Happy Bi Visibility Day: The Best Bisexual Representation on TV
Dear TV writers and boomers, bisexuality is not a phase or a stepping stone.
Though bisexual people make up roughly 52% of the LGBTQ+ community, they've been underrepresented on television and in media for a long time.
When they do appear, they're frequently painted as sociopaths (cough, Villanelle on Killing Eve) or are painted as promiscuous or confused, if their identities are addressed at all.
Fortunately, many recent TV shows have been making up for decades of bisexual erasure and misrepresentation by featuring nuanced bisexual characters. On this Bisexual Visibility Day, here are some of TV's greatest bisexual icons.
1. Magnus Bane (Shadowhunters)
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While many bisexual characters fall into stereotypes that range from indecisiveness to hypersexuality, Shadowhunters' immortal warlock offers a different window into what it means to be a bisexual man. Bane has been bisexual for hundreds of years—so it's definitely not a phase—and is dedicated to his committed, monogamous relationships with both men and women.
▲2. Rosa Diaz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)
When Rosa Diaz came out as bisexual on NBC's comedic crime show, it was a groundbreaking moment that illuminated just how rarely overt bisexual representation actually occurs on TV. Unlike most bisexual characters, whose sexuality is implied at best, Diaz publically declares that she is actually bisexual.
According to the actress, "I remember seeing the initial draft of the script, and that word was in there, and I got very overwhelmed and emotional, I pointed to the page and I said, 'This word is important. We have to keep this word in. We can't just dance around what Rosa is saying and who Rosa is."
It's even more moving that Stephanie Beatriz herself is bisexual. "I'm engaged to be married to a man, and one of the main things I hear on social media again and again is, 'Wait, I thought you were bi,'" she said. "To me, that's laughable but also really frustrating. It doesn't matter who I'm with. My sexuality remains the same."
▲3. David Rose (Schitt's Creek)
Schitt's Creek, the Canadian sitcom viewed by over a million people each week, shocked viewers (and gratified anyone looking for some actual representation of sexual fluidity) when the star, David, came out as pansexual. Pansexuality and bisexuality are two labels that ultimately have more in common than not. Technically, pansexuality means that you're attracted to any and all genders, including nonbinary people, whereas bisexuality originally meant that you're attracted to men and women (though many bisexual people have reclaimed the label and use it to signify the fact that they're attracted to all genders as well).
▲4. Petra Solano and Jane Ramos (Jane the Virgin)
For so long, TV shows hinted at queer relationships and bisexuality without ever letting it come to fruition onscreen, otherwise known as queerbaiting. Lately, though, it seems that more shows are refusing to fall into this unpleasant pattern and instead are offering us the nuanced queer and bisexual visibility that we've dreamed of.
On the latest season of Jane the Virgin, Jane Ramos and Petra Solano got together as part of a carefully stitched plan, concocted by the show's writers in order to subvert tokenization and to honor the validity of the bisexual identity. "We wanted to be able to tell that story [of Petra], but we also wanted to make sure we were balancing our representation and not just doing girls making out with girls," said the show's creator, Jennie Urman. Fans were pleased, to say the least.
▲The absurd musical-comedy fiasco that is Crazy Ex-Girlfriend goes pretty above and beyond when it comes to representation, featuring no less than three bisexual characters. One problem that a lot of shows face when trying to increase their bisexual representation (or when attempting to diversify their representation in general) is tokenization, a.k.a. featuring just one character and using them as a stand-in for an entire, complex identity.
In season 3 of Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Valencia (ex-girlfriend of protagonist Rebecca Bunch's love interest, Josh Chan) was revealed to be dating a woman. This came after the character Daryll came out as bisexual via an entire musical number about bisexuality and bisexual stereotypes (called "Getting Bi"). Shortly after Daryll's musical coming-out, recurring character Maya came out as bisexual in solidarity.
▲6. Annalise Keating (How to Get Away With Murder)
Not only is Annalise played by the real-life superwoman Viola Davis; she's also a superwoman in herself. A high-powered criminal defense attorney whose professional mystique and personal complexity made her impossible to look away from during the show's six seasons, she never exactly announces her sexuality, but it's seen in her relationships with men and women. While the representation of Keating's sexuality has been criticized for falling in line with bisexual stereotypes, namely sexual flagrancy and untrustworthiness, the truth is that every bisexual person is different—and in this economy, decent representation (especially when it's played by Viola Davis) is all we can really ask for.
▲7. Ilana Wexler (Broad City)
Ilana Glazer's character frequently has relationships with men and women, and her attraction to her costar Abbi is a running gag on the show. Like many other TV characters who express attraction to both men and women, Ilana never overtly comes out as bisexual, but she has casual relationships with whomever she chooses without it ever being that much of a big deal.
▲The truth is that every kind of bisexual person is different, just as every person of any particular identity is different. Still, the most important thing to know is that bisexuality is a valid identity, and it doesn't mean that you have to act any particular kind of way. You can be sexually promiscuous or perpetually single; you can be cis, trans, or anything and everything in between. You can be in a straight relationship or gay relationship and still be bisexual, or you can deviate from expectations about your sexual orientation without feeling bad about disloyalty to the queer cause. Don't let TV or the Internet tell you what to think or dictate your reality or tell you what it means to be a "good" or "bad" bisexual (or person). Just love who you want to love, and if you feel up to it, be out, loud and proud this Bisexual Visiblity Day and every day.