jubilantBisexuality: b: of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward both sexes (merriam-webster.com)
"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." (tvtropes.com: The Depraved Bisexual)
"On many mainstream American and British TV shows, there are No Bisexuals. Not just in the casts, anywhere; once a person has realized his or her attraction to the same sex, the opposite sex is expected to be discarded utterly. A bisexual, at best, is either a kinky guest star or the one who did it." (tvtropes.com: Everyone Is Bi)
"Although experiences that can be termed "bisexual" appear in works throughout literary history, they are rarely discussed from that perspective. Instead, explicit scenes or implicit evidence of erotic activity in which a single character is involved with members of both the same and other sex is usually considered as evidence indicating a primary sexual orientation that is either hetero- or homosexual. The continued reliance in modern Anglo-American and European culture upon binary systems of classification and identification has meant the practical erasure of bisexuality, as such, from most works of literary and cultural analysis." (glbtq.com: Bisexual Literature)
It's no news to the non-monosexuals of the world (I'll be using the term bisexual as short hand, though that is not necessarily always the most accurate word), it's not news that, especially in genre media, we don't get face time. I've been long resigned to the fact that I don't get to see people like me on television. People on television are attracted to one gender and they stick to that. If there's any variant on that, it's because the character didn't know that they were really gay/straight. (Joss Whedon, I'm looking at you.)
I won't say that I'm happy. I've participated in discussions in the bisexual community about it. Many of us view it as a form of bisexual erasure. We often don't appear in the media - literature as well as television, history as well as fiction - because people want their characters and historical figures to "just choose." (Yeah, many historical figures often touted as "obviously gay" often have bisexual tendencies, but their same-sex affairs somehow trump that. More on that here.) (Sometimes the bisexual erasure doesn't occur within the film/show/book itself, but in how it is marketed, discussed, and shared among the populace. For example, Velvet Goldmine is a prime example of bisexuals in media - and very pretty people they are as well - but the number of times I have heard or read it called a "gay" film is stunning. Apparently, Brian and Mandy Slade are lying when they say that they're bisexual in the film. Or bisexuals are really homosexuals in disguise. I'm not sure.)
On the Bisexual Wiki, people have collaborated and made a List of Media Portrayals of Bisexuality. It's really disturbing how many fall into the Depraved Bisexual category. tvtropes.com describes this as, "Whereas the Psycho Lesbian is usually violent or deranged out of unrequited love and/or jealousy, the typical Depraved Bisexual is bi because, well, they're simply just that depraved; their willingness to sleep with everyone they can is just one facet of their being Ax Crazy. A slightly less pathological version of the trope depicts the Depraved Bisexual as "simply" supremely manipulative; recognizing the effectiveness of sex as a control mechanism, they resort to it at every opportunity - reasoning that successful seductions gain new thralls, while even unsuccessful ones tend to increase others' fear of you." All and all, not exactly what I like to see as the dominant portrayal of bisexuality on television.
In doing research, I learned the the 1980's saw a boom in bisexuals on television (and by boom, I mean that you could still count them all on your fingers, possibly on one hand, for the whole decade). However, then it appears that there was a long dry period with few bisexual characters on television. Law & Order - prime 90's television, has, according to my research, a rather large number of bisexual characters, however they all appears to be villains. Bisexuals are villains, are manipulative, spread AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases, are sex crazed... A number of myths that real life bisexuals struggle to dispel.
Genre television and bisexuality don't always get along. Genre television and queers don't always get along, but lesbians and gays get along better than bisexuals for sure. The great known bisexual erasure is, of course, Joss Whedon's treatment of Willow in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She went from being madly in love with Oz (male) to a relationship with Tara (female) which made her a lesbian. Not a bisexual with tendencies toward women (say, a 30/70 or 20/80 bisexual), but a lesbian. Thanks, Joss Whedon. Farscape (Chiana), Firefly (Inara), and Battlestar Galactica (Number Three, Number Six and Gaius Baltar) are genre television listed as having bisexual characters. However out of the three, one is a prostitute being paid to have sex with a woman (Inara); at least one is a non-human alien (Chiana) who comes with this bio, "Chiana has had to scam, steal, prostitute and in short survive by any means in the hell holes of The Uncharted Territories," and, "[her species] secretly infect those leaving their home system with a contagion, which is then spread by carnal contact to other neighboring peoples," which seems eerily reminisce of the deviant AIDS spreader (giggienthusiast.com); and of the last, to my knowledge, Number Three and Number Six are not human (but appear to be female, thus making the human male straight and the non-humans bisexual). I am not familiar enough with Battlestar Galactica to comment further.
