Why were there so many bisexual heroes in the 1970s ( admit Robert A. Heinlein ’s Lazarus Long ) , and was bisexuality viewed as “ futurist ” ? More to the point , why did bi heroes mostly vanish throughout the eighties and 1990s , and what brought them back ? titillating science fiction source andCirclet PresspublisherCecilia Tanexplains .
https://gizmodo.com/this-erotica-book-might-actually-be-the-years-most-dang-5969540
Tan has an indispensible history of androgyny in science fabrication , over in Lambda Literary . She talk about the rise of bi character in the 1970s , and the recent spate of bi Hero of Alexandria , including Captain Jack on Doctor Who and Torchwood . Here ’s the relevant part about the 1970s :
Lazarus Long went bi at the same import in popular culture when bisexuality was equated with avant garde – perhaps futurist – societal attitude . Bisexuality as an identity element or orientation existed so far outside the monosexual “ average ” that David Bowie ’s public image was cement as not only bisexual , but alien from outer blank . ( Bowie would much later explain in audience that he latched onto bisexual identity operator as a style to shock the mainstream and give himself street cred , but despite a well - documented flirting with Mick Jagger , he finally settle into womb-to-tomb heterosexuality . ) skill fiction literature of the 1970s used bisexuality as a signifier of outsider / other , foreign , or futuristic status . Samuel R. Delany ’s Dhalgren ( 1975 ) uses the sexuality of “ The Kid ” as well as many other narrative elements to dislocate the reader from the condition quo . Many of Marion Zimmer Bradley ’s type in her Darkover books are bisexual , in particfular the Darkovans ( as react to the Terrans from Earth , who are more “ like us . ” ) Joanna Russ ’s The Female Man was drop a line in 1970 but published in 1975 and intertwines elements of hermaphroditism with deep thinking about sex and gender roles . Another thinky model from the metre is David Gerrold ’s The Man Who Folded Himself ( 1973 ) , where the homoerotic aspects get into with the idea that time travelers can have sexual activity with themselves . Even the not - so - thinky but just as subversive Rocky Horror Picture Show ( 1975 ) ply in this gestalt track of bisexual - as - other .
The whole thing is well worth reading — did you know that George R.R. Martin wrote a novel with a epicene female independent character ( Nightflyers ) , but it was made into a movie where she was “ straight - washed ” ? [ Lambda Literary ]
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