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Stephanie Beatriz hates how bisexual people are sometimes portrayed on TV.
The 40-year-old actress came out as bisexual in 2016, but she resents how various shows have peddled myths about the community over the years.
Reflecting on her experience of watching one particular episode of ‘Sex and the City', Stephanie explained: “It sucked watching one of my favourite shows talk about bisexuality in this super s***** way for jokes. It felt yuck.”
Stephanie thinks the portrayals are often wildly inaccurate and, ultimately, unhelpful for bisexual people like herself.
She told The Independent: “We're so often presented to be like these super-promiscuous beings. Like we're using our sexuality to manipulate people.
“It's like nah, I'm just living my life.”
Stephanie believes that her personal situation is complicated by her Latin background.
The ‘Brooklyn Nine-Nine' star – who has a Colombian father and a Bolivian mother – explained: “I'm in that intersection of Latinx, woman and queer, and there's a lot of cultural norms you feel pressured to complete, like get married, have kids…
“As a bisexual woman, people think like ‘Oh you could still fall in love with a man and do all those things.' People think it's a phase or that it's not even real.”
Stephanie has enjoyed success on stage and on screen during her career.
However, her parents were initially unconvinced about her career choices – particularly as her family had no links to the entertainment industry.
She said: “It's very risky pursuing the arts, especially if you don't know anyone who has done it before. It's really unknown.
“I didn't know how people got on TV or in a play. There was no one in my family who could tell me how to get an agent.”
