Hello you lovely flexible, open minded people. Maybe you can help me come to terms with this a little bit?

I'm a bit ill and irrational at the moment and I don't want to be unnecessarily militant (yes there is now a voice in the back of my head going "oxymoron").

Basically, I was discussing Skins with my best friend (for the record, he identifies as gay) and how the suggestion that the lesbian/bi character Naomi is potentially going to kiss a boy in upcoming episodes.

Okay, so far so ridiculous to get annoyed about.

BUT. Here's the rub:
I can't remember the last time I saw a bisexual character in film or TV who didn't get into a relationship with the same sex, and then go on to cheat on them with the opposite sex.

Now, I can almost see where producers are coming from. You know, "we mustn't make it look like we think bisexual people are actually just gay" or whatever. But I am sick of this! I had a quick google (using "representations of bisexual women in popular culture" as my search term) and found this lovely little quote, happily enough just on the wikipedia page for bisexuality:

I like movies where bisexuals come out to each other together and fall in love, because these tend to be so few and far between; the most recent example would be 2002's lovely romantic comedy, Kissing Jessica Stein. Most movies with bi characters paint a stereotypical picture: the unlucky, unsuspecting, hetero or gay person falls for the bisexual bon vivant, and all hell breaks loose. The bi love interest is usually deceptive (Mulholland Drive), over-sexed (Sex Monster), unfaithful (High Art), and fickle (Three of Hearts), and might even be a serial killer, like Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct. In other words, the bisexual is always the cause of the conflict in the film.
—Amy Andre , American Sexuality Magazine

DISCUSS!

Please note that when I voiced my displeasure at this tendency to the best friend, he said "it's only tv", quickly followed by "well if you ask me it's bi now gay later". I have had to walk away from the conversation to calm down because, no matter how much I love him, that's offensive. Anyway, there's no such thing as "only tv" (as my dear friend Gemma pointed out) - this is all pervading.

I'm a bit sick of biphobia, and think it's about time that the word FLEXUAL came out to play and knocked everybody (and their labels and quaint ideas about what one label can make a whole load of different types of people act) off their feet.

Who's in?