Two-thirds of straight women and one-third of straight men are unwilling to date a bisexual person of the opposite sex, according to a YouGov poll published today, during Bisexuality Visibility Week. The poll illustrates how lingering stereotypes negatively affect people’s impressions of bisexual individuals.
The poll — which surveyed 5,983 Britons during late March, including 2,031 straight women and 1,517 straight men — found that 48% of all respondents had positive views of bisexual people and only 8% had negative views. The remaining percentage had neither a positive nor a negative view of bisexuals.
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When the survey asked straight women and men why they were unwilling to date a bisexual person of the opposite sex, most (16% and 19%, respectively) said they “just don’t” or claimed, “It’s just a preference.”
A nearly similar portion, 17% of straight women and 16% of straight men, said they felt like bi people are more inclined to cheat, or that they themselves would feel insecure that they’d be unable to provide a bi partner whatever they get from a same-sex partner.
Interestingly, 9% of straight women said they feel disgust or discomfort towards men with same-sex experiences, 8% worried about possible sexual health risks, and 10% of straight men said they considered bisexuality to be either religiously or morally “wrong.” Approximately 12-13% of all straight respondents said they just wanted their dating partner to be heterosexual.
It's biphobic to assume that bisexual women all want threesomes.
We can debate about if there's a better word for leaning into harmful stereotypes of bisexual people, but the closest term we have currently is biphobia.
would downvote if i could. potustheplant didn't say that "all women want threesomes", only that some men hope that some women want threesomes.
His argument is that it isn't biphobia to assume bisexual women want threesomes because "phobia" means fear of.
Those men are being biphobic if they are dating a bisexual person with the express interest of them being a sex doll willing to do threesomes with them because of their sexual orientation.
Those men in the example are also misogynistic at the same time.
Nothing surprising, since different kinds of scorns, hates, discriminations, etc often come together.
According to some of these comments, it's not discriminatory as long as it's a man desiring his partner to perform threesomes because it's positive discrimination or some shit like that.
From what I know of the word "discrimination", potustheplant probably is pedantic about one specific definition of this word, which is the legalese one in some places : take the #2 definition in https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/discrimination, then require that the author is a company or an administration (or any of their representatives).
I looked at their post history, and they seem to often post condescending comments.
Anyway, when responding to a critic of harmful behaviours, one should not forcefully displace the focus from said harmful behaviours to the pedantics of the vocabulary used to describe them. That's just a diversion tactic to avoid discussing the subject's core. Those who do it, like potustheplant : cease !
That's stereotyping or prejudice. Phobia (in its origin) means fear or dread. Maybe prejudice too but specifically in a negative way (no, prejudice doesn't always have a negative connotation).
If prejudice doesn't always have a negative connotation, then the assumption that all bisexual women are into threesomes still falls under 'biphobia'.
When referring to phobia yes, it does have a negative connotation. Use it however you want I guess. People misuse words all the time.
When does a use different from the most ancient one stop being called a "misuse"? Especially talking about not a word, but its etymology?
Pretty sure a significant quantity of the words you use were at some point described as "misuses", "mistakes", or something similar.
I say that as someone who hates seeing/hearing scandals be called "something-gate" in reference to Nixon's Watergate scandal. Same with "something-ception" in reference to the movie Inception. So I understand the feeling, but this kind of take mostly contribute to elitism.
What matters most in any language is the ability to communicate, not the conformity to a (potentially idealised) static snapshot of the language rules.
Well, in this case we already have a word with a prefectly appropriate meaning. Misuing a different word is kinda dumb but ok.
"Well, in this case we already have a word with a prefectly appropriate meaning."
For the common meaning of "biphobia"? Which preexisting word is perfectly appropriate to describe the exact same concept that the word "biphobia" was coined for?
No, not really. But hey, who am I to teach you reading comprehension. Use whatever word you prefer.
Again, emphasis on the "negative".
Emphasis on the beliefs and behaviors towards bisexual individuals as well as stereotyping bisexual individuals.
Still missing the forest, I see.
Well, you're each focused a bit much on your own tree, but the one who is also seeing the forest is velma, not you.
Your tree: "negative" applies to the entire sentence, including "beliefs" and "behaviors", not just "attitudes". Correct.
velma's tree: the definition also includes stereotyping and prejudice stemming from misconceptions. Correct.
The forest: that you don't consider an attitude or belief "negative" is immaterial when it has a negative effect on bi folks' well being or safety.
Also, initiating a sexual relationship with a bi person because you wrongly believe based on your incorrect stereotype of bi people that this will lead to threesomes is something I would classify as negative behavior. Especially when the threesomes predictably don't materialize.
Yeah, it's biphobia.
Sure buddy.
Here's another definition for you:
Stereotyping bisexual women as all wanting threesomes falls under the definition of biphobia.
Well, it oretty clearly says "negative attitudes" there. Why would liking threesomes be negative? Or being promiscuous for that matter. Sounds like you're being pretty prejudicial of that type of person.
It's pretty clear you didn't read the entire definition.
I wouldn't classify people dating bisexual women with the express interest of more threesomes as a "positive attitude".
Why do you think it's a positive for people to date bisexuals primarily for the type of sex they can provide?
Never said that. Neither did anyone. Maybe it's just a fantasy for some people. I'm not one to define if that's a good or a bad thing.
You pretty clearly did say that.
Nope, did not. My entire point this whole time is that assuming that someone likes threesomes is not a bad thing at all. Having that belief is simply prejudice and that is not necessarily negative.
We're not talking about someone enjoying threesomes. We're talking about people who specifically date bisexual individuals because they think bisexual individuals are more likely to give them threesomes.
Well, if you read carefully you'll see that the original comment was not about people exclusively and specifically dating bi women. It was about men having that fantasy if they dated one. Is it kinda prejudicial? Yeah. A phobia though? Nah.
Word meanings also evolve over time and usage. They're not static.
I mean if you're consistently wrong then yeah, I guess. Doesn't make you any less wrong though.
I'm so glad you came into this discussion to be pedantic about the kind of discrimination bisexual people go through. Good job, buddy.
We're quite literally not talking about discrimination. Kinda noticing a pattern here.
I’m sure all bisexual women really love it when men assume they’re into threesomes as performative sex dolls. It’s a really positive view of bisexual women that certainly doesn’t fall under the biphobia umbrella /s
Not saying it's positive or ok, it's just not discrimination.
It is biphobia. It is an assumption of someone based on their sexual orientation.
That's prejudice. This is turning into the joey meme xd
Quote without a source. Nice. Is that AI?
No, it's not. I pulled it from here.
Here's the definition from Wikipedia as well:
Loled at addinng "bi" to everything. Can you imagine what a mess it would be if you added a specific prefix for every single type of prejudice? Thanks for the chuckle.