Though appreciated its plosive brevity, telling people ‘I’m bi’ often leaves the listener wanting more. Now in my twenties, have learned that the coming out experience is ongoing and for my own sake it was time to cop on and learn to like the word. But my lack of enthusiasm to scream ‘bisexual’ from the rooftops goes a little deeper that its linguistic roots.
Time and again see the word in books, headlines and on TV and it’s never associated with particularly pleasant things. Bisexuals are too often fetishised as greedy and promiscuous, or, most hurtful of all, non-existent.