Follow Mark Wilkinson on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarkJoseph_82
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Mark's "Bisexual Oysters" paper:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1750481318817624
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Though the bisexual/fluid community has always existed, the word "bisexual" has
evolved significantly in popular usage over the last 60 years. Mark Wilkinson, a
PhD candidate at Lancaster University, has been studying media representation of
the LGBT+ community and the discursive construction of identity & community,
using linguistics to understand how queer people identify themselves over the
years -- and how others identify our community in the press.
In part one of this two part interview, we discussed Mark's paper, "Bisexual
Oysters", which analyzes how the word "bisexual" was used in The Times (of
London) over the past six decades. In the 50s, 60s, and 70s, it was not used
nearly as much as today, and it often did not describe sexuality but rather
other aspects of gender or presentation, as well as androgyny, "co-ed" spaces,
or "unisex" objects. Mark also discusses the prevalence of fictional characters
as opposed to real people being described as "bisexual", contributing to bi
erasure and invisibility. We also chatted about when and why these semantics are
important -- especially to unite in solidarity for political purposes -- and
when and why it's important to remember that "bisexuality" is not a universal
identity across time and space, but rather a discursive construction that
emerged at a particular time, location, and moment in our culture.
Stay tuned for part two which continues tracking the use of the word "bisexual"
in the 1980s through 2017, how the word grew in usage during the HIV/AIDS
epidemic (with unfortunate consequences), and some history of the term "LGBT"
and how the B has historically fit in (or not).
 
Two Bi Guys is produced and edited by Rob Cohen
Created by Rob Cohen and Alex Boyd
Logo art by Kaitlin Weinman
Music by Ross Mintzer
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The Evolving Use of the Word "Bisexual" with Mark Wilkinson

A podcast about fluid sexuality, gender, masculinity and femininity, intimacy,
relationships and more -- hosted by two bi guys.