Thesis Proposal
92122008
Jessica, Shen
Pro. Nai-fei, Ding
Bisexual Practices as Queer Politics: Taiwan an Alternative
“Bisexual” has been an ambiguous sexual identity of contemporary sexual
distinctions or whether it constitutes a sexual identity remains a controversial debate
as well. Therefore, all the stereotypes and stigmatizations1 towards bisexual reveal
very important facts and complexities that we seldom pay attention to, the problems
and oppressions of given sex/ gender system, the constrain of monogamy and
ignorance of fluidity of human sexuality; thus these result in the dual violence of
“compulsory heterosexual” and “compulsory homosexual.” But we could not deny
the real existence of active flowing and fluidity of human sexuality. The frequent
realization of my topic, “bisexual practices,” the sexual practices realizing either
bisexual desire or bisexual behavior with or without sexual identity, including people
who identify themselves as bisexual opens up the vision for us to reconsider and
reexamine what constitutes such ambiguity and controversy of bisexual identity at
present time. Through analyzing the representation of the historical trajectory of
bisexual practices, I would like to present the dynamic transition of how people
understand bisexual practices under different historical conditions since the
understanding of historical transition of bisexual practices would be very crucial and
meaningful for gender/ sexuality liberation movement at present time and in the
future.
This proposal consists of three main parts. One tackles with how “bisexual” is
defined and understood in Anglo-American world and in Taiwan’s context. The
second part deals with the “categorization of bisexual” by reexamining Kinsey’s
categorization on male sexual orientations and tries to reconsider the definition and
the category of “bisexual.” The third part tackles the trajectory of my term “bisexual
practices”2 in Taiwan’s cultural context through representative theses dealing with
gay/ lesbian issues as well as selected media reports; on the other hand, through
appropriating Kinsey’s categorization of bisexual, I intend to reconsider whether the
category of bisexual is proper or suitable in Taiwan’s context. That is, in the
1
Bisexual has been known as being under the transition period to homosexual, the sexual minorities in
homosexual communities, swinger who do not give up their heterosexual privileges, lead dual life and
have no fixed sexual identification, and homosexual who are in the closet, etc.
2
Bisexual practices are the realization of either bisexual desire or bisexual behavior with or without
sexual identity.
1
socio-cultural context of Taiwan, I attempt to discuss the frequent realization of
bisexual practices through historical trajectory represented in the newspapers, other
relative historical records, present given theses concerned with gay/ lesbian issues and
certain internet forums on BBS boards expressing the realization of bisexual practices
and discussing bisexual conditions. In view of the trajectory of bisexual practices in
Taiwan’s context, on the one hand, it would provide an alternative perspective on how
homosexual behaviors have been realized and understood under diverse historical
conditions; on the other hand, it would empower the potential and emancipative
conditions for the GLBT movement, not constrained within the frame of homosexual
and heterosexual only, but challenged the given and recognized sex/ gender structure
in accordance with the historical transformation.
In addition, this thesis also aims to assert that bisexual practices have been one of
various sexual practices in Taiwan’s cultural context, instead of claiming that bisexual
practices used to be the only mode of sexual practices. In other words, through
exploring the trajectory of bisexual practices, the focus still keeps the same argument
and ground base that the human sexuality has been multi-dimensional and it is the
various forces especially in agreeing to become “modern” that make the process of
categorizing come about. And this limited categorization results in painful costs
since from then on people understand the world by the process of making distinctions
and understand themselves through Others or Differences.
Brief introduction on the concepts of bisexuality and the formation of bisexual
community in gender/ sexuality movements in Anglo-American world
In view of the original concept of bisexuality, it is quite different from how we
know it today and has its transition in accordance with the contemporary
understanding of bisexuality. According to Henry Havelock Ellis’s Studies in the
Psychology of Sex, Volume I: Sexual Inversion, Ellis follows the earlier example of
German sexologist Krafft-Ebing in categorizing men and women sexually desiring
both sexes as ‘psychosexual hermaphroditism’ and the word “bisexuality” is used to
refer to the existence of two biological sexes within a species, or to the coincidence of
male and female characteristics within a single body (Bowie 1992; Storr 1997, 1998b).
This usage of bisexuality changes in the third edition of Studies published in 1915 and
Ellis extends its meaning to “cover not just sexual dimorphism but also the sexual
desire for both women and men experienced by some of his subjects”(Storr 16).
