Bi Academic Intervention

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Bi Academic Intervention was a group of bisexual academics, researchers, scholars and writers active in the UK from 1993 to 1997. [1] The group provided a forum for discussing bisexual theory.

Contents

History

Bi Academic Intervention, a group of bisexual academics, researchers and writers, was formed at the 11th National Bisexual Conference held at the University of Nottingham in October 1993. The group aimed to create discussion around bisexual theory, provide visibility for bisexual researchers, [2] and to ensure that bisexual identity was represented in academic research and discussions about sexuality. The group ran a number of one day events between 1993 and 1995 and, between 1993 and 1997, ran biannual day schools on bisexuality. [3] Bi Academic Intervention published a newsletter that enabled bisexual academics and researchers to develop and share their theories. The group disbanded in 1995 as it was not felt to be productive to continue discussing bisexual theory in isolation from the related domains of feminist and queer theory. [1]

Publications

An editorial collective of the same name was formed by members of the original Bi Academic Intervention and published a volume of bisexual theory The Bisexual Imaginary: Representation, Identity, and Desire [4] in 1997. In the same year, the group also published a special issue of the International Journal of Sexuality and Gender Studies focused on bisexual theory.

Goals

The group articulated their goals in their co-written introduction to The Bisexual Imaginary:

in so far as Bi Academic Intervention is an intervention, one of whose goals is to carve a space for bisexual theory, we want to produce work which will impact upon and redirect an existing and important field. Second, it is important because of debates about bisexual invisibility. There is an ongoing concern within bisexual communities to make bisexuality visible in places where it has previously been marginalized, and the strategies and pitfalls of representation occupy a key place in this concern. But third, another goal of Bi Academic Intervention is to intervene within bisexual communities. We are uncomfortable with the assertion that bisexual visibility has been a constant absence, and it therefore now an unproblematic good, and want to ask: what are the different effects of images of bisexuality, and the different meanings that become invested in it? [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bi-curious</span> Person who is attracted to experiencing bisexuality

Bi-curious is a term for a person, usually someone who is a self-identified heterosexual, who is curious or open about engaging in sexual activity with a person whose sex differs from that of their usual sexual partners. The term is sometimes used to describe a broad continuum of sexual orientation between heterosexuality and bisexuality. Such continuums include mostly heterosexual or mostly homosexual, but these can be self-identified without identifying as bisexual. The terms heteroflexible and homoflexible are mainly applied to bi-curious people, though some authors distinguish heteroflexibility and homoflexibility as lacking the "wish to experiment with sexuality" implied by the bi-curious label. It is important when discussing this continuum to conclude that bisexuality is distinct from heterosexuality and homosexuality rather than simply an extension of said sexualities like the labels heteroflexibility and homoflexibility would imply, due to the prominent erasure and assimilation of bisexuality into other identity groups. To sum it up, the difference between bisexual and bicurious is that bisexual people know that they are sexually attracted to both genders based on personal experience. Bicurious people are still maneuvering their way through their sexuality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asexuality</span> Lack of sexual attraction to others

Asexuality is the lack of sexual attraction to others, or low or absent interest in or desire for sexual activity. It may be considered a sexual orientation or the lack thereof. It may also be categorized more widely, to include a broad spectrum of asexual sub-identities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pansexuality</span> Sexual attraction to people regardless of sex or gender identity

Pansexuality is sexual, romantic, or emotional attraction towards people of all genders, or regardless of their sex or gender identity. Pansexual people might refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determining factors in their romantic or sexual attraction to others.

Femme is a term traditionally used to describe a lesbian woman who exhibits a feminine identity or gender presentation. While commonly viewed as a lesbian term, alternate meanings of the word also exist with some non-lesbian individuals using the word, notably some gay men and bisexuals. Some non-binary and transgender individuals also identify as lesbians using this term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biphobia</span> Aversion to bisexual people

Biphobia is aversion toward bisexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being bisexual. Similarly to homophobia, it refers to hatred and prejudice specifically against those identified or perceived as being in the bisexual community. It can take the form of denial that bisexuality is a genuine sexual orientation, or of negative stereotypes about people who are bisexual. Other forms of biphobia include bisexual erasure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lesbian feminism</span> Feminist movement

Lesbian feminism is a cultural movement and critical perspective that encourages women to focus their efforts, attentions, relationships, and activities towards their fellow women rather than men, and often advocates lesbianism as the logical result of feminism. Lesbian feminism was most influential in the 1970s and early 1980s, primarily in North America and Western Europe, but began in the late 1960s and arose out of dissatisfaction with the New Left, the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, sexism within the gay liberation movement, and homophobia within popular women's movements at the time. Many of the supporters of Lesbianism were actually women involved in gay liberation who were tired of the sexism and centering of gay men within the community and lesbian women in the mainstream women's movement who were tired of the homophobia involved in it.

Feminist geography is a sub-discipline of human geography that applies the theories, methods, and critiques of feminism to the study of the human environment, society, and geographical space. Feminist geography emerged in the 1970s, when members of the women's movement called on academia to include women as both producers and subjects of academic work. Feminist geographers aim to incorporate positions of race, class, ability, and sexuality into the study of geography. The discipline was a target for the hoaxes of the grievance studies affair.

