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The State of Bisexuality in Film

In modern film, more and more characters are being represented as “LGBT”. However, to these films, “LGBT” usually means only Lesbian or Gay. Bisexuality is lacking in visibility in all walks of life, but in film specifically - as prominent a form of entertainment/media as it is - seldom do we see characters who are actually Bisexual.

Wikipedia provides a list of portrayals of bisexual characters in media, but for this article, I’m going to be sticking to the “Movies” section. The list provides 104 examples of films with at least one bisexual character. Of that list, at least 38 merely appear as “fluid” and never are distinctly labeled as bi. And in one additional instance, the bisexuality of a character is only featured in the “Director’s Cut” version of the film. Alternatively, when searching for a similar list of Gay characters in film, the results are endless.

There are hundreds of movies released every year, and the earliest film on this list was released in 1964, so why are there so few movies that include bisexual characters?

The earliest film on the list is 1964’s Goldfinger, which features only one bi character. After that, the next isn’t until 1967. The films which include bi characters are sparse and few until 2002, the first year that more than 4 films from the same year are on the list. And in 2004, 9 films make the list (making up for the 0 from 2003).

It’s hard to determine what caused this sudden shift in inclusivity, but the millennium definitely marked a change in what filmmakers were comfortable showing audiences.

Additionally, a large number of characters featured on this list are villains or anti-heroes in their respective films. These characters usually do whatever they can to get what they want, and that often leads to being sexually elusive with both men and women. Filmmakers use bisexuality as a quality that helps build the idea that a character is untrustworthy because of their ‘failure to stick to a sexual norm’. This is bad not only for the bisexual audience, but for the filmmakers who decide to limit the sexuality of their characters unless it follows a bad stereotype. Even if the character isn’t the villain of the film, bisexuality is still used as a ‘bad’ quality about someone who seemingly may not be the most perfect-angel character. For example, in 2011’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Lisbeth Salander is a character whose traits all spell out a parent’s worst nightmare, and bisexuality is just a feature on that list.

Above is a chart that compares the domestic gross value of four films with bisexual characters with the highest grossing movie of the same year, all of which do not also feature bisexual characters. Obviously the amount a movie makes is not determined by their inclusion of bisexual characters, but this chart shows that the movies that are most popular over time are not those that chose to include them. And its not like the movies that include them are bad movies either - Moonlight won the oscar for Best Picture in 2016, and The Color Purple and Brokeback Mountain were nominated for it in 1985 and 2005 respectively.

Brokeback Mountain in particular is a film in which bisexual erasure is almost the most prominent feature of the movie. The main characters are in hetero relationships, but have a gay affair while on a trip far from home. This is something that would seemingly make them both distinctly bisexual - and they are. But the big take-away from that movie for most people is that it’s a gay cowboy movie. The movie does not outright state that the characters are bi, so the audience just accepts that they are gay, even if there are clear signs of bisexuality present.

So what does all of this mean? In short, bisexual visibility is a very plaguing problem in film. By refusing to acknowledge the presence of bisexuality, directors and filmmakers are refusing to acknowledge a growing percentage of the population. In the modern age, people are less and less afraid of showing and featuring lesbian or gay characters, which is great, and should not be ignored. But 1.7% of the American population is lesbian or gay, and 1.8% is bisexual. So why do only 104 of the films released for the last 53 years include bi characters?