13 types of Bisexuals, appropriate list or labeling?

Having come across this list of bisexuality types online and the subsequent discourse that ensued I thought let us look at this just at the basic level with not too much over intellectualizing as our own discourse has been happening thankfully via social networks, this and other Jamaican blogs and face to face discussions primarily Open Mic Open Soul Wednesdays. More and more from the Lesbian and Gay communities there seems to be underlined intolerance and stigma making their way to the fore, one of the main ones is the impatience with accommodating or even hearing one openly say they are bisexual as instantly the presumption is they are either freaks, confused or want too much all at once (have their cake and eat it too)

Using a content analysis of more than 170 articles written between 2001 and 2006, US sociologist Richard N. Pitt, Jr. concluded that the media pathologized black bisexual men’s behavior while either ignoring or sympathizing with white bisexual men’s similar actions. He argued that the black bisexual is often described as a duplicitous heterosexual man spreading the HIV/AIDS virus. Alternatively, the "Brokeback" white bisexual (when seen as bisexual at all) is often described in pitying language as a victimized homosexual man forced into the closet by the heterosexist society around him.

Here is the list as was presented and by all indication is an American listing -

1) Alternating Bisexuals – one relationship at a time, the first might be exclusively straight, the next exclusively gay and vice versa. Alternating Bisexuals are usually monogamous.

2) Circumstantial Bisexuals – primarily heterosexual but bisexual because of circumstances, eg; Prison where there are no women/men available.

3) Concurrent relationship Bisexuals – have a primary relationship with one gender, but may have multiple casual relationships with partners of the other gender.

4) Conditional Bisexuals – will switch sexuality for personal gain, eg: Gay for Pay.

5) Emotional Bisexuals – have intimate emotional relationships with both genders but only have sex with one gender.

6) Integrated Bisexuals – have two or more concurrent primary relationships one with a man one with a woman

7) Exploratory Bisexuals – testing the water seeing if they like it.

8) Hedonistic Bisexuals -primarily straight or gay/lesbian but will switch purely for sexual pleasure.

9) Recreational Bisexuals – bi only when drunk or high. “Party Bisexual”

10) Isolated Bisexuals – currently straight or gay/lesbian – but has had one off sexual encounter in the past which qualifies them as bisexual.

11) Latent Bisexuals – has strong yet so far unsatisfied urges to go the other way.

12) Motivational Bisexuals – will go bi to satisfy a partner, e.g. straight women agreeing to MFF threesome.

13) Transitional Bisexuals – the only type of bisexuality the gay community understands, the one “going through a phase”.

The American Psychiatric Association stated: "To date there are no replicated scientific studies supporting any specific biological etiology for homosexuality. Similarly, no specific psychosocial or family dynamic cause for homosexuality has been identified, including histories of childhood sexual abuse." Research into how sexual orientation may be determined by genetic or other prenatal factors plays a role in political and social debates about homosexuality, and also raises fears about genetic profiling and prenatal testing.
Sigmund Freud theorized that every person has the ability to become bisexual at some time in his or her life.He based this on the idea that enjoyable experiences of sexuality with the same sex, whether sought or unsought, acting on it or being fantasized, become an attachment to his or her needs and desires in social upbringing. Psychoanalyst Dr. Joseph Merlino, editor of Freud at 150: 21st Century Essays on a Man of Genius, stated in an interview:

“ Freud maintained that bisexuality was a normal part of development.... Freud felt there were a number of homosexuals he encountered who did not have a variety of complex problems that homosexuality was a part of. He found people who were totally normal in every other regard except in terms of their sexual preference. In fact, he saw many of them as having higher intellects, higher aesthetic sensibilities, higher morals; those kinds of things. He did not see it as something to criminalize or penalize, or to keep from psychoanalytic training. A lot of the psychoanalytic institutes felt if you were homosexual you should not be accepted; that was not Freud's position. ”

But are we going off here a bit with all these descriptions that seem to limit the aspects of behaviour in people and added further stigma or pressure on that struggling group under the lgbt umbrella? One bi-activist commented with regards to the list "These types don't include the concept of fluidity, which has been proven by research to exist. They act as though we don't have different types of relationship agreements at different times in our lives. I currently have a monogamy agreement, but I haven't always, so then what type am I? And even though I am with an opposite-gender partner now, as a bi activist who spends a lot of time in the queer community and fighting for bi rights, I would certainly resent being called "exclusively straight."
Square pegs round holes... the community is too diverse to fit into a neat collection of little boxes... bisexuality is inherently fuzzy, we are the quantum physics of the relationship world. Which I guess would make poly the string theory?" another commented.

This discussion is just scratching the surface as same gender issues have been on the front burner more so than bisexuality thus my criticisms of our advocacy structure of bi-phobia by default ignoring or treating as invisible this set of persons who also have to contend with a Gross indecency Act and a Buggery Law for those who practice anal sex. We may never get the answer to the post's question as more information and arguments pro, neutral or against continue to come forth. One other argument that seems to be lurking is bisexuality maybe an innate feature of our lives but more present in some than others.

The polyamorous grouping seems also to have been overlooked in a sense some persons can be mono-amorous which if not properly discussed my validate the stereotype of bisexuals as wild promiscuous persons. More to come.

Peace and tolerance

H