not care, they might never finish reading the article. Whatever their thoughts and opinions, they do not appear in print and do not become a matter of public record. Yet, these are the thoughts and opinions of the lesbian community. Does this silent majority share the opinions expressed by the women whose voices appear in print? Do they consider the issues debated in the lesbian press to be important enough to have an opinion about? How do lesbians really feel about bisexuality, bisexual women, and social and political relations between lesbians and bisexual women? How do their feelings about bisexuality reflect their thoughts and feelings about who they are and what they stand for as lesbians?
Participants in this study answered several questions about their attitudes toward sexuality, bisexuality, and bisexual women. The most important question was a very simple open-ended one, “What is your opinion of bisexuality?” Although this question would seem to be a straightforward request for an opinion, the answers women gave revealed much more than that. The value of this question lies in the fact that it allowed women to define the issue of bisexuality themselves, in their own words, and then to respond to the issue as they saw it. Every lesbian respondent read the same question, but each transformed this question into her own before giving an answer. These answers therefore reveal what the issues are as well as how lesbians feel about them.
One of the most controversial issues is the question of whether bisexuality exists at all. This question was raised either explicitly or implicitly by more than half of the lesbians in the study, and the answers given covered the entire gamut from “it does not exist” to “everyone is inherently bisexual.” Nearly as important is the issue of defining bisexuality; if bisexuality exists, what is it? Those lesbians who agree with each other that bisexuality exists disagree over what it is that they are talking about. Not only do lesbians have a variety of definitions of bisexuality, but these definitions of bisexuality reveal fundamental differences in the way lesbians think about sexuality in general and about the philosophical and political relationships between lesbianism and bisexuality.
Once the questions of existence and definition are answered, the question “What are bisexuals like?” arises. Lesbians hold a variety of beliefs about bisexual women, particularly about bisexuals’ personal characteristics, sexual proclivities, and political allegiances. A few respondents not only described bisexual women, but compared lesbian and bisexual lifestyles in terms of their social and political implications or consequences. Finally, most respondents did answer the question that was asked, “What is your opinion of bisexuality?” by describing their own personal feelings about bisexuality and bisexual women.
In this chapter, I describe the variety in lesbians’ images of and feelings about bisexual women; then, in chapters 5 and 6 I will analyze the individual and historical bases of these attitudes.
DOES BISEXUALITY EXIST?
This question is central to the debate about bisexuality. It is a fundamental issue over which there is considerable disagreement among lesbians, setting the stage for further disputes over the finer points of bisexuality. While some women answered this question with an unqualified “no” or “yes,” others expressed more complex beliefs about the circumstances under which bisexuality might exist, the likelihood that people who appear to be bisexual are really true bisexuals, and the legitimacy of bisexuality as a sexual orientation. Figure 4.1 illustrates the proportion of lesbians in this study who hold certain opinions on the question of bisexual existence, but the great variety in their beliefs can only be appreciated by examining the actual comments of women who hold each opinion.
Lesbians Who Are Skeptical
There is widespread skepticism among lesbians about the existence of bisexuality. Very few lesbian respondents stated explicitly and unequivocally that there is no such thing as bisexuality, but many expressed serious doubts about whether it exists. In all, nearly one out of four lesbian respondents tends to believe that it does not exist (figure 4.1). Many of these women explained their opinions by providing descriptions of that which they do not believe exists. These definitions reveal that they base their opinions on a variety of different images of this nonexistent form of sexuality. For example,
It does not exist. To be bisexual would mean that a person were simultaneously involved in an intimate sexual relationship with a man and a woman. It is possible but would be better described as schizophrenic. (Marlene)
Bisexuality is a transition and exploration phase. Women may have sex with men and women but I think it’s only possible to fall in love consistently with one sex or the other. (Stephanie)
I don’t believe it exists . . . I believe it’s impossible to love men and women 50–50. One has to have stronger feelings one way or the other. (Naomi)
These three women have three very different definitions of what bisexuality would be if it existed. Marlene1 defines bisexuality as simultaneous sexual involvement with both a man and a woman. Stephanie clearly rejects this definition, saying that it doesn’t matter whom one has sex with; she defines sexuality in terms of “consistent” feelings of love.
Naomi is the most restrictive, defining a bisexual as someone who has exactly equal feelings of love for women and men. Arguing that such phenomena would be rare or impossible, these women conclude that bisexuality is nonexistent or, as in the case of Marlene, a form of mental illness.
Other women have broader definitions of bisexuality but still believe it does not exist. For example, Julia defines bisexuality as a simultaneous attraction to women and men, but because she believes that attraction to women and attraction to men are antithetical, she does not believe that simultaneous attraction would be possible:
. . . it is very hard for me to conceive of a woman who is emotionally and physically attracted to women being also similarly attracted to men. I do not feel the two can co-exist. (Julia)
Many lesbians pointed out that some people claim to be bisexual, believe themselves to be bisexual, or behave bisexually, but argued that this bisexuality is illusory. Some fell short of actually saying explicitly that bisexuality does not exist, but the implication was unmistakable. For example, Karen believes that women who claim to be bisexual are really lesbians who either haven’t realized it yet, or who are trying to preserve their heterosexual privilege or avoid stigma:
My experience of women who define themselves as bisexual suggests that bisexual women are either really “lesbian”
