(Con)Tested Identities

Abstract

This article, based on an ongoing Canadian study of women who self-identify as bisexual, explores what it means to claim a bisexual identity. Semi-structured interviews with 22 women were analyzed using thematic decomposition, an analytic technique that combines discursive approaches with thematic analysis. Women in this study constructed their sexuality as a succession of interrelated impediments and imperatives that act in tandem to both prohibit and potentiate bisexu-ality. Specifically, they resist adopting the bisexual label while simultaneously working for bisexual visibility; they strive for credibility in a cultural context in which bisexuality occupies an ambiguous position; and they negotiate the dilemma of “belonging” to lesbian communities. Although diverse, these narratives of interrogation can be read as efforts to confront the inadequacies of dominant discourses of sexuality rooted in monosexism.

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