who likes bisexual protagonists?

[Haruna]

there are now many bisexuals but I never see any bisexual protagonists

 

[Mejiro]

My story has a bisexual protagonist! Although is more focused on adventuring shenanigans and awkward party dynamics (https://www.scribblehub.com/series/51510/adventures-of-the-goldthirst-company/ for the obligatory self-promotion).

 

[yansusustories]

Well, according to the series finder, there are currently almost 50 stories with a bisexual protagonist. So I wouldn't say that there are none at all. You'll just have to search around for a bit. There are also several stories that were tagged for a pansexual protagonist with some that are tagged for both but not all.

 

[DocB]

in times of war every hole is a shelter
by random dude, ww2

 

[BenJepheneT]

if your character is well written and is coincidentally bisexual, then yeah, I would like that character

contrastingly, if your character's only defining trait is that he's a pendulum that swings both ways then count me out

 

[AliceShiki]

Tbh, I generally don't see much appeal in creating a bisexual character. I mean, you can play with it in Gender Bender pretty well if you want to make the character start questioning their romantic orientation once their gender changes, but aside from that... Do you really gain anything in your story by having your character like both genders?

I mean, it's not like it needs to add something to your story in order to allow you to make a bisexual character, but I can't really reason why I'd make one in the first place, so it's the kind of thing that didn't even cross my mind.

Maybe if I saw a story that played well with the bisexuality of the MC and made it matter I'd change my opinion, but for now... It feels kinda pointless to add that to a story to me.

 

[gaylolis]

i always steer clear of girls' love stories if they have bisexual protagonist tag. i came there for girl on girl romance and i don't want some guy involved.

 

[BenJepheneT]

Tbh, I generally don't see much appeal in creating a bisexual character. I mean, you can play with it in Gender Bender pretty well if you want to make the character start questioning their romantic orientation once their gender changes, but aside from that... Do you really gain anything in your story by having your character like both genders?

I mean, it's not like it needs to add something to your story in order to allow you to make a bisexual character, but I can't really reason why I'd make one in the first place, so it's the kind of thing that didn't even cross my mind.

Maybe if I saw a story that played well with the bisexuality of the MC and made it matter I'd change my opinion, but for now... It feels kinda pointless to add that to a story to me.

contrastingly, if you can make a bisexual character get in a love triangle with BOTH genders and execute it well enough, you'd have my full attention

 

[AliceShiki]

contrastingly, if you can make a bisexual character get in a love triangle with BOTH genders and execute it well enough, you'd have my full attention

You can do that for sure, though you'd need to do it pretty well to feel very different from any other love triangle involving 2 members of the same gender~

But yes, it's something that can only be done properly with a bisexual protagonist~

 

[SillyIslandBum]

Is sex a big part of the story? I think it’s only important if the MC is going to be having multiple relationships throughout the story, which is more likely in a contemporary novel or harem. If the MC can be straight or bisexual without changing anything in the story, then what’s the point in saying they’re bisexual? Tags? Inclusivity?

 

[PrincessFelicie]

Wow my biphobia radar is picking up on some mildly bad vibes in this thread. I'd recommend toning it down a bit.

If the story isn't a romantic one, yeah, you'd think bringing up that a character is bi is questionable... But so is bringing up that they're straight by that logic, no? If we can have non-romantic stories where the main character is still identifiable as straight by some throw away detail or another, what's the harm in doing the same with other orientations? Representation matters and it doesn't need to always be a Big Important Thing The Entire Story Revolves Around.

If their orientation IS important to the plot though, it really sucks when you tell us the protagonist is bi but then you only ever have them crush on one gender the entire story.

 

[BenJepheneT]

If the story isn't a romantic one, yeah, you'd think bringing up that a character is bi is questionable... But so is bringing up that they're straight by that logic, no? If we can have non-romantic stories where the main character is still identifiable as straight by some throw away detail or another, what's the harm in doing the same with other orientations?

nobody in this thread ever expressed the harm in mentioning other orientations, nor the mentioning of orientations itself at all. all we want is a protagonist that's interesting to read and exciting to follow. if you want a throw away detail signalling your character's bisexuality, by all means go ahead; no one ever said no.

what we're saying here is more of a critique from OP's question. why explicitly mention bisexual characters? let's say i read two books and both of them had bisexual protagonists. if one of them is written well while the other one is written bad, what am I supposed to say? what the others are pointing out is that if you have to explicitly state that your character is bisexual without a hint of subtlety nor care towards the tone or theme, it's gonna come off more as a pander than a representation. unless it's a romantic story or a subplot, why should I focus on whether the guy I'm reading is straight, gay, or a pendulum?

the bad vibes you're picking from here isn't biphobia but a misunderstanding of context. if you want to make a bisexual character, go for it, we couldn't care less; but don't shove it in our faces screaming like it's the only thing focus to your character.

 

[PrincessFelicie]

Yikes, Ben, yikes. "Good" writing or "bad" writing without any indicator as to what you mean with each is so meaningless it ends up coming off as a thinly veiled excuse to just hate people that are vocal about their protag being bi.
And "I'm okay with it just don't shove it in my face" is WORD FOR WORD what queerphobic idiots have been saying since the 70s. Drop that sentence out of your vocabulary immediately because even with as much benefit of the doubt as humanly possible it's still only ever gonna come off as extremely bigoted whether you intend it to or not.

 

[AliceShiki]

Wow my biphobia radar is picking up on some mildly bad vibes in this thread. I'd recommend toning it down a bit.