Such extension of the term is following the popular usage of the time and this
therefore suggests that the term ‘bisexuality’ began to be widely used in this sense in
English during the first few years of the twentieth century (16).
Except for the transition of the term, bisexuality, psychoanalysis provides
2
alternative dimensions towards “bisexuality” as well. The widespread popular
concept that all persons are bisexual comes from the ideas of psychoanalyst Wilhelm
Stekel, a follower of Freud. Stekel develops Freud’s ideas by presenting bisexuality
not as the combination of masculinity and femininity as what Freud asserts but as the
combination of heterosexuality and homosexuality. Therefore, such ideas about
bisexuality influence Fritz Klein’s grid on human sexual orientation that would
function as the supplement in explaining the fluidity or continuum of human sexuality,
which is quite vague in Kinsey’s scale on male human sexuality.3
The concepts on bisexuality have diverse discourses and the common and
popular understanding of bisexuality in public nowadays has been referred to the
sexual practices of people who have the sexual relationship with their same or
opposite sex. It is under such understanding of bisexuality that provides the
foundation for the development of the bisexual community.
In view of the historical development of bisexual movement in Anglo-American
world, before the essentialistic and exclusionary mechanisms got involved, according
to Stephen Donaldson’s description on historical nuances of that time, the bisexual
practices were rarely singled out or criticized and had been working to “challenge
existing sexual assumptions and restrictions”4 (Donaldson 32; Tucker, “Bay Area
Bisexual History” 48-49). In a sense, the bisexual practices were allowed and
empowered potential subversive forces towards gender/ sexuality liberation
movements.
It was in the 1960s that the gender/ sexuality liberation movements started to
define their terms and politics. Gay and lesbian communities had been entangled
with the women’s movement in their political positions and political claims at this
historical moment. Thus, it was under such condition that gay and lesbian
communities, especially the lesbians, reconsider their relationships with feminists and
their own position politically. In a sense, the lesbian community faces two crucial
problems. One was the relationship with feminists externally, while the other was
the coming up issue on differences in the community internally. The existence of
bisexual and other sexual minorities gradually had become the crucial issues in gay
and lesbian communities. Therefore, the appealing and powerful trend of
3
Kinsey’s scale on male human sexuality is the foundation of my argument in this proposal and it
would be discussed in the section of Kinsey’s categorization.
4
By juxtaposition of the trajectories of bisexual practices between Anglo-American world and Taiwan,
it has certain similarities and differences within diverse historical complexities. The similar condition
is the emergence of gay identity under the influence of capitalism but within different cultural context.
Therefore, the political economy of each cultural context plays very important role in understanding the
formation of sexual identities historically and its development and influence for the GLBT movement
afterwards and in the future. The functions and influences of capitalism in Taiwan’s context would be
discussed in detail in the following chapter.
3
essentialistic and exclusionary notions of identity politics5 in the gay and lesbian
communities revealed the internal differences of gay and lesbian communities. In
other words, this concerned the reflexive ideas of “what constitutes identity.” Thus,
the problem of differences came up and debates on monotonous sexual identity
allowed gay and lesbian communities the chance to rethink the given distinctions of
sexual identities between homosexual and heterosexual.
However, the essentialistic and exclusionary trend indirectly categorized and
constructed what bisexuality was as Udis-Kessler noted that such tendencies might
“change bisexuality from a potential-for-either to a requirement for both
identity…”(“Bisexuality in an Essentialistic World” 60). Obviously, here shows the
existing gender/ sexuality prejudices and refinements of homosexual and heterosexual
that produce diverse effects on the bisexual subjects in the essentialistic and
exclusionary trend.6 In addition, the moral evaluations and judgments on the
bisexual subjects would be more intensive and severe than those on the heterosexual
and the homosexual since the distinctions of sexual categories require the definite
sexual orientations and sexual identities without any ambiguity. In a sense, the
pressure from dual sides conveys the embedded and deep anxiety and insecurity
towards bisexuals who are taken as the potential corruption of monogamy of the
heterosexual and whose position threatens the active construction of sexual
identification of the homosexual community.
Finally the bisexuals separated themselves from the gay and lesbian communities.
