“Telling our stories, making it real.” Young bisexual women’s experiences in New Zealand secondary schools

Abstract

There is minimal New Zealand and international research with an exclusive focus on young bisexual women at school. To redress this paucity, this study acknowledges and examines the experiences of young bisexual women as they negotiate their bisexual identities at secondary schools in New Zealand. The study extends existing literature by uncovering how some participant notions of bisexual identity include a sense of fluidity within bisexuality. It also notes positive ways young bisexual women manage challenges generated by societal misrecognition of their identity (Fraser, 2013) within the contexts of school culture and curriculum-based sexuality education. Strategies include peer education about bisexuality in sexuality education classes and ensuring bisexual visibility in school diversity groups. New Zealand and international research documents a prevalence of heteronormative attitudes and practices in educational institutions (Allen, 2005 and 2011; Barker, 2007). The current study identifies there is a societal misrecognition of bisexuality that manifests in bi-misogynistic attitudes towards young bisexual women. The presence of these attitudes and practices is investigated in schools via the sexuality education curriculum and school culture. This study focuses on young bisexual women’s negotiation of these practices and how they legitimate bisexuality in these realms. Drawing on Warner’s (1993) concept of heteronormativity this study depicts heterosexuality as normal, natural and acceptable and non-heterosexuality as abnormal, unnatural and deviant. This research employs the concept of heteronormativity to highlight the erasure experienced by young bisexual women at school. It also reveals the practice of bi-misogyny, a term coined by this study to represent an oppressive type of discrimination practiced at school against young bisexual women by some non-bisexual staff and students. This thesis engages with and employs bisexual theory (Baumgardner, 2007) and feminist qualitative methodology (Hesse-Biber, 2007). Methods include focus groups, reflective journals and individual interviews. Data is examined through thematic analysis in order to draw out in rich detail the experiences of participants (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The research reveals participants’ experiences of bi-misogyny and ways their bisexuality is misrecognised and erased. It also offers strategies and recommendations made by participants for meeting the schooling needs of young bisexual women.