‘Heartstopper’ Reminds Us People Are Bi, Actually
'Heartstopper' signals a new era of mainstream bi representation.
Heartstopper is back and wants everyone to know that bi people are bi, actually. Yes, Nick’s insistent “I’m bi actually” moments are very memeable. But they also represent an important milestone for mainstream bi representation.
The second season of Netflix’s queer coming-of-age series, Heartstopper is here. Based on the graphic novel of the same name by Alice Osman, the series follows a group of queer friends, their loves, their lives, and the epic highs and lows of making it through British high school.
The first season saw deuteragonists Nick Nelson, played by bisexual actor Kit Connor, and Charlie Spring (Joe Locke) fall head over heels after Nick realised he was bisexual. In Season 2, Nick and Charlie are a couple and they want the people they love to know. That means coming out. Heartstopper offers an honest portrayal of how, for bisexuals, coming out often means not letting your full identity be erased.
Throughout the series, when Nick says he’s in a relationship with Charlie, he’s met with the assumption that he’s gay. It’s not an unreasonable assumption. After all, he is a guy in a relationship with a guy. But he isn’t gay. So, each time, Nick corrects this assumption, informing his best friend, brother, and social media that, “he’s bi, actually”. He’s said it so often in the series, the repetition has become a meme, even though the context in which Nick says this line isn’t always so humorous.
Two separate instances of these moments come about when Nick tells his best friend Imogen, and then, later, his brother, David. When he tells Imogen, who spent much of last season being strung along by Nick while he figured out his feelings for Charlie, she’s relieved. She thinks they didn’t work out because he’s not attracted to women. However, Nick corrects her assumption that he doesn’t like girls by explaining that he is bisexual. For a moment she seems upset he wasn’t into her after all. The moment passes, however, and she gives Nick a big, accepting hug.
Not so accepting, however, is Nick’s brother. When David discovers Charlie in Nick’s room, Nick is outed. His brother homophobically teases him, saying, he just wanted to meet the guy who “turned his little brother gay”. When Nick, again, specifies his bisexuality, his brother is entirely dismissive and continues to harass both Nick and Charlie until Nick’s mum intervenes. “He can’t even admit he’s gay,” David scoffs, repeatedly.
With these moments, Heartstopper shows how bisexuals experience homophobia, erasure, and denial of the fluidness of their identities simultaneously. Of course, homophobia is experienced by all LGBT people. Bisexuals also contend with the perception that our identity is defined by who we’re with, rather than who we experience attraction to. According to that biphobic logic, a bisexual person is gay when they’re with a gay person and straight when they’re in a relationship that presents as straight. Question: does this mean that when I am single, I simply cease to exist?
Biphobia is often compounded by a lack of representation and a lack of specificity within that representation. Many popular representations of bisexuality in the past decade, from Piper in Orange Is the New Black to Valkyrie in the Thor films, refused to actually utter the word “bisexual”. Thankfully, shows like Sex Education, Brooklyn 99 and now Heartstopper have shifted that trend.
Bisexuals have their own unique shared experiences within our community, as well as the experiences we share with the wider LGBTQ community. As someone who grew up with invalidating depictions of bisexuality (if it was even represented at all), it warms my heart to watch shows like Heartstopper. Nick Nelson “is bi actually,” and it’s delightful to see a story where bisexuality is named without shame and with so much love and compassion for the bi experience.
Junkee acknowledges that actors, writers, and other creatives who work on Heartstopper may be on strike due to the industrial action currently being taken by SAG-AFTRA and WGA. Read more about the strikes here.
Image credit: Heartstopper, Netflix