The Bisexual Problem is a long-form YouTube video essay written, produced, and presented by Verity Ritchie and Ada Černoša (who both identify as bi). It explores bi imagery and bi narratives and storylines in cinema, and the complexities of bi representation in modern storytelling. The full video essay is available to view below.
Ritchie and Černoša discuss (at great length) different approaches to presenting bisexuality across television and film, and the obstacles those solutions set up.
The first quandary is what they call “Frog Theory” — the idea that all past lovers do not count once the character finds their “one true love,” which negates the bi past of the character once they land on their final partner in the story:
Bisexuality doesn’t exist in a world of ‘One True Love’s,’ therefore, Heck (from Imagine Me and You) doesn’t count.
The video also cites other popular media that follow this model, such as Personal Best, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, and XO Kitty. They argue that the model of Sequential Bisexuality — which demonstrates a character’s queerness by having them date different genders one after another — falls flat in the third act:
If we see a bisexual story end monogamously, we are trained to disregard all previous romances… the final relationship carries the most weight, so we are going to regard it as the ‘real’ one, the one that brings happiness and stability in a way the previous ones failed to.
Next, Ritchie and Černoša tackle how love triangles signal someone’s queerness. Again, this usually ends with a “victor,” and audiences presume the final pairing reflects the hero character’s ultimate gender preference, citing Puccini For Beginners and even Heartstopper as examples. Ritchie asserts:
Narratively, we all understand this — that the love triangle must end with the right choice — with stasis. But if this is the case, bisexuality can only thrive in the context of an unresolved narrative.
However, she notes examples such as Trigonometry or pre-Hays Code Design for Living, which resolve the triangle with at least two of the three members being bi, closing the triangle and creating a throuple. But the creators half-jokingly note these triads are exceptions, or that there are ultimately a lot of unhappy or impossible endings for bi characters:
So it’s ok to be bisexual in film. You just have to break the space-time continuum, or either date two people at once (like in Trigonometry) or end up single (like in Appropriate Behavior). Either a throuple or a… oneple. You’re either a threesome bisexual or ‘dying alone’ bisexual. Which one are you? Let us know in the comments.
Ultimately, the creators go beyond the typical narrative approaches used to show bisexuality and start deeply examining (and critiquing) the ethnic model itself for defining bisexuality and social identity (AKA “you’re born this way”). While that model can be affirming, Ritchie and Černoša counter that it provides major roadblocks, leading to needing to “prove” bisexuality, which has led to severe legal and scientific consequences. This can lead to immigration cases like Raymond Fuller’s — a Jamaican man denied political asylum to the United States despite experiencing mortal peril for being bi and exploring same-sex pursuits.
Instead, the creators advocate for having a more values-minded model of definition, which can better translate across different minority demographics and often leads to success and progress for otherwise disparate groups — and hopefully to better, fuller bi representation in film and TV.
Ritchie and Černoša make a strong case in The Bisexual Problem for a macro-argument on bi representation in media. They cover not only the quality of bi representation but also trends in how characters displaying bisexuality are told. As seen in the examples above, they draw on 80+ years of TV and film to support their arguments, so it is extremely well researched.
However, there are still other ways of showing a character is bi that are missed or little-discussed in their debate, such as framing a story as a bi awakening (which is another way to look at Imagine Me & You), new ways to frame queer desire itself (such as Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma), or even just casual mentioning of a character’s queerness without it becoming a focal point (like in Starstruck).
Their conclusion — that we should move away from identity politics and focus instead on building coalitions — is compelling in principle, but ultimately feels vague and underdeveloped. After nearly two hours spent unpacking narratives and challenging definitions, viewers may be hoping for a more rousing call to action. Instead, the documentary ends like a two-hour lecture: it encourages us to break free from the norm but offers little guidance on how to actually do it. The conclusion doesn’t fall flat, exactly, but it would have been more powerful with concrete, actionable steps to rally viewers around a better future for bi representation in media — and for the bi community as a whole.
The Bisexual Problem attracted significant attention on YouTube as the popular creators’ first release in almost a year, drawing in nearly 2 million views. The video essay came up in discussion in an episode of the Bi Men Unfiltered YouTube channel, with the hosts agreeing with Ritchie and Černoša’s bewilderment at A GLAAD critics’ saying a Challengers scene wasn’t bi enough because the men’s eyes were closed while kissing, so “they didn’t know they were not kissing a woman.” The hosts also agreed with the lack of bi visibility, relating that someone seeing Grayson (the bi host) talking to his wife in the grocery store would assume he is straight.
Snippets of the essay Ritchie posted on Instagram gained huge views and vibrant commentary. There was a myriad of responses to the content. Some noted their frustration at bisexuality as a plot device (“I hate how bi and pan characters are so often portrayed as hypersexual, it feels like their only purpose is to add something exotic or erotic”), while others expressed deep gratitude for the creation of The Bisexual Problem:
The full video for this was amazing and helped me to realize that I, myself, had been allowing my own life narrative to be invalidated by what partners I ended up with… to the point of using my ‘experimentation’ with women as a way to invalidate any attraction to women [like] I’ve had sort of like an “intrusive thought” rather than acknowledging it.
The comment section on the YouTube video also amassed over 5,000 comments discussing different elements of the essay and sharing users’ real-life bi experiences.
Overall, The Bisexual Problem is an engaging, cheeky, well-researched video essay that raises thought-provoking questions about how society understands bisexuality — both in storytelling and in our own lives — while remaining entertaining and accessible. It explores how modern film discusses bisexuality — not just the if or the frequency, but the how — and how that can be improved. It encourages critical thinking of queer representation as well as how bis identify themselves within modern society — and the ways we can break free not only on the page or the stage, but to gain greater rights for ourselves and for our bi community. It is an excellent modern think-piece, worthy of inspection and introspection.