The Bisexual Question

In erotica, it’s fairly common for women to be bisexual, and also (but to a far lesser extent) men too. In love stories, however, bisexuality is not seen as a positive, and is seen almost as a threat. Worse, bisexuality is something that’s seen as amoral, or worse. Reading TV Tropes can be quite disturbing at times, a real eye-opener to human mentality. Having chosen to write a novel about a bisexual vampire (well, pansexual, really – see Laci Green’s wonderful explanation), it bothers me now that people could associate the characters’ bisexuality with their immorality and promiscuity.

First, see Depraved Bisexual:

In most series, either Everyone is Bi or there are No Bisexuals; there’s usually not much room in between. However, there is one group of bisexuals who seem all too well represented in the mainstream: the cold-blooded murderous sociopaths.

And then there’s Immortality Bisexuality:

… immortal characters often turn out to be much less picky about gender. … this is rationalized with a belief that someone who has lived long enough can look outside the box of sexual norms … it ignores the very real pattern of being attracted to one gender that is displayed by gay and straight people alike throughout their lives.

(This trope is discussed by Violetta Vane in The Immortal Bisexual in Fantasy Fiction.) Finally, there’s Lesbian Vampire:

A variation on the lesbian vampire … is the female victim who is seduced and converted by a male vampire and … begins to find women sexually attractive. … as soon as a woman joins the ranks of the undead, she immediately starts playing for both teams … And if a female victim is transformed by a female vampire, it carries the implication that homosexuals are predatory and waiting to ensnare and ‘convert’ hapless heterosexuals.

No. Suzie’s sexuality is not a result of her immortality and vampiric nature, and is not a reflection of her moral character. It is true that she learned this aspect of her nature only after becoming a vampire, but she never had an opportunity to discover it before. My belief is that her first real crush as an adolescent was on the woman who later became Queen of England.

Coda

Maria San Filippo’s PhD thesis Having it Both Ways: Bisexualities/Bi-textualities and Contemporary Crossover Cinema (Special Case Study, Pages 143-162 are visible through Google Books, ‘Immortal, Insatiable, Invisible: Bi-sexing the Female Vampire Film’) has an in-depth look at the bisexuality of female vampires.