Laura Hampson
Hands up who else whooped and cheered when they realised Benedict was getting a bisexual storyline in the latest season of Bridgerton? Yeah, we did too. The hit Netflix series has paved the way for colourblind casting, and it now seems to be heading in the direction of a wider representation of sexualities on screen too.
Bisexuality accounts for around 75% of young people who identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual (bi), according to US data from the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behaviour Survey.
Closer to home, the most recent data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that 624,000 people in England and Wales describe themselves as bisexual, while 748,000 identify as gay or lesbian.
Bisexual meaning
The Cambridge dictionary defines bisexuality as “a person who is sexually or romantically attracted to people of their own gender and people of a different gender”.
However, Robyn Ochs, a bisexuality advocate, is credited with having one of the more popular definitions of bisexuality. She says it is “the potential to be attracted – romantically and/or sexually – to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree”.
At its core, bisexuality is being attracted to more than one sex or gender. Some famous faces that identify as bisexual include Drew Barrymore, Lili Reinhart, Alan Cumming, Lady Gaga, Megan Fox, and Aubrey Plaza.
The difference between bisexuality and pansexuality
Instead of feeling attraction to people of more than one gender or sex, pansexuality is feeling attracted to anyone, of any gender or sex.
While the terms have similar meanings, and some people interchange fluidly between them, it’s important to check with someone what they identify as before assuming anything. You also don’t have to stick to just one label, and you don’t even need to have a label at all, such is the beauty of human emotion and attraction.