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3.
As a celebrity, she's a "safe" outlet for many women's
bisexuality.
Unlike
having a crush on the woman at work or living two doors down, straight
women who are secretly attracted to Angelina Jolie don't have to
fear that they will ever be in a situation which might cause them
to act on that attraction. As a celebrity, Jolie lives clearly in
the realm of fantasy, and thus attraction to her doesn't really
count against a woman's heterosexuality.
4.
Jolie's aggressive personality appeals to some women's desire to
be dominated--and to dominate.
Hollywood.com
writer Scott Huver put it best in his explanation of Jolie's place
in the Sexiest Star poll results. "How could
you resist her?" Huver wrote. "If you tried, we have a
feeling she'd kick in the door and hold you down on the floor with
her boot until you submitted."
Which
is exactly what many women (straight, lesbian, and bisexual) secretly
desire--even Jolie herself. "I need someone physically stronger
than me," Jolie said in a June 2000 interview with Elle Magazine.
"I am always on top. It's really unfortunate. I am begging
for the man that can put me on the bottom. Or the woman. Anybody
that can take me down."
A decade
earlier, Madonna generated a similar buzz, but didn't create the
same kind of phenomenon because only one
of these factors really applied to her (the rebelliousness). Maybe
one and a half, if you count her occasional dalliances with women.
But although she flirted with bisexuality, Madonna always appeared
to be doing it more as a marketing ploy to deliver maximum shock
value than out of genuine interest. Her sexual friendship with Sandra
Bernhard aside, Madonna is the kind of woman you could see hook
up with a woman, but not actually be in a relationship with one.
On
the other hand, one could quite easily see Jolie in a relationship
with another woman now that she isn't married. Not that she necessarily
would look for this, since it's not Jolie's style to seek out one
gender over the other, but at least with Jolie you believe it's
possible.
It's
the coexistence of all three of these factors at the
same time within the same woman that is responsible
for the universal attraction to Jolie. If she were just
bisexual but not outspoken about it, or exhibited outrageous behavior
but was not bisexual, or was just another beautiful married actress,
Jolie would still have many fans. But she would probably not have
the massive and diverse following of straight, lesbian, and bi women
that she has today without the convergence of all three of these
factors.
As
long as the taboo on bisexuality and the pressure on women to be
ladylike remain strong forces in our culture, Angelina Jolie will
continue to serve as a sort-of litmus test for bisexuality in women
who otherwise define themselves as heterosexual. Meanwhile, Jolie's
position as the Bisexual Poster Girl will actually weaken the very
social conditions that put her there.
By
contributing significantly to the national dialogue on bisexuality,
she is making it less likely that she will be such a rarity in the
future--circumstances in which even Angelina Jolie wouldn't mind
blending into the background.
July
2003 Update: In Jolie's interview with Barbara Walters
on the July 11, 2003 edition of 20/20 (ABC), she talked
about her bisexuality and the fact that she is still open to a relationship
with a woman, saying "I consider myself a very sexual person
who loves who she loves, whatever sex they may be."
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