That is, while the bisexual became aware of their needs to voice for their difference in
GLBT, their voices were silenced at the same time. Therefore, it was at that
historical moment that the bisexuals reexamine their own existence in the gay and
lesbian communities and became aware of the necessity to have their own
communities to state for their own diversity and clarify their stigmatizations and
misunderstandings of the public. Thus the first bisexual group developed in the
1970s in large U.S. cities and initiated the sexual liberation movement quite actively.
In addition to the establishment of bisexual communities, the different
experience of bisexual in terms of diverse sexes could be seen in the frame of the
given gender/ sexuality; that is, some arguments would resort to such diverse
perceptions to “the harsh realities of existing gender inequality.” It seems that it has
no avoidance in facing the entanglements of differences in communities since the
5
The notion of identity politics in gay and lesbian community has its complexity and debates in its
historical development. This article would not deal with it but would take identity politics as the
historical product for the gay and lesbian communities in terms of gender/ sexuality liberation
movement.
6
It is unavoidable for the essentialistic and exclusionary trend at that historical moment since gay and
lesbian communities need to clearly demonstrate and voice for themselves under the nuances of
gender/ sexuality liberation.
4
specificities of individual have been divided so fragmentarily and specifically that we
could only understand the world by categorizing with cruel and limited categories like
what religions we keep, what classes we belong to, what races we are and so on.
The process of categorization extends everywhere in our living world and the human
sexuality is no exception in this “modern” world.
Introduction of the Bisexual in Taiwan’s context
Situated in particular cultural context, it is the specific historical condition that
makes the emergence of bisexual identity possible in Anglo-American world. In
Taiwan’s context, “bisexuality” remains as a quite ambiguous and vague concept and
even further, whether bisexual constitutes as a sexual identity or not is quite
controversial. The term appears quite recently relating to the report on the social
events about the homosexual on the one side and the emergence of AIDS in the 1980s
on the other side in the newspaper. Therefore, the term “bisexual” simultaneously is
no escape from the process of pathologizing as what had happened towards
homosexual before. However, the bisexuals are perceived quite differently from the
homosexual and attendant stigmas, prejudices and misunderstandings such as the
swingers and the homosexuals who are in the closet, etc; they have been put under the
oppressions from both ends, the homosexual and the heterosexual.
However, the researches on the historical development of bisexual practices in
academic field are quite insufficient in Taiwan and it is one of the expectations of this
paper to dig out and map the appearance and transformative conditions of bisexual
practices in Taiwan’s context. Therefore, this research aims not to represent the
static social fact of the frequent realization of bisexual practices, but to present the
dynamic and “continuous” condition of bisexual practices. It is through the
representation of such continuous condition of bisexual practices that render us the
visions to understand the present sexual practices or even reconsider how the present
sexual distinctions come into being by reexamining the interaction and struggles
among various forces. By using the term “bisexual practices” has its significance
since the sexual identity of bisexual remains as a controversial issue and faces the
crucial and turning point if taken it as an alternative sexual identity. That is, if taken
bisexual as an alternative sexual identity, it may constrain within the prison of identity
politics without seeing the oppression of given sex/ gender system. And the paper
aims not to define what bisexual is or to discuss the potential emergence of bisexual
community in the future, but on the one hand to present the frequent realization of
“bisexual practices” in our daily life no matter with definite sexual identity or not and
on the other hand to try to map out the trajectory of bisexual practices in Taiwan’s
context and thereafter reconsider the emergence of sexual identity of homosexual in
5
its developmental process. Owing to the serious lack of the research materials, I
select some given bisexual discourses and the represented bisexual subjects from the
gay and lesbian discourses and try to construct the ways how the bisexual have been
represented and understood in terms of diverse viewpoints.
The representative condition of bisexual in Taiwan’s GLBT movement and in
other discourses
Unlike the development of the bisexual in Anglo-American world who organized
their own communities under its specific historical condition, the conditions of the
bisexual within the gay and lesbian communities in Taiwan would have been
represented as more subordinate and invisible7 nowadays since people’s
understandings of sexual identities and sexual orientations have been limited to
homosexual and heterosexual; the alternative sexual identities and sexual orientations
are relatively unimaginable, let alone that the bisexual subjects be given the chance or
political contingency to develop their communities. Therefore, the diverse sexual
stigmas and discriminations could be seen in accordance with diverse classes, sexes,
ages, sexual orientations and ethnics. The given representative discourses about
bisexual have lots of various dimensions such as the discourse in terms of the GLBT
movement, the bisexual subjects articulating their ambivalence by demonstrating the
violence of “homosexual hegemony,” the discourse in terms of counseling perspective,
the concern about the bisexual subjects interact with ideological state apparatuses, and
the discourses about the married gays who experience similar conditions as bisexual
males.
