Resisting the binary: Discourses of identity and diversity in bisexual politics 1988–1996

Abstract

In this article, post-structural discourse analysis is used to examine discourses of identity in the political literature of the UK bisexual movement during the period 1988-1996. Two competing discursive strategies are identified, both of which draw on academic discourses of essentialism and constructionism to articulate resistance to dominant binary categories of sexuality. The first of these strategies seeks to establish bisexuality as essential and authentic, dismissing homosexuality and heterosexuality as socially constructed. The second presents bisexuality as unifying and liberating, compared to divisive and restrictive binary categories.