The latest season of Made In Chelsea has certainly dialled up the drama thanks to new cast member Imogen Bloom. The 25-year-old influencer came storming into the series as Harvey Armstrong’s secret lover only to end up in a relationship with David Templer ‘Temps’, much to the disapproval of his best friend Miles Nazaire.
Why does Miles distrust Imogen? It all seems to stem from her quick turnaround between longing for Harvey and ending up with Temps, Miles essentially telling his BFF that she’s using him to make Harvey jealous. But this week, the ongoing feud raised an important debate, one that Imogen has brought onto social media today when discussing the reaction to the episode.
In Monday night’s episode, Imogen told her castmates that she’s bisexual, and that she typically longs for other women even when she’s exclusively dating a man. But context is key, she was essentially explaining that with Temps everything is different for her – for the first time she’s not interested in other women, she’s solely focused on Temps.
That all got turned on its head when Miles and Temps had a separate conversation, claiming that they have in fact witnessed Imogen flirting with other women when she’s on a night out. ‘Being bisexual is part of who she is so I wouldn’t want to suppress that,’ Temps told his friends – but it was Miles that called out how problematic that mindset can actually be.
‘It’s got nothing to do with suppressing her being bisexual, it’s about respect and the fact you guys are serious,’ he explained.
And in a sense, he was right to encourage Temps to take the alleged flirting seriously. So often bisexuality is dismissed and diminished by straight men who don’t take WLW (Women Who Love Women) relationships seriously – ‘allowing’ their girlfriends to flirt or sleep with other women because they don’t actually see those relationships as genuine or a threat to them. In turn, that perpetuates the misconception that bisexuality isn’t a valid sexual identity – just a ‘stop off’ on the way to being gay or straight.
But it’s also more complex than that, as Imogen explained on Instagram last night. Sharing a direct message from a fan who could relate to Imogen, the text wrote ‘In the episode you were accused of basically wanting to flirt with/shag all men and women. Bi women are so hyper-sexualised, and I’ve often been made to feel because I’m bi I can’t be trusted in relationships, and I must be attracted to literally everyone.’
Essentially, it seems as though Imogen is frustrated her conversations with other women have been presumed to be sexual in nature by Miles – misinterpreting her behaviour as untrustworthy purely because she’s bisexual.
As a bisexual woman myself, I think it’s important to consider all aspects of this conversation. To this day, bisexuality is commonly – and wrongly – associated with promiscuity, and straight men often misinterpret harmless conversations (with men or women) as flirty just by virtue of an attractive woman being charming and friendly. At the same time, if a couple has certain expectations or boundaries about how a person should interact with other people based on the terms of their exclusivity, that should apply to all genders when someone is bisexual. I certainly would take issue with my partner ‘allowing’ me to flirt exclusively with other women, simply because that would indicate to me he doesn’t respect my sexuality – of course, every couple is different and some may not see flirting with any one of any gender as disrespectful or cheating.
It may well be that Miles was misinterpreting Imogen’s behaviour based on the hyper-sexualisation of bisexual women, or it may well be that she was flirting, and Temps should take that seriously – I’m sure we’ll find out on the next episode. Either way, even being able to have these conversations due to the much-needed bisexual representation on television feels like a positive. Here’s to Imogen, bringing all the drama AND important debates to our Monday nights.