ABOUT
THE PROBLEM
Although bi+ people make up the majority of the LGBTQ+ community, the bi+ community is consistently overlooked in film, television, and the news.
Film & TV.
The bi+ community is consistently overlooked in film and television. When bi+ people are portrayed in film and television, the characters are often harmful tropes.
Rewrite the BiLine’s original research found that bi+ characters are usually misrepresented in one of 10 ways, such as the villain (Frank Underwood in House of Cards or Camilla in Empire) or the oversexualized betrayer (Max in the Gossip Girl reboot). Other times, bi+ characters are used as a plot device for the advancement of a non-bi character storyline.
This type of bi+ erasure comes as no surprise for bi+ people who grew up to Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw who said things like, “I’m not even sure bisexuality exists. I think it’s just a layover on the way to Gaytown” or to 30 Rock’s Liz Lemon who said, “There’s no such thing as bisexual. That’s just something invented in the 90’s so they could sell more hair products.”
From 2014 to 2022, there were only 55 bi+ speaking characters out of the 38,726 speaking characters in the top-grossing films; this amounts to only 0.14% of speaking characters. In 2023, there were only 149 bi+ TV characters. It is critical that these characters are authentic with fully-realized storylines.
The stigma bi+ people have faced on screen has contributed to pervasive discrimination and erasure off screen.
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Bi+ people are paid less than gay, lesbian, and straight people.
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Bi+ people have higher rates of poverty and experience anxiety at higher rates than gay, lesbian and straight people.
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Over 60% of bi+ women have been raped, assaulted, or stalked
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Nearly half of bi+ men will experience sexual violence in their lifetimes compared to 40 percent of gay men and 20 percent of straight men.
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Bi+ people of color fare far worse than their non-LGBTQ+ counterparts in employment, income level, food insecurity, and healthcare access.
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Less than 1 percent of all domestic grant dollars awarded to LGBTQ+ communities and issues goes toward bi+ communities and issues.
News Media.
Our inaugural Bi+ Censorship in the News report explores the visibility of bi+ people and bi+ issues over the last three decades in print news, the way bi+ people have been depicted, and to what extent bi+ people have been given a platform to tell their own stories.
Unfortunately, our findings show that print newspapers underreport on bi+ issues; and although media representation of bi+ people is becoming less negative and more accurate, media representation of bi+ people continues to be biased, perpetuate harmful stereotypes, and not reflect the lived experience of bi+ people.
While our report contains a number of concerning findings that need to change, Rewrite the BiLine encourages journalists and news agencies to address three most startling findings first. Read the report to learn more!