Hearing What Youth Are Telling Us: A Review of Bi: Bisexual, Pansexual, Fluid, and Nonbinary Youth by Ritch C. Savin-Williams

Abstract

For far too long, sexuality scholarship has erased and invisibilized people who are attracted to more than one gender/sex or regardless of gender/sex (e.g., bisexual, pansexual, and fluid individuals), questioned and invalidated their identities, and perpetuated harmful stereotypes about them (see Hayfield, 2021). Bi: Bisexual, Pansexual, Fluid, and Nonbinary Youth offers the promise of shining a light on the lives of these youth, celebrating their diversity and strengths, and dispelling harmful myths about their sexualities. Through interviews he conducted with bisexual, pansexual, and fluid youth, Savin-Williams offers a rare glimpse into the complexities of sexuality beyond the binary. In some ways, Bi lives up to its promises. Throughout the book, Savin-Williams calls for greater recognition of “the multitude of ways in which individuals are bisexual in their sexual and romantic profiles, developmental pathways, and life experiences” (p. 13); he emphasizes the importance of considering multiple dimensions of sexual orientation (attraction, behavior, and identity) and “expand[ing] the bounds of sexual orientation to include romantic components such as crushes, romantic fantasies, dating, love, attachment, and romantic relationships” (p. 13); and he encourages people to “celebrate the many assets possessed by bisexuals” (p. 14). Unfortunately, in other ways, Bi fails to live up to these promises—and instead perpetuates harmful stereotypes that continue to invalidate bisexual, pansexual, and fluid identities.