“Bisexuality in men isn’t real. They didn’t evolve that way.”
“Really? Because my boyfriend’s bisexual,” I responded.
“Oh, I mean, I don’t doubt that he actually likes you. I just think so-called bisexual men usually like women more emotionally.”
Those are the kinds of conversations, writes Suzannah Weiss for Cosmopolitan, she constantly had to have when she was dating a bi guy.
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And even though they’ve since broken up, she’s still so annoyed over bi stereotypes that she’s written this takedown on people who think bi guys will cheat on their girlfriends with men, or are using them as a stepping-stone to full gayness.
“Actually,” she writes, “he asked me to be his girlfriend after only three dates… And he didn’t wander or request a ménage à trois or do anything else to indicate dissatisfaction with dating someone of the opposite sex. Why would he? … Liking more than one hair color doesn’t mean you always need a blonde on one arm and a brunette on the other.”
Weiss says that, ultimately, she and her bi guy broke up because they didn’t have enough in common, not because he was bi. But that wasn’t before they had to endure the awkwardness of people assuming that, because they were together, they were both straight. Such as the time Weiss’ father told them that he found Brokeback Mountain “hard to watch.”
In a recent CDC survey of more than 9,000 adults age 18 to 44 (millennials and young Gen Xers, in other words), 2 percent of men said they were bisexual (compared to 5.5 percent of women).
Another recent survey found that a third of young Americans said they were not 100 percent heterosexual.
“I’d have no problem dating a bisexual man again,” Weiss concludes. “Next time, I won’t hide it. I want people to understand this population is real and their relationships require no explanation.”
