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British Bisexuality: Purple Prose out now!

07/09/2016byMeg-John Barker

Meg-John Barker reflects on the awesome new book on British Bisexuality…

Last week saw the launch of a book project that I’m very excited to be part of:Purple Prose.

This collection, edited byKate Harrad, brings together experiences from a diverse spectrum of bisexual folk in Britain today. It works as a how-to guide to British bi communities and identities, as well as providing a fascinating insight into the wide range of experiences under the bisexual umbrella.

A particular strength of the book is its focus onintersectionality. Most writing on bisexuality, includingThe Bisexuality Report which I was part of, focus on bisexual people as a fairly unified group: how they are represented, the challenges they face, bi-specific discrimination, etc. The problem with this approach is that bisexual experiences – like all experiences – are very different depending on other intersecting aspects of identity and experience such as gender, class, race, disability, geographical location, generation. Also, asShiri Eisner points out, there are vital links between bisexual activism and feminist, trans and queer activism, anti-racism, and other anti-oppression movements, which are vital to attend to because a single-issue kind of activism can’t get us very far.

For these reasons it’s great to see a book in which at least half of the chapters are devoted to specific intersections (e.g. ‘Bisexual and disabled’, ‘Bisexual Black and Minority Ethic People‘, ‘Bisexuals and Faith’).

Even within these chapters there is a clear sense of the range of experiences that exist amongst any specific group, such as older bisexual people or non-monogamous bis, for example. In the chapter that I co-edited withFred Langdridge, ‘The Gender Agenda’, we decided to foreground the experiences ofnon-binary bisexual people, given that there are already books aboutbisexual women andbisexual men, but none on this topic. While we included the voices of bisexual people of many genders, we gave specific attention to those who are non-binary in terms of both their sexuality and their gender. Even within that group we discovered many differences in relation to how they related to the term ‘bisexual’, how they experienced their gender and sexuality, whether these things changed over time or not, and how they were navigated in their close relationships and communities.

We still have a long way to go on bisexuality in Britain given that thebiggest group under the LGBT umbrella still has thehighest rate of mental health problems, and gets the least attention in policy and practice, both outside and within the LGBT sector.Purple Prose is definitely a step in the right direction.

Filed underActivism,CommunityTagged withactivism,biphobia,bisexual,bisexual men,bisexual women,bisexuality,intersectionality,invisibility,Kate Harrad,mental health,non-binary gender,Purple Prose,The Bisexuality Report

Call for Papers: EuroBiReCon Amsterdam July 2016

15/07/2015byDr Caroline Walters

Bisexuality and (Inter)National Research Frontiers

First European Bisexual Research Conference (EuroBiReCon)EuroBiReCon is a conference for anyone with an interest in contributing to, or finding out about, current work on bisexuality. The conference aims to bring together academics, professionals, activists, and bisexual communities. It builds on BiReCons held in the UK every two years organised by BiUK (www.biuk.org) – see the BiUK website for information about past BiReCons. This year it will take place onThursday 28 July 2016 at the University ofAmsterdam,which will be followed by a three day community organised event (EuroBiCon).

We proudly announce that Prof. Surya Monro (University of Huddersfield) will be the keynote speaker at the EuroBiReCon. She has written multiple books on sexual diversity includingGender politics: Activism, citizenship and sexual diversity(2005) andSexuality, Equality and Diversity (2012 with Diana Richardson). Her book Bisexuality: Identities, Politics, and Theories is due to be published in 2015.

We welcome papers from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines including social sciences, health sciences, arts and humanities, therapeutic practitioners, activists and others. We encourage contributions from postgraduate students, early career academics and more senior academics from Europe and beyond.

We invite papers and workshop sessions that include but are not limited to the following:

Bisexuality, wellbeing and health (including mental health and sexual health).
The implications of bisexual identities and labels.
Bisexuality, space and communities.
Bisexual people’s access to, and experiences of,health and other services.
Inclusion and erasure of bisexual people in politics and activism.
Representations of bisexuality in media, culture, and literature.
Intersections with other aspects of experience such as physical disability, age, race/ethnicity, nationality, gender (both trans- and cis-gender), sexual practices, religion, education and social class.
Bisexuality and relationship styles (e.g. monogamies, polyamory, swinging, open couples and non-monogamies).
The role of technologies in bisexuality and forming bisexual spaces and communities
Methods for researching bisexuality
Public engagement in bisexuality research.

During the day there will be opportunities to:

Find out about issues affecting bisexual people
Hear from experts about cutting-edge research on bisexuality
Discuss ways in which organisations can better work with, and for, bisexual people, drawing on good practice
Take part in workshops on specific issues

If you would like to present at EuroBiReCon, please provide a250 word abstract and a brief biography (max. 100 words), by 26^th February 2016 to Emiel Maliepaard (e.maliepaard1@gmail.com) and Dr Caroline Walters (carolinejwalters@gmail.com).

If you are interested in facilitating a workshop, roundtable, or panel discussion at BiReCon, which can include data gathering for current projects or research, then please email Emiel Maliepaard (e.maliepaard1@gmail.com) and Dr Caroline Walters (carolinejwalters@gmail.com) with a brief description of your proposed session by 22 January 2016.

Language: For logistical reasons, the conference’s common language will be English, and abstracts must be submitted in English. If you wish, you can send us your abstract in another language, provided that you also submit it in English. It is highly recommended that presentations during the conference are in English. However, we are exploring possibilities to use translators to provide space to people who would like to present in their mother tongue.

Funding: EuroBiCon and EuroBiReCon are community organisations so unfortunately there are no funds for presenters or travel expenses. However, EuroBiReCon will provide an excellent opportunity to network with others working in the field, to share good practice, and there will be spaces available to conduct research which fits within the ethos of the event.

Filed underResearchTagged withactivism,BiReCon,bisexual,bisexuality,BiUK,event,intersectionality,LGBTQ,research