I remember coming across that post a few months back when I was searching for Jack-related fandom posts - and you're so right, with that post, and it's so strange that people don't get it. If you're calling him gay, there's a massive amount of canon evidence you have to ignore (heck, the very first thing we see him doing on DW ever is ogling at Rose's bottom!). Just like if someone called him straight before the relationship with Ianto became undeniable, they'd also have had to ignore tons of evidence. And using gay as a general word for all non-straight orientations is not okay because it's saying the monosexual orientation is the default and the most important, and others aren't important enough to need their own words. Enough homosexual women seem to personally prefer the word gay over lesbian that I don't mind that (e.g. in the case of calling Bill gay rather than lesbian - maybe she's someone who prefers that word). But gay definitely is commonly seen as meaning homosexual, so using that as the general word means that bisexuals once again aren't important enough to count, or bisexuality is just a phase on the way to monosexuality or somehow not real.
It's frustrating to me also for very personal reasons - despite having known half my life that I was bi (the first half I just didn't realize that was something that I could be), I keep struggling with a sort of internalized biphobia where I constantly try to slot myself into one end of the scale or another, depending on who I'm currently the most attracted to. And if I go on it'll get too personal for a public post, but anyway. The point is, I think it's caused by the constant devaluation of bisexuality as real everywhere in the culture, the attitude that it's somehow lesser than monosexuality, that one half of the feelings can't be real, the constant attempts to peg everyone into either gay or straight, and dismissing all the evidence that suggests not being monosexual. I so much adore having Jack as someone who doesn't slot neatly into either category, and I want him acknowledged to be that way.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2017-04-09 11:48 am (UTC)It's frustrating to me also for very personal reasons - despite having known half my life that I was bi (the first half I just didn't realize that was something that I could be), I keep struggling with a sort of internalized biphobia where I constantly try to slot myself into one end of the scale or another, depending on who I'm currently the most attracted to. And if I go on it'll get too personal for a public post, but anyway. The point is, I think it's caused by the constant devaluation of bisexuality as real everywhere in the culture, the attitude that it's somehow lesser than monosexuality, that one half of the feelings can't be real, the constant attempts to peg everyone into either gay or straight, and dismissing all the evidence that suggests not being monosexual. I so much adore having Jack as someone who doesn't slot neatly into either category, and I want him acknowledged to be that way.