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BLUESTONE
HOCKLEY
R E A L T Y .
Call Us.
S urprise , Y o u ’ re B isexual
Virtually everyone is, according to a new book by
Marjorie Garber, toast o f the talk shows
I N C
▼
least ng • sales • managemen t
by Richard D. Mohr
A proud member o f the community
fo r more than 2 5 years
variety. The reason: the very idea of the sexual
n Vice Versa, her just-released book on
triangle is itself sexy and the triangle contains both
bisexuality, Harvard English professor
sexes.
Maijorie Garber repeatedly reminds the
reader that her previous book, Vested Inter
Garber also counts as bisexual any male who
ests, on cross-dressing, landed her on the
has ever admired a male movie star. The reason:
Even the butchest of movie stars has a feminine
television talk-show circuit. Geraldo cast “Dr.”
side (Garber’s one example is Sylvester Stallone).
Garber in the role of an “expert” brought in to
And any student who has ever had a crush on a
determine whether her transvestite couch-mates
teacher is bisexual. Her views here will give prin
were normal. Her answer: “rare, but normal.”
cipals and deans hissyfits. She holds that to be
Given bisexual chic’s current status as a talk-
good, teaching must be eroticized: The student
must be sexually attracted to the teacher and vice
versa. And further, to successfully foster the love
of learning, this reciprocal attraction must not be
articulated or acknowledged. However, widespread
homophobically enhanced sexual abuse in the Boy
show staple, Garber’s important new book may
Scouts suggests that eroticism when unacknowl
cast her again in the same role. But when asked
edged
between mentor and apprentice is a recipe
whether bisexuals are normal, her answer will be
for disaster.
that they are more than normal: Virtually everyone
The book has many analytical failings. In keep
is bisexual and society will be better off for ac
ing with fashionable academic skepticism about
knowledging this fact.
science, the book holds that bisexuality must be a
A sprawling book, in equal measures fascinat
product of choice, not nature, because in it one can
ing and frustrating, Vice Versa is the first major
fulfill one’s sexual drive differently in relation to
cultural study of bisexuality. The book is an instant
two different types o f objects. But take the case of
classic in that future discussions of the subject—
the lung fish. It seeks out the same thing (oxygen),
and there will be many— must take it as their point
from two different sources (air and water), in two
of departure.
different ways (through gill and lung), and yet no
The book rummages through virtually every
one would suppose that this state of affairs is
dimension of 20th-century Anglo American cul
anything but g en etically
ture for traces and sightings
of bisexuality and fights the
x S S H iiw S caused or that the fish’s vacil-
lations between air and water
numerous cultural forces that
try to erase, belittle, suppress
are d*e product o f choice.
Garber also claims that be-
or recategorize bisexuality
cause bisexuality isaphenom-
out of existence. Garber ex
enon that falls across a spec-
amines and chronicles news
trum (some bisexuals are more
paper clippings, song lyrics,
£: same-sex directed than oth-
no vels, m ovies, plays,
ers) it cannot be a subject of
psychoanalytical treatises,
fr
scientific investigation. But
science journals, diaries,
x light is manifest across a spec-
vampire legends, celebrity
£x trum and its study is the sub-
bios and, yes, talk shows. We
je cto f several sciences— chro
are treated to— sometimes
matics, optics, quantum me-
swamped by— dozens upon
chanics.
dozens o f capsule biogra
•x&
On the practical side of
phies and plot summaries. Ul
:£:£: things, the book helps dispel
timately, Garber is more suc
various b isex u al stereo-
cessful in finding bisexuals
types— that bisexuals are un
than in explaining what bi
stable, immature or confused.
sexuality is.
x£:j:£: So the book may well help in
But the findings are im
:x-x-x- the formation of bisexual com
pressive. M ost o f the
munities, perhaps even serve as a banner for them,
Bloomsbury group, for example, turn out to be
though this is not Garber’s aim. Indeed she is
bisexuals. The economist John Maynard Keynes is
skeptical that bisexuality should develop as a so
a star case— a man who had profound and openly
cial or political identity. Garber is not a bisexual
acknowledged affairs with men, including the art
liberationist.
ist Duncan Grant, but who in later life married and
On the conceptual side of things, even after 600
lived happily, sexually and long, with the ballerina
pages of rummaging, Garber fails to give any
Lydia Lopokova.
positive definition of bisexuality. She steadfastly
Many of Garber’s reclamations to bisexuality
denies
that bisexuality can be interpreted as an
are reclamations away from perceived gay status,
overlap o f homosexual and heterosexual desires,
even from canonized gay status, as in the case of
but offers no alternative account. In the end she
Oscar Wilde. Though Wilde launched gayness as
punts— claiming that bisexuality confounds sexual
a cultural style, the facts of his life are more
categories,
is unbounded liquidity, is contradic
accurately described as bisexual than homosexual.
tion. But these claims are just to say that there is
Garber acknowledges that these reclamations could
nothing to say. A predicate that excludes nothing,
easily be read as fronting an anti-gay agenda. But
asserts nothing. TTie book’s richly detailed case
her sensitivity to lurking homophobia is so acute in
studies, though, should provide the ground from
so many cases (she trashes the movie Orlando for
which others who wish to brave questions of bi
it) that she absolves herself of this charge.
sexual definition, classification and meaning may
Or almost does. For one of Garber’s strategies
begin to build a better theory.
to get everybody under the big tent of bisexuality
is to count as bisexual any man who marries a
Vice Versa: Bisexuality and the Eroticism of
woman, even if his sexual desires are always
Everyday
Life by Marjorie Garber. Simon &
exclusively directed toward men. For Garber there
Schuster, 1995; $30. Richard D. Mohr is an
are no sham marriages.
author and professor o f philosophy at the
Other big-tent strategies are equally dubious.
University
o f Illinois-Urbana. His most recent
Garber counts everyone in a mixed-sex ménage à
book
is
A
More Perfect Union: Why Straight
trois as bisexual, even if every sex act performed
America Must Stand Up for Gay Rights.
and desire expressed by the trio is of the boy-girl
I
RICHARD C. LEVY
Vice President
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