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Sixth Form Girls and Bisexual Burden

Anderson, E.; McCormack, M.; Ripley, M.

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Authors

E. Anderson

M. McCormack

M. Ripley



Abstract

Much of the literature concerning sexual minorities describes various forms of social mistreatment, alongside the psychological ill effects of minority stress. However, bisexual individuals are often described as having additional burdens compared with other sexual minorities. We conceptualise the collective of these social problems as ‘bisexual burden’, and examine for it through the lived experiences of 15 openly bisexual girls (aged 16–17) from sixth form colleges throughout the UK. We show that, among this cohort, decreasing cultural stigma attached to sexual minorities results in participants being more accepted by their heterosexual and gay peers, compared to previous literature, mostly without the negative components of bisexual burden. We find that when mistreatment does occur, it does so immediately after she comes out; however, this diminishes quickly due to the cultural unacceptability of homo/biphobia in these settings.

Citation

Anderson, E., McCormack, M., & Ripley, M. (2016). Sixth Form Girls and Bisexual Burden. Journal of Gender Studies, 25(1), 24-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2013.877383

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 10, 2013
Online Publication Date Jan 13, 2014
Publication Date Jan 1, 2016
Deposit Date Dec 11, 2013
Publicly Available Date Apr 14, 2014
Journal Journal of Gender Studies
Print ISSN 0958-9236
Electronic ISSN 1465-3869
Publisher Taylor and Francis Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 25
Issue 1
Pages 24-34
DOI https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2013.877383
Keywords Bisexuality, Bisexual burden, Biphobia, Female, Youth, Sexuality.

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