Lesbians and Bisexual Fiction Writers covers 200 of the most important women writers of English, grouping authors culturally and by genre, from 18th-century diarists to new writers of experimental prose. Each volume covers approximately 15 authors and includes a concise biography, a selection of critical extracts, and a complete and up-to-date bibliography of the author’s publications
Bisexuality: Making the Invisible Visible in Faith Communities
by Marie Alford-Harkey & Debra W. Haffner
Is your faith community open to people whose sexuality does not fit into the categories of gay/lesbian or straight? Does your faith community have access to resources about bisexuality and bisexual people? This guidebook is designed to help congregations understand bisexuality and to encourage faith communities to “make the invisible visible.”
Religious leaders and congregations can use this guidebook to inspire theological reflection and action in their faith communities. Bisexuality is often invisible in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) organizations, society as a whole, and in faith communities and denominations. Although many mainline denominations and congregations have made great strides in welcoming and affirming lesbian and gay people, and some have even begun to respond to the specific needs and concerns of transgender people, the “B” in the LGBT acronym is still largely ignored. When a congregation welcomes and recognizes people of all sexual orientations and gender identities, it contributes to a positive image of religion among people who may have rejected religion as intolerant or irrelevant. Such congregations become safe spaces for youth who are exploring their sexuality and have questions. In addition, embracing bisexual persons makes it possible for those persons to be open about their identity and helps create a more open atmosphere in the faith community, encouraging authenticity and community among members. Congregations that embrace bisexual persons can also help heal the suffering caused by the invisibility of bisexual people in society.
This guidebook is written to address the broad spectrum of American congregations. The information it contains will be relevant or adaptable to Jewish, Christian, Unitarian Universalist, and Islamic faith communities.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction Part One: Bisexuality Basics — Definitions and Models of Seuxal Orientation — Myths and Facts about Bisexuality — Prevalence of Bisexuality in the United States — Healing the Suffering — Research on Bisexuality Part Two: Sacred Texts and Religious Traditions — Theological Connections — Hebrew and Christian Scriptures — Perspectives from Religious Traditions — Denominational Statemnts on Bisexuality Part Three: Creating a Bisexually Healthy Congregation — Welcoming and Affirming Bisexual People in Congregations — Bisexually Healthy Religious Professionals — Worship and Preaching — Pastoral Care and Counseling — Youth — Social Action — A Call to Action Part Four: Resources
Male Bisexuality in Current Cinema: Images of Growth, Rebellion, and Survival
by Justin Vicari
In recent decades, male bisexuality has become a recurring topic in international cinema, as filmmakers and their works challenge our ideas about sexual freedom and identity. In all of these films, more than a dozen of which are covered here, bisexuality is treated both as an actual practice and a complex metaphor for a number of things, including the need to adapt to changing environments, the questioning of rigidly traditional male roles and identities, the breakdown and regeneration of the structures of families, the limitations of monogamy, and the stubborn affirmation of romantic love.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface
Introduction: Searching for Bob Elkin
Part 1. Personal Visions
1. Fifteen Minutes of the Future: François Ozon’s A Summer Dress
2. To Bend Without Breaking: Bisexuality and Adaptation in the Films of André Téchiné
3. Tentative, Tender… and Trendy? Gregg Araki’s Teen Trilogy
4. Rock Star Bisexuality in Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmind
Part 2. Matters of Love and Death
6. Making the Man: the Bisexual Hero
7. Illegible Patriarchies: Bisexualizing the Family
8. Fazes and Mazes: Inside the Triangle
Part 3. Matters of Love and Death
9. The Schoolboy Crush and its Ambiguous Object
10. Turning It On and Off: “Bi for Pay”
11. Allegories of AIDS
12. In His Wake: The Strange Power of the Dead Bisexual
13. At the Limits of Heterosexuality: The Woman’s Viewpoint in Anatomy of Hell
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 byNewsweek
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
Pansexuality: A Panoply of Co-Constructed Narratives
by Karen Morgaine
Pansexuality: A Panopoly of Co-Constructed Narratives expertly weaves contemporary research on sexual and gender identity with personal narratives of individuals who have navigated social norms and constructs to carve out an understanding of their own sexuality. The text provides readers with an innovative and intimate lens through which they can begin to understand the dynamic nature of sexuality.
