Bisexuality and Fandom

Bisexuality is a queer sexual orientation in which a person feels sexual attraction to more than one gender. It is an mspec identity, alongside pan, poly, and omni etc. Biromantic is the equivalant romantic orientation.
In fandom, characters will often be headcanoned as bisexual.
==Canon==
===Bisexual Characters===
====Books====
* Animorphs: Marco was hinted to be bisexual, and coauthor Michael Grant confirmed they had feared that publishers or networks would not allow an explicitly bi character at the time the series was coming out.https://twitter.com/MichaelGrantBks/status/667531031130411010?s=20https://twitter.com/MichaelGrantBks/status/662056455348948992?s=20
* Vorkosigan Saga: Aral Vorkosigan is explicitly established as bisexual in the series' first book, which was published in 1986. The treatment of his bisexuality evolves throughout the series.
* Warrior Cats: Jake is implied to be bisexual. He has fathered children with two different female cats, and co-author Kate Cary has stated that she views Jake’s relationship with Tallstar as romantic, although the series’s publisher considers them simply good friends.Cary, Kate (29 July, 2015). “Inside my head, they are a couple. Inside the publisher’s head they are Just Good Friends. Inside your head they can be whatever you want them to be. That’s the great thing about having your own head. 😀”. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
====Film====
* Marvel Cinematic Universe: LokiJordan Mendoza, "Tom Hiddleston's Loki confirmed as Marvel's first bisexual lead character", USA Today, June 24, 2021, Valkyrie
* DC Extended Universe: Harley QuinnShannon Lewis, "The DCEU's Harley Quinn Is Bisexual - Is She In The Comics?", Screenrant, February 22, 2020
====TV====
* The 100: Clarke Griffin is bisexual.
* Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Detective Rosa Diaz is bisexual. 
* Doctor Who: Clara Oswald is bisexual.
* The Good Place: Eleanor Shellstrop was confirmed to be "super bisexual" by William Jackson Harper, who plays Chidi Anagonye.
* House, M.D.: Dr. Remy Hadley is bisexual and was shown in relationships with both men and women.
* Legend of Korra: There is some debate in the fandom over whether Korra and Asami are bisexual or lesbian. Given that both have been in relationships with Mako, the general opinion likely leans more towards the former.
* Orange Is the New Black: Piper Chapman is bisexual and has dated both men and women.
* The Owl House: Luz Noceda is bisexual.Philip Sledge, "The Owl House's Luz Noceda: The Story Behind Disney's First Bisexual Lead Character", CinemaBlend, September 26, 2020
* Star Trek: Lower Decks: Beckett Mariner is bisexual, and has dated persons of a wide array of genders and species. 
* Supernatural: Chuck Shurley is bisexual and has dated both men and women.
* Torchwood: Ianto Jones and Toshiko Sato are bisexual.
====Video Games====
* Assassin's Creed: Syndicate: Jacob Frye is bisexual. After much fan discourse over Jacob's interactions with Maxwell Roth, the official Assassin's Creed Tumblr account posted that "Jacob Frye is bisexual. This is canon. The end." Many fans ship Jacob with Maxwell, who was confirmed as canonically gay.
* Assassin's Creed: Odyssey: Kassandra and Alexios are functionally bisexual, being able to romance/sleep with men and women. However the developers have not stated a canon sexuality for them, as the game design emphasizes player choice.
* Assassin's Creed: Valhalla: The same as above goes for Eivor.
* Dishonored: Billie Lurk - In Dishonored 2, the player can find an audiograph recorded by Billie which states "I've loved a number of women and even a couple of men".
* Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade: Legault flirts with men and women alike, though his only paired ending is a tragic one with the paladin Isadora.
** Lyn is considered bisexual due to having both paired endings with men and one with a woman—her best friend, Florina, whose own behavior suggests she has a crush on Lyn. Florina can also marry Hector, one of Lyn's potential husbands.
