And it wasn’t the first time in history that bisexuality and bisexual people were unfairly maligned.įODOR’S BOOK CLUB Want to read more interviews like this? Make sure you’re signed up for Fodor’s Book Club. It’s when, as so often happens with the LGBTQ+ and queer community at large, a thread is created that links bisexuality to promiscuity, tabooism, indecision. Of course, being sexual in and of itself isn’t wrong.

And while, honestly, go girl, the show directly linked those personality traits to her bisexuality and played it as “problematically sexy.” Even though previous iterations of the series featured Flavor Flav and Bret Michaels, the Hottest of Messes, we, the viewer, were supposed to ascertain that Tila’s bisexuality = slutty, dirty, messy.

It was actually pretty revolutionary for its 2007 debut.īut Tila was depicted as sloppy, and loud, a partier she wore teeny tiny mini dresses and bodysuits, all while Betty Boop-ing around the show’s rented mansion. The show’s premise was a Bachelor-esque setup, where Tila, a bisexual woman, was looking for her perfect match. MySpace royalty, she starred as the object of affection in VH1’s A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila (the pun was intentional). For many of those who came of age in the early aughts-a bygone age of TRL and The Simple Life-one of our earliest memories might be Tila Tequila. Think about the first time you heard about bisexuality. Julia Shaw, author of 'Bi: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science' behind bisexuality.

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