binormativity

English

Etymology

binormative +‎ -ity

Noun

binormativity (uncountable)

1. (LGBT) The adoption of limiting (especially heterosexist-like) values, beliefs and norms into the bisexual community.
   • 2007, Victoria Clarke, Elizabeth Peel, Out in Psychology: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Queer Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 236:

     That this, achieving 'identity' through labelling and definition […] risks simply reserving existing hierarchies and re-inscribing the very power relations it seeks to undermine (Bower, 1999). Not surprisingly, 'heteronormativity' (Wilton, 1996) may be transposed into another version of normativity, in this case 'binormativity'. The third difficulty arises because accessing alternative discourses depends on changes in real conditions ...

   • 2010, K Caldwell, We exist: Intersectional in/visibility in bisexuality & disability:

     There exists a similar phenomenon of binormativity where by constructing a deviant bisexual other, the bisexual community is capable of upholding the dominant cultural code as well as its lesbian interpretation.

   • 2012, Laura Palazzani, Gender in Philosophy and Law, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 92:

     Not only heteronormativity, but also homo/binormativity are beginning to be feared, as they are perceived as limiting with respect to the 'rainbow' of sexual differences which exalts unstable and changeable indeterminateness […]

   • 2015, V Del Castillo, Regulating Bisexuality: Binormativity and Assimilation to the Homonormative Order in American Scripted Television Series:

     Binormativity refers to the normalisation of a certain standard of bisexuality against which all other forms of bisexuality are measured.

   • 2016, Meg-John Barker, Queer: A Graphic History, Icon Books, →ISBN:

     If we do manage to escape the heteronormative crab bucket, we're in a precarious place — scuttling around on the beach on our own — so it's highly tempting to join another crab bucket, with its own sets of rules and ideologies. Hence homonormativity, and, indeed, binormativity, polynormavity, kinknormativity ... There's a certain irony in people looking over at the mainstream bucket, laughing at the crabs being pulled back in, not realizing that they're doing exactly the same thing.

2. The state or quality of being binormative, that is, of pertaining to, adhering to, or enforcing two norms.
   • 2004, A. Z. Wyner, “Maintaining obligations on stative expressions in a deontic action logic”, in International Workshop on Deontic Logic in Computer Science:

     In the course of the analysis, we introduce polynormativity, which contrasts with the binormativity of standard DAL or alethic logic plus a violation proposition […] Such an analysis characterizes a binormative analysis, for states are either normative or non-normative […]

Related terms

• binormative

See also

• see list in homonormativity