Bisexuality: Pocket Essentials

by Angela Bowie

At the end of the 20th century, popular role models were profiting from the term Bisexual. Madonna, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Anne Heche are a few who used bisexuality as a password to popularity and success. What is Bisexuality? In our cutting edge western society, bisexuality has come to mean patronising, provocative, promiscuous, presumptuous, pretentious, promotional, posturing, permissive, plausible, playful and perfidious. In other words, open to any suggestion. Critics of the bisexual lifestyle parrot two issues: bisexuality does not exist and bisexuality is a neurosis. Bisexuality is the attraction to same or opposite sex partners. It can be periodic or simultaneous.

The introductory essay highlights civilisations where bisexuality flourished. Queen Nzinga of Africa dressed as a warrior in battle, and at court, her male harem of Drag Queens served her. The Ancient Greeks practiced bisexuality: the Hetairi (courtesans) had companions and masters tutored or apprenticed youths. But it was always tolerated – the Conquistadors turned their dogs on the Two-Spirited Incas.

Bisexuality: A Pocket Guide showcase the lives and loves of famous bisexuals like Alexander the Great, Sappho, Casanova, Marquis de Sade, Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf. During the twenties bisexual talent blossomed in Hollywood, Harlem and Paris: Gertrude Stein, Ma Rainey, Greta Garbo, Bessie Smith, Libbie Holman, Countee Cullen, Marlene Dietrich, Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday and Langston Hughes. There is also an examination of Bisexuality in Film, including the bisexual escapades of actors and writers.