Disability studies is an academic discipline that examines the meaning, nature, and consequences of disability. Initially, the field focused on the division between "impairment" and "disability", where impairment was an impairment of an individual's mind or body, while disability was considered a social construct. This premise gave rise to two distinct models of disability: the social and medical models of disability. In 1999 the social model was universally accepted as the model preferred by the field. However, in recent years, the division between the social and medical models has been challenged. Additionally, there has been an increased focus on interdisciplinary research. For example, recent investigations suggest using "cross-sectional markers of stratification" may help provide new insights on the non-random distribution of risk factors capable of exacerbating disablement processes. Such risk factors can be acute or chronic stressors, which can increase cumulative risk factors The decline of immune function with age and decrease of inter-personal relationships which can impact cognitive function with age.

The origin of the LGBT student movement can be linked to other activist movements from the mid-20th century in the United States. The Civil Rights Movement and Second-wave feminist movement were working towards equal rights for other minority groups in the United States. Though the student movement began a few years before the Stonewall riots, the riots helped to spur the student movement to take more action in the US. Despite this, the overall view of these gay liberation student organizations received minimal attention from contemporary LGBT historians. This oversight stems from the idea that the organizations were founded with haste as a result of the riots. Others historians argue that this group gives too much credit to groups that disagree with some of the basic principles of activist LGBT organizations.

<i>Bi Community News</i> British magazine serving the bisexual population

Bi Community News is a bimonthly magazine, and the United Kingdom's only magazine serving the bisexual population. It is published bimonthly and includes many articles reflecting bisexual life and media representation as well as news from the bisexual community.

The UK BiCon, is the largest and most consistent annual gathering of the United Kingdom's bisexual community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bisexual erasure</span> Dismissing or misrepresenting bisexuals in the public perception

Bisexual erasure, also called bisexual invisibility, is the tendency to ignore, remove, falsify, or re-explain evidence of bisexuality in history, academia, the news media, and other primary sources.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bisexuality</span> Sexual attraction to people of any gender

Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, to more than one gender, or to both people of the same gender and different genders. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, which is also known as pansexuality.

Feminist views on BDSM vary widely from acceptance to rejection. BDSM refers to bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, and Sado-Masochism. In order to evaluate its perception, two polarizing frameworks are compared. Some feminists, such as Gayle Rubin and Patrick Califia, perceive BDSM as a valid form of expression of female sexuality, while other feminists, such as Andrea Dworkin and Susan Griffin, have stated that they regard BDSM as a form of woman-hating violence. Some lesbian feminists practice BDSM and regard it as part of their sexual identity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lionel Cantú</span>

Lionel Cantú Jr., was an assistant professor of sociology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who focused on queer theory, queer issues, and Latin American immigration. His groundbreaking dissertation, The Sexuality of Migration: Border Crossings and Mexican Immigrant Men, which was edited, compiled, and published posthumously, focuses on the experiences of Mexican-queer migrants.

David Nachman Lourea was an American writer, AIDS activist, and bisexual rights activist.

LABIA is an organization for queer and transgender people in Mumbai, India. It was founded in 1995 as Stree Sangam, and is often cited as a significant organization in the history of LGBTQ organizing in India.

LGBT erasure refers to the tendency to intentionally or unintentionally remove LGBT groups or people from record, or downplay their significance, which includes lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender people and those who identify as queer. This erasure can be found in a number of written and oral texts, including popular and scholarly texts.

Bisexual theory is a field of critical theory, inspired by queer theory and bisexual politics, that foregrounds bisexuality as both a theoretical focus and as an epistemology. Bisexual theory emerged most prominently in the 1990s, in response to the burgeoning field of queer theory, and queer studies more broadly, frequently employing similar post-structuralist approaches but redressing queer theory's tendency towards bisexual erasure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of bisexuality</span> Aspect of bisexuality history

The history of bisexuality concerns the history of the bisexual sexual orientation. Ancient and medieval history of bisexuality, when the term did not exist as such, consists of anecdotes of sexual behaviour and relationships between people of the same and different sexes. A modern definition of bisexuality began to take shape in the mid-19th century within three interconnected domains of knowledge: biology, psychology and sexuality. In modern Western culture, the term bisexual was first defined in a binary approach as a person with romantic or sexual attraction to both men and women. The term bisexual is defined later in the 20th century as a person who is sexually and/or romantically attracted to both males and females, or as a person who is sexually and/or romantically attracted to people regardless of sex or gender identity, which is sometimes termed pansexuality.

References

  1. 1 2 Hemmings, Clare. (12 November 2013). Bisexual spaces : a geography of sexuality and gender. New York. ISBN   9781317795131. OCLC   863158089.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  2. Thompson, Beverley (Summer 2000). "Multiplicity in Identity Politics Monoculture". Thamyris: Mythmaking from Past to Present. 7: 102 via Google Books.
  3. Bi Academic Intervention (1997). The Bisexual Imaginary: Representation, Identity and Desire. London and Washington: Cassel. pp. vi. ISBN   0-304-33745-5.
  4. Bertram, Vicki (2000). "Review of The Bisexual Imaginary". Feminist Review (66): 160–164. ISSN   0141-7789. JSTOR   1395843.
  5. Bi Academic Intervention, The Bisexual Imaginary, 1-2.