ABSTRACT
Many scholars on (bi)sexuality have agreed that there is an overall lack of bi-visibility and bisexual representation in the media landscape (Doty, 2000; Alexander & Yescavage, 2003; MacDowall, 2009; Bryant, 2011). Wayne Bryant, the author of Bisexual Characters in Film: From Anaïs to Zee (2009), argues that the portrayal of bisexual characters has adhered to certain stereotypes. For example, they are often depicted as ‘psychos, murderers and misfits’ or ‘victims and runaways’, just like the bisexual femme fatale Catherine Tramell in Basic Instinct (1992) and Lisbeth Salander in The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011); ‘the closeted or cheating husbands’ like Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist who both get married to women after having an affair with each other in Brokeback Mountain (2005); or ‘the ambiguously sexed or gendered’ appearing in the archetypes of butches, tomboys, and sissy boys (Roberts, 2011, p. 333). Judging from the majority of cinematic instances, bisexual characters are freewheeling, licentious, promiscuous, and thus untrustworthy (Bryant, 2009, p. 83). Despite the media offering more complex representations of bisexuals nowadays—as we can see in Darryl Whitefeather in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2014) and Rosa Diaz in Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2019) — bisexual characters in mainstream cinema are undeniably few. Reductionist portrayals, such as The Four-Faced Liar (2010), still reinforce stereotypes and fail to articulate the complexity of bisexual experiences.
