monosexism

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noun

The assumption that everyone is monosexual (i.e., attracted to only one sex); the belief or assertion that bisexuality and pansexuality do not exist.

Scrabble 21

Meanings

nounmonosexism (uncountable)
  1. uncountableThe assumption that everyone is monosexual (i.e., attracted to only one sex); the belief or assertion that bisexuality and pansexuality do not exist.

    Considering the fact that the overwhelming majority of biphobia and monosexism originates not from gay and lesbian communities but from heterosexual structures, […]

    2013, Shiri Eisner, Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution, Seal Press, →ISBN, page 61
    2 more examples

    Oppression of bisexual people is based in part on heterosexism and in part on monosexism, the belief that people can or should be attracted to only one sex/gender and that there is something wrong with those who cannot or will not choose.

    1995, Liz A. Highleyman, “Identity and Ideas: Strategies for Bisexuals”, in Naomi Tucker, Liz Highleyman, Rebecca Kaplan, editors, Bisexual Politics: Theories, Queries, and Visions, Routledge, published 2013, →ISBN, page 87

    […] The L Word seemed to harbor its own reservations about Alice's bisexuality from the start. But that the show ultimately chose to project its own monosexism through the voice of the one character who initially defied such limitations set a new record for implausible character noncontinuity, at the same time as it closed down one of American television's most prominent discourses on bisexuality.

    2013, Maria San Filippo, The B Word: Bisexuality in Contemporary Film and Television, Indiana University Press, →ISBN, page 206

Origin

Cite this entry
APA

monosexism. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/monosexism

MLA

“monosexism.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/monosexism. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “monosexism,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/monosexism.

Source: monosexism on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.