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Well *that* was anti-climactic.
Some characters just happen to be bisexual. They aren't sociopaths or polymorphously perverse incarnations of uninhibited slutdom; they're just folks who can be attracted to both men and women. Since being capable of being attracted to men and women is not the same thing as dating/sleeping with/married to both at the same time, these bisexuals do not get sudden uncontrollable urges to sleep with someone of the opposite gender of their current lover, any more than straight or gay people do with someone of the same. That is not to say such is unheard of, but that's the human condition and thus not strictly limited to bisexuality (it is also known as "being a jerk.")
Bi The Way is almost nonexistent in mainstream media (though almost a logical necessity in others) in part because a lot of both straight and gay people appear to believe that bisexuals are somehow 'cheating' by playing both sides of the field. All may be fair in love and war but there's something about the idea of losing someone to the opposing team that makes the "betrayal" worse because that's the one level where people who are exclusively straight or gay are either unwilling or unable to compete. Add in the fact that people tend to be paranoid and have low self esteem and there's a lot of hostility out there. If Bi The Way is common anywhere it tends to be in Biography.
"Outing" a bisexual can be convoluted. Some pass for straight or gay or allow others to make their own assumptions. Bisexuals are not portrayed so much for their mannerisms as their supposed habits. As a result, a het-seeming bisexual reads as Straight Gay, whereas a bisexual that acts Camp Gay is likely to be seen as subverting the stereotypes associated with a camp persona. Actual bisexual stereotypes are generally limited to glam rockers, hippies, swingers and other flamboyant presentations of alternative sexuality. So in the end it's likely that Bob or Alice Bisexual will be outed in passing.
Compare If Its You Its Okay, where someone who has shown interest in a certain gender in the past has one exception, Depraved Bisexual, where liking both genders makes you crazy (or conversely, being crazy makes you indiscriminate), or Suddenly Sexuality, where someone decides to play for the other team.
Examples:
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Anime and Manga
- Grampa Rome and possibly Switzerland from Axis Powers Hetalia. Switzerland is hinted to be in love with his Forgotten Childhood Friend Austria and his adoptive little sister Lichtenstein, and Grampa Rome, on a visit with Germany, expresses regret he never got around to having sex with a boy.
- Hell, Germany and Italy, too. Italy hits on girls all the time, but his first real love was with HRE. And, following the theory that HRE = Germany, then he fell in love with Chibitalia when he thought the other was female...
- Minto Aizawa/Mew Mint of Tokyo Mew Mew. Sure, she's fangirly, but no worse than the straight main character, and it doesn't even come up as often (although there may be a reason or two for this). Otherwise, she's your typical ballet-dancing ojou who talks to birds.
- Nene in Hyakko, the Class Representative, is openly bisexual, though considering the very small amount of males the cast runs into, and the extremes to which Nene goes with her lesbian side, she could very easily slip into Schoolgirl Lesbians territory at any moment.
- Madlax: arranges a date with a (male) guerilla fighter, flirts with a boy she's hired to protect, sleeps cute and cuddles with a woman she's hired to protect, and ends up with her (female) Rival in the the finale.
- Asougi Rin from Mnemosyne, definitely, who beds both multiple beautiful women and handsome studs with regular intervals.
- Fairly blatantly Rosalie and possibly Oscar from Rose Of Versailles.
- George from Paradise Kiss, mentioned in an aside.
- If standing on top of your car and announcing it loudly can be called that, though it's still a pretty funny moment.
- Major Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost In The Shell lives with her boyfriend, but also regularly enjoys some sexual VR-program with some of her female friends.
- In the anime, she has no boyfriend, but still enjoys the company of her female friends - one of whom is seen coming out of the shower as the Major and another woman are discussing various complex philosophical issues (in keeping with the series' typical expectations of its viewers).
- In Tora Dora! Minori Kushieda suggests to (her crush) Ryuji at one point that she might like girls, but backs off quickly. As usual, it's hard to tell how serious she is.
