Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality by Julia Shaw

25 reviews

ruthhelizabeth's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark hopeful informative medium-paced

4.5

Content Warnings

chilivanilli28's review against another edition

Go to review page

informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

Content Warnings

inkdrinkers's review against another edition

Go to review page

funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

"Bisexual people need to regularly decide whether or not to come out, knowing that if they don't, they will probably be mislabeled as straight or gay."

Julia Shaw's Bi sets out to tackle the misunderstanding around the label that is tied to so many stigmas and negative connotations in our world. Bisexuality is the "invisible" sexuality, often lumped in with the rest of the LGBTQA+ umbrella, but never given spaces to breathe by itself.

I loved how this book chose to not only contextualize bisexuality, but discuss the wider issues with the world seeing sexuality as black and white or gay or straight. There are so many topics covered in this little book that made my heart happy, from discussion of open relationships as early as the 1800s to taking a real, difficult look at erasure of the bi community even though the mother of pride was bisexual.

Admittedly, my favorite section was by far and large the discussion about social identity and the way social media has changed the discussion around sexualities. I loved the small talk about parasocial relationships and how bisexual people who are visibly out are already changing the way culture views and speaks about bisexuality. This was just an overall fascinating read and I'm so glad I picked it up! I'm eagerly planning a trip to get a physical copy because I want to go through and highlight some of my favorite segments and quotes. Shaw had an incredible voice that not only conveyed serious topics but made me laugh out loud multiple times.

I would 100% recommend this read to anyone who is curious and wants to broaden their preconceived notions about sexuality! It's a wealth of information from historical impact to current discussion and I feel like is a wonderful starting point to understand viewpoints that might be different than your own.

Content Warnings: Biphobia/Homophobia/Lesbophobia (all discussed in detail, as it catalogues historical looks at the queer community), sexual violence/sexual assault/rape (mentions in regards to bisexual individuals being more likely/hate crimes), sexism (brief discussion about identities), racism (discussion about identities impacting social standing)

Content Warnings

claire_michelle18's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

4.5

Content Warnings

bumblemee's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective

4.75

I really enjoyed this book. There were a lot of things in there that I already knew about and/or had conversations about, but it was nice to have them explained in this book, including research findings. There were also things that I never thought about before, like being bisexual as a parent or the difficulty of "proving" your sexuality when fleeing your home country because of queerphobic politics. This book touches on a lot of topics and I think it's definitely worth a read, even if your knowledge on queer stuff is quite good, but especially if it isn't. Since it specifically centers bisexality, there is a lot of detail on the specific experiences of bi people, which is interesting since it can be hard to find information on specific parts of the queer community instead of LGBTQ+ as a whole.

Content Warnings

noonanjohnc's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Content Warnings

bashsbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

hopeful informative slow-paced

3.75

This book is informative... to a newly bisexual person entering the community or a particularly good ally. But the advertising made me hopeful that it would be more for someone like me (someone who has been out and entrenched in the bisexual community for a long time). And while I did not feel unwelcome to this book, much of its contents were explaining things I already knew. Therefore, I recommend it as a touchstone and basic primer for bi studies.

*Also, this book treats all multisexual identities as falling 'under the bi umbrella', so if you are pan, poly, omni, etc. this book was written with you in mind, but you may not enjoy the bi-prioritization in the language.

Content Warnings