When Will Bisexual Chic Hit Men?

This is getting ridiculous.

Last week, singer-songwriter Vanessa Carlton came out as bisexual, making her the 500,000^th female celebrity to label herself as such, including such major stars as Lady Gaga, Anna Paquin, Fergie, Christina Aguilera and Megan Fox, who all recently also deemed themselves bisexual.

And an additional zillion other female celebrities, from Janet Jackson to Madonna to Denise Richards, have embraced bisexual themes in their work, regardless of their own stated sexual orientations.

Anna Paquin (left) and Vanessa Carlton – two recent
female celebrities on the publically bisexual bandwagon

Not surprisingly, there’s a corresponding wave of teen and twentysomething girls and women following these celebrities out of the bisexual closet – or at least flirting with the concept. There’s even a name for it: bisexual chic.

When will bisexual chic hit the guys? Very, very soon, I predict. But more on that in a moment.

True, a number of male celebrities have identified as bisexual over the years, notably Alan Cumming, Mika, and Andy Dick. And The Real World’s Mike Manning and writer Christopher Hitchens both made headlines recently by declaring their own bisexual leanings.

Mike Manning (left) and Christopher Hitchens

But let’s face it: male bisexuality doesn’t have nearly the same degree of visibility or cultural cache in American culture that female bisexuality does.

The term “bisexual chic” is, of course, kind of demeaning, implying that bisexuality is something someone is embracing because it’s chic or trendy.

Who knows? Maybe that does describe a few celebrities, although it’s hard to see how that’s different from gay people pretending to be straight in order to win cultural approval – something that’s far, far more widespread.

But the mere existence of the concept of “bisexual chic” raises an interesting question: if it’s suddenly so hip and edgy and culturally desirable for a woman to declare herself bisexual, why isn’t the same also true for a man?

We’ve all heard the usual explanation: heterosexual guys still call the shots in this society, whether they’re in high school or greenlighting movies like 1998’s Wild Things, and these men are turned on by same-sex pairings of women and turned off by gay male sexuality.

Neve Campbell (left) and Denise Richards in Wild Things

It might also have something to do with differences in male and female sexuality. A famously controversial 2005 study found that in the group of self-declared bisexual men, most seemed to be either gay or straight (but mostly gay) – at least in terms of their penile response to various pornography.