Cyborgs among us : performing liminal states of sexuality

E. Whitney

This essay complicates female bisexual identity by combining traditional academic inquiry with personal narrative. As author, I position myself both as objective researcher and as a material body which is affected by the cultural conditions which the research explores and critiques. l review contemporary literature which suggests the limitations of bisexuality as a category, which seeks to dismantle western dualisms while simultaneously reifying them. l question the hegemonic exclusion of bisexuals as a category by both the gay and straight communities. Drawing on theories of performativity, I suggest that no sexual identity is fixed, and that bisexuality is no more or less ambiguous than any other. Finally, I use the metaphor of cyborgian border identity to suggest the progressive possibilities which more inclusive understandings of sexuality promise.[Copies are available from: Haworth Document Delivery Center. The Haworth Press, Inc., 10 Alice Street, Binghamton, NY 13904-1580, USA]