Bisexual Epistemologies: A Journey from Nausea to Commitment
An occasional piece by
Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD
For The Journal of Bisexuality’s 10th Anniversary Issue
Hi dear readers!
This seven-in-one piece will be great fun–yours truly promises. Find out all the ins and outs of 10 years of Bisexuality! What does “epistemology”mean? Big word, right? Well, all it means is that when you’re making love you’re producing knowledge. A good thing!
We follow What Wisdom Accrued to Me? with the Conclusion. If you followed us this far, we hope you found this seven-in-one piece really revealing of all those things about bi you’ve always been curious about. Why is it so good? What can it do for you? For the planet? For the future? For authentic intimacy? It’s all here, spiced with a bit of irony and critique of why we’re so behind on our agenda. What’s keeping us from being more efficient.
Also arcane words you’ve been told have no meaning unless you got a PhD are explained–made very easy! “Nausea,” “existentialism”: it’s all about the chakra system–really. Commitment? It’s not about going to jail (as in, “being committed”). But rather, it’s about “being-in-action” about things. Being the one who makes the difference! No mysteries. Woooooow! Come back for more, will you? We’ll post every week, on Tuesdays.
Namaste,
Serena
7. Conclusion
At the end of my journey, I would like to conclude with a few remarks about the itinerary. I was not sure how I would respond to the call that so acknowledged me as one who had at least tried to do my part. Now I have done it, and I can claim that the very act of doing it is proof of my commitment. Yet it’s not so simple.
In a decade of assault on civil liberties, cuts to education, disparagement of public service, augmented pollution, an expanded military machine, human rights violations, climate instability, and continuing fears of infection and accompanying fears of physical and emotional intimacy, it has not been exactly easy to keep running this Journal. Its central trope–when considered in its holographic multiplicity, in its plural transdisciplinary perspectives–sears through the barriers of blindness and mistrust at the root of the misdirected energies and use of resources we’ve been witnessing.
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| Fritz Klein, of 100 {a9d64f7890d157e71e6efcce19e215a5f853c7f4151cde0b7bf7aada464173f6} intimacy |
The editorial wisdom of rhetorician extraordinaire Jonathan Alexander has been of much help in maintaining the amplitude of the discursive arena while improving the quality of the issues. Yet this is not sufficient. Research is done on a scientific basis, and therefore is neutral–transparent if you wish. However, research has an effect on people. Why do I have to hear that bisexuality is so under-resourced? Do we need the Human Rights Commission to remind us that funding is necessary when it comes to seeding the culture of research in bisexuality the Journal needs to prosper and serve its multiple constituencies–let alone the culture as a whole? Ten years of bisexuality can mean ten years of research production and access to reliable knowledge about this trope that really empowers bisexual people to live better and more authentic lives. It can produce an appreciation and reverence for bisexuality and for the multiple talents it inspires in the arts of loving. It can empower its practitioners’ enhanced capability to produce what Fritz Klein called “100 Percent intimacy.” Have we done this? I wish I could say yes. A new decade of bisexuality is beginning. Let’s keep that vision in mind when we proceed.
Works Cited
Anapol, Deborah. “A Glimpse of Harmony.” In Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio ed. Plural Loves: Designs for Bi and Poly Living: 109-120. New York: Routledge, 2005.
______ . Polyamory in the 21st Century. New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2010.
______ . Polyamory: The New Love without Limits. San Rafael: Intinet Resource Center, 1997.
Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena. “A City in the Forest: Gaia in the Postmodern Contact Zones of
Auroville’s Wider Intentional Community un Tamil Nadu, India.” In Fatima Viera ed, Spaces of Utopia: An Electronic Journal: 1 (Spring 2006): 56-89. <http://ler.letras.up.pt > ISSN 1646-4729.
______ . “In Absentia: Eulogy and Introduction.” The Journal of Bisexuality: 6: 4 (2006): 1-5.
______ . “Bisexual Games and Emotional Sustainability in Ferzan Ozpetek’s Queer Films.” The Journal of Bisexuality: 6: 4 (2006): 121-134.
______ . Gaia and the New Politics of Love. Berkeley: North Atlantic books, 2009.
______ . “The Lie with the Ounce of Truth: Lillian Hellman’s Bisexual Fantasies.” In Women and Bisexuality: A Global Perspective: 87-116). New York: Routledge, 2003.
______ . “Plural Happiness: Bi and Poly Triangulations in Balasko’s French Twist.” In Bisexuality and Queer Theory. The Journal of Bisexuality 9: 3-4: (July-December 2010): 343-362.
______ . Poly Planet GAIA. http://polyplanet.blogspot.com
Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena ed. Women and Bisexuality: A Global Perspective. New York: Routledge, 2003.
______ ed. Plural Loves: Designs for Bi and Poly Living. New York: Routledge, 2005.
Alexander, Jonathan, and Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio eds. Bisexuality and Queer Theory: Intersections, Diversions, and Connections. The Journal of Bisexuality: 9: 3-4 (July-Dicember 2009).
Anderlini-D’Onofrio, Serena and Brian Zamboni eds. BiTopia: Selected Proceedings from BiReCon, the 2010 Bisexual Research Conference. The Journal of Bisexuality, in production.
Balasko, Josiane. French Twist. France: Claude Berri and Pierre Grunstein, 1995.
Bass, Alison. Side Effects. Chapel Hill: Algonquin Books, 2008.
Dean, Tim. Unlimited Intimacy: Reflections on the Subculture of Barebacking. University of Chicago Press, 2009.
Dodson, Betty. “We Are All Quite Queer.” In Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, ed. Plural Loves: Designs for Bi and Poly Living: 155-164. New York: Routledge, 2005.
Edlow, Jonathan. The Deadly Dinner Party. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2011.
Fitzgerald, Randall. The Hundred-Year Lie. New York: Plume, 2007.
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Kinsey, Alfred. Sexual Behavior in the Human Female. Philadelphia: Saunders 1953.
______ . Sexual Behavior in the Human Male. Philadelphia: Saunders, 1948.
Klein, Fritz. The Bisexual Option: Second Edition. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1993.
LGBT Advisory Committee. Bisexual Invisibility: Impacts and Recommendations. San Francisco Human Rights Commission, 2011.
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. One Hundred Years of Solitude. New York: Harper, 2006.
Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran. New York: Random House 2008.
______ . Things I’ve Been Silent About. New York: Random House, 2010.
Ozpetek, Ferzan. Hamam. Rome: Checchi Gori, 1997.
______ . The Ignorant Fairies (a.k.a. His Secret Life). Rome: Medusa, 2001.
Reich, Wilhelm. Character Analysis. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1980.
______ . The Function of the Orgasm: Discovery of the Orgone. New York: Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1986.
Pallotta-Chiarolli, Maria. “Outside Belonging.” Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio ed. Women and Bisexuality: 53-86. New York: Routledge, 2003.
Peterson, Melody. Our Daily Meds. New York: Picador, 2009.
Sartre, Jean Paul. Nausea. New York: New Directions, 2007.
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Yours truly appreciates your attention. Stay tuned for more wonders.
Namaste,
Serena Anderlini-D’Onofrio, PhD
Gilf Gaia Extraordinaire
Author of Gaia and the New Politics of Love and many other books
Professor of Humanities
Professor of Humanities
University of Puerto Rico, Mayaguez
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