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glantern954
Jun 21, 2006, 6:49 PM
Date: June 21, 2006
Title: To bi or not to bi — that is the question
Author: Adri Mehra
Source: The Minnesota Daily http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/06/21/68512?print)

Have girls really gone wild? Have we all? The “girl-on-girl” abstract might be muddying sexual self-actualization.

ey, hold on a minute! Since when did all my friends become bisexual?

For some reason — chalk it up to the long and repressed dog days of summer — I did a quick mental inventory of sexual orientation among my girlfriends, and more than half of them had identified themselves at some point as bisexual or at least “bi-curious.”

Although I have been very much aware of (and at times directly involved in) the evolving nature of my friends’ sexual self-identities, the sheer statistical mass of my informal booty (roll) call did catch me by surprise.

Statistics on sexuality always have been slippery. The popular numbers run quite the gamut — from sexual social scientist Alfred C. Kinsey’s incorrectly attributed 10 percent “revelation” in 1948 to the National Center for Health Statistics’ 2.3 percent figure from a 2002 study. Yet this new data from my own circle is quite the mathematical pole-vault from either of the aforementioned surveys.

So what’s the deal? Is someone not telling the truth (which I suspect), or do I run with a gang of societal outliers and sexual deviants?

I’ll have to take the Fifth on the second case — glean what you will from that, you sick bastards — but I do think there might not be full disclosure on Main Street America regarding the newfound fluidity of people’s sexual mores.

I know exactly what my socially conservative friends would say. Look at your demographic, they’d gripe. You’re a performing arts major on a large campus in a pretty liberal town. Of course your friends are fruits.

As if having compadres with open minds and a collective ethos without the strictures of gender assignment automatically “queerifies” us! Come on. Give people more credit than that.

“Bisexuality stretches our imaginations, just like multiracial people do,” said Robyn Ochs, an author and contributing writer to SexEtc.org, a Web site that provides a rarely found honest discussion about such unmentionables.

“(Bisexuality) forces us to acknowledge complexity,” Ochs continues, “and many people are uncomfortable with that.”

Intimacy between girls — physical or emotional — has in recent history been culturally nourished and accepted, and perhaps this is a coitally convenient outgrowth of such fostering.

However, the recent pop-culture emergence of the “girl-on-girl” abstract might be further muddying the waters of young women’s processes of sexual self-actualization.

For instance, one of my self-described “straight” friends freely admits to making out with other girls because she is “bored” and “there aren’t always guys around.”

Yet when pressed about her behavior when guys are around, she shrugs and speaks of getting on girls in front of them to appeal to their MTV-fed notions of O Holy Land of Aphrodesia — or the theorem that four breasts plus one giddy dude equals nut-busting bliss.

This scenario is more likely to occur, said a friend of mine, when she has a crush on one of the male voyeurs present. Fascinating that near-predatory, same-sex tactics are useded to solicit heterosexual attention. Hmmm.

Is it fair to think of this kind of party-based, identity shapeshifting as cheapening the public notion of real bisexuality (as other friends have stated), or is it all good, semi-clean fun?

Or does this mean that bisexuality in young women is a trend, not unlike pogs in 1994?

Doubtful. I don’t think a pretended sexual orientation could last longer than a pair of Zubaz, or even a neon slap bracelet.

But don’t let that stop you. We’re all in this together. Keep on foolin’, friends.


Adri Mehra welcomes comments at amehra@mndaily.com.

Rhuth
Jun 21, 2006, 7:28 PM
I don’t think a pretended sexual orientation could last longer than a pair of Zubaz, or even a neon slap bracelet.

But don’t let that stop you. We’re all in this together. Keep on foolin’, friends.

Amen! Who cares if it is a fad? As long as its safe, the more the merrier! Sometimes you never know until you try. What we really need now is for the guys to have a similar fad. I wanna see the guys kissing on prime time network TV just as much! Think we ladies could be paving the way for the men to become sexually liberated?

wildangel
Jun 21, 2006, 7:59 PM
I've noticed lately, that many of my sister's younger friends (18 and under) are claiming bisexuality. I mean her current "girlfriend" is 15. Don't get me wrong. I realized my attraction to girls before I was even a teenager. But it seems now it is a culturally acceptable thing for girls to be bisexual. And the idea with most parents, or at least it seems, is that "well, at least she won't get pregnant" and "it's not like it's real sex". I feel like the cutural acceptability of female bisexuality, gives actual bisexuals less credibility. But hey, that's just my :2cents:

NightHawk
Jun 21, 2006, 9:32 PM
Along with Mr. Mehra, I am sure that many people are not telling the truth about their at least occasional attraction to like-sex members.

As for whether their is a trendy trend: Maybe, but if it only lightens up the unreasoning fear of bisexuality, that is for the good. So, parents will see their kids playing with bisexuality and those kids will one day grow up and remember that bisexual acts were no big deal. What is there to get upset about?

Finally, people will stand back and realize that society and civilization will not collapse due to many people being bisexual. Babies will still be born and men and women will still be attracted to one another. Civilization will go on.

