Invisible in Plain Sight: Bi-negativity, Bi-phobia, and the Erasure of Bisexuality in Indian Popular Media

Abstract

“Queer” is an umbrella term used to represent the LGBTQIA+ community, which includes individuals who do not conform to conventional gender norms. In the early twenty-first century, often associated with the initial stages of posthumanism, queer concerns have become increasingly visible, especially through the spread of sex education via social media platforms. While significant research exists on broad queer issues, bisexuality remains comparatively underexplored. Bisexual individuals—those who are attracted to more than one gender—face unique challenges rooted in widespread societal stigma and misconceptions. These challenges manifest as bi-negativity and bi-phobia, which in turn lead to bi-erasure and severe mental health issues, including depression and suicidal tendencies. Bisexuals are often doubly marginalized—both within mainstream society and within the queer community itself. Popular media, particularly films and short films, play a key role in perpetuating stereotypes that reinforce these stigmas. This paper investigates how bi-centric media representations contribute to the ongoing marginalization of bisexuals, specifically analyzing how they reproduce bi-negativity and bi-phobia. The selected works for analysis are the Hindi-language feature film Cobalt Blue (2022), the Malayalam short film Maheshetta (2023), and the Tamil short film Bisexual(2023). These three texts are read as cultural narratives that constrain bisexual identity by portraying bisexual characters through lenses of deceit, indecisiveness, or hypersexuality. This paper aims to trace the social repercussions of such representations, clarify the concepts of bi-negativity and bi-phobia, and suggest practical strategies to address the ongoing invisibility and marginalization of bisexuals.