ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates young bisexual women’s experiences of negotiating their own bisexuality through challenges from schooling and social contexts. The discussion draws upon participants’ personal interpretations of the notion of bisexuality (Zaylia, 2009). Based on these interpretations, the chapter argues participants’ criteria for bisexual identification at school may be misrecognized by non-bisexuals through errors such as conflating bisexuality with the sociocultural practice of ‘barsexuality’ or girl/girl public kissing (Rupp & Taylor, 2010). Participant data referring to bisexual identity focuses on personal notions and experiences at school such as questions from non-bisexual students about ‘bisexual’ experimentation and requests for physical sex. The chapter offers participants’ notions of bisexual identity in an attempt to better understand their experiences of misrecognition of their bisexuality at school, discussed in Chapters 6 and 7.
