Why are bisexual women depicted as homicidal maniacs?
By: Christine Stevens
Tags: Relationships, Sexuality, Bisexual, Feminism, LGBTQ

Why are bisexual women depicted as homicidal maniacs?

From Basic Instinct to Killing Eve

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash

Here are two problematic depictions of the bisexual female: The bisexual murderess from the 80s erotic thriller Basic Instinct, who tried to put an ice pick in the main character’s head. And the psychopathic assassin from recent TV hit Killing Eve, who likes to chop men’s penises off.

Sharon Stone depicted the bisexual sex fiend in Basic Instinct. Remember, that is the movie that she famously flashed her crotch as she crossed her legs and uncrossed them in the police station. She was extremely beautiful, sexy and violent. She was, it turns out, quite out of her mind.

Why else would you be bisexual? I mean, people who are not out of their minds are either straight or gay. If you can’t pick one, you must be cuckoo?

In Killing Eve, Jodie Comer’s character is very sexual, but she confesses to Eve that although she has sex with women, she is “not really with them, if you know what I mean.”

In one scene first one beautiful woman emerges from upstairs as Jodie is talking with Eve. She says “Thank you for the…”

And without missing a beat, Jodie says “Sex? You’re welcome.”

Sandra Oh’s character Eve looks at this hot tamale Jodie Comer who has just had sex with this young model type, and is very impressed. But wait. A minute later another hot model type emerges from upstairs and traipses out. Apparently, it was a kind of group sex thing. Eve, amused, calls out, “Is there anybody else here?”

So a hearty sexual appetite is something intriguing in an assassin. It makes us more curious about her — we are as bemused Eve is because none of us in real life has that hearty a sexual appetite. It’s a fantasy figure.

But what if we are bisexual in real life? I mean, plenty of us date both women and men, and sometimes at the same time. What are we to make of this bemusement, fascination and ultimate indictment of the bisexual female in entertainment?

First of all, I want to be clear, I’m not the type to get offended, so I don’t find it victimizing or discriminatory against my sexuality that it is so often tied in with murder.

Lots of things are tied in with murder. For example, if a murderer in a show turns out to be a Tree Hugging Environmentalist (Thanos for example!) should all environmentalists be offended? Of course not. Movies need villains. Villains need to murder. And murderers have to have jobs, hobbies, and sexualities.

I have no problem with that.

The only thing is, the truth about bisexual women I’ve met is that they are sweet, open, loving and the farthest thing from homicidal maniacs that you could ever imagine. In other words, they are so full of love for their fellow human beings that they simply cannot limit themselves to loving one gender. Rather than homicidal, they are in fact life affirming, giving, and generous.

Where are those bisexual females in popular culture?

It must be pointed out that both these bisexual maniacs were invented by men — screenwriter Joe Eszterhas and novelist Luke Jennings. True, the TV series Killing Eve were penned by women, but the original conception of the bisexual assassin was a male construct.

The idea of femme fatale to begin with was a male idea. The first femme fatale was Eve of course in the garden of Eden. Perhaps not a coincidence that the hit TV show shares that name. Even earlier than Eve, though, is the mysterious Lilith, sometimes depicted as the demon herself who seduced Eve — maybe the earliest act of bisexual evil.

Men have promulgated the myth of the femme fatale from these early Biblical times all the way up to the present for one reason and one reason only — the femme fatale is the enemy of motherhood, which patriarchy considers the rightful role of women. By opposing motherhood, the femme fatale takes the future away from man — his children, his legacy, his immortality. Ironic that she uses sex, as she is the enemy of sexual reproduction. Her sex is depicted as meaningless, albeit mysterious and exciting. It just doesn’t end up in children, and is therefore evil.

Think of that other iconic 80s erotic thriller — Fatal Attraction. It has the word “fatal” in it, and it has a femme fatale played by Glenn Close. She boils a rabbit and then kidnaps Michael Douglas’s child, takes him to an amusement park, and rides the roller coaster with him.

She is the enemy of fatherhood as well.

Yes, it’s all very amusing, but it is must be feared and avoided. Otherwise, your children will die.

The femme fatale is a version of fairy tale evil witches, the one from Snow White or Sleeping Beauty. I guess the bisexual element in those archetypes is the witch’s obsession with the heroine’s physical beauty. Why does it drive them into a murderous rage? Because the female is so lovely. While children interpret it as jealousy of her beauty, it does not take much amateur Freudianism to see it as sublimated lesbian desire.

Girls grow up with this evil feminine archetype, the enemy of motherhood, the enemy of good-girls. We know it’s out there, and we fear it. Maybe that’s why some of us suppress our natural bisexuality — we fear the female. We fear we might meet an evil witch in a lesbian bar and she will destroy our motherhood.

Salome is a great Christian femme fatale archetype. She has an irrational murderous desire — the head of St. John the Baptist. She uses her sexuality to make it come true. In this case, the motherhood she opposes is this “mother’ of the Christian church, the one who baptizes the Christ himself.

There have been times when this evil sexual femme fatale has been redeemed by literature. For example, Marquis De Sade saw the femme fatale as the best of all feminine qualities combined in one!

Catwoman might be considered a more modern attempt to realign the femme fatale with the forces of light.

But it doesn’t happen often.

For the most part, the femme fatale is of the night. In The Magic Flute she is actually called the Queen of the Night by Mozart. (Opera is one of her favorite haunts — femme fatales appear in almost every well known opera).

So why must a bisexual femme fatale chop off men’s penises in Killing Eve and why do we love to watch it?

Well, clearly a bisexual woman castrates the man when she shuns him and dates a girl.

And Freud claimed, all men are afraid of castration, so it must be quite powerful to see a desirable woman who is indulging their lesbian voyeuristic fantasies snap us out of our trance of desire back to reality where they find themselves face to face with their greatest fears — lack of penis, lack of child, lack of motherhood.

I just want to present an alternative voice to this very compelling narrative. I have had bisexual experiences, gone to lesbian bars, and I have not succumbed to any evil witch. Also, when I got home I did not have any desire to chop my boyfriend’s penis off.

What I had were real experiences with real human beings which were much more about intimacy and sharing than about power, darkness or taboo.

There have been movies more honest about bisexuality, for example, Blue is the Warmest Color, of course not made in this country. However, it was also made by a man.

We need female voices to present the bisexual experience as it really is, not as some fairy tale male porn fantasy gone wrong.

We need them now!

Come on bisexual ladies. Speak our truth.