In a recent interview, Bollywood actress Swara Bhaskar, along with her husband, Fahad Ahmad, made a bold statement, saying, ‘we are all bisexuals’, adding that heterosexuality is an imposed ideology. She had innocuously expressed her admiration for Samajwadi Party MP Dimple Yadav. Swara Bhaskar and her husband, Samajwadi Party leader Fahad Ahmad, are currently in a show ‘Pati Patni Aur Panga – Jodiyon Ka Reality Check’ being hosted by Munawar Faruqui and Sonali Bendre.
Swara Bhaskar, who received appreciation for her roles specifically Raanjhanaa and Anarkali of Aarah, had been forthright about her opinion on caste, class and gender. This has, on occasion, put her amid public backlash. Appearing with her husband Fahad Ahmad for an interview with the SCREEN, she said, “If you leave people to themselves, we are actually bisexual, but heterosexuality is an ideology that has been put on us for thousands of years. Because the human race will perpetuate, so it has to be the norm.” The anchor joked with Fahad that he should cover his ears as Swara went on to say, “I have a crush on Dimple Yadav ji.”
Netizens had reacted to Swara’s remarks mostly negatively, with many associating these comments with her political ambitions with the Samajwadi Party. One user wrote, ‘Ab ye samajwadi party me ticket ke liye efforts kar rhe hai.. Bhagwan kare Akhilesh bhaiya ise Gorakhpur se khada karde’, someone said, ‘It’s not “we”, it’s only “she”. She is bisexual or whatever’. Another user wrote, ‘Where do these hypocrites get the courage to speak for everyone?’
While many are interpreting this as a personal revelation, it was more of a general or philosophical outlook. Even though Swara is facing criticism for her remarks, she is neither completely right nor wrong; she is approaching the sexuality debate from a scientific standpoint. Historically, ‘heterosexuality” as an idea was coined in 1868 by Kertbeny and normalised by the 1930s, often viewed as a social construct. Freud argued that all humans are born with bisexual potential, and socialisation, repression, and cultural norms push people toward heterosexuality or more often hetronormativity. While Freud’s ideas have been controversial, he laid the groundwork for sexual fluidity studies, which later asserted that sexuality is more like a scale with extreme ends representing heterosexual and homosexual. However, most people fall within the spectrum. On the other hand, some evolutionary biologists argue that heterosexuality is the norm to ensure reproduction. But the scientific consensus is that we are not all bisexual, nor are we heterosexual, but somewhere in the spectrum.
