“Aren't We All a Little Bisexual?”: The Recognition of Bisexuality in an Unlikely Place.

Abstract

The hypermasculine subculture of men's team sports has traditionally been characterized by the one-time rule of homosexuality: one same-sex sexual experience is normally equated with a homosexual orientation. Thus, men have been polarized into sexual identity categories, erasing bisexuality as a legitimate or viable category of sexual identification. Accordingly, in this research the authors examine the perspectives on bisexuality among team sport athletes. Interviewing 60 male soccer players from three strategically selected U.S. universities, the authors show that these athletes accept bisexuality as a legitimate and nonstigmatized sexual identity. The authors find that the athletes intellectualize an understanding of bisexuality in highly complex ways. The authors also highlight that though only a very small minority have engaged in same-sex sexual behaviors, at some level, most players recognize some degree of bisexuality in their own identities. The authors suggest that these results are a product of increased exposure to and contact with homosexual persons, leading to decreasing cultural homohysteria, finally resulting in increasingly open discussion and complex understanding of sexual behaviors and identities that were once erased or stigmatized in men's team sport culture.