I know this isn't movie exactly, but I think a TV show still comes pretty close. Orange is the New Black is a TV show that airs exclusively on Netflix, and it's pretty revolutionary in the ways it portrays it's characters. Many different races, social classes, sexualities and identities are represented, and one of the great things about it is that they're all women. It's not very often where you can find a show with that many women with they're own fleshed out stories and goals. I'm actually not sure if it's been done before. While I personally believe this is a great success in feminism, that's not what I wanted to discuss. I want to specifically home in on the sexualities that are represented in the show, and further specify that to bisexuality.
Our main character is Piper Chapman, and when she goes to prison, she's engaged to a man, but the whole reason she's even going to jail is because she was involved with an international drug cartel along with her ex-girlfriend. The great thing about this is that they show bisexuality as it's own actual thing, not just some switch people can flip. There are some instances where characters will be like, "Is she gay now?" or "Is she straight now?", but they are often corrected (mostly by Piper herself)
She talks about falling on a Kinsey scale and how she likes hot girls and boys. It's not addressed often, and I personally feel like it's handled rather delicately, but the fact that they put it into the show means so much. There are a lot of people who are going to see Piper and identify with her, and learn that it's a real thing and that they're not weird.
This is the article where my info came from http://www.btchflcks.com/2013/08/bisexuality-in-orange-is-the-new-black.html#.VD0kjfldU6o and I interspersed it with my own knowledge of the show and my opinions of it. This is a great example of how media can influence and broaden people's horizons. This show has done a really great job of presenting a diverse group of women in such a human way and I feel like it can help society see them as such
-Casey Coulter
Hey Casey! This show is so fantastic and looks at so many different aspects of sexuality. I liked how you point out that bisexuality isn't some kind of switch that you can turn on and off. We defined in class how bisexuality is being attracted to both genders. Nothing says that you couldn't be attracted to two different people of opposite genders at the same time. I personally feel like Piper loves both Larry and Alex equally. She may be confused by these feelings and bounces back and forth between which she should love. When we looked at sexuality in class we looked at three different parts of sexuality, your identity, your desire, and your behavior. I don't know if Piper ever truly states what exactly what she sees her sexuality as but I think that she may be bisexual. Piper expresses sexual desire for both Larry and Alex. Sometimes she expresses desire for both at the same time, other times she expresses desire for one or the other. Piper does express quite a bit of sexual behavior throughout the course of the show. I personally think that she uses some sexual behavior with Alex while in prison to figure out herself and her sexuality. All in all, I think that you do use this show to help the rest of the class understand more about your topic in a way that we can understand in a fun way. Thank you for sharing this show with those who may not have known about it!
ReplyDelete-Ali Marnon
Orange is the New Black is one of my favorite shows out right now, and I definitely agree with you on how they slide Piper's bisexuality into the show very subtly. I like how you wrote about how the show includes how other people view her as either straight, or lesbian, and how she defends herself. The writers of the show are extremely smart to include these things, because it shows how comfortable she is knowing she's bisexual. It's great to see shows include gender, and sexuality in a way that isn't the historical norm so easily, and subtly.
ReplyDelete- Anthony Bellore
Orange is the New Black takes a sort of satirical approach to handling the topic of bisexual erasure in the media. In many other shows, movies, and books, a person is either labelled as "gay" or as "straight" and not usually given any sort of identity in between the two. When bisexual characters are present in media, they are often times used only as a punchline to a joke about being "greedy." I believe that Orange is the New Black is very intentional in their omission of the term bisexual, because I think that the writers and creators of the show omitted the term in order to show just how ridiculously bisexual individuals are often treated in the media.
ReplyDelete--Melissa Condon
I am a huge fan of Orange is the New Black. I love how the show can be so serious in one perspective and then be completely hilarious in another. I agree with you that many people can identify with Piper, or any of the other diverse characters, and I think that is why the show has been such a huge success. This is one of the first shows that puts emphasis on all sexualities. Not only are there lesbian characters, but there are also straight characters, bisexual characters, trans characters, and more. The show is helping to prove that heterosexuality is not the "norm" and that its important to be who you want to be and not what society wants you to be. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete- Ashley Compton
Reading Melissa's comment got me thinking about bisexuality and Orange is the New Black and other media as well. Yes, I see the bisexual representation of Piper and that's fantastic, don't get me wrong! but it always makes me wonder exactly why can't they say the word 'bisexual' out right in the show? I understand the stigma around it, conjuring images of 'greedy' people stealing wives and husbands, but wouldn't they want to add the word to the positive rep of Piper to change people's ideas about it? From what I know, this show has gotten majorly popular, and the diverse cast is phenomenal, but are people only allowed to think in terms of black and white, or in this case, gay and straight? I just feel that at least saying the word itself would be a plus, and I know actions speak louder than words, but still; it's all about that rep and other bisexual people hearing the word spoken in a positive way instead of a negative for once.
ReplyDelete- Tarryn Priestly
Hey Casey!
ReplyDeleteI watch Orange is the New Black too, and I have to say I really did question multiple times throughout the series, "Is she gay now? Or is she straight?" I would unknowingly leave out the possibility of bisexuality, and that's because I felt like she had to choose between her fiance or ex-girl friend- and as if that translated to her having to choose between being gay or straight.
The show really did handle the whole situation in a delicate way. And, I eventually did realize that she was attracted to BOTH characters. And that, it wasn't her attraction to a specif sex that was important, but who she cared about romantically- Which also proved to make for a tough situation! This show had me learn that bisexuality is just as simple and complicated as any other type of sexuality, thus making it just as important and normal in my eyes.
-- Josephine Hicks