But today's rant is about the Bisexual Girl, who in Beauty Queens doubles as the Deaf Girl.
What happens in the book is that a plane full of beauty pageant queens crashes on a deserted island (think Lord of the Flies with girls). At one point, the Lesbian is wandering through the jungle, when she rescues the Deaf Bisexual Girl from being eaten by a snake, and falls in love. Before she has any inkling that this girl might not be straight.
Problems so far:
1. The cardinal rule of being gay is DON'T FALL IN LOVE WITH A STRAIGHT PERSON. For us, the question "Are they gay?" has to come before "Do I like them?" Granted, this might just be a me-thing, but it always irks me when I read a book where a girl falls in love with a girl before she has reason to thinks he might not be straight. It just doesn't work like that. To put it simply, heterosexuality is a real turn-off.
2. If I were wandering through the jungle and ran across someone being eaten by a snake and had to rescue them, what are the chances we would have compatible sexualities? If it were me, it would turn out to be a gay man. Seriously.
Anyway, the Lesbian falls for the Bisexual Deaf Girl, who, as she is also a dancer, incites some oddly homoerotic moments with the Lesbian, who draws a fantasy comic with her as a superhero rescuing her love, when the BDG walks in on her, sees the comic, and they make out after only a brief: "Are you gay?" "Are you?"
3. I'm not going to knock the coincidence. The entire premise of the book is ridiculous, and it only gets wackier from their, with government conspiracies and insane third-world dictators. But since BDG is established as bi, she really should have realized that asking the Lesbian to dance with her is rather flirtatious. And since the Lesbian is sort of
There are about two paragraphs dedicated to the fact that the Deaf Girl is bi. And when hot male pirates show up on the island, she doesn't seem to get the slightest bit of enjoyment from the sight of all that man-candy. Sure, she's dating the token Lesbian, but she can still look, can't she?
4. Here we get into the problems extant in the wider literature. YA authors who are big on diversity will throw in a token bi character to date their token gay character, so they can be super-extra representative. The problems arise when bi characters are simply treated as gay characters. Exhibit A, Alex Sanchez's masterpiece of the 90's, Rainbow Boys. The Token Bi here actually dumps his girlfriend to be with the gay main character. Bisexual, sure. Bisexual training wheels maybe. A later book mentions him grinning at the sight of a naked girl, but that's about all we get.
Exhibit B: David Levithan's Boy Meets Boy, and if you ever want to gag on a rainbow made of pure sugar, read that book. Anyway, the bi guy there serves absolutely no function with regards to the plot, and has a backstory of making out with the main character and then claiming he was taken advantage of and really likes girls. This is supposed to be in a fantastical super-tolerant queer utopia. He can't be like "Oh, I'm bi, I guess that's okay"?
Exhibit C: Brent Hartinger's Geography Club. This one is a girl. Who is dating a lesbian. I believe in later books she crushes on a girl. But she keeps referencing the fact that she is bi, and talks about hot guys with her gay bestie.
The root of the problem, I hypothesize, is that it is difficult to realistically portray a character who is attracted to both guys and girls without making them a slut. A character gets only one designated love interest per story, after all, and a love triangle would be tricky because resolving it would make it seem like the author were favoring one orientation over another.
Solutions?
1. Spend time talking about the bisexual character's emotions and development and coming out. Bisexuals never come out! Why is that? Is it somehow not necessary? Are they not a "real" queer unless they are dating a member of the same gender? Is it because bisexual has the word "sex" in it? I don't know. But think about your heterosexual characters, and how they react to characters of the opposite gender who are not their designated love interest. There can be sexual tension without a romantic subplot.
2. A bi girl can date a guy, and still be active in queer rights stuff. Trust me, I know people personally. They don't lose their gay if they start dating someone of the opposite gender. In fact, in brings up interesting plot points. How does the boyfriend feel? Is he weirded out, or chill?
3. Heck, you could have two bisexuals of any gender combination date each other. That would be an interesting relationship dynamic.
4. Back to Beauty Queens: When I saw the two token queers were going to hook up, I groaned and came up with an alternative subplot involving a token bi and a token lesbian. Suppose it is a bitchy lipstick lesbian. In fact, she might be the Psychotic Perfectionist. Then, there's also a bi girl, one of the quiet ones who silently hates the lesbian's guts. *Gasp!* No token queer solidarity/romance? Unthinkable! If this were to happen, I would not even mind if the bi girl were crushing on a straight girl, as long as she eventually got over her. Maybe hooked up with one of the hot pirates. And then the lesbian can date some chick in the epilogue after she becomes a nice person, to prove that homosexual relationships are okay too.
Seriously, not all gays like each other. You can't put a pair of us on a deserted island and expect us to automatically mate, any more than you could put a heterosexual guy and girl on an island and expect them to.
(On the plus side, they don't hookup ever after; they break up amicably and the bi girl is dating a guy in the epilogue, while the lesbian is married. So it ended up not being too bad.)
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