This book would not have been possible without the women who lived and loved, laughed and cried, and then laughed and cried again as they opened their hearts and minds and their worlds to us. In particular, we honour the women who have died since the project, including Alice and her partner Paul, Brenda and Soulla (pseudonyms), and Brenda’s partner Edward (pseudonym).

Gochros was thus challenging the stereotype or assumption that women who marry bisexual men differ from other women in having low self-esteem and assertiveness, lack of attractiveness, and latent lesbian or bisexual desires.

 

But only a few months after their wedding, “their life did change”:

Wade returns, handsome as ever, saying, “Won’t you join me back in the limelight, little lady of pain?” However, the finale has Daisy burning down ~the beachhouse she has been isolated in by Raymond to recover, and running away from her Hollywood life of deception and facades: “someone declared war,” she says.

a. Family and friends became supportive and admiring of the couple even if they initially may have been doubtful or negative about the women’s decision to stay with their partners.

 

Indeed, by the mid-1990s, researchers such as Paul (1996) were concluding that bisexual men, although possibly concealing their bisexuality from some partners, were not unmindful of the need to protect their female partners and were less likely than heterosexual men to engage in high-risk sexual activities. Jeffries & Dodge (2007) found that condom use by bisexually active men with their most...

 

Thus, being in the closet is where the multiple-within can be lived with minimal scrutiny and ascription: “While we lied to others, we never lied to each other” (Buxton, 1991: 24). The concept of the closet as a sociopolitical strategy is discussed by many mestizaje borderdwellers:

John tries to explain how coming out at university as gay was a kind of seduction as it meant he “was part of a scene”:

These views of bisexuality construed by religious authorities were known by Christian bisexual research participants in Toft’s research. They stated that homosexuality was “justified as God-given as is heterosexuality, leaving bisexuality as being seen to actively deny the choice to be heterosexual.” This led them to separating their sexual and spiritual lives and...

Nevertheless, even among such difficulty, the protagonist appreciates his bisexuality: “What if I had had just one orientation in my life? Sure if I had been just old me, from my new point of view, life would have seemed tasteless . . . sometimes I think it was an advantage to stand on both sides” (Bouzid, 2010: 81–83).

In 1969, Goodman wrote an essay called The Politics of Being Queer for and about Stonewall-era homosexual and bisexual men. He reflected that

 

Hence, very pertinent to our roles as researchers is Madison’s discussion of research as “co-performative witnessing” (2007: 826). It is “being there and with as a political act in the excavation of subjugated knowledges and belongings for the creation of alternative futures” (2007: 829). As presented in chapter 1, the...

~Abbott, Alicia, 129

~Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli, PhD, is Senior Lecturer in the School of Health and Social Development, Deakin University, researching in gender diversity, cultural diversity, family diversity and sexual diversity. Author and editor of 13 academic and nonacademic books, Maria has won two Lambda (GLBTIQ) Literary Awards in the United...