Beyond Queer: An Epistemology of Bi Choice

摘要

This article offers a reimagining of identity, marriage and family that are grounded in the lived experience of Stephanie, a Malaysian bisexual woman and mother. Her narrative, generated through an in-depth interview, is part of a larger study that explores the ways in which gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, queer (GLBTQ) persons in same-sex partnerships experience ‘marriage’ and how they negotiate the tension between their sexuality and religiosity or spirituality, the author also shows the extent to which Stephanie's sexuality is spiritualized and her spirituality, sexualized as a Tibetan Buddhist. Through a qualitative analysis of Stephanie's narrative (i.e., interview transcript), the author shows how her orientation, self-identification as a bisexual woman and the process of becoming bisexual is supported by, yet departs from, the binary of heterosexual privilege of entitlement/bisexual privilege of choice. In the next section of the article, the author shows the ways in which Stephanie's claim of bi choice finds expression and yet destabilizes the binary of heterosexual/homosexual union. And the extent to which her spirituality is sexualized and her sexuality, spiritualized, redefines the binary of monogamous/open relationships and the family. Through her transformative ways of being and becoming, Stephanie shows how a bisexual epistemology is essentially an epistemology of choice.