This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from Explore Bristol Research, http://research-information.bristol.ac.uk Author: Nelson, Rosie Title: Sexual Renegades Bisexual and Plurisexual Experiences of Sexual Identity, Gender Identity, and Romantic Relationships General rights Access to the thesis is subject to the Creative Commons Attribution - NonCommercial-No Derivatives 4.0 International Public License. A copy of this may be found at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This license sets out your rights and the restrictions that apply to your access to the thesis so it is important you read this before proceeding. Take down policy Some pages of this thesis may have been removed for copyright restrictions prior to having it been deposited in Explore Bristol Research. 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Rosie Nelson Thesis Submitted to the University of Bristol in Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sociology PhD in the Faculty of Social Sciences and Law December 2019 Word Count: 78,468 i Abstract Plurisexuality is the sexual or romantic attraction to more than one gender. Plurisexuals are subject to significant social and institutional oppression due to biphobia. Most of these oppressions are due to the monosexist social structure, which suggests that it is more ‘correct’ or ‘appropriate’ to have a single-gender romantic or sexual attraction. Plurisexuality is understudied and misunderstood within sexuality scholarship. Scholarship into plurisexuality often fails to adequately theorise the role of gender and the body in plurisexuality. Consequently, this thesis seeks to explore the research question “How do plurisexuals interpret, interact with, and experience identity, the body, and gender in their lives?” Using a queer theoretical framework informed by understandings of gender and the body, this sociological thesis adopts a qualitative approach to answering this question. Semi-structured interviews, photo diaries, and a thematic analysis were used to explore 30 plurisexual people’s understandings of their sexual identity, gender identity, and relationship experiences. This thesis argues that there is a chasm between plurisexual people’s lived experiences of desire and the dominant monosexist social ontology. This ontological chasm leads to plurisexuals becoming Sexual Renegades, divorced from the normative social order of sexuality and living outside the monosexist order. Although gender is less of a restriction in how participants approach dating, romance, and sex, gender remains critical to lived experiences. This Gender Ambivalence means that participants feel that gender is irrelevant and an empty routine in many regards. However, gender expression and gender roles are integral to maintaining social safety and ensuring participants do not face worse discrimination and oppression in their day-to-day life. This study makes a unique contribution to sexualities scholarship by incorporating plurisexual perspectives and thus redressing the currently monosexist academic landscape. Keywords: bisexual, plurisexual, gender, desire, monosexism, trans, cis, non binary, biphobia ii Author’s Declaration I declare that the work in this dissertation was carried out in accordance with the requirements of the University's Regulations and Code of Practice for Research Degree Programmes and that it has not been submitted for any other academic award. Except where indicated by specific reference in the text, the work is the candidate's own work. Work done in collaboration with, or with the assistance of, others, is indicated as such. Any views expressed in the dissertation are those of the author. SIGNED: ............................................................. DATE:.......................... iii Acknowledgements Firstly, and most importantly, I would like to thank the people who chose to participate in this study. Each interview, meeting, or e-mail exchanged between us was a genuine pleasure. Beyond investing your time into this project that supports the study of multigendered attraction, your involvement also had a deep personal impact on me – thank you for teaching me. Thank you to my supervisors, Professor Therese O’Toole (Coven leader) and Dr Maud Perrier. Your support, both academically and pastorally, has meant this project has successfully completed. Thank you for your patience with my impatience. Thank you for your comments and insights that helped this become the best project it could be. Thank you for your belief in me, and your willingness to let me set my own pace of work. Your advice not only relating to the PhD, but also relating to life in academia has been immeasurably useful. I would like to thank Professor Annmarie Nelson for her endless willingness to give advice, not only on the dissertation, but also on how to turn off my brain after coming back from a day of work. Thank you also for facilitating connections to different disciplines and departments across the UK to extend the impact of this project. Thank you to Dr Brady Robards of Monash University for hosting me for three months. Your mentorship and guidance during that period meant a lot to me. I learned a lot from you and fell even more deeply in love with my project in this time. Rosa Targett, you have been incredibly insightful throughout this process. Thank you for sharing your knowledge around sexuality and gender with me, and helping me unpick my conclusions and arguments, and being endlessly fascinating and fascinated in relation to these topics and others. Your curiosity and critique have made this project all the better. Clara Hatton-Beattie, Rosa Targett, Gemma Mattea, Ellie Cawthorne, Jorge Rivera, Isabel Norwood, and Jennyfer Grigsby. Thank you for making sure I talk about something other than my PhD. Phone chats, e-mails, dinners cooked for me, pub trips, theatre trips, anything and everything we have ever done together over the last few years has meant the world. Thank you particularly for the last few months of this PhD when you made me talk about something other than deadlines. Your perspective was very necessary. Thank you to Abigail Nelson, Annmarie Nelson, Gemma Mattea, and Rosa Targett for reading portions of this thesis to provide feedback and editing help at the final push. Thank you to my colleagues at SPAIS, University of Bristol. To those in 1 Priory Road, and those across 3 and 10 Priory Road, your collegiality has meant the world. Thank you in particular to my officemates. You’re diamonds. Dr Nikki Hayfield, you were the first scholar of bisexuality I ever met. Our conversations helped shape a lot of the direction of this work and discussing different literature pieces and recommendations was extremely helpful. Thank you to Critically Queer for providing a space to learn more about salient issues. Thanks to Twitter for the ability to raise questions and see debates. Thank you to Tinder, for having provided a large amount of inspiration for this project through experiences of the dating underworld. iv Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................ ii Author’s Declaration ........................................................................................................ iii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................... viii List of Figures ................................................................................................................... ix List of Abbreviations .......................................................................................................... x Glossary ........................................................................................................................... xii Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1: Plurisexuality and its place in the social world .................................................. 7 1.0 Defining Plurisexuality .......................................................................................................... 8 1.1 Plurisexuality: A Social Overview ......................................................................................... 11 1.2 Adopting a Sociological Approach ....................................................................................... 16 Chapter 2: Sexuality Scholarship’s Engagement with Plurisexuality ................................. 19 2.0 Sexualities Scholarship: An Overview .................................................................................