According to Gian Jia-shin’s statement on the condition of the bisexual in lesbian
community, it is said that the lesbian communities have avoided the exclusion of the
bisexual since the lesbian communities attempt to corrupt the binary opposition
between the homosexual and the heterosexual by containing the heterosexual
experience of the members in the communities. Such avoidance of exclusion for
Gian could be understood as the expression of “politics of difference,” but this
avoidance of exclusion also results in the reliance, constrains and oppressions for the
condition of the bisexual. This is probably why the condition of the bisexual in
Taiwan still remains under the situation of subordinate and invisible and the
possibility of constructing the bisexual communities remains lots of complexity to
consider.
The bisexual subjects’ claiming for “homosexual hegemony” is the discourses
7
The invisibility of bisexual has its specific condition. Unlike the condition of transgender who
challenges the categories of male and female physically, bisexual could only challenge the imagined
fixed sexual orientations by its fluidity of sexuality in relative to diverse sexes. It is under such
condition that makes the existence of bisexual identity a controversy.
6
that I extract from the bisexual forum on BBS board.
It is the accusation of the
internal violence and exclusion in homosexual community that made by the bisexual
subjects; that is, the overemphasizing of “homosexual identity” results in alternative
oppressions and violence towards its members. The needs of “identity politics” for
the GLBT movement in the initial period could be understood in term of the political
demonstration and those indeed are necessary for the movement, but what needs to be
reconsidered thereafter is the internal difference on the one hand, and the restriction
and restrain of the given sex/ gender system for the sex/ gender liberation movement.
In other words, the sexual distinctions of homosexual and heterosexual need
reexamined since this distinction is a sort of prison for human sexuality and neglects
the fluidity of human sexuality.
Therefore, certain bisexual discourses concern the lesbian femmes who are
suspected as the traitors or the spies in lesbian communities. As in Sie Yi-chun’s
thesis, it concerns about the experience of certain women who identify themselves as
a woman, a lesbian or a bisexual. Sie’s thesis aims to emphasize the existence of
bisexual tendency in women and discusses the succeeding stigmatizations and
prejudices of such sexual tendencies. Similar confrontations and struggling between
heterosexual and homosexual also discuss in Lee Shu-jing’s thesis Mate-choosing of
Female who Loves both Female and Male. Therefore, it tends to concern more
about the accommodations and feelings of the women who lead dual life.
Certain bisexual discourses also deal with how the ideological state apparatuses
affect the bisexual subjects. The thesis of Yang Pei-cin tackles with how the
bisexual subjects confront and interact with the social pressure and various
ideological state apparatuses. In Yang’s contentions, it seems that she is concerned
with the bisexual subjects with various perspectives. Except for the influence of
ideological state apparatuses, Yang argues that the objective condition such as capitals
and subjective, contingent “unique sexual preference” also influence the sexual
experience and desire of each individual (Yang 115). Of course, the effects produced
are also different in terms of diverse sexes, classes, ages, religions and ethnics in
accordance with different social context. For me, the identity of the bisexual could
be fluid and strategically chosen either sexual identity. That is, it is what Jo Eadie
proposed the “tactical identity” since “all identities, attributes, personality traits,
beliefs and desires are negotiated differently in different conditions”(Storr 18). In
this way, the subject presents its identity quite differently in accordance with diverse
sexes in responding to the operations of the mechanism of sex/ gender system.
Therefore, what we need to think more profoundly is not the bisexual subjects’
various responses, but what causes the attendant responses.
Since the given sex/ gender constrains and restricted resources of male bisexual
7
discourses, I would extract the male bisexual condition from the married gays or from
some gay discourses discussing about bisexual. As the part of married gay, though it
interweaves with other elements of family burdens in Taiwan’s context, it reveals
certain similar conditions of male bisexual, the intermediate position between
heterosexual and homosexual. As in Pan Jie-cheng’s thesis research on the married
gays, the fluid and tactical identities for both married gay and male bisexual is quite
typical for adapting themselves in diverse conditions. Although male bisexuals and
married gays may have different living experiences, they simultaneously refer to the
oppression and limitation in the frames of sex/ gender or heterosexual/ homosexual
distinctions.
