Weird Question: Why Are There No Bi People in american TV Shows (Or Movies)?

[osewalrus]

I'm catching up on my Supergirl, which means actually watching the entire previous season because I was pretty busy last year. Spoilers to get to the subject line below. 

So I've gotten to the Alex Danvers discovers she has feelings for conveniently introduced new character and concludes she is a lesbian. I grant I have absolutely no experience with coming out or questioning my sexual orientation or anything that would let me comment on how believable or not the plot is handled. Rather, it occurred to me that I have yet to see a single bisexual character (or Questioning character) in any American TV show or movie.

Now maybe I just do not watch enough TV or movies. But my impression has been that once American media got cool with the same sex thing, they pretty much went with the "your either gay or straight" model. (Buffy being the other obvious example that comes to mind. There's actually an episode where Anya is jealous of Willow and Willow answers "Hello! Gay now!") By contrast, I can think of a bunch of bisexual characters from British television (Captain Jack Harkness being the most obvious).

 So is it just that I don't watch enough TV? Or is it that American pop culture just doesn't believe in bisexual people? this would be rather a shame, given the bisexual people I know. I hate t think you all are figments of my imagination.

Comments

[sdelmonte]

Sara Lance on Legends of Tomorrow is bi.

And there are suggestions that Kristen Bell's character on The Good Place is bi, though it seems unlikely she will act on it.

There are also a few notable comic book characters who are bi (Harley Quinn, Catwoman, John Constantine) but I don't know if that has the same meaning since that is only in the comics thus far.

[osewalrus]

I've been watching (and loving) the Good Place and have not picked up on any of that. What are the hints? The only flashbacks to anything romantic have been boyfriends.

Also, was explicitly not exploring comic books or other media. These are generally a separate subject from mass media -- particularly television and movies which constitute a unique field of their own and with uniquely important characteristics in our popular culture.

It was mostly a transient thought. i can think of gay characters going back to my viewing TV in 1980s (heck, even to the 1970s, with Billy Crystal's breakthrough role as one of the first regular openly gay characters on a prime time series (SOAP). Several television shows that I can recall have had "coming out" plot lines. But pretty much all of them follow what I will call the "Ellen" pattern. Character (almost always woman) who thinks she is straight suddenly discovers she is having romantic feelings for another woman and concludes (with or without struggle) "I'm gay!" (Ellen, in fact, memorably did this over an airport PA system.)

It struck me as odd, because I would think someone would explore the sexuality issue of coming out bi as well as coming out as gay. i will confess I have no experience whatsoever in questioning my sexuality. But I found myself thinking 'hey, doesn't anyone wonder if maybe they are bi? isn't that an option?'

I get that in the Alex Danvers arc they covered that, and I have no problem believing it for this specific character. It seems reasonable to me. But I know a bunch of bi people and it just struck me as odd that while I've now seen the 'coming out' arc a bunch of times on gay, and while we now have a reasonable ensemble of gay characters in the television and movie pantheon, I can't recall seeing any similar arc for bi -- or even too many bi characters at all. It seems to me that it is fairly fertile material for a good character arc. But instead, we usually get stuff like Ellen, or Willow, who literally told Anya she was being foolish for being jealous of her relationship with Zander because "Hello! Gay now!"

[sdelmonte]

There were 2 1/2 "Eleanor might be bi" moments: when she realized late in season 1 she's into Tahani; when she said in season 2 her ideal sex object might be some actor's face on Tahani's body or vice versa; and the messing-with-the-audience never-to-be-seen pairing of Tahani and Eleanor as "soulmates" as one of Michael's failures. Like I said, I have no idea if we are meant to take anything away from this. (Loving the show, too. Not surprised it's in your wheelhouse.)

And I am totally there with you about Willow.