Cara Delevingne and the Problematic Way We Think About Bisexuality
Whenever I think about the criticism bisexuals face about their sexuality, I think of Charlotte York quipping on Sex and the City, “I'm very into labels; gay, straight—pick a side and stay there.”
To those who don’t know any better, an admitted equal attraction to both sexes feels more like indecisiveness or confusion. Another awful theory tends to point to some sort of past trauma. I have been guilty of making assumptions about bisexuality. Like many gay men, I tried to convince myself that I was bisexual because in my mind at the time, “it sounded better.” And by better, I mean less stigmatizing. All too often, though, we collectively based someone else’s experience on our anecdotes. It’s as often wrong as it is unfair.
So, I could understand the frustration felt by those 12,000 people who signed an online petition over a Vogue profile of Cara Delevingne that suggested her bisexuality might just be a phase.
The original petitioner, Julie Rodriguez, said in an interview: “The idea that queer women only form relationships with other women as a result of childhood trauma is a harmful (and false) stereotype that lesbian and bisexual women have been combating for decades. How could Vogue’s editorial staff greenlight this article and publish it without anyone raising concerns about this dismissive and demeaning language?”
When asked about herself in the New York Times, Delevingne said she found the protest flattering although she saw “nothing malicious” about the article. She was, however, clear on this point: “My sexuality is not a phase. I am who I am.”