TV

“Bones” does bisexual right

Warning: Mild spoilers for the upcoming season of Bones.

Dear Bones creator/executive producer/writer Hart Hanson:

When Bones returns this Thursday night on Fox, things are going to be a little different for my favorite fictional forensics team, huh? In the year-long story leap between the fifth season finale and the sixth season kickoff, Booth has picked up a non-Brennan girlfriend, Cam has landed in hot water at The Jeffersonian, and Angela and Hodgins have decided to get pregnant. With a baby on the way and an adoring husband at her side, I thought it would be a perfect time to write to you about Angela Montenegro.

Mostly I want to say thank you. Being a seasoned writer, you’re no stranger to TV tropes. When you gave us Angela, you could have gone with the Depraved Bisexual Trope (she’s so insecure and attention-hungry, she’ll seduce anything that moves); the Pyscho Bisexual Trope (she’ll do anyone, so she’ll do anything); the Sweeps Week Bisexual Trope (she’s the key to ratings success; just let her kiss someone else with boobs); or even the No Queer Characters Exist Trope.

But you didn’t.

Angela’s affirmation that she is bisexual was as natural as a beating heart. First there was the UPS lady that wasn’t into Hodgins or Zach; she was into Angela. (And who wouldn’t be into Angela?) She took it all in flirty stride. Then the reveal that in art school she’d been in a relationship with an art student named Roxie. Then she rekindled that romance, right there in the middle of season four. And it was good. Her friends were as happy for her as they had been for her and Hodgins. It was so normal for them. And Hodgins took it just as hard as he would have if Roxie had been a dude. It was so real for him.

It didn’t last with Angie and Roxie, though, because the kind of girl who changes her name to something from a dream is never going to be the kind of girl you want long-term if you’re a rigid planner like Roxie. And at the end of the day, the love of Angela’s life was Hodgins. Sweet, nerdy, perfect, perfect Hodgins – who adored Angela exactly the way she deserves to be adored.

You probably don’t know this – not being A Gay and all – but bisexuals do not have it easy in the lesbian community. They don’t have it easy in the straight community either. If they’re not suffering disdain and resentment because of the “flaky” way they “change teams,” they’re getting bashed, because being attracted to either gender means they’re attracted to all people in both genders, and are, in fact, sleeping with all of them at the same time. Or, you know, they’re just passing the time with a woman until the right guys comes along. It sounds silly, but that’s really the kind of prejudice bisexual women deal with every day.

And you know what? TV is responsible for a lot of that misinformation and fear and anger. GLAAD tells us every year that knowing a gay or bisexual character is like knowing a gay or bisexual person, and if every bisexual portrayal on television falls into the Depraved Psycho Seducer Trope, what else are people going to think?

Angela ended up with a man, the love of her life, but it doesn’t devalue the relationships she had with women. And it also doesn’t mean her sexuality is no longer fluid. It just means the soul she fell in love with in a forever kind of way happened to be in a guy’s body. And that’s down to your writing, Hart Hanson. Angela Montenegro changes things inside and outside our community. Thank you for caring enough about your characters and your audience to give us an authentic bisexual woman. Also, if you had a hand in casting smokin’ hot Michaela Conlin, thank you for that too!

By the way, I think your initials are the best initials ever.

Sincerely,

Heather Hogan

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