Bi: The Hidden Culture, History and Science of Bisexuality

Bisexuality is the largest sexual minority in the world, but also the least well understood. This book sets out to answer some of the questions that many people have about bisexuality.

In Bi Julia Shaw explores how people have defined and measured bisexuality and its surprisingly long and important history. She introduces us to some famous bi activists and scholars whom everyone should know, looks at behavioural bisexuality in animals, and investigates whether there is a bi gene. She looks at research on bisexual kids, parents, and grandparents, and explores bisexual identities across the lifespan. She asks why so few bisexual people are out, and examines the mental and physical health consequences of this. We look at societal reactions to bisexuality (are bi people more promiscuous? No). We learn whether there is visual language of bisexuality, about bi visibility on screen, and explore the colourful world of bisexual communities.

This book aims to demystify bisexuality and celebrate it. Today, most bisexual activists and researchers define bisexuality as attraction to more than one gender and this is a book for anyone whether they identify as bisexual, plurisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual, fluid, unlabelled, any related label, or who just wants to know more.