Just a quick note to point out how vile this @AfterEllen article about Romi Klinger by the site’s editor @TrishBendix is.

Ugh, really thought she’d turned a corner, but no.

The point of the article is that Romi describing the biphobia she experiences from her gay castmates is offensive because Bendix “suspect”s that it doesn’t exist. Is Romi a sneaky lying bisexual® or perhaps a pretentious fantastist attention-seeking bisexual® or is she just too stupid to report her lived experience accurately? Bendix doesn’t share her suspicions on this point.

What she does do is dedicate 1,300 words on a lesbian and bisexual women’s site to … actually I don’t have the words. It’s biphobic, it’s misogynistic, it’s slut-shaming.

At the time, I went for “terrible” and “you’ve done a huge disservice to bi women and, frankly, everyone” :)

It touches all those bases (biphobia, misogyny, slut-shaming) in really stereotypical ways which is notable because the thrust of Bendix’s argument is that old “but she fulfils all the negative stereotypes” guff. AWK.

One good thing has come from the unpleasant-and-inconvenient-in-so-many-ways experience of writing this post: I’ve remembered the phrase “saviour complex”. *narrows eyes*

scroll down to the second letter. It’s from a 19 year-old bi woman who’s looking to kick her internalised biphobia in the ass. It’s a great read.

A lot of the advice is pretty nice but the columnist does get it a bit wrong. It really isn’t as simple as having gotten “really into the idea of being The Biggest Homo Ever”. That’s something that does happen to some gay and even some bi people but there’s really nothing in the letter to suggest that that’s the letterwriter’s problem (yes, despite the bit about how she feels about sleeping with women). Perhaps if the columnist had said “Biggest Queer Ever”? Maybe…

Also, note to advice columnists: if a person says something like “I feel kind of hated and left out in the gay blogosphere/community, and I don’t really feel any desire to plunge into heteronormative straight culture” and you don’t mention the bi community…yr doing it wrong!

@ShoutOutJMU is a group blog run by feminists at James Madison University.

Check out this post by an ally(?) who attended a lecture André gave in January that they found it upsetting (in a good way).

Pussy Riot are a Russian, feminist, punk band who are on trial for hooliganism for performing an unauthorized protest performance in a church.

They’ve attracted a lot of international support. @Peachesnisker has rallied to help them. She organised a demo and has put together the above video calling for their release. Participants in the video include @KateNash, @MargaretCho and @ViceCooler.

Anyone see any more nonmonosexual names on the list?

You can sign the Free Pussy Riot! petition here.

You can read more about the video here.

Eddy Northwind, a Kinsey 2, writes about how, despite their dislike of the phrase “born this way”, it’s had an important impact on the acceptance they experience in their community.

Another addition to the list of respsonses to Julie Bindel’s biphobic HuffPo piece from last week. This one’s in the HuffPo itself(!)

Anyone know of any anti-biphobia images like this?

EDIT: Here’s one. Still looking for more.