Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality is a provocative, eye-opening, and original book on the science of sexuality beyond gender from internationally bestselling pop-psychologist Julia Shaw. Despite all the welcome changes that have happened in our culture and laws over the past few decades in regard to sexuality, the subject remains one of the most influential but least understood aspects of our lives. For Julia Shaw, this is both professional and personal—Shaw studies the science of sexuality and she herself is proudly and vocally bisexual. It’s an admission, she writes, that usually causes people’s pupils to dilate, their cheeks to flush, and their questions to start flowing. Ask people to name famous bisexual actors, politicians, writers, or scientists, and they draw a blank. Despite statistics that show bisexuality is more common than homosexuality, bisexuality is often invisible. In Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality, Shaw probes the science and culture of attraction beyond the binary. From the invention of heterosexuality to the history of the Kinsey scale, as well as asylum seekers trying to defend their bisexuality in a court of law, there is so much more to explore than most have ever realized. Drawing on her own original research—and her own experiences—this is a personal and scientific manifesto; it’s an exploration of the complexities of the human sexual experience and a declaration of love and respect for the nonconformists among us.
Dr. Julia Shaw is a criminal psychologist at University College London and part of Queer Politics at Princeton University, which works for LGBTQ+ equality, democracy, and civil rights. She is actively involved in bisexual research and is the founder of the international Bisexual Research Group. Dr. Shaw also has a hit BBC podcast, Bad People, where together with her cohost she uses research to examine some of society’s most pressing issues. She is the author of Evil and The Memory Illusion. She lives in London.
