Bisexuality in Movies, Television and Music

Movies

Not unlike its portrayals of all minority groups, the movie industry's track record on inclusion and representation of bisexuality has been spotty at best. The following lists good and bad portrayals of bisexuality and bisexuals in various films. More often then not, bisexual content is removed from novels that films are based on, disappear from original screenplays upon filming, or has landed on the cutting room floor.

Fair, Accurate and Inclusive

Flirting With Disaster: Written and directed by David O. Russell, this comic tale of a man's search for his biological parents places a clearly defined bisexual character on the same moral and ethical ground as the other characters in the film. During their journey they encounter a number of interesting people, including a gay male police officer and his male bisexual work and life partner.

My Own Private Idaho: Gus Van Sant's 1990 film about the friendship of two young hustlers Mike (River Phoenix) and Scott (Keanu Reeves). Throughout the film both characters are picked up by men and women. Hustling is not depicted as a dishonorable profession but rather a fact of life. The exact extent of their friendship is not addressed until Mike reveals his true feelings for Scott when the pair travels to Idaho.

The Color Purple: Steven Speilberg's 1985 movie based on Alice Walker's book of the same name chronicles the struggles of Celie (Whoopi Goldberg) in the misogynistic, anti-African American South of the early 1900's. Though all her hardships Celie finds love with her husband's mistress Shug (Margaret Avery). Even though Speilberg edited a love scene between the two women that was originally included in Walker's novel, the movie still depicts, although lacking the perspective of sexual intimacy, the endearing love between Celie and Shug.

French Twist: In this French film, a disillusioned housewife, Loli, is enticed away from her husband, Laurent, by a woman in search of happiness, Marijo. The film shows Loli's struggle to choose between Marijo, with whom she is in love, and Laurent, whom she once loved but is no longer satisfied with their relationship.

Rocky Horror Picture Show: This 1976 cult favorite is a spoof of horror and science fiction films, popular during the 1960's and 1970's. It tells the story of Brad and Janet, two "innocents" played by Barry Bostwick and Susan Saradon, whose car runs out of gas near a haunted mansion owned by Dr. Frank N. Furter, played by Tim Curry. Beside having a male lover, Frankie pursues and sleeps with both Brad and Janet.

Henry and June: Philip Kaufman's adaptation of poet/novelist Anais Nin's account of her love affair with Henry Miller and her affection for his wife June. The film depicts Anais' love and devotion to both Henry and June. Henry and June, released in 1990, received an "X" rating by the MPAA because it contains three scenes of sexual intimacy between Anais and June.

Defamatory Portrayals

Basic Instinct: Tristar's 1992 motion picture blockbuster stands as one of the worst examples of biphobia ever put on a screen. Starring Sharon Stone and Michael Douglas, this thriller features two "bisexual" women and a lesbian who lie, cheat, sleep, abuse drugs and murder their way through the entire movie. Reporting on the communities outrage, the San Francisco Examiner wrote that Stone's character was depicted as a "permafrostic psychopath with the social grace of Norman Bates." The movie demonized bisexuals, lesbians and women, painting them as predatory creatures. In a letter sent in March 1992, GLAAD told hundreds of movie critics nationwide that "all the lesbian and bisexual characters in Basic Instinct are portrayed as potentially homicidal." What made these depiction's worse was the lack of any positive gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender people in Hollywood at all. GLAAD staged a number of highly visible protests at movie theaters around the country.

Invisible Images

Inside Daisy Clover: In this Robert Mulligan film (1966), the character of Wade Lewis (Robert Redford) was originally scripted as gay, then bisexual, and finally (after many rewrites) very ambiguous. In the original draft of the screenplay Wade was a gay actor who married Daisy for public appearances at the request of his studio. However the producers of the film were nervous about the film having a gay content so they rewrote the character to be bisexual. "I didn't want to play Wade Lewis as homosexual..." Redford said, "I wanted to play him as a guy that bats ten different ways - men, women, children, dogs, cats, anything--anything that salves his ego." However, as the films shooting progressed, both Mulligan and Redford became wary about the bisexual content of the movie and almost every indication that Wade is bisexual ended up on the editing room floor. The only bisexual scene that was salvaged contains a telephone call in which Wade vaguely alludes to his sexuality.

Spartacus: The original script of this 1960 movie contained a bathing scene between Crassius (Sir Laurence Olivier) and Antoninus (Tony Curtis) his young slave. The scene illustrated Crassius' craving for both sexes and Antoninus' timidity towards sexual contact with his master. However, because of Hollywood taboos of the time, the scene was edited from the final cut of the original release. In the recent video re-release of Spartacus, though, the scene has been re-edited into the movie.

Television

With few exceptions there are currently no regular bisexual characters on the small screen. In the past, however, there have been a few bisexual characters on TV. On Dynasty, the character of Steve Carrington had a long term love affair with Luke. The relationship was ended with Luke's death. Steve eventually got married and had a child. However, on a Dynasty reunion show in 1991, Steve was living happily with his former (and now current) lover Bart. Another regular bisexual character on primetime was C.J. Lamb (Amanda Donohoe) on L.A. Law. You may remember the first ever same-sex kiss on television was between C.J. her colleague Abby (Michelle Greene). Probably the most recent portrayal of bisexuality is on Roseanne. where the reoccurring character of Nancy (Sandra Bernhard) never claimed bisexuality but dated both men and women. After dating Arnie (Tom Arnold), Nancy then began dating Sharon (Mariel Hemmingway) who planted a big wet kiss on Roseanne in a lesbian bar. While in the past bisexual characters have proven to be popular on shows (and have even been known to boost ratings), there are no bisexual characters on primetime today. The networks have chosen to ignore bisexuality in the plots of their shows.

Music

Popular music has historically been the most controversial and widely creative popular medium of the arts. While movies have had to worry about losing millions on just one "taboo" film, and television executives have feared losing advertising revenue, the music industry has been a leader in issues dealing with controversial issues, such as sexual orientation. In fact, bisexuality in music has been prevalent for many decades dating back to at least the 1920's and 1930's with Bessie Smith, Josephine Baker and many of their contemporaries. The musicians that toured America and Europe during that period appear to of been relatively open and out to one another, even if they were not out to the general public. The next "out" break of bisexuality seems to of occurred in the 1960's and 1970's with such artists as Janis Joplin, Elton John and David Bowie. Bowie was in fact very open in regards to his bisexuality during the 1970's and with his album Ziggy Stardust, he popularized an androgynous look that remained a rock staple for many years.

With the mainstream success of openly gay and lesbian artists such as Melissa Ethridge, the Indigo Girls and kd lang, the 1990's have brought even more bisexual men and women in the industry out of the closet. Artists such as Ani DiFranco, Jill Sobule, Tom Robinson, Sophie B. Hawkins, Joan Osborne and 1997 GLAAD Media Awards winner, Me'Shell Ndgeocello identify as bisexual (or omnisexual). With more bisexuals expressing themselves and their lives in music, and as they become more popular, it will open the doors for other artists to come out and express their whole selves through the powerful medium of music.