But larger pools of diverse characters make it easier to spot cliches about those kinds of characters. One observation: It appears that what the website TV Tropes calls “the Depraved Bisexual” is only getting more common. Bisexuality in general on TV is on the rise; among television’s regular and recurring LGBT characters, 28 percent are bisexual. But while gay and lesbian characters on TV increasingly are portrayed in a way that doesn’t make their sexuality into a large and dubious metaphor about their character, bisexuality often is portrayed as going hand-in-hand with moral flexibility. The tropes, as identified by GLAAD:

• bisexual characters who are depicted as untrustworthy, prone to infidelity, and/or lacking a sense of morality; • characters who use sex as a means of manipulation or who are lacking the ability to form genuine relationships; • associations with self-destructive behavior; • and treating a character’s attraction to more than one gender as a temporary plot device that is rarely addressed again.

These characteristics are surprisingly common among male bisexual characters on some of the most buzzed about new shows. GLAAD writes that the list includes “Cyrus Henstridge on E!’s The Royals who last season seduced a member of parliament and then blackmailed him into helping the Queen; Mr. Robot’s Tyrell who sleeps with a male office assistant to install spyware on the man’s phone; and the traitorous Chamberlain Milus Corbett on FX’s The Bastard Executioner, whose sexual liaisons have so far been depicted as a way for him to exert power.” The report also says that bisexual women don’t have it quite so bad, “with characters like Grey’s Anatomy’s Callie and Chasing Life’s Brenna whose sexuality is established as just part of their lives.” (Casey Quinlan had a nuanced look at the topic for The Atlantic in 2013.)

This all conforms with some larger trends in attitudes about bisexuality. Studies have revealed widespread stigma and disbelief facing people who identify as bisexual. Women are frequently seen as experimenting when they identify as bisexual; men have it arguably worse because they’re often seen as lying to themselves and others about just being gay. In both cases, the upshot is: untrustworthy. Which is certainly an adjective that applies to Frank Underwood, though probably not to an outsized number of bisexual people in real life.

As for why any of this matters, GLAAD’s Alexandra Bolles explains in the report, “Though bisexual people make up the majority of the LGBT community, they are less likely than their gay and lesbian peers to be out to the people they love, because their identity is constantly misconstrued as either a form of confusion, a lie, or a contrived and hypersexualized means to an end. Perpetuating these tropes undermines the truth that bisexuality is real and that bi people deserve to be treated equally and fairly.”

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