The bisexual gay discourses seem to be more invisible probably for the influence
and restrictions of the given sexual/ gender framework. In short, it is in the gay
communities that the concerns on the heterosexual relationship have been the taboos
and prohibitions since such relationship would be regarded as the potential betrayal or
stigmatized as the swingers who would not like to give up their heterosexual
privileges.
Following various discourses on bisexual mentioned above, the primary and
fundamental issues circulate on how the bisexual have been constrained in the present
given sex/ gender system, the arbitrary distinctions between heterosexual and
homosexual. Nevertheless, it is through the representation of this sex/ gender system
that renders the chance to reconsider whether the present sex/ gender system or sexual
distinctions is the only process to categorize and understand human sexuality on the
one hand. In addition, it is also through such representation of the oppressive sex/
gender system that makes the voices of sexual alternatives possible.
Kinsey’s categorization and the hypothesis of this thesis
Instead of taking the model of human sexuality as homosexuality and
heterosexuality, Alfred C. Kinsey demonstrates that human sexuality is a continuum
running from heterosexuality and homosexuality that fluctuates over time in an
individual’s history. In Kinsey’s research on male sexual behavior, it shows:
Some of the males who are involved in one type of relation at one period in their lives, may
have only the other type of relation at some later period. There may be considerable
fluctuation of patterns from time to time.
Some males may be involved in both heterosexual
and homosexual activities within the same period of time (Storr 32).
Kinsey categorizes male sexual practices with seven-point scale in accordance
with the dual basis of rating that takes into account the overt sexual experience and/ or
psychosexual reactions. Therefore, “the position of an individual on this scale is
always based upon the relation of the heterosexual to the homosexual in his history,
8
rather than upon the actual amount of overt experience or psychic reaction” (Storr 36).
In the Kinsey’s scale, the characterization is 0 and six respectively as exclusively
heterosexual and exclusively homosexual, and 3 as bisexual. Therefore, as the
research shows that “nearly half (46%) of the population engages in both heterosexual
and homosexual activities, or reacts to persons of both sexes, in the course of their
adult lives”(Kinsey 656). The term bisexual as it has been used has never been
strictly delimited, and consequently it is impossible to know whether it refers to all
individuals who rate anything from 1 to 5, or whether it is being limited to some
smaller number of categories, perhaps centering around group 3 (Storr 36). Such a
scheme provides only a three-point scale (heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual),
and such a limited scale does not adequately describe the continuum which is the
reality in nature (36). The term is used as a substantive, designating individualspersons; and the root meaning of the word and the way in which it is usually used
imply that these persons have both masculine qualities and feminine qualities within
their single bodies (37).
In accordance with such categorization, my question is how other levels
distinguish with each other definitely and take these ambiguous levels as the decisive
foundations of my research assumption. That is, among these ambiguous levels, the
practices of bisexual desire and experience happen quite frequently in our life, but
people are forced to fit into these three categories only. In addition to Kinsey’s
categorization of male sexual practices, Fritz Klein’s argument about individual’s
sexual orientation helps to explain the fluidity and diversity of human sexuality which
could not been seen clearly in Kinsey’s scale. That is, Klein proclaims that
individual’s sexual orientation is composed of sexual and non-sexual variables which
differ over time, including special preferences in attraction, behavior, fantasy, lifestyle,
emotional preference, self-identification (Klein et. al. 67-68). Besides, following
Amanda Udis-Kessler’s understanding and opinion on the Klein Sexual Orientation
Grid (KSOG), “its multidimensional focus is certainly a step forward in precision
from the conceptual vagueness of Kinsey and Storms,” it provides Kinsey’s scale with
more complete appearance of human sexual practices.
Reexamining Kinsey’s categorization and applying Klein’s argument on
individual’s sexual orientation aim not to construct an alternative category,
“bisexuality,” for illustrating the diverse sexual performance beyond the
heterosexuality or homosexuality or for characterizing who are the bisexual subjects.
Instead, the main purpose is on the one hand to break the given and fixed connection
among sexual behavior/ sexual orientation/ sexual identity, on the other hand to
present the potential fluidity of human sexuality by reconsidering and reexamining the
present given sex/ gender system in our world.
