I had always wondered why such hateful hurtful prejudice is directed towards Bi people. I've discovered quite a few friends and even relatives are bi or bi-curious and heard some of the icky drama they can get thrown at them for no other reason than they happen to find both sexes irresistibly attractive and compelling.
Strangely enough, I've encountered it through an RPG character too. Jareth is a Cultist of Ecstasy and an equal opportunity lover because he's a joybringer and everyone with a heart needs to know love and acceptance and affection regardless of who they are. He's colorblind and well Genderblind too. When he 'came out' to someone in a bar setting in a public room, I suddenly got flamed, not from the person he was speaking to, but another player who had issue with Jer's casual seeming swinging-both-ways was acceptable. Is it wrong for a Bi person to accept being Bi and discuss openly his choice of lifestyle with another person? Jer wasn't even bringing it up because he wanted to sleep with that other person, they were discussing difficult choices in their lives and that happened to be a topic. Since the other player insisted in chewing me out OOC without using the private message function, there was a huge public mess arguing the point until RPing got too difficult in the room and I switched to IM so that we could continue the conversation in peace. I can't verify that the other player was actually gay or even what gender. They could have just spoken up to vent regardless of relevance and disrupt RP like a troll. Some people seemed to be on Jer's side arguing back against the other player, most were just annoyed this was being discussed and disrupting RP. The other player tried to make it a personal issue accusing or suggesting I personally play this type of character because I must be living vicariously through them and thus they get to have issue with me because I must be Bi. (and I can see the point since maybe 90% of the gay characters on the chats seem to be played by females and maybe another 20% of the gay females are played by guys.) That was the point where I ran out of tolerance and left the room regardless of whether my leaving seemed to prove the other player right.
I can understand in some ways how it can bother straight people or gay people that Bi people are assumed to be just Greedy, but I never bought into the assumption that it was a casual choice. If anything I imagine discovering this part of sexuality can be even More confusing with trying to understand why your brain and hormones react so strongly to a well endowed man or a woman with a big rack, realizing this and screaming at your body to "MAKE UP IT'S MIND!?!?!11!elventy-one!1" Since they can't what do they do then? Sure, they seem to have options, but which one do they go with? There's already all the pressure and stigma to be one or the other. What does one do when they are stuck in the middle and how do they come out to their BF or GF about it? For bi people who seem to have it easy, I know better than to think they do. Bi people don't get a win-win situation all because they can go both ways. If anything, they are in a lose-lose situation because they'll never be fully accepted by either side.
In the end, the Bisexual community is one of the closest natural allies the homosexual community has. Treating them like shit is going nowhere.
Glad this was brought up
Strangely enough, I've encountered it through an RPG character too. Jareth is a Cultist of Ecstasy and an equal opportunity lover because he's a joybringer and everyone with a heart needs to know love and acceptance and affection regardless of who they are. He's colorblind and well Genderblind too. When he 'came out' to someone in a bar setting in a public room, I suddenly got flamed, not from the person he was speaking to, but another player who had issue with Jer's casual seeming swinging-both-ways was acceptable. Is it wrong for a Bi person to accept being Bi and discuss openly his choice of lifestyle with another person? Jer wasn't even bringing it up because he wanted to sleep with that other person, they were discussing difficult choices in their lives and that happened to be a topic. Since the other player insisted in chewing me out OOC without using the private message function, there was a huge public mess arguing the point until RPing got too difficult in the room and I switched to IM so that we could continue the conversation in peace. I can't verify that the other player was actually gay or even what gender. They could have just spoken up to vent regardless of relevance and disrupt RP like a troll. Some people seemed to be on Jer's side arguing back against the other player, most were just annoyed this was being discussed and disrupting RP. The other player tried to make it a personal issue accusing or suggesting I personally play this type of character because I must be living vicariously through them and thus they get to have issue with me because I must be Bi. (and I can see the point since maybe 90% of the gay characters on the chats seem to be played by females and maybe another 20% of the gay females are played by guys.) That was the point where I ran out of tolerance and left the room regardless of whether my leaving seemed to prove the other player right.
I can understand in some ways how it can bother straight people or gay people that Bi people are assumed to be just Greedy, but I never bought into the assumption that it was a casual choice. If anything I imagine discovering this part of sexuality can be even More confusing with trying to understand why your brain and hormones react so strongly to a well endowed man or a woman with a big rack, realizing this and screaming at your body to "MAKE UP IT'S MIND!?!?!11!elventy-one!1" Since they can't what do they do then? Sure, they seem to have options, but which one do they go with? There's already all the pressure and stigma to be one or the other. What does one do when they are stuck in the middle and how do they come out to their BF or GF about it? For bi people who seem to have it easy, I know better than to think they do. Bi people don't get a win-win situation all because they can go both ways. If anything, they are in a lose-lose situation because they'll never be fully accepted by either side.
In the end, the Bisexual community is one of the closest natural allies the homosexual community has. Treating them like shit is going nowhere.
Here here!