Bisexuality as a Concept in Finland among Young Bisexuals

My presentation is based mainly on my graduation thesis, the subject of which is Cultural Models of Bisexuality in Finland in the Turn of the Third Millennium. I will clarify how my interviewees define the concept of bisexuality and what they think about the prejudices on bisexuality. I enliven the text with quotations of the interviews.

My theoretical vantage point is cultural model theory. I use the theory to examine the concept of bisexuality in the interviews of my young bisexual informants. In cultural model theory culture is seen as a system of shared meanings that appears in a certain community. The parts of the system are called cultural models. A cultural model describes a common, collective concept about a certain thing in a certain culture. Cultural models help us to comprehend the world and to act in cultural context. Cultural model emerges when mental models, the personal concepts and thoughts of the members of a culture, are coherent to some extent. Cultural models can also be ambivalent and overlapping as well as changing and flexible. (Strauss - Quinn 1999, 6-7, 122 48-50; Keesing - Strathern 1998, 16-18, 327-330; Hakala 1997, 31-45.)

Cultural model consists of schemes. Scheme is a simple, information organizing system which is not complicated enough to form a cultural model. Schemes of a cultural model are tightly interlinked and dependent on each other. Schemes, like cultural models, can be ambivalent, overlapping and flexible. (Hakala 1997, 31-45.)

I analyzed my data to find evidence of common definitions and experiences of bisexuality among my interviewees. The common definitions and experiences can be formed to the cultural model of bisexuality, which consists of both definitions of and prejudices against bisexuality.

I interviewed 40 persons to obtain data for the graduation thesis, but in this presentation I will concentrate on my young interviewees. 'Young' in this context means people born in the 1970's and 1980's, people who were under 30 in the year 1999 when I made the interviews. 26 of them were born in the 1970's and 4 in the 1980's, and 7 are male. Therefore my presentation's focus is more on young women than on young men, although there were no great differences between bisexual men and bisexual women.

The young interviewees tended to have strong bisexual identities, they were open and eager to talk about bisexuality. They had thought about bisexuality a lot and also discussed it with numerous people, usually their friends, but also parents. All of them were "out of the closet" among friends, most of them also at school or work and about half of them had told about their bisexuality to parents and closer relatives. Those who had not told to parents planned to do so sometime, although there were also some who said that they will not tell their parents due to the parents' conservativity. Most of the interviewees described their bisexuality as natural and self-evident aspect of their personality. None of them wanted to get rid of their bisexuality although some had had difficulties during the identity construction process. I must point out that I found my interviewees through advertisements to which the interviewees answered. Therefore all of the informants wanted to be interviewed and were ready to talk about it.

Bisexuality means an ability to feel romantic, erotic and emotional attraction towards people of different genders - or towards different persons regardless of gender. This is the key definition of bisexuality, which was given by virtually all of my interviewees. Many of them wanted to simplify the concept by saying that bisexuals are able to love both men and women - the word 'love' combines both erotic, emotional and romantic feelings. Most of them also said that bisexuality does not actually mean loving men and women but forgetting the sexes and genders altogether. Many said that they do not fall in love with a gender or sex but a person. They question the division of people into two genders. The questioning of gender division is another key definition of bisexuality.

Many interviewees said that because of their bisexuality they are more conscious of sex roles and gender division than average hetero- or homosexuals. Both women and men said that they feel themselves free of sex roles. Bisexual men said that they are less macho than heterosexual men and comfortable with their femininity - they do not think femininity as a threat to their manhood. Bisexual women said that they allow themselves to be both feminine and masculine - some interviewees who were active members of lesbian community said that as bisexuals they are free to play with femininity and masculinity even though the lesbian community has quite strict appearance and clothing codes. Also the man-woman -relationships, in which both partners were bisexual, tended to be free of preset wife-husband -roles. My interviewees said that they feel themselves more androgynous than they thought homo- or heterosexuals would feel.

Most of the interviewees also pointed out that bisexuality is multifaceted and the concept itself ambiguous: many stressed that their opinions and definitions of bisexuality are personal and cannot be generalized on other bisexuals. However, those 'personal' opinions tended to be quite similar. The interviewees wanted to stress that everyone defines one's identity by oneself - identity cannot be defined by someone else. Therefore anyone who says to be bisexual is by definition bisexual regardless of her or his definition of bisexuality.

Recognizing one's bisexuality was the initial act during the identity construction process for the interviewees. Most of them discovered their bisexuality as teenagers and also accepted it easily - but there were also some who had difficulties in accepting their bisexuality and constructing their sexual identity. Those whose acceptance of their bisexuality was difficult emphasized the importance of approving bisexuality during the identity construction process. Recognizing and accepting bisexuality were the key elements of the identity process: interviewees said that one cannot be bisexual without realizing being bisexual - and cannot have bisexual identity without accepting one's bisexuality.