The text begins by providing readers with theoretical and historical context regarding nonbinary sexualities. The following chapters outline the methodologies the author used to support and generate new research on pansexuality—including one-on-one interviews, collage, transcript poetry, and a qualitative survey—and the results of that research. Eleven chapters highlight the personal stories of individuals who identify as pansexual and other nonbinary sexualities, summarizing important experiences, defining moments, the meanings they attach to sexuality and gender, and observations they have made over the years, testimony gleaned from the author’s interviews with them.
Embodying modern research that explores the fluidity of gender and sexual identity, Pansexuality is an illuminating text that is well suited for courses in gender studies, human sexuality, and sociology.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Snippets (A Love Letter)
Chapter 1: Plurisexuality in Theory
Chapter 2: Methodological Musings
Chapter 3: Survey Results: A Jumping Off Point
Chapter 4: A Brief Foray into the Tumultuous World of Tumblr (with Jen Marony)
Interlude (The Stories)
Chapter 5: August: Queer Enough, Trans Enough?
Chapter 6: Orion: Death by a Thousand Cuts
Chapter 7: Janet: Becoming Visible and Breaking Boundaries
Chapter 8: Maggie: Authentically Fierce, Ideologically on Fire
Chapter 9: Karen: Quietly Fighting Invisibility
Chapter 10: Margot: Rainbows Forever
Chapter 11: Keith: Anxiously Re-Emerging
Chapter 12: N: Slowly Chipping Away
Chapter 13: Sonder: Trying on Pansexuality and Growing My Hair
AUTHOR: Kate Harrad PUBLISHER: Thorntree Press LANGUAGE: English DATE: September 1st 2016 PAGES: 352 ISBN: 0996460160 AWARDS:The Bookbag Non-fiction Book of the Month (Sept 2016)
Thanks to friend of the library Liberty Hardy for donating an ARC copy of Purple Prose to the Bi Pan Library collection.
Purple Prose: Bisexuality in Britain
by Kate Harrad
Purple Prose: Bisexuality in Britain is the first of its kind: a book written for and by bisexuals in the UK. This accessible collection of interviews, essays, poems and commentary explores topics such as definitions of bisexuality, intersections of bisexuality with other identities, stereotypes and biphobia, being bisexual at work, teenage bisexuality and bisexuality through the years, the media’s approach to bisexual celebrities, and fictional bisexual characters.
Filled with raw, honest, first-person accounts as well as comments from leading bisexual activists in the UK, this is the book you’ll buy for your friend who’s just come out to you as bi-curious, or for your parents who think your bisexuality is weird or a phase, or for yourself, because you know you’re bi but you don’t know where to go or what to do about it.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Basics
Chapter 2: Coming Out (and Staying In)
Chapter 3: Greedy, Confused, and Invisible: Bi Myths and Legends
Chapter 4: The Gender Agenda
Chapter 5: Bisexuality and Non-Monogamy
Chapter 6: Dating
Chapter 7: Bisexual and Disabled
Chapter 8: Bisexual Black and Minority Ethnic People
Chapter 9: Lesser-Spotted Attractions
Chapter 10: Bisexuals and Faith
Chapter 11: Bisexuals Through the Years: Life Experiences
Chapter 12: Bi in the Workplace
Chapter 13: Fictional Bisexuality: Reviews and Reflections
Chapter 14: Allies in the Bisexual Community
Chapter 15: Let’s Do Something About This: Getting Started in Bisexual Activism
AUTHOR: Julias Fast and Hall Wells, PhD PUBLISHER: Pocket Books LANGUAGE: English DATE: 1975 PAGES: 255 ISBN: 671801732
Bisexual Living
by Julias Fast and Hall Wells, PhD
These in-depth interviews with uninhibited swingers and lonely divorcees, with liberated heterosexuals and outspoken homosexuals expose the bisexual life-style and what its practitioners get out of it.
Is it abnormal… immoral? Is it increasing? Does it threaten marriage and family life, or enhance it? Does it promote promiscuity? Does it lead to homosexuality?
The best-selling author of Body Language and a noted clinical psychologist have produced an important and startlingly candid study of the way some Americans live.
Including an interview with Dr. Wardell B. Pomeroy, coauthor of Sexual Behavior in the Human Male.