It was discussed in lecture (Wednesday, October 28th) how there is a prejudice against all GLTB (gay, lesbian, transgender, and bisexual people) in mainstream popular culture. Popular culture is defined by what is popular in the world we live. There is a significant double-standard here, but for females, the B is generally accepted. For females, B should be removed from this argument.
Men everywhere fantasize about two women at the same time in the much heralded “threesome”. For this to even happen, the women have to be okay with one another. To make it better for the man and his fantasy, the women are supposed to engage with one another. And women, not being the dominant gender, are expected to give in to these concepts. Girl-on-girl is considered okay by all guys, as long as they get theirs too (and probably get more). This abides by another point in this day’s lecture—this point was made for racial discrimination though—that beating us at our own game if okay as long as you don’t change the rules. This approach is evident in rugby, where India and Australia look to beat England at the sport the English created, and India and Australia are of course, countries which England granted independence. While England surely doesn’t wanna get beat, the point is that they are okay with the other nations playing their sport and occasionally winning, as long as they don’t change their game. The same goes for the woman’s sexual relations. Men don’t mind ladies ‘switch-hitting’, as long as they come back.
Dianne Raymond wants to analyze how moments of apparently subversive potential are undermined and ultimately contained, but I`m not sure if the author regarded bisexuality in the female gender. In general terms, in my experience, guys recognize the bisexual women just the same—if not higher—than the average heterosexual female. It is a much-valued aspect of females. If two girls are exactly the same and version A of the girl is straight, and version B is bisexual, the guy will choose the bisexual one 95% of the time. Why? Guys are seemingly not at all afraid of the female turning
completely lesbian (L) and ditching them for a girl. As Raymond puts it, “”But this escape always has to be temporary, one always returns to ‘normalcy’.” And women do not usually turn over to ‘the dark side’ aka lesbianism… or they’re not supposed to. As it was pointed out in lecture, “Lesbian kisses involving heterosexual characters occur, but they never result in character transformation.” Transformation, as in ‘changing teams’, onto the L squad. Men are also, perhaps predominantly, much too concerned about (and distracted by) the fantasy of two women at the same time.
So why do females do this? One possible explanation is that going ‘girl-on-girl’ is a reprieve from the traditional guy-on-girl relations. Perhaps the guy is too rough, or the girl knows the right places to touch or go from having the female body, when guys more or less may just do the standard approach. This also may have to do with the craving of “the wild other” as Raymond points out. “Like racial otherness, sexual otherness becomes an exciting and dangerous or innocent and child-like escape from the boring old status quo. “
All in all, bisexual women are hardly discriminated against. If anything, they have preferential treatment as long as they don’t cross the line.
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