bisexuality has always been an obscured and eclipsed label. it was first coined in 1892 by Charles Gilbert Chaddock, an english psychologist. however, even then, the label was hardly ever used, known, or respected. at the time, terms like; lesbian, gay, and homosexual were more prominently used for anyone attracted to the same sex. this sweeped bisexuals under the rug, no one believed in the existence of bisexuality, so bisexuals quickly disappeared into monosexual labels. the word lesbian itself was first used as a synonym for tribadeism which meant, ‘women stimulating other women sexually by scissoring.’ it wasn’t something you were it was something you did—anyone could be called a lesbian.

this means, that although bisexuals share a history with both lesbians and gay men, it’s extremely hard to pinpoint the growth and personal struggles that bisexual individuals went through.

up until homosexuality was decriminalized in 1973 (america)—bisexuality was also seen as an illness, the same way homosexuality was. it was dealt with in a number of way varying from castration, electroshock therapy, hypnosis, and in extreme cases even corrective rape. bisexuals got called slurs, bisexuals were beaten, bullied, tortured and suffered for being bisexual.

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bisexuals were automatically paired with whomever they were seen with in public and how they portrayed and chose to dress themselves. contemporary lgbt history will lead you to believe that bisexuality is a modern concept that didn’t exist at the time. this is incorrect, bisexual women have a long history of dressing masculine/androgynous alongside lesbians and even identifying with labels such as femme and butch.

in the 1960s, around the same time lesbianism was actually starting to imply STRICT attraction to women and bisexuality was quietly being ignored, bisexuals played an important role in stonewall and in the general growth of the lgbt movement. the first pride parade was actually planned by a bisexual woman named Brenda Howard in 1969.

in the early 80s, there finally came a clear and genuine divide between bisexuals and lesbians. this made it extremely easy for lesbians to claim the shared queer history between bisexuals and them as theirs alone and continued to teach younger lesbians that same conduct. bisexuals weren’t acknowledged by their monosexual and trans counterparts, and the b wasn’t added to “lgbt” until the late 1980s.

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How Does This Contribute To Bisexual Erasure?

bisexual erasure or bisexual invisibility refers to: the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or reexplain evidence of bisexuality in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources. somehow, despite making up the majority of the lgbt community, bisexuals continue to face erasure, along with the rewriting and redefining of our history by non-bisexuals.

lesbians are constantly telling the rest of the community to listen to their complaints, to stop speaking over them. bisexuals have the same exact demand. by saying bisexual women cannot reclaim dyke you’re not just belittling bisexual women’s struggles; you’re modifying our OWN history and implying that bisexual women have somehow struggled with less, because of our identity.

you CANNOT acknowledge bisexual erasure and biphobia without acknowledging that bisexual women can reclaim dyke, you cannot acknowledge our struggles or call yourself an ally without taking accountability as the community that played the largest role in erasing us. homophobes do not think twice about the person they’re hurting, it makes no sense that bi women go through the exact same social experiences as lesbians, almost to the dot, but cannot reclaim the slur because you won’t bother to learn our history.

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Debunking Arguments & Frequent Questions

“homophobes only call you a dyke because they think you’re a lesbian, it’s misdirected homophobia.”

1. saying that implies that any oppression towards bisexual women is misdirected. if when calling a bisexual woman a slur "doesn't count" then by that same logic, if a bisexual woman was assaulted for being with her girlfriend in public, it doesn't count because the homophobe who did it assumed she was a lesbian. the idea that any kind of homophobia is misdirected is harmful to invisible sexualities, because it undermines their struggles.


2. homophobes won’t correct themselves when they find out a girl is bisexual and not a lesbian. today, bisexuals are also called it for being bisexual, not just for being perceived as a lesbian.

3. at the time the slur was most commonly used, lesbian and bisexual were the same thing. lesbian pretty much meant sapphic, homophobia cannot be misdirected if there was literally nothing else to direct it towards

"dyke means lack of attraction to men?

1. no, it simply doesn't. this is false information that has been spread on twitter. there are no official historical sources that prove this--i have looked high and low for poof, it simply doesn't exist. dyke has NEVER, during any period of time meant lack of attraction to men.

2. IF it did mean lack of attraction to men, then ace-aromantics could reclaim it. that's obviously ridiculous.

“dyke means lesbian!”

1. again, at the time the slur was most commonly used; lesbian meant sapphic. google can very easily spread misinformation so you need to dig deeper and look at more rational sources to grasp the intensity of the slur.

2. just because a slur has a particular definition, doesn’t mean that it applies to the person on the receiving end. it’s a slur, the creators of it simply meant to hurt, the definition they chose shouldn’t impact who gets to reclaim it and who doesn’t.

“why do you want a slur so bad?”

we don’t want one, we already have one, what we want is to reclaim it in peace. also, having a slur isn't somehow peek oppression. this statement is extremely ignorant.

“why do you want to reclaim a slur that erased bisexuals and paired them with lesbians?”

1. slurs always have harsh origins, that’s why reclaiming them is important.

2. it simply isn’t your place to tell bisexual women not to reclaim a slur because it was biphobic at one point, that is our choice. we decide when something offends us, you don’t.

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Sources!!

articles/posts:

https://sf-hrc.org/sites/default/files/Documents/HRCPublications/Articles/BisexualInvisiblityImpactsandRecommendationsMarch_2011.pdf

https://www.bustle.com/articles/40282-a-brief-history-of-bisexuality-from-ancient-greece-and-the-kinsey-scale-to-lindsay-lohan

https://bi.org/en/articles/legally-bi-a-brief-history-of-bi-erasure-in-lgbt-political-discourse

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15299710802659989

https://www.varsity.co.uk/features/13769

https://sapphic-sex-ed.tumblr.com/post/165740376237/for-anyone-who-says-butch-and-femme-are

books:

bisexuality: a critical reader
young bisexual women’s experiences in secondary schools
bisexuality and the challenge to lesbian politics: sex, loyalty, and revolution
bi: notes for a bisexual revolution
getting bi: voices of bisexuals around the world
boots of leather, slippers of gold: the history of the lesbian community

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