Amber Rose's Comments About Bisexual Men Reveal a Common Stereotype
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Amber Rose isn't shy about her sexual fluidity, but the entertainer revealed during a recent podcast appearance that she's ruled out dating bisexual men.
Rose comments came during an Jan. 4 appearance on Dr. Chris Donaghue's "Loveline" podcast after a Facebook user asked a question about bisexual relationships.
Facebook/Amber Rose - facebook.com
"Would you ever date a bisexual guy, Amber?" the user asked. She responded "no" immediately, and then tried to explain why.
“I think it’s amazing when a guy is bisexual and he’s comfortable with it, but in my personal life, in my sex life, in who I choose to love, I just think that I would think about it too much," she said. "It would bother me in a way. I wouldn’t be comfortable with it and I don’t know why.”
Facebook/Amber Rose - facebook.com
Eventually she concluded that her stance against dating bisexual men may be based in insecurity. “Maybe I’m not secure enough to be with a man that likes other men because I would feel like when he’s out with his boys, it’s just more of a moment,” Rose said during the podcast.
Bisexual men face different stereotypes than bisexual women.
Rose's comments, intentionally or not, evoke stereotypes that bisexual men are both prone to infidelity and likely to eventually prefer sexual relationships with men over women.
In February of 2016, activists A.J. Walkley and Patrick RichardsFink discussed these perceived stigmas of bisexuality in a series called "Positive Bi" for the Huffington Post.
RichardsFink wrote the way society views bisexuals is based on pervasive views about masculinity and sex,
"Male-identified bisexuals get plastered with the 'bi now, gay later' trope, while female-identified get 'doing it for the titillation of men," he wrote. "I’ve seen it put forth that this is an expression of patriarchial phallicism — bi women are deemed to be 'really' straight, and bi men to be 'really' gay, because the only authentic sexuality in our culture is one that places masculine sexual expression at the center as the only 'real' sex."
Flickr - flickr.com
Writing for Psychology Today in 2014, Adjunct Professor of Psychology Zhana Vrangalova noted that research about bisexual relationship preferences are scarce, with one study suggesting that bisexuals are slightly more open to non-monogamy than gay and straight people.
However, Vrangalova was hesitant to herald the study as definitive proof that bisexuals were less faithful.
"Just because you’re attracted to, say, men, doesn’t mean you want to be in relationships, or have sex with, two or more men at the same time," she wrote. "The ability to be attracted to more than one gender is distinct from the desire to love, date, or sleep with more than one person—and both are distinct from the ability to stay loyal to whatever commitments you've made to a partner."
