Additionally, the current construction for the “Down Low” was just one more depiction of bisexuality being a “new” concept, much like Newsweek’s “discovery” of “Bisexual Chic: Anyone Goes” (1974) over three decades ago. Even though presence of male and female bisexuality happens to be well-documented across cultures since antiquity (Cantarella, 2002), the “Down Low” had been portrayed as a phenomenon that is new. But, the erasure that is cyclical stigmatization, re-erasure, and restigmatization of bisexuality, specially among males, is barely “new” (Angelides, 2001; Yoshino, 2000). Instead of news depictions from present years, but, this time bisexuality had not been exposed being a trend that is glamorous pop movie movie movie stars and supermodels. Instead, it absolutely was a shameful “secret” which put innocent individuals (ladies in specific) in danger for condition and death. Certainly, the Down minimal had been instantly exalted by some to your status associated with the force that is“driving for the HIV epidemic into the Ebony community. Oprah, inside her television show, clearly connected the Down minimal occurrence to HIV transmission, as did the report into the ny instances Magazine. Any direct empirical evidence regarding the role of the Down Low phenomenon in the HIV epidemic among African Americans is lacking (Millett, Malebranche, Mason, & Spikes, 2005) although down Low men seem useful scapegoats for the disproportionally high prevalence rates of HIV among Black women.
Additionally, research on Black male bisexuality and its associations with HIV transmission have not yet acceptably described the complexity among these males’s intimate habits and connected risks, on their own and their lovers.
Last, present discourse surrounding the Down Low unexpectedly characterized “secretive bisexuality” to be all but exclusive to Ebony males. Interestingly, traditional studies of bisexuality in the usa concentrated heavily on White both women and men. When recognized after all, early pictures associated with the possible part of the “bisexual bridge” from bisexual male to (presumably heterosexual and monogamous) feminine lovers also promulgated the label regarding the “white picket fence,” i.e., the White, married man being a vector of illness transmission (Miller, 2002). The present general public discourse on the Down minimal has taken along with it an abrupt about-face when it comes to racial/ethnic focus. It has resulted in renewed demonization not just of bisexuality but of Ebony male sexuality (cf. Lewis & Kertzner, 2003). Malebranche (2007) records, “Demonizing Ebony male sexuality has become a staple of US tradition since slavery, where our part would be to work and breed, additionally the Mandingo label of the hyper-sexual Ebony guy with an insatiable appetite for White women was created…we distort the facts about HIV into the Ebony community to divert our attention through the real вЂdown low’ problems of oppression, racism, insecurity, intimate punishment, substance abuse, joblessness, hopelessness, and despair.”
Interestingly, Latino guys have also taken off present discourse from the “new Down Low sensation,” although they will have been discovered to possess reasonably high prices of male bisexuality along side reasonably low prices of disclosure to partners that are female.
Analysis concentrating specifically on Latino bisexual guys, broadly comprehended here as males of Latin American descent who are now living in america, is significantly more developed than research on Ebony bisexual males. Even ahead of the HIV epidemic, a physical body of research on bisexual behavior among Latino males emerged from social researchers working within Latin America and also the Caribbean. Ethnographic research indicates that Latin American bisexual guys face unique dilemmas when you look at the construction, phrase, and connection with their sexualities (Aggleton, 1996). As an example, Carrier (1985) and Taylor (1978) discovered that the machine of categorizing same-sex experiences among bisexually-active Mexican males is dependent upon perhaps the people assume the “male” or “female” role during intercourse (penetrating or being penetrated). De Moya and Garcia (1996) discovered similar relationships between masculinity and bisexuality into the Dominican Republic. Within the context that is free online sex chat brazilian Parker (1991, 1996, 1999) recommended that the “object” (man or woman) of your respective libido may be less significant into the subjective construction of the sex and therefore a somewhat high erotic value is positioned on a lot of flexibility in intimate encounters.