* Fire Emblem Fates has the player avatar Corrin, the spellcaster Rhajat, and the outlaw Niles. The latter two can marry the former no matter what their gender.
* Fire Emblem: Three Houses has several bisexual characters:
** Byleth, the player avatar
** Edelgard von Hresvelg, Dorothea Aranult, and Linhardt von Hevring of the Black Eagles
** Mercedes von Martriz of the Blue Lions
** Lady Rhea (though she can only be romanced on the Silver Snow route)
** Jeritza von Hrym (Crimson Flower exclusive)
** Yuri Leclerc of the Ashen Wolves
** Characters such as Felix Hugo Fraldarius and Constance von Nuvelle can only be romanced by a Byleth of the opposite sex, but have multiple same-sex endings (Dimitri and Sylvain for Felix; Hapi, Edelgard, and Mercedes for Constance, for example).
** Shamir Nevrand is confirmed bisexual in the AU spinoff Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.
* Romance is downplayed in Fire Emblem Engage, with the game focusing more on friendship and family, but a few of the game's Pact Ring conversations are explicitly romantic and can be with either gender of Alear, the player character:
** Prince Alfred of Firene is implied to have a crush on Alear either way.
** Princess Ivy of Elusia, who worships Alear as a deity, outright says she loves them.
** Goldmary, retainer to Princess Hortensia, says she's fallen in love with Alear.
** Kagetsu, retainer to Ivy, says he loves Alear in his confession CG.
** Prince Diamant does not give an outright love confession, but he will give Alear a ring in return for the Pact Ring.
** The DLC character, Nel, was explicitly in love with the alternate Elyos's Alear, who will always be the opposite gender from the player's Alear.
* The Life is Strange franchise has Max Caulfield from the original game, Rachel Amber from the original game and prequel game Life is Strange: Before the Storm, Sean Diaz from Life is Strange 2 and Alex Chen from Life is Strange: True Colors. Max, Sean and Alex are all player-controlled protagonists with one man and one woman romance option each, and Rachel is a romance option for Chloe Price in the prequel and is implied to have dated at least one man in the gap between the prequel and the main game. Some fans also consider Chloe to be bisexual; her voice actress Ashly Burch has referred to her as “sexually fluid” and says she doesn’t think Chloe likes to label herself any particular way.“Hella talk: an interview with Ashly Burch on Chloe Price, queerness & ‘Life is Strange’”. Femhype. Published 27 October 2015. Retrieved 21 May 2021.
* The Dragon Age series includes numerous love interests who can be romanced by a player character of either gender.
** Zevran Arainai and Leliana in Dragon Age: Origins.
** All romance options in Dragon Age II: Anders, Fenris, Isabela, and Merrill. The only exception is Sebastian Vael, who can only be romanced by a female Hawke.
** Iron Bull and Josephine Montilyet in Dragon Age: Inquisition.
* Zagreus of the 2019 roguelike Hades.Jasmine Henry, "Supergiant Games Roguelike 'Hades' Has a Bisexual Protagonist, J Station X, March 27, 2019
* Rune Factory 5: Every single marriageable character is bisexual, able to marry the player no matter what gender they choose.
==History of the Genre==
==Fandom==
===Discourse and Meta===
* Bisexuality and Fanfic (Apr 2009) by alixtii
*Mulder's Bisexuality: An Interpretation of His Band of Gold (May 1998) by Sonya Schryer - The X-Files
*One of the funniest things about harry potter is how jkr accidentally made harry incredibly bisexual. (2016 or before) by transpoe - Harry Potter
==Controversies==
==== Video Games and Playersexuality ====
Playersexuality is the phenomenon wherein video game NPCs can be romanced by a protagonist regardless of the protagonist character's gender. Playersexuality has been criticized as poor representation. The BioWare franchises Dragon Age and Mass Effect, for example, contain numerous NPCs who can be romanced whether the player character is male or female, but in almost all cases any reference to these characters' bisexuality is omitted from the game if the player does not choose to pursue a same-sex romance with them. A player could therefore easily play a game like Dragon Age II, which has four playersexual love interests, without ever becoming aware that these NPCs are anything but heterosexual. (A rare BioWare counter-example is the Iron Bull, a romanceable NPC from Dragon Age: Inquisition who may take up a sexual relationship with the gay love interest Dorian if the player does not pursue a romance with either character.)
