Bi radical

Damask and Plaid: A thought about gender-binary words

damaskandplaid:

bidyke:

If “bisexual” is indeed binary and forbidden to use, then people need to also stop using some other words, like “transgender”, “androgynous”, “cross dresser”, and “transexual”.

Just saying.

“Trans” means “across” (as in, “to cross to…

I’m just going to jump in and say that it’s very nice of all of you to define what bisexuality means, but if you don’t identify as bisexual yourself, kindly stfu :) This situation in which anyone is allowed to jump in and define what bisexuality means or should mean for bisexual people is un-solidary at best and reeks of biphobia at worst. The only people who can define what bisexuality means for them are bisexual people, and it is no one’s place to define it for us.

Consider that throughout history (and in many ways to this day), the people who have had the most power to define the meaning of bisexuality have been everyone other than bisexuals themselves - at first the scientific and medical institutions, then psychology, sociology and sexology, later the media, film and literature, then even the L, G, and T communities. In fact, inasmuch as someone does not identify as bisexual, their definition holds more weight and is given more credit and respect than that of bisexuals themselves. That’s fucked up and it needs to change.

Also:

Likewise, even though “bi” was the Latin preposition for “two,” this does not mean that everyone who uses the term “bisexual” thinks there are only two sides to gender. Many, perhaps even most, non-binary people identify as bi, and things like “bi*” are an explicit effort to include people who are attracted to more than one gender but don’t identify as bisexual. It’s pretty obvious that in many circles, the term “bi” has undergone a semantic shift (link changed, do check it out), and now means “someone who is attracted to people of more than one gender.”