Dear Wild Deuce,
Is it time to dump the bi flag?
OK look, I know it was SO cool when Betsy Ross sewed the first one back in 1998 B.C. or whenever, and they’re flown proudly at, well, mostly just at Pride. And on some cool bi resource websites and all. And I totally have a key chain with the bi flag and everything!
But seriously, if the point of these colors is to raise awareness and be visible and create unity and yada-yada-yada, I wonder if it isn’t time to at least face the questions: Has the bi flag flopped? And if so, what else, if anything, should we do? I think the fact that they totally haven’t caught on outside of a small faction within a small segment within a little slice of those who identify as any kind of non-binary indicates that, well, they might actually be contributing to our continued invisibility within the LGBT community, and confusion within our mainstream culture.
I feel like either the marketing game needs to be amped up on “Old Bi Glory,” or something new needs to be created. Personally? I’m in favor of creating unity by using the rainbow flag, but making that important differentiation by having a niftily font-ized “B” inside it. Heck, maybe the B inside the rainbow could be the old bi colors just for whimsy. Or something like that. Something that creates unity and uniqueness simultaneously.
I’m certainly not trying to undo great work, or re-invent the wheel, but I think it might be worth at least talking about, because it’s getting annoying explaining it to other bisexuals who — and I’m honestly really good at selling things and getting people excited about stuff — are not all that enthused about it at all (or they nose huff a little and say, “Oh. Interesting. Never knew that,” like it was some kind of ancient trivia in no way connected to their life).
What do you think about the flag and its continued viability, Tiggy?
-365
“Vexillology.” Isn’t that a fantastic word? Let’s engage in a little, yes? Safely, of course. [Dons full-body condom/Soundsuit]
These Soundsuits by artist Nick Cave may not be 100% effective as prophylactics but they are top of the line in the fight against unfabulousness.
Flags come from heraldry, when families bore a coat of arms for self-protection, and were first used for military coordination on battlefields. They allow a clan of any sort a representation of their history and future. Sports flags indicate rule-breaking, cautions/alerts, or ball possession. Buddhists string prayer flags in the Himalayas to bless the countryside. You may think that flags that simply represent a population really aren’t meaningful anymore but let me ask you: do you feel something when you see someone burn your nation’s flag? How about when you see it flown at half mast? Upside down? A flag’s symbolism still crackles and smolders even among the ostensibly apathetic.
A cohesive group keeps a flag to demonstrate allegiance, show ownership of whatever the flag is planted into, allow others to easily identify them, and to communicate. And I don’t just mean through semaphore. In the 1970s, “flagging” was actively practiced by queer men across the U.S., Canada, and Europe. Our minority has had a history of living in the shadows, knowing we would be punished for expressing our sexuality; flagging, or “the hanky code,” was our way of signaling to each other our presence and preferences via colored handkerchiefs. Such back pocket flags have long gone out of vogue for queer men, save for the leather community, but they remain historical artifacts that were highly functional in their heyday.
I believe that the bi flag is all of these things. A sign. A shield. A rule marker. A uniform. A story. A prayer. Pretty tall order for a simple piece of fabric. But maybe you want the flag to do the work of organizing, too. Nah, son, it’s not gonna do that for you. As a salesperson and a bi activist, you know that pitching isn’t just explaining what a product does or the thought behind its engineering. It’s convincing people why they should care. We’re talking about the difference between: a.) “Straight-blue plus gay-pink equals bi-purple! It’s a Ziplock bag of sexuality!” and b.) “Put this in your back pocket and potential sex partners will flock to you.” The former elicits a snore, the latter secures undivided attention.
Thus, as you pointed out, a closer look at the marketing plan is in order. Forget the ‘70s – let’s talk about how we can most effectively use the bi flag in the 21st century. I’ve noticed in Tumblr and Twitter, lots of bloggers use the bi flag as their avatar. And where better to express a key facet of your identity than in your blog profile? Come to think of it, I wonder if you feel our flag has flopped because it hasn’t behaved as a meme would. Hey, listen, memes aren’t so great. They catch on like wildfire but they’re ephemeral and, at the core, are just templates for rotating witticisms. Flags are a slow-and-steady operation, and should be. We’ve got time. Unlike Bad Luck Brian, bisexuals expect to be around for a while, you know?
Before we move on, I have to share this one weirditude: I discovered that the hanky code does not operate on a universal color key. I guess just the fact that you had a hanky effectively signified your queerness, much like just the fact that you’re flying a colorful striped flag says you’re some kind of LGBT. This manifestation of unity is not very clear-cut or structured but being queer is about intersectional identities and a narrative journey, not a puzzle in which each piece has exactly one correct position within the whole. If fluidity is what we espouse, it’s fitting for the flag to embody that value.
Bisexual activist Shiri Eisner, author of Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution, discusses embracing traits associated with bisexuals – even the alleged “negative” ones – and incorporating them into our justice work. For instance, she encourages us to use our invisibility as a tool for radical change. Let me (well, Eisner) blow your mind right here:
“We might be able to say that to be bisexual is not only to pass [i.e. to be perceived, intentionally or not, as something other than what one is], but also to be inauthentic. It is to be partial, to be hybrid, to be the metaphorical axis of deceptiveness, treason, and danger. …But why is this a good thing? Because all of these qualities are signs of subversive power.” (Eisner 128)
Furthermore…
“Using these [qualities] as methods of disruption and social order might enable bisexual politics to step outside of the system and work toward radical social change, and subversion of binaries and hierarchies, building and destroying new categories and creating a complex, multiple, radical world.” (Eisner 135)
So much of what bisexuals experience is about society’s inability or desperate refusal to see us for what we are. And here we have a flag nobody seems to be able to pick out of a line-up. Well, hell, I’d say that is one representative flag.
You know what I think? More than all of those duties I listed above that the bi flag fulfills, it’s a lesson. It teaches all of us to stop trying to make it into something more popular or more palatable or whatever makes you more comfortable. It isn’t what you thought it was, or think it should be. It doesn’t fit into a nice little box. If offers no reassuring boundaries for comparison. It’s not really clear what its message is for you. Sometimes it’s its own worst enemy.
Good. That space in the middle is where bisexuals live.
You don’t recognize the bi flag?
Not feeling the bi flag?
The Dude’s a bi. (Wait, that is what he’s always saying, right?)
© 2014 Tiggy Upland. Tiggy Upland reserves the right to use all submitted queries anonymously, in any medium.