However, of late, genre television has given the world Torchwood. While I won't say that Torchwood is without its problems in depicting sexuality (nor that I don't have a bit of trouble believing that more than half the people involved in Torchwood is not monosexual unless Jack is listing that as part of the job description [Must be good with computers, not afraid of aliens, willing to seek romance or sex with more than one gender]. I wouldn't put it past him.). However, Jack is actively omnisexual, even seeking out romance outside of his own species; Ianto and Toshiko have on-screen romances with both sexes; Captain John has had a relationship with Jack in the past and has expressed attraction to poodles; Owen has long term relationships with women and at least has sex with men. Jack, being both the leader of the group and having appeared in Doctor Who as well as being from the 51st century, tends to have a bit more explanation for his sexuality than the others, or at least more illustration. As far as I can tell from his episodes, monosexuality is unheard of in the 51st century and sex with other species is common.
Ianto, Owen, and Toshiko are all from this century however. In the first episode, we see Owen use alien tech to seduce a woman and then her boyfriend. In the first season, Toshiko has an affair with an evil bisexual alien (female) who is only having sex with Toshiko in order to use her and plans to, if I remember correctly, eat her heart. Jack sends her to the center of the sun. Ianto has a half-robot girlfriend, to whom he is fanatically devoted, who tries to take over Torchwood. After Ianto refuses to kill his lover, Jack kills her. (This is a pattern.) In the second season, Toshiko has relationships with a doomed solider from 1918 and a memory altering alien, both male. She also attempted to pursue a relationship with a male colleague, Owen. In the same season, Ianto has a sexual relationship with his male boss, Captain Jack. Neither Ianto nor Toshiko seem unduly disturbed by their relationships, nor do they feel the need to come out of the closet. Perhaps this is a side effect of having Captain Jack as your boss, but it also prevents the bisexual erasure of Willow - Toshiko does not claim to be heterosexual and Ianto does not claim to be homosexual. Owen doesn't talk about his sexuality. They simply are what they are.
On the other hand (there are always an infinite number of hands), Torchwood is designed to be this way. The sexualities of Ianto, Jack, John, Owen, and Toshiko are not incidental. People have called it Queer As Folk in the Whoniverse, a nod to the creator of the show. Davies has said, "We can be a bit more visceral, more violent, and more sexual, if we want to. Though bear in mind that it's very teenage to indulge yourself in blood and gore, and Torchwood is going to be smarter than that. But it’s the essential difference between BBC One at 7 pm, and BBC Three at, say, 9 pm. That says it all — instinctively, every viewer can see the huge difference there," as well as calling it "Doctor Who for grown-ups" (wikipedia). The sexualities of the characters play a large role in the show and it is designed to be that way from the get go. I am not entirely sure why, but this effects how I view the show.
Everyone and their brother on the internet has noted that bisexuals really don't appear on American television, unless they are crazed criminals and spreaders of disease. However, in non-sci-fi/fantasy televsion, it appears that two new characters have joined the nearly empty ranks of recurring bisexuals on American television (glaadblog). 13, on House, is bisexual and so is Angela of Bones, according to the internet.
I had the pleasure of managing to catch the episode of House where we learn that 13 swings both ways. (Once upon a time, I followed House quite closely, but no more.) She has, as far as I could tell from other character reactions, previously expressed attraction to men, perhaps Foreman in particular. However, in this episode, she picked up a woman in a bar, while drunk and stoned, and proceeded to have wild monkey sex with her until the woman had a seizure in bed. At the hospital, 13 professes to House that she is not a lesbian and in a later episode Foreman refers to her as bisexual and calls it her secret. 13 doesn't seem to have anything to say on the matter.