- There's a surprising example in Onegai Twins. The flamboyantly gay Shimazaki is actually bisexual; both he and Tsubaki have been pursuing Maiku to avoid admitting they still have feelings for each other.
- From The Demon Ororon there's Othello, brother of the titular character, "the most eccentric playboy" of the royal family of Hell. He was previously married to and madly in love with a woman, Futaba, and currently obsessed with the tragic bounty-hunter Mitsume.
- In the Hot Springs Episode of Full Metal Panic: Fumoffu Melissa Mao mentions that she learned so many languages by sleeping with men. A few moments later we hear Tessa telling her to "Please don't stare at me like that!" while Mao is rubbing ointment on her naked butt. Also in the The Battlegroup Commander's Sort of Boring Day we see Mao groping Tessa's breasts while she's passed out from drinking too much.
- In the Full Metal Panic novels, Lemon seems to be Bi The Way towards Sousuke. He had a crush on Nami, especially due to her cute, flirty teasing, and is shown to be rather pervertedly happy when he accidentally found himself groping her breast while she's sleeping. But at the same time, it's shown numerous times that he has a strong attraction to Sousuke. When he first saw Sousuke, he thought Sousuke was very good looking and "charming," despite Sousuke being completely emotionless (read: "eye candy"). Later, after Sousuke wins a tournament that helped win back Lemon's money, Lemon hugged Sousuke with "more passion than a french kiss would warrant," making Sousuke slightly uncomfortable. And later still, Lemon gets drunk, and subsequently invades Sousuke's personal space by hugging and groping him while blushing - which irritates Sousuke to no end.
- Practically every character in Gravitation. When it's convenient, that is.
- Haruhi Fujioka in Ouran High School Host Club notes offhandedly that her gender identity is pretty weak anyway, so she doesn't mind if people think she's a guy. And guys, girls, looks? What's that compared to who they actually are, anyway? Though, in truth she doesn't show anything more than politeness to girls from this point on... possibly because the rest of them tend to be really dumb/bland in this series.
- Dee Latener from the yaoi manga FAKE is bi according to his own word. He does tell a 12-year-old girl that he would definetely date her in ten years. But because he is attracted to Ryo, another guy, during the manga, he comes out mostly as gay.
- The Femme Fatale Kanoe from X 1999 straddles the line between this and Depraved Bisexual. She has a sexual relationship with her Dragon Yuuto, isn't above of flirting with Satsuki - yet, to our knowledge, her evil and/or morally grey actions aren't tied to her bisexuality.
- Julio from Zero No Tsukaima is in love with Louise, and has also expressed an attraction to Saito.
- Nanoha from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha is probably bi. On the one hand, Yuunoha was a completely reasonable and well-supported ship until Yuuno got Demoted To Extra and Vivio finally sank the ship in the Sound Stages, and in the Triangle Heart canon she ends up with Chrono. On the other hand, NanoFate are pretty obviously married after Striker S, and only a Teasing Creator keeps their relationship Subtext.
- Ryuuki from Saiunkoku Monogatari flaunts his attraction to men in order to show himself as a king who won't produce a heir anytime soon and he once teasingly flirts with his brother in disguise, though Ryuki does not know that badly squicking him. Also it is fairly clear from the beginning that he's falling for Shuurei hard. He has to outright declare his attraction to women and kiss her to make Shuurei realize it, because she masterfully ignores his non-so-subtle gestures.
Comic Books
- In Elf Quest, Everyone Is Bi, So Yeah.
- John Constantine: The instances are so infrequent that many fans forget this fact until a new plotline reintroduces it. To be fair, John has far more girlfriends and female lovers than male lovers.
- Mystique: Her early characterization had her ambiguously paired with the female clairvoyant Destiny (at least, until her death). For several decades for the editorial staff would not admit the depth of their relationship (and, under the Comics Code, couldn't). Since then, she has had at least two children by male lovers retconned into her backstory.