I think most people weren't really being biphobic or anything in this thread, like uhn... In my comment for example, I mainly pointed out that I, as an author, don't see much reason to make my protagonist bisexual.

... Though well, I usually write romance, so it would feel pretty weird to have the sexual orientation of a character be a throwaway detail... Like, I feel like I'd really have to make it matter if I were to write about it, and I don't see much appeal in making it matter as opposed to making a strictly homosexual or strictly heterosexual character.

If their orientation IS important to the plot though, it really sucks when you tell us the protagonist is bi but then you only ever have them crush on one gender the entire story.

That's the main thing to me, like... I generally prefer to work with only one pairing and not get tangled into love triangles and what not (interestingly enough, I love reading about love triangles and all the drama it can cause (I love drama! xD), but not writing about it), so it feels really weird to introduce a character with a bisexual orientation if they'll only love one person from beginning until the end of the story.

Like, in my last story (Which is GL), I considered making the first love of my MC a guy and have that being explored in flashbacks and stuff... But then I kinda thought about it and was like... Why not just make her ex a girl instead? It felt simpler, so that's what I did.

I dunno, it just feels like it would be weird to have a romance story with a bisexual main character that never really showed any attraction to the opposite gender except in flashbacks. At least that's how it feels to me.

 

[yansusustories]

I think most people weren't really being biphobic or anything in this thread

I also think that preferences in regard to novels shouldn't be equated with someone's stance on the LGBT+ community or any other community for that matter. Like, a person can not enjoy reading/writing about someone from a group of people but that doesn't automatically mean they hate them IMO. It also doesn't mean that they don't want others to write/read about them. It just means it's not for them and I think that's alright. Nobody has to like everything and they should be allowed to say that.

I do agree with what @Taxouck said about the representation though:

Representation matters and it doesn't need to always be a Big Important Thing The Entire Story Revolves Around.

There's something called bi-erasure. Bisexual people in real life are sometimes confronted with beliefs like 'they're straight if they date a person of the other gender', 'they're gay but in denial', 'bisexuality doesn't even exist', and other stuff like that. Having the validity of their sexuality acknowledged in stories - even if they're not a major plot point - can already mean a lot to them.
So I think if an author feels like having a bisexual protagonist, then they shouldn't feel discouraged from bringing it up just because it's not that important for the story. Heck, it doesn't even have to be on-the-nose by stating 'they're bisexual', it can be shown by very small details throughout the story.

 

[Neviance]

I don't care personally. Not that I'm against it, I just don't mind either way.

 

[binarysoap]

I'm okay with it just don't shove it in my face

the bad vibes you're picking from here isn't biphobia but a misunderstanding of context. if you want to make a bisexual character, go for it, we couldn't care less; but don't shove it in our faces screaming like it's the only thing focus to your character.

Representation matters and it doesn't need to always be a Big Important Thing The Entire Story Revolves Around.

I really don't see what Ben said that would be an issue. He's actually agreeing with you here, by saying that he wants a bisexual character with actual depth instead of one that is solely and only defined by their bisexuality.
Still don't see the biphobia. Maybe since other communities are rather anti-LGBT, you're conditioned to see it everywhere? Relax, SH is a very welcoming place .

 

[PrincessFelicie]

Let me clarify what I meant: it was not overt "I don't want bi people to exist" type biphobia, but a much less egregious "Bi people are valid but it's pretty clear I haven't gotten rid of all my hangups on them yet" type. Less anti-bi, and more ally that accidentally says something biphobic because they never realized it was biphobic, hence why I'd said the vibes were only mildly bad. I'm merely advising to take a step back and rethink if there's any assumptions about queer people y'all've picked up and haven't taken the time to confront since.

 

[yansusustories]

I thought about how I should say this for quite a while but I still haven't come to a satisfying conclusion and I feel like this is going to sound offensive no matter how I phrase it so I'll just go ahead.

Personally, I have always hated this 'rethink' or 'think about it by yourself' "advice" because, let's face it, if everyone knew what they're supposedly doing wrong, they wouldn't do it in the first place. And I mean you kinda said it yourself:

ally that accidentally says something biphobic because they never realized it was biphobic

People don't just realize stuff if it's not appropriately pointed out to them. Anyway, I've tried and reread the whole thread, but I still fail to see people (like, the ones actually discussing) talking about queer people per se instead of just discussing their preferences of writing and reading novels and I still do not comprehend how that is any kind of biphobic.

So which assumptions do you think we've all picked up? (Honest question - in case the internet needs me to point that out.)

 

[PrincessFelicie]

I don't like going into specific callouts because it can turn sour super quickly, but in this specific situation I'm afraid if I don't I'll be accused of jumping at shadows.

Spoiler: specifics of the mild biphobia in this thread so far

"only defining trait" is a phrasing homophobes often use to fabricate "good" queer people they "respect" and "bad" queer people they don't ("they make it their whole personality!")

A bit more minor, but assuming that bisexuality is just a way to "insert men into GL stories" when bisexuality can be "attracted to two or more gender identities" (e.g. being attracted to women, non-binary identities, but not men, would still count as bisexuality), though the knowledge that bisexuality is "two or more gender identities" rather than "men and women" isn't really spread outside of the queer community so I can excuse that one

The moment you can't conceive of a reason for having a bi character, thinking it's a thinly-veiled attempt at grabbing tags and therefore attracting viewers (please, we're small passion writers, not Disney) before thinking it could be that the author is a bisexual person in want of representation