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AUTHOR: Paula C. Rodriguez
PUBLISHER: Columbia University Press
LANGUAGE: English
DATE: 2000
PAGES: 659
ISBN: 0231102275

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Bisexuality in the United States: A Social Science Reader

by Paula C. Rodriguez

For years bisexuality was considered merely a transitional stage between a person’s presumed heterosexuality and “true” homosexuality, or vice versa, and was thereby regarded with suspicion by the lesbian and gay community and contempt by the “straight” world. The study and understanding of bisexuality has surpassed the stereotyped representations of previous eras (e.g., Basic Instinct), but few books attempt to seriously engage the subject as a whole. Paula Rust at last rectifies this absence in the literature by presenting the first interdisciplinary and comprehensive review of social scientific research and theory about bisexuality.

With contributions by sociologists, psychologists, historians, political theorists, and others, the book yields an overall picture of what we know, and what we don’t know, about the subject. The book provides a wealth of information about the lives and experiences of bisexual people. Articles cover early research in which bisexuality was conceptualized as “situational homosexuality,” pioneering research on bisexuality as an authentic sexual orientation, scholarship on bisexuality in the context of AIDS research, the phenomena of “bisexual chic” and biphobia, queer theory, and the contemporary relationship between academia and political activism. Selections include theoretical and empirical studies from social science perspectives as well as popular writings about the growth of the bisexual movement in the 1980s and 1990s. 

TABLE OF CONTENTS
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgements
  • PART ONE: Paving the Way for Research on Bisexuality
    • Section 1: Wherefore Art Thou, Bisexuality?
    • 1. Criticisms of the Scholarly Literature on Sexuality for Its Neglect of Bisexuality by Paula C. Rodriguez Rust
    • 2. Bisexuality: Reassessing Our Paradigms of Sexuality by Jay P Paul
    • 3. A Little Bit of Lavender Goes a Long Way: A Critique of Research on Sexual Orientation by A. P. MacDonald, Jr
    • Section 2: Now You Don’t See It, Now You Do
    • 4. Alternatives to Binary Sexuality: Modeling Bisexuality by Paula Rodriguez Rust
    • 5. Identity Conflict or Adaptive Flexibility? Bisexuality Reconsidered by Gary Zinik
    • 6. A Critical Examination of the Concept of Gender by Marilyn J. Freimuth and Gail A. Hornstein
    • 7. The Periodic Table Model of the Gender Transpositions: Part II.Limerent and lusty Sexual Attractions and the Nature of Bisexuality by James D. Weinrich
    • 8. Beyond Gender: The Basis of Sexual Attraction in Bisexual Men and Women by Michael W. Ross and Jay P Paul
    • 9. From Sexual Identity to Sexual Relationships: A Contextual Shift by John P. De Cecco and Michael G. Shively
    • 10. Gender Identity and Sexual Behavior by Harry Brierley
    • Section 3: How Many Bisexuals Are There?
    • 11. Review of Statistical Findings About Bisexual Behavior, Feelings, and Identities by Paula C. Rodriguez Rust
    • 12. Behavior Patterns and Sexual Identities of Bisexual Males by Janet Lever, David E Kanouse, William H. Rogers, Sally Carson, and Rosanna Hertz
    • 13. On the Diversity of Love Objects Orientations Among Women by Sophie Freud Loewenstein
  • PART TWO: From Lesbian Strippers and Prison Punks to Bisexual Subjects: The History of a Research Literature
    • Section 4: Looking at the Past Through Bi-Colored Glasses
    • 14. Academic Literature on Situational Homosexuality in the 1960s and 1970s by Paula C. Rodriguez Rust
    • 15. Homosexuality in Prison by George L. Kirkham
    • 16. Lesbian Behavior as an Adaptation to the Occupation of Stripping by Charles H. McCaghy and James K. Skipper Jr.
    • Section 5: Bisexuality by Another Name
    • 17. Heterosexual Gays, Heterosexual Lesbians, and Homosexual Straights by Paula C. Rodríguez Rust
    • 18. Bisexual and Gay Men in Heterosexual Marriage: Conflicts andResolutions in Therapy by Eli Coleman
    • 19. The Commencement of Bisexual Activity in Swinging MarriedWomen Over Age Thirty by Joan K. Dixon
    • Section 6: A Topic in Its Own Right
    • 20. Pioneers in Contemporary Research on Bisexuality by Paula C. Rodríguez Rust
    • 21. Bisexuality: Some Social Psychological Issues by Philip W. Blumstein and Pepper Schwartz
    • Section 7: Attention for All the Wrong, and All the Right, Reasons
    • 22. Bisexuality in HIV Research by Paula C. Rodríguez Rust
    • Section 8: Coming Out and Coming of Age
    • 23. The Biology, Psychology, Sociology, and Sexuality of Bisexuality by Paula C. Rodríguez Rust
    • 24. Neutralizing the Political Threat of the Marginal Woman: Lesbians’ Beliefs About Bisexual Women by Paula C. Rust
    • 25. Effects of Sexual Orientation on Interpersonal Judgment by Joseph Istvan
    • 26. “Coming Out” in the Age of Social Constructionism: SexualIdentity Formation Among Lesbian and Bisexual Women by Paula C. Rust
    • Section 9: From Bisexual Chic to Bisexual Activism
    • 27. Popular Images and the Growth of Bisexual Communityand Visibility by Paula C. Rodríguez Rust
    • 28.Bisexual Chic: Anyone Goes by Newsweek
    • 29. A Perilous Double Love Life by David Gelman with Lisa Drew, Mary Hager, Monroe Anderson, George Raine, and Sue Hutchison
    • 30. Bisexuality Emerges as a New Sexual Identity by John Leland with Steve Rhodes, Peter Katel, Claudia Kalb, Marc Peyser, Nadine Joseph, and Martha Brant
  • Bibliography
  • Name Index
  • Subject Index
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