- Sparrow and Naomi, in Dykes To Watch Out For
- Also Black Cat from Spider-man has been known to have both boyfriends and girlfriends, and in fact is married to a woman in Spider-Girl.
- Moondragon (sort of). She tried mating with the original Quasar, then started seeing the newer more female Quasar, though that could be just her trying fulfill a prophecy.
- She and Quasar were lovers before the latter was Quasar, and Moony had had a lesbian tryst before that. Moondragon even said that she didn't feel any true attraction to the men she had tried to attract in the past, so this is a debatable case.
- Nico from Runaways... possibly. She denied any romantic feelings when Karolina made her first overt romantic advance, and has only had relationships with men up to this point, but her depression when Karolina left with Xavin and repeated statements of love seem to imply there is at least something else going on. A lot depends on how each individual issue is read, and it might all simply be the product of a simple, platonic relationship between two girls...or it could be sexual. Without further exploration by the writers it is up to the reader to decide.
- Rictor from X-Factor, as this page
 ◊ will attest. Note that said conversation also acts as foreshadowing, since Rictor and Shatterstar are now an item.
Film
Literature
- Captain Bel Thorne from Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga may be a bioengineered Hermaphrodite but h/she pretty much exemplifies Bi The Way in that it (Bel prefers to go by "it" primarily for the discomfort it causes) had lovers of both sexes but was always monongamous and never played anyone of any sex off of someone of another. Gender was never an issue with Bel and it seemed to become attracted to people based primarily on their status as fellow Fish Out Of Water.
- Aral Vorkosigan is the same way; bisexual but subconsciously attracted to soldiers. He's had male lovers in the past, and been happily married for the past thirty-odd years. As his wife says, "[He] was bisexual. Now he's monogamous."
- In American Gods Sam being outed as bi was slipped into a casual bit of conversation and was a minor part of her character.
- Liir in Son of a Witch.
- Really, nearly everyone in Gregory Maguire's The Wicked Years, unless stated otherwise.
- A secondary character in Red Seas Under Red Skies casually mentions in conversation that he'll "try anything once". One or two background characters are revealed as gay in a similar way. Locke is mildly surprised at this particular person's admission, but nobody seems to think it's unusual.
- Ivy Tamwood from The Hollows.
- In Tanya Huff's The Enchantment Emporium many of the characters, including the main one, are from a family of witches, the Gales. Women far outnumber men and with a few exceptions most relationships are within the clan to both keep their magic powers from being diluted and to keep them a secret. This results in a lot of Romantic Two Girl Friendships.
Live Action TV
Video Games
- Arguably Kanji in Persona 4, though his sexuality usually changes depending on what's funnier.
- Just don't bring this up on a forum without knowing how they'll react, or you'll get serious Internet Backdraft.
- In a game series with as much Ho Yay as Metal Gear Solid, it's hard to make any clear conclusions about the sexuality of any character. An exception is the marine commander Scott Dolph, who was a lover of Vamp and had at least one grown daughter. Vamp is not BiTheWay, though.
- There's also Endrance/Elk of the .Hack series. Both Mia and Haseo become the objects of his affection.
- This trouper always thought he had codependency issues and had trouble fuctioniong without a person in the role Mia filled for him, and replaced her with Haseo when Mia was no longer around.
- There's also one email where he outright states that gender doesn't really matter to him.
- Phantasy Star Portable reveals that Headmaster Nav is an equal-opportunity Dirty Old Man. He just appreciates the "human" form, male or female. He's sympathetic, one of the good guys, and like most Dirty Old Man characters, doesn't go much beyond pinching and flirting.
- Ayla from Chrono Trigger informs the party, "Me like strong person, man, woman, both like."
- Rin Tohsaka of Fate Stay Night notes that she's attracted to both Shirou and Saber. The Unlimited Blade Works "harem" ending illustrates it; it's not Shirou's harem, but Rin's.
