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Concept
Biphobia
Summary
Biphobia is aversion toward bisexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being bisexual. Similarly to homophobia, it refers to hatred and prejudice specifically against those identified or perceived as being in the bisexual community. It can take the form of denial that bisexuality is a genuine sexual orientation, or of negative stereotypes about people who are bisexual (such as the beliefs that they are promiscuous or dishonest). Other forms of biphobia include bisexual erasure.
The hatred of bisexual women and femmes, being a form of prejudice at the intersection of biphobia and misogyny, is referred to as bimisogyny or less commonly bisexism. This is a gendered form of biphobia that accounts for intersectionality in discussions on bigotry.
Biphobia is a portmanteau word patterned on the term homophobia. It derives from the Latin prefix bi-(meaning "two, double") and the root -phobia (from the φόβος, phóbos, "fear") found in homophobia. Along with transphobia and homophobia, it is one of a family of terms used to describe intolerance and discrimination against LGBT people. The adjectival form biphobic describes things or qualities related to biphobia, and the less-common noun biphobe is a label for people thought to harbor biphobia.
The term biphobia was first introduced in 1992 by researcher Kathleen Bennett to mean "prejudice against bisexuality" and "the denigration of bisexuality as a life-choice." It has subsequently been defined as "any portrayal or discourse denigrating or criticizing men or women on the sole ground of their belonging to this [bisexual] socio-sexual identity, or refusing them the right to claim it."
Biphobia need not be a phobia as defined in clinical psychology (i.e., an anxiety disorder). Its meaning and use typically parallel those of xenophobia.
Bisexual erasure
Biphobia can lead people to deny that bisexuality is real, asserting that people who identify as bisexual are not genuinely bisexual, or that the phenomenon is far less common than they claim.
Official source
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