9
According to these researches on human sexuality, I hypothesize people realizing
bisexual practices happen quite frequently (not in the frame as a sexual identity in
avoidance of the essential statement of “eternal bisexual”) and these bisexual
practices have been unspeakable social phenomena in Taiwan and most of them do
not identify themselves as homosexual or even as bisexual for the mainstream
heterosexual oppressions beginning from certain specific historical moment. But
they could decisively play great influence and emancipative power on the promotion
of the sexual rights no matter in Taiwan’s GLBT movements or probably in certain
global context. People remain realizing bisexual practices quite frequently at present
time under the operation of stigmatization on homosexual for they know human
sexuality as either heterosexual or homosexual without being aware of the fluidity and
flexibility of human sexuality. Therefore, the bisexual practices indeed provide the
vision not only to rethink the problem of given sex/ gender system, but also to
reconsider the values of family and marriage for these issues are very important if
claiming for sexual rights in the future.
The trajectory of the representative bisexual practices in Taiwan
The question of the existence of bisexual has remained and provoked much
debate. Obviously, it has no answer to respond for it. There is no doubt that even
the term “bisexual” is the same as homosexual which is the product of present time
and appears quite recently in Taiwan’s context, but the bisexual practices have always
been the part of our history of sexuality. In other words, it is under the operation of
diverse and complicated mechanisms8 that make the emergence of sexual identity
possible.
However, such kind of bisexual practices happen quite frequently and not limited
nowadays since they are succeeded from the customs of pre-modern China’s male
same-sex sexual behaviors in accordance with Peng huai-jhen’s description on
homosexual. That is, in view of Peng’s research, male same-sex sexual behaviors
are not prohibited, and even the family would find the male sexual partner for the
young man. Such kind of customs still could be seen in the early time of Republic of
China and no one would condemn someone or blame them for those male same-sex
sexual behaviors or feel strange about such customs.9 In a sense, the male same-sex
sexual behaviors are allowed at that time and probably are reinforced while seeing Wu
8
The crucial argument for the emergence of gay identity will be discussed further in the chapter 1. I
intend to apply John D’ Emilio’s argument in “Gay Identity and Capitalism” and other potential
elements to analyze the emergence of gay identity in Taiwan’s context.
9
The trajectory of same-sex sexual behavior in China’ history has been discussed in many other books,
and the purpose here is to present such behavior with its “historical continuity.” In addition, the
discourses discussed about same-sex sexual behavior mainly emphasize their focus on same-sex sexual
behavior; what I want to focus and reveal is the unattractive “bisexual practices” getting realized
simultaneously.
10
Ryan Jui-yuan’s analysis on the male same-sex sexual behaviors in the early period of
Republic of China and at other historical moments.
In view of Wu Ryan Jui-yuan’s description on the trajectory of male same-sex
sexual behaviors in the thesis As a “Bad” Son: The Emergence of Modern
“Homosexuals” in Taiwan (1970-1990), Wu proposes that it is three immigrant waves
in Taiwan’s history that could be taken as the historical background resulting in the
popular social phenomena of the male same-sex sexual behaviors for the shortage of
female sexual choices. The first one traces back to the end of Ming dynasty and
early Qing dynasty, while the others are the Japanese Colonial period and the early
period of KMT’ s retreat to Taiwan. Apparently the male same-sex sexual behaviors
are the continuous social phenomena. In a sense, three immigrant waves reveal the
more frequency of male same-sex sexual behaviors in responding to its social
requirement contemporarily, the shortage in female, which Wu Ryan Jui-yuan
represents as the historical conditions of male same-sex sexual behaviors before the
emergence of homosexual identity in Taiwan’s cultural context.
In addition, the thesis of Wu Wen-yu that takes research on the local male’s
same-sex sexual practices by the side of Love River in Kaohsiung provides the vivid
evidence of my hypothesis; that is, bisexual practices realize quite frequently in
Taiwan’s context and could be taken as the residual of early male same-sex sexual
behaviors.10 That is, through the research on male same sex sexual practices
alongside Love River, it not only reveals the potential subversive power for the binary
sexual distinctions between heterosexual and homosexual, but also brings the
alternative dimension of class issue11 that renders the reconsideration and
reexamination on Taiwan’s GLBT movement. In Wu’s research, these subjects are
committed to male same-sex sexual behaviors, getting involved in the heterosexual
system and have no homosexual or bisexual identification. For the men who realize
bisexual practices, these kinds of same-sex sexual behaviors are only their “bad
habits.”12
The trajectory of bisexual practices presented here aims to present certain form
10
Surely the present appearance of the bisexual practices would be realized with its cultural
uniqueness in responding to different historical condition. In other words, we could get aware of the
influence and operation of stigmatization towards homosexual while seeing the persons who realize
bisexual practices claim their homosexual behavior as “bad habits.”
