“Taking Back My Bi Identity”: A Discourse Theoretical Analysis of Bisexual Identity Articulations in Bisexual Women Quarterly Between 2009 and 2024

Abstract Book of the 5th International Conference on LGBT studies

Year: 2026

[PDF]

“Taking Back My Bi Identity”: A Discourse Theoretical Analysis of Bisexual Identity Articulations in Bisexual Women Quarterly Between 2009 and 2024

Maedbh Pierce

ABSTRACT:

In “Taking Up Queer Space: A Story About Taking Back My Bi Identity,” the author, Monique, recounts their experience of resisting intra-community biphobia by taking up space at a queer karaoke bar. The author, who recounts biphobia from their first time coming out to present everyday life, identifies resistance as a core tenet of bisexual identity, in their case, resisting stereotypes and exclusion. This qualitative study assesses diverse articulations, such as Monique’s, of bisexual identity in Bisexual Women Quarterly, the longest-running and largest magazine for bisexual women. Theoretically, this study is underwritten by Laclau and Mouffe’s social ontology of discourse theory, which recognises language as a sociolinguistic site wherein power is perpetually negotiated. Synthesised with Judith Butler’s similarly post-structuralist theory of identity and bisexual theory as outlined by Eisner (2013), these underpinnings provide a theoretical backbone to this paper, which analyses a sample of 50 texts from Bisexual Women Quarterly. This paper takes fifteen years (2009 – 2024) and offers insight into the transitions in articulations of bisexual identity during this period. In terms of methodology, this study applies a discourse-theoretical analysis. The study finds fluid and heterogeneous articulations of bisexual identity, reflecting the ethos of the publication as an alternative community media outlet which platforms the voices of its voluntary community-based contributors.

Keywords: Bisexual; Bisexual Women Quarterly; Gender Theory; Discourse Theory; LGBTQ+