I don't watch Bones so I can't comment there.
And now there a spoilers for Supernatural 4x14 Sex and Violence so venture no further if you have no desire to see them.
I was surprised, but thrilled to see that the siren took a male form for Dean. The siren, which is innately sexual in both the mythology of the real world and the mythology of the show, was male for Dean, who spends a great deal of time on the show expressing sexual and romantic interest in women. In fact, Sam describes sirens as, "They see what you want most and then they kind of, like, cloak themselves like an illusion." He also describes them as creating a love spell. When this episode is held up against Dean's previous canonical behavior (and his "ideal" women of Dream a Little Dream of Me (3x10), where he dreams of having a wife and family, and Carmen of What Is and Never Should Be (2x20), the female nurse with whom Dean lives in the djinn-created world where Mary lived), Dean comes across as bisexual. Perhaps he leans toward women (at least, behaviorally speaking, he definitely appears to lean toward women, however the Winchesters don't seem to spend time in queer friendly spaces), but the siren reads him as desiring men. In addition, no one - not Dean, not Sam, not Bobby - is surprised by this. In fact, without knowing much, Bobby goes after the man as a siren, even though the siren has only been referred to as "she" by Bobby.
However, Supernatural, in my opinion, goes a step beyond House and even, dare I say it, Torchwood. When 13 interacts with the woman, she is both drunk and stoned and doesn't both to figure out the woman's name. When she interacts with men, particularly Foreman, she knows them and is interacting with them romantically, sexually, and professionally. In my opinion, while this is a depiction of how some non-monosexuals act, it is also effectively forcing us to see which gender 13 chooses to have for "serious" relationships - men. In Torchwood, while there is sex, there is little talk of love and/or romance.
In Supernatural, Dean has had romance with Cassie (of 1x13 Route 666 fame) and romantic - if not love-based - discussions with Carmen and Lisa tells Dean she loves him in his dream in Dream a Little Dream of You. When the siren speaks to Sam in Sex and Violence, he also speaks of love. He explains that Dean loves him, that Dean is devoted to him, that the siren loves to fall in love. After seducing Sam (with his saliva, of all things), the siren has them fight to the death - promising the winner a forever with him.
I might have made an actual "Eeep" noise when I saw this for a second time. Bisexuals never get to talk about love on television, in my experience. Even the "good" bisexuals, like Captain Jack Harkness, care about hot sex and fun, not about love and forever. I'm not saying that every bisexual is looking for true love and forever (any more than every heterosexual is), but it's great to see someone talking about it. Both Dean and Sam have looked for that true love forever in the series - Cassie and Jess come to mind - and have not found it. It made me happy that they could, apparently, look for it in men as well as women.
It might be even more amazing and awesome that it's coming from a show that I watch for guns and explosions and urban legends more than great treatment of minorities (though, admittedly, they have also been constrained by actor's contracts and genre in that regard). But the show that gave us Ghostfacers (3x13), an episode that could go either way in interpretation re: queers. (I, personally, did not find it as offensive as some people did, however I also feel that the treatment of Corbett, the only queer character the show had up until last night, could probably have been better. I still laugh at the episode, though, and enjoy it.)
In the end: I am thrilled that there are more bisexuals on television (a whole... four of them, if you include Sam, which is debatable, and six, if you include Numbers Three and Six from Battlestar Galactica) and I am even more overjoyed that they can seek love and life with more than one gender - or at least that Dean Winchester can.
ETA:
silverkit has pointed out that the crossroads demon has appeared to Sam as both a man and woman, which could argue for his bisexuality.Son of an ETA: A friend pointed out that defining what I mean might help clarify discussion. When I say, Dean is not monosexual, I mean: "Dean is at least romantically attracted to men in some fashion, in addition to his general attraction to women."
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