Mapping the Monosexual Imaginary: Bi+ Identity, Community, and Politics

by Lain A.B. Mathers

Overview

Even though they are the largest sexual minority group in the United States, the lives, joys, and struggles of bi+ people, as well as the social structure of monosexism, are regularly overlooked in social scientific research and broader conversations about sexuality and gender. Mapping the Monosexual Imaginary interrupts this pattern of erasure by providing readers with a sociological examination of sexualities in society that places bi+ people and monosexism at the center of analysis. Through exploring bi+ peoples experiences navigating identity, community, and politics, Lain Mathers argues that to understand and challenge gender and sexual inequalities, we must first recognize and interrogate the structure of monosexism. At a time when attacks on LGBTQ people are increasing, this book offers an incisive examination of how an often-overlooked group within the LGBTQ community makes sense of their place in the world and what we can learn from attending to the specific issues that bi+ people face in society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781666908800
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/07/2024
Series:	Breaking Boundaries: New Horizons in Gender & Sexualities
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Lain A.B. Mathers is associate professor of sociology and affiliated faculty in gender studies at Indiana State University.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: Constructing Bi+ Identity Part I: Navigating Bisexual Stigma

Chapter 2: Constructing Bi+ Identity: Negotiating Pansexual Stigma and the use of Queer

Chapter 3: Navigating LGBTQ Spaces and People

Chapter 4: Navigating Straight Spaces and People

Chapter 5: Justifying Exclusion and Searching for Community

Chapter 6: Framing Bi+ Political Issues

Conclusion

Methodological Appendix

References

About the Author

Editorial Reviews

"For nearly two decades, students have clamored for more bi+ research and come up short in their search—at last, they will be thrilled to find this deeply theorized, empirically rich, and thoroughly definitive investigation into the 'monosexual imaginary' and its sweeping social consequences."

Cati Connell

"Bisexuals, pansexuals, queers—people who “fall in love with a person, not a gender”—form a slight majority of LGBTQ+ people. And yet, overall, we fare worse than gay men and lesbians in nearly every measure of wellbeing. Nearly everyone seems to stigmatize and erase us—heterosexuals, gays and lesbians, even each other and ourselves. For instance, bisexuals are criticized for not “growing up and picking one” sex to be attracted to, and for being too “binary,” as if the prefix “bi-” (which many see as meaning “same or different”) is more “binary” than being attracted only to men or only to women.

In this engaging, interview-based study, Lain Mathers explores how people who identify as bisexual, pansexual, fluid, and/or queer navigate the many and contradictory stigmas they face. Ze ultimately identifies their source as monosexism, the assumption that male and female are mutually exclusive categories whose opposition is so profound that everyone on Earth must experience binary gender as the primary criterion of others’ attractiveness. Mathers argues that to abolish heteronormativity and patriarchy, we must get to the root by addressing the monosexism that scaffolds them both—and create an intersectional, coalitional politics in the process. This is a must-read for anyone who is interested in sexual and gender justice.

Dawne Moon

With crystal-clear prose and captivating interview excerpts, Mapping the Monosexual Imaginary illuminates the interactional processes through which bi+ people are erased, dismissed, and oppressed. Mathers challenges social scientists, sexual minority communities, and society at large to recognize and dismantle implicit monosexism.”

Scott Harris