Unambiguous, non-playersexual bisexual representation is rarer in video games, and non-biphobic examples are especially rare. Those few examples that do exist are often attributable to out bisexual game writers or developers.Verity Ritchie, "How Bisexuality Changed Video Games" (Sep 3, 2021). Video essay on YouTube. 
====Biphobia in Fandom====
Posts that headcanon characters as bi will sometimes receive comments insisting that the character is a different identity. This tends to be in the form of people arguing that the character’s canon opposite-sex relationships are proof that they are definitively heterosexual, but is not always the casea response to the "Sora is bisexual" tweet saying that all Kingdom Hearts characters are actually asexual and panromantic.
Many fans who are hostile toward queer readings of a character will use the existence of an opposite-sex love interest in canon as proof that the character is heterosexual, treating the character’s attraction to someone of the opposite sex as mutually exclusive from attraction to the same sex.
The essay Bisexuality, Visibility, and Fanfic Labels, or, Being the Blue M&M has an in-depth discussion of biphobia in fandom, with links to other essays on the subject.
Other meta:
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===Bisexuals in Fandom===
Queer folk will often portray m/f pairings as queer in some way, whether as bi or trans etc.
Further reblogs of this post elaborate further on the impact that a fan's bisexuality, or other queer identity, has on that fan's fandom activity, and the lens' with which they navigate their fandoms:
====Bi4Bi====
==Example Fanworks==
===Zines===
*She-Ra Bisexuality Visibility Zine
=== Vids ===
Fanvids featuring bi characters or headcanoning them as such will sometimes use certain songs to explore it:
* Bi Bi Bi
* Getting Bi
* I Think My Girl is Bi
===Recs===
*Recs tagged Bisexual/Pansexual Characters at Fancake
===Fanart===
File:Harrybiflag.png|Harry Potter with the bi pride flag, fanart by Siggi, 2017.
File:A Random Trickster - Representation matters.jpg|Assassin's Creed fanart featuring Ned Wynert holding a large trans pride flag, Leonardo da Vinci with a rainbow pride flag worn as a cape, and both Jacob Frye and Kassandra sheltered under a large bisexual pride flag. The Assassin's Creed symbol in rainbow colors is above Leo's head. By A Random Trickster, 2020.
File:Kion headcanon by uunicornicc.jpg|Kion Headcanon (September 2020) by uunicornicc, featuring Kion from The Lion Guard with the bi pride flag in the corner
File:Pride Pair by missgreeney.jpg|Steven Universe fanart by missgreeney with Greg Universe in a bi pride shirt and Rose Quartz in a tiered pansexual pride dress (2020).
File:Lumity (Pride Month) by Yakiti.jpg|The Owl House fanart by Yakiti featuring Lumity with bi and lesbian pride flag colors (2022).
File:Bubbline Kiss by tuffghostart.jpg|Adventure Time fanart by tuffghostart of Bubbline kissing in a bedroom with a bi pride flag on the wall (2023).
File:Both Is Good Indeed by Sukala-AP.png|Road to El Dorado fanart by Sukala-AP in bi pride colours (2023). Chel and Miguel are depicted simultaneously kissing Tulio on the cheeks. The title (Both Is Good Indeed~) refers to the "both is good" meme.
==Communities & Resources==
*Biphobia tag - Ao3
*Bisexuality tag - Ao3
===LiveJournal===
*Bi Hanson - community for bi fans of Hanson
==References==
Category:Queer
Category:Discussion