- "Huh, I didn't know I swung this way"
- Liara T'Soni of Mass Effect. Then again, this is part of the asari hat in general (as the asari are a One Gender Race who prefer to breed with other species to increase their genetic diversity).
- Leliana from Dragon Age: Origins fits this. She can fall for a male or female protagonist, and has a relationship with a woman in her past (or, at least, a woman she was in love with). She even outs herself quite casually when her disposition is high enough. Likewise, Zevran is also bisexual, as well as a Chivalrous Pervert, though he largely only expresses womanising sentiments unless the player character happens to be male.
- One that comes completely out of left field is Branka, Oghren's wife.
Webcomics
- Trevor Moore from Candi.
- Jason Saskia from Emergency Exit.
- According to Word Of God, two of the new recruits in Fans - evidence points to Di and Jesse. Alisin and Slake as well, even if they've fallen in with bad crowds a few times. Arguably Rumy.
- Fox and
possibly Derringer from Friendly Hostility.
- Cecilia van Peck from Nukees.
- Dora Bianchi from Questionable Content is by no means in the closet and has very loudly and with a great deal of Squee checked out girls she likes, but has been in a committed, monogamous relationship with a man for
years months.
- Shelly from Wapsi Square.
- From the two Umlaut House series, Jake, Amanda, Liz, Pierce, Alice, Jake, and Pierce. Volair and Dr. Sisyphus...not so much.
- Matt from Menage a 3, Pictured above. Probably DiDi as well. Zii, on the other hand, is practically the embodiment of sex antics in the strip...which, in this strip, keeps her quite busy indeed.
- Gary is zooming right on into this one by making out with a crossdressing Dillon. In his defense, Dillon makes a rather convincing woman. He wakes up and promptly lampshades it.
Gary: "... I'm in denial, aren't I?"
Web Original
- The Whateley Universe has a
ton few of them. Chaka and Fey are those. Sara skirts the line, and is more clearly lesbian. Jobe and Belphoebe are also this, though they move towards Depraved Bisexual, but there bisexuality has nothing to do with their depravity. (Jobe wired them as bisexual)
- It's a bit of a stretch to say a whole lot about any of the main characters' sexuality. Very few are certain at that age to start with, and most folks don't find themselves drafted by the other team at the same time. Then the administration tells them to not have sex (but ''we'' certainly can't stop you), while their psychologists tell the gender displaced to give their new bodies a full test run...
- By "drafted by the other team", the Canon authors are talking about 14-year-old kids who manifest as mutants and at the same time, while their world is falling apart because of their mutation, they also change genders. As if high school isn't awful enough already.
- Agent Drake of Protectors Of The Plot Continuum; after his room-mate Naomi assumed he knew nothing of human sexual behaviour because he's a recently-turned-anthropomorphic fox and gave him a long and complicated explanation complete with diagrams, he revealed that in fact he had been unaware that some people weren't bi.
- Implied by Word Of God: Raimi Matthews from Broken Saints. While there is no reference to it in the actual story, writer Brooke Burgess (apart from constantly Lampshading the Raimi/Oran Ho Yay) has something interesting to say in the commentary track to Chapter 18, Act 1. When Raimi is getting a tarot card reading from Cielle, The Magician card is involved. Brooke Burgess lists "ambiguous sexuality" as one of the traits Raimi shares with The Magician, saying it's something happening with a lot of young men these days, and he wanted that expressed in Raimi. Of course, that didn't really work, as the only hint that Raimi is anything other than straight is aforementioned Ho Yay.
- Nikolai from Sapphire kills two birds with one stone when he tells Alec that both he and Boris were bisexual for one another.
- Rosa Fiametta and Brendan Wallace from Survival Of The Fittest version 4.
Western Animation
- Allison in Daria: Is It Fall Yet?
Real Life
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