Bi Lives: Bisexual Women Tell Their Stories

In "Bi Lives: Bisexual Women Tell Their Stories ", Kata Orndoff interviews a diverse group of bisexual women about their sexual identities and experiences, challenging the bigotry and myths perpetuated by both the radical right and sadly enough, certain elements of cultural feminism. How does biphobia manifest itself in the lives of bisexual women? Just as bi men have been scapegoated for transmitting hiv/aids into the female heterosexual population, bisexual women have been similarly blamed for bringing hiv/aids into the lesbian community (an insidious variation of the 1970's idea of bisexual women contaminating the lesbian community with "male energy".) Moreover, bisexual women are often told that they are actually confused lesbians (or confused heterosexuals), that they are lesbians trying to maintain some level of heterosexual privilege, that they are anti-feminist for sleeping with men, or that their bisexuality is an expression of "false consciousness" which could be overcome with the proper lesbian feminist indoctrination. As independent female sexuality is generally demonized in our sexist, erotophobic society, bisexual women are furthermore simply dismissed or pathologized. For feminists, lgbt activists, bi-curious individuals, and bisexual allies interested in issues of female sexual autonomy, this is an interesting text. Especially useful are the safer sex guidelines provided by Robyn Ochs. That said, I do wish that Orndoff would have interviewed at least one bisexual transgendered woman, but despite this oversight, this is anyway a compelling and informative sociological study.

I enjoyed this book quite a bit. The questions were a bit repetative, but that wasnt necessarily Bad, as the reader gets to see how different each woman's answers were. Id definitely recommend this, not just for glb individuals but for heterosexual people that would like to learn about some bisexual perspectives.

In this book, I discovered the various ways women define their bisexuality: some by the capability of loving people regardless of gender, some by being attracted to people of either gender, and some by experience. It also showed that bisexuality is not a "new" thing, as many would have us believe. The ages of these women range from 21 to (if I recall correctly) late 50's. One woman is handicapped, two others are in a three-way marriage (to each other, with a man), one identifies as a lesbian (though acknowledges that she is attracted to both sexes) and doesn't trust women who identify strongly as bisexual. If you want to see the entire rainbow of sexuality, read this book. If you want to have your sexuality affirmed, read this book. If you are just plain curious . . . read this book.