Psychosocial Influences on Bisexual Women’s Body Image

Abstract

Research on body image has focused almost exclusively on heterosexual women and lesbians, leaving bisexual women's experiences largely ignored. The present study sought to gain an understanding of psychosocial factors (including sexual prejudice, romantic relationship history, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender [LGBT] communities, and feminist identity) that may contribute to bisexual women's experiences of body image. The authors conducted semistructured interviews with six bisexual women and used interpretative phenomenological analysis to analyze the results. This analysis resulted in four themes: bisexual women's desire to accept their bodies in a context of societal objectification; the influence of dominant sexuality and gender binaries that leave bisexual women feeling invisible; the protective role of LGBT communities and feminist identification in helping them resist the thin ideal; and the positive and the negative influences of romantic relationships with men and women. Results highlight the importance of validating sexual identity and promoting feminist identification and inclusion within an LGBT community for bisexual women. Future research might further explore the role of feminist communities and romantic relationships in bisexual women's body satisfaction and should include the experiences of bisexual women from diverse backgrounds. Editor's Note: Findings for the present study must be considered along with the discussion across the accompanying set of three reflection papers:

Moving beyond the binary with disordered eating research: A test and extension of objectification theory with bisexual women.

“…Specifically, one study in which a national convenience sample was used revealed that bisexual women were 2 times as likely to have an eating disorder compared with lesbian women (Koh & Ross, 2006), and another study revealed that "hetero-flexible" and bisexual women had higher rates of unhealthy weight control behaviors than exclusively heterosexual women (Polimeni et al, 2009). Taken together, antibisexual discrimination (by both the heterosexual and lesbian community) as well as sexual objectification experiences may be intemalized for bisexual women and influence motivations to conform to sociocultural standards of attractiveness, contributing to body surveillance, body shame, and lastly, eating disorder symptoms (Chmielewski & Yost, 2013;Lingel, 2009). …”

Heteronormative higher education: Challenging this status quo through LGBTIQ awareness-raising

“…I am also caught in the binarism of being both insider and outsider. Chmielewski and Yost (2013) position 'insider' research as an approach to qualitative research where investigation regarding a particular phenomenon is undertaken in a manner through which the investigator studies hirself, people like hir, hir's family, as well as community (Wilkinson and Kitzinger 2013, 251). Although insider status may potentially influence the research process (Hockey 1993) it challenges the claim that only sensitised outsider researchers can discover the 'objective' reality(ies) of other cultures and groups (Lewis 1973;Wilkinson and Kitzinger 2013, 251).…”

Does Women's Body Appreciation Differ by Sexual Orientation? A Brief Report

“…The authors concluded that bisexually-identified women may experience pressure related to appearance in a unique way. In another qualitative study, researchers found that bisexual women expressed the desire to obtain the beauty and thin standards of the mainstream culture much as heterosexual women do, but the bisexual women in the study also expressed conflict between their desire to reject these standards and simultaneously live up to them (Chmielewski & Yost, 2013). Thus, bisexual women may experience body image differently from lesbian and heterosexual women, and including a more diverse sample of sexual minority women in comparisons regarding body image will provide a more comprehensive understanding of these issues.…”