11
Most of Wu Wen-yu’s research subjects are working classes and this probably will be taken as the
conditions of same-sex sexual practices of working class. But here the condition could not get
understood in this way for it will be too narrow to see such sexual practices in accordance with the
historical transformation; instead, it is to take these same-sex sexual behaviors as the representation of
the residual of early male same-sex sexual practice would be more convincing for their refusal to the
homosexual identity.
12
This referring same-sex sexual behavior as “bad habits” could provide reasonable explanations for
the failure of asserting for the sexual rights in GLBT movement in Wei-chen Chu’s argument that
resorting to “zest for nationalism” in “Sexual Citizenship, Nation-Building or Civil Society.” This
would be discussed in detail in chapter 1 of this thesis.
11
of continuum and reveal how the bisexual practices are understood in its historical
condition at present time. It is quite crucial to represent and make clear what
bisexual practices had been realized then and how they have been understood at
present time. In other words, it is very important to dig out and represent the sexual
practices of each historical moment without holding the knowledge system of present
time since it would result in misinterpretations and misunderstandings. In view of
the diverse representative discourses and studies on homosexual issues in Taiwan’s
context, lots of studies and researches tend to present the oppressions and constrains
of the given sex/ gender system at present time. However, it is the diverse
mechanisms constituting the transformation of contemporary sex/ gender system
under certain historical conditions that we should take our notice to figure out how
these various mechanisms function and cooperate with each other under what kind of
power structure.
Certain residue of bisexual practices have been realized without homosexual or
bisexual identity, still remain and have been understood under the present frame of
sex/ gender system, homosexual and heterosexual. Therefore, it is the emergence of
homosexual identity and the influence and expansion of mass media that render the
subjects who realize bisexual practices to situate themselves, probably under the
stigmatization of homosexual by refusing homosexual identity13; instead, they regard
their homosexual behaviors as only their “bad habits.” Nevertheless, it is this “bad
habits” that render quite powerful and emancipative foundations for corrupting the
present given sex/ gender system since it is only through reexamining the
developmental process of bisexual practices and the emergence of gay identity that
could provide us alternative vision and direction for claiming the sexual rights in the
future.
All in all, the paper aims to show the dynamic transition of sex/ gender system
through reexamining the development and transition of bisexual practices. Applying
the argument of John D’Emilio that asserts capitalism plays crucial role in the
emergence of homosexual identity, I would take this argument as the foundations on
the research of the development of bisexual practices in Taiwan’s context. In other
words, through analyzing the influence of capitalism, it provides alternative vision to
see the gradual changes of the sex/ gender system and the interaction among various
mechanisms that constitute the emergence of gay identity. Therefore, the sexual
distinctions between homosexual and heterosexual have been constructed and formed
13
Lots of grass-roots male same-sex participants who get married do not identify themselves as
homosexual since they think they are different from homosexuals represented in the media. In a sense,
they are situated under the referential process and the diverse signifiers would never reach the fixed
signified. However, it is very interesting that we could see certain similarity in America since it refers
in Kinsey’s research that “Among men in the rural West in the 1940s, Kinsey found extensive incidence
of homosexual behavior, but little consciousness of gay identity” (D’ Emilio 9).
12
as today’s model and appearance of sexuality. Understanding profoundly the
historical transition of sex/ gender system could render us the foundation and
resources to reconsider the problems of sex/ gender system nowadays; if such
historical transition is taken as the base, it would be more grounded for us to think and
promote the social movement for sexual liberation and any claims for sexual civil
rights in the future in Taiwan’s GLBT movement.
Works Cited
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Kinsey, Alfred. C., Wardell B. Pomeroy, & Clyde E. Martin.
Sexual Behavior in the
Human Male. Philadelphia: W. B. Sauders, 1948.
Gian, Jia-shin. Bring Out the Lesbians: Taiwan Lesbian Discourses and Movements
(1990-1996), 1997.
Storr, Merl. (ed) Bisexuality: a critical reader. New York: Routledge, 1999.
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