Driver 8
Jun 21, 2006, 10:09 PM
I just saw this intriguing article (http://susiebright.blogs.com/susie_brights_journal_/2005/09/female_chauvini.html) at Susie Bright's blog on this very subject. She ponders the difference between the sex-positive feminist movement of the 90s, which encouraged all women to express their sexuality as they saw fit, with the "Girls Gone Wild" model of hot, young women being sexually forthright for a male audience. As another writer said to her,

"I think it's the easy way out... as if when we buy a thong or a t-shirt with the Playboy bunny on it, then we don't have to question or face our own complicated desires [...] You have always been about encouraging women to investigate what they really and truly want from sex."

Bright is no prude - she founded the unforgettable lesbian porn magazine On Our Backs back in the eighties. I don't agree with everything she writes by any means, but she has a nose for good topics, and usually has something well-thought-out to say about them.

Haemoglobin
Jun 24, 2006, 1:48 PM
something that may doesnt fit in here 100 percent but still i feel like saying it is that i discovered that some girls simply make up the lie they would be bisexual or even gay to be impressive or to turn on their boyfriends .
personally i find this new trend a bit disturbing because it creates an illusion of you having a chance with some girl who then turns out to not really be bisexual or gay at all . . . happened to me , i wrote about it in my "about" section in my profile . . . i hate such things happening . i think that before you go and tell a lie about your sexuality you should may sit down and think about what your desire really is .. thats my opinion . :cool:

jedinudist
Jun 24, 2006, 4:11 PM
Date: June 21, 2006
Title: To bi or not to bi — that is the question
Author: Adri Mehra
Source: The Minnesota Daily http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2006/06/21/68512?print)

Have girls really gone wild? Have we all? The “girl-on-girl” abstract might be muddying sexual self-actualization.

ey, hold on a minute! Since when did all my friends become bisexual?

For some reason — chalk it up to the long and repressed dog days of summer — I did a quick mental inventory of sexual orientation among my girlfriends, and more than half of them had identified themselves at some point as bisexual or at least “bi-curious.”

Although I have been very much aware of (and at times directly involved in) the evolving nature of my friends’ sexual self-identities, the sheer statistical mass of my informal booty (roll) call did catch me by surprise.

Statistics on sexuality always have been slippery. The popular numbers run quite the gamut — from sexual social scientist Alfred C. Kinsey’s incorrectly attributed 10 percent “revelation” in 1948 to the National Center for Health Statistics’ 2.3 percent figure from a 2002 study. Yet this new data from my own circle is quite the mathematical pole-vault from either of the aforementioned surveys.

So what’s the deal? Is someone not telling the truth (which I suspect), or do I run with a gang of societal outliers and sexual deviants?

I’ll have to take the Fifth on the second case — glean what you will from that, you sick bastards — but I do think there might not be full disclosure on Main Street America regarding the newfound fluidity of people’s sexual mores.

I know exactly what my socially conservative friends would say. Look at your demographic, they’d gripe. You’re a performing arts major on a large campus in a pretty liberal town. Of course your friends are fruits.

As if having compadres with open minds and a collective ethos without the strictures of gender assignment automatically “queerifies” us! Come on. Give people more credit than that.

“Bisexuality stretches our imaginations, just like multiracial people do,” said Robyn Ochs, an author and contributing writer to SexEtc.org, a Web site that provides a rarely found honest discussion about such unmentionables.

“(Bisexuality) forces us to acknowledge complexity,” Ochs continues, “and many people are uncomfortable with that.”

Intimacy between girls — physical or emotional — has in recent history been culturally nourished and accepted, and perhaps this is a coitally convenient outgrowth of such fostering.

However, the recent pop-culture emergence of the “girl-on-girl” abstract might be further muddying the waters of young women’s processes of sexual self-actualization.

For instance, one of my self-described “straight” friends freely admits to making out with other girls because she is “bored” and “there aren’t always guys around.”

Yet when pressed about her behavior when guys are around, she shrugs and speaks of getting on girls in front of them to appeal to their MTV-fed notions of O Holy Land of Aphrodesia — or the theorem that four breasts plus one giddy dude equals nut-busting bliss.

This scenario is more likely to occur, said a friend of mine, when she has a crush on one of the male voyeurs present. Fascinating that near-predatory, same-sex tactics are useded to solicit heterosexual attention. Hmmm.

Is it fair to think of this kind of party-based, identity shapeshifting as cheapening the public notion of real bisexuality (as other friends have stated), or is it all good, semi-clean fun?

Or does this mean that bisexuality in young women is a trend, not unlike pogs in 1994?

Doubtful. I don’t think a pretended sexual orientation could last longer than a pair of Zubaz, or even a neon slap bracelet.

But don’t let that stop you. We’re all in this together. Keep on foolin’, friends.


Adri Mehra welcomes comments at amehra@mndaily.com.

I sum it all up in my signature... see below :) :) :)

Nara_lovely
Jun 25, 2006, 9:58 AM
I thought my new car was different...the day after I bought it, I saw many just like it.
Maybe the perception is there now that you are looking for it...?

Now, more seriously; yes I have seen a few teens lately parading their bi/lesbian attitudes. Unfortunately, most come across with the 'in-you-face' attitude delighting in the shock value. Maybe it's age...maybe it's behaviour. Every now and then, I hear someone say it...and it's natural, easy and calm. I think those are the genuine ones and the rest are still trying to work out their sexuality. Just my opinion...

Haemoglobin
Jun 25, 2006, 7:46 PM
my saying . . i think youre right here . .