Now and then there comes a celebrity of some kind to declare his or her so-called bisexuality. This is not something new and it’s usually a way to gather some self-promotion (pick Angelina Jolie, who more than once has stated herself as bisexual but we have only seen her with men, with whom she has married twice) but no doubt it is taking the place of the gay outing.
First, let me say I have nothing against keeping these issues as a private subject. I do appreciate a lot people who can live their life the way they want without this stupid urge to jump to a stage or to put themselves in front of a camera on a popular TV show or even on a famous magazine cover and declare their sexuality. Be it a sincere attitude or just a way to gather public attention, it does not matter, it seems so corny – and considering it is basically a variation of the same theme, the “bisexual outing” is also very corny. Despite the fact that she is, artistically speaking, nothing of value, that is the reason why I do not hate Lindsey Lohan. She has not done any of these things to start hanging out with her girlfriend, she simply started living her life with her without bothering to warn anyone of the fact. But the fact that the act of coming out publicly is corny is far from being the problem. The problem is the reason of this bisexual outing becoming so popular among celebrities. Why is it becoming so easy to open your web browser on any given internet news portal and run into someone doing this?
I think this is made for two basic reasons. The first one has more to do with self-promotion, as I have already pointed out: since gay outing has been unnecessarily overused by celebrities who would not need to say that (if in many cases this was too obvious, why bother saying that?), it has become something old-fashioned because it is not causing so much fuzz anymore and so it is being abandoned by whoever wants his or her name floating on the web, newspapers, magazines and TV shows in favour of its “updated” and “fresher” version. The second one would be more related to people who has a more sincere motivation to do the outing: because of the increasingly popularity of the gay stereotype, people who identify themselves as gay have been automatically associated with this, even if they have little to do with it but feeling attracted to people of the same sex, so some of them declare themselves as bisexuals to escape this oversimplified idea since they really don’t fit on it – it is a viable alternative, though I think it is far from being the right choice if you are really gay and not bisexual.
But this way out is getting problematic too: this time it is not getting overused, it is being erroneously used. Guess who are guilty? Yes, the same ones – once again people who would not need to state their sexuality is messing up the room.
Let’s pick someone to illustrate that. Do you people know that singer, Mika? If you are not sure about who he is, you can look for it in Wikipedia (here is the article about him) or you can visit his official site (click here). Though he can use the “stage persona” excuse, people will not have any difficulty to identify his sexuality since he explores the gay stereotype so skilfully that it makes it too obvious. But, surprise! Nevertheless, he himself does not think it is that clear. After avoiding the subject many times, according to Wikipedia, Mika has finally given the statement below to a Dutch magazine (that was pointed out here and also here):
“I’ve never ever labeled myself. But having said that; I’ve never limited my life, I’ve never limited who I sleep with. So, whatever. (…) Call me whatever you want. Call me bisexual, if you need a term for me.”
Ignoring the unbelievable possibility that he really considers himself as bisexual or, even worse, heterosexual (I intend to discuss this particular and disturbing issue on a second post about this subject), this peculiar procedure of verbally denying and putting into doubt what your behaviour makes clear can bring him some benefit (and I can’t figure out what it would be) but leaves none to people who is in fact bisexual – actually, they are the only ones who will carry all the harm here. Statements like Mika’s (whose aim is to dismiss the subject in spite of the fact that he has no problem exploring the gay stereotype all the time) lead people to identify bisexuality as a very inconsequent sexual behaviour, when in fact it’s just the opposite – it is a complex one, usually a non-skettish or frivolous demeanour. This way, as it happened to homosexuality, instead of being firstly understood in its essence and later in its inevitable complexity, bisexuality is being harmfully framed by reckless celebrities (not only but mainly by them) into a dull stereotype that does not reflect what it is supposed to define. As an inevitable consequence, it is being copied by people whose only objective with this is to build a “cool and contemporary” persona – in other words, just another way to present their show-off spectacle. It would be better not saying anything at all or, at least, reflecting a little about what you want to say before effectively doing it, but I am already asking to much of such narcissistic and headless people.
