Some bi history

Book cover

I just got ahold of the book Bisexuality in the United States by Paula C. Rodríguez Rust. I'm hardly into it at all, but I found a couple very interesting tidbits in the very first chapter.

• "In the early 1980s several scholars urged their colleagues in sexology to acknowledge the existence of bisexuality as an authentic form of sexuality" (5). This is the very first sentence in the first chapter. The author goes on to explain that before this time, research had not acknowledged that people could be really bisexual, instead treating us "a as a lesser degree of" homosexuality.

It seems that people have been really stuck on needing to stick sexual orientation into two neat little pigeon holes of straight and gay for some time. No wonder I see other bisexuals complaining about people saying they have to pick one gender or the other, and/or insisting that we're all confused. Even research acknowledging that we exist is relatively new, it seems. And not much older than me.

• Rust says that the word heterosexual was once used to describe people who are attracted to both genders (7).

She doesn't provide any explanations. I'll probably have to look up the works Rust cites in her bibliography to find out more details for myself. I want to know the when and where, and how the word changed its meaning.

This book is really big, and I doubt I'll read all of it. It contains writings by historians, psychologists, etc. with some chapters (introductions to new sections?) by Rust. I'll probably pick and choose the bits that look most interesting and read those. If I find anything really interesting I may write more about it.

And yes I know I also have a book blog, but this is more abut bisexuality and less about the book itself, so I'm choosing to stick this post here.