Young bisexuals also said that bisexuality is freedom. The thought of bisexuality as freedom is obscure: freedom to what? Or what from? Interviewees used the word 'freedom' in different contexts: they referred to bisexuality as freedom of choice, as freedom of thought, as freedom from restricting gender roles. The interesting thing is that the word freedom was used very often when I asked what bisexuality meant to interviewees. Using the word freedom implies the idealistic thoughts associated with bisexuality. In this aspect bisexuality can be seen as a part of a postmodern ideology and lifestyle that emphasizes individuality and freedom of choice.

The thought that bisexuality does not actually exist is the key prejudice against bisexuality. Bisexuality can be made nonexistent and invisible by saying that bisexuality is just a passing phase or that bisexuality is a trend. Most of my interviewees claimed that their bisexuality is not a passing phase and that they are not bisexual because of a trend. But most said also that bisexuality may be a passing phase for someone else and that there may be people that call themselves bisexuals just to be trendy. Interviewees emphasized the ambigous nature of bisexuality and did not want to deny the possibility that bisexuality may also be a trend or a phase. The interviewees pondered especially the prejudice of bisexuality as a trend - some even said that it is not a prejudice at all but a fact. Some thought that the trendiness of bisexuality is negative, because bisexuality is then diminished to mania for originality. Some said that it is positive, because bisexuality gets visibility through trendiness.

Another key prejudice is the idea that bisexuality just a form of hypersexuality. According to prejudice of hypersexuality bisexuals are sexually interested in any one at any time. The prejudice is linked to thought that bisexuals cannot be monogamous and that bisexuals are promiscuous. All of the interviewees commented the prejudice of hypersexuality as ridiculous and degrading. Many of them had experiences about this prejudice. They had been told that "everyone knows that bisexuals fuck anything that moves" and even "you can't be bisexual because you have only one sex partner at the same time". The interviewees were angry that the prejudice of hypersexuality is so common and can be noticed both in media and everyday life.

However, some interviewees also said that bisexuals actually are open, liberal and uninhibited when regarding sexual matters. They said that the society is overprudent and sexually nervous, which produces the prejudice of hypersexuality. The prejudice is thus changed from negative to positive.

Table 1. The cultural model of the definition of bisexuality

The cultural model of the definition of bisexuality consists of two parts. Part A consists of schemes defining bisexuality and part B consists of schemes considering and deconstructing prejudices. The scheme of core definition defines bisexuals as people who can love different genders or people regardless of sex. The shceme of ambiguity defines bisexuality as ambiguous, multifaceted and fluid concept. The scheme of realizing and accepting defines bisexuality as a trait that a person must realize and accept to be bisexual and to have a bisexual identity. The scheme of questioning the gender division defines bisexuality as a phenomenon that challenges the sexual dichotomy and gender division. The scheme of freedom tells about idealistic thoughts linked to bisexuality.

The arrows between the two parts of the model depict the connection between the definition of bisexuality made by bisexuals and the prejudices they must confront in Finnish society.

Part B consists of two schemes, the scheme of prejudice of nonexistence of bisexuality and the scheme of prejudice of hypersexuality of bisexuals. The first scheme is manifested in prejudices of bisexuality as a passing phase and as a trend. The second scheme consists of prejudices of bisexuality as non-monogamous and as promiscuous.

The concept of bisexuality is determined by bisexuals themselves on one hand, but by the society on the other. Sexuality is heavily dichotomized in Western culture, and sexual identities are usually defined either homo- or heterosexual. In Finnish society young bisexual people confront both prejudices and denial. Nevertheless, their bisexual identities tend to be strong. They take advantage of the prejudices and use them to define the concept of bisexuality and to construct their bisexual identity. They are certain about what bisexuality means to them, but try not to generalize their experiences and thoughts on other bisexuals.

Bibliography

Hakala, Juha 1997: Mieli ja kulttuuri. Katsaus eräisiin kognitiivisen antropologian teorioihin ja niistä käytävään keskusteluun. Suomen Antropologi 3/1997. Suomen antropologinen seura, Saarijärvi, Helsinki.

Keesing, Roger M. - Strathern, Andrew J. 1998: Cultural Anthropology. A Contemporary Perspective. Harcourt Brace College Publishers, Orlando.

Strauss, Claudia - Quinn, Naomi 1999: A Cognitive Theory of Cultural Meaning. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, Cambridge.