A new study reveals many “bisexual-plus” Kiwi women feel misunderstood and invalidated when dating. Auckland University of Technology’s Tara Pond is the first New Zealand academic to analyse in-depth the lives and romantic relationships of bisexual-plus women – those attracted to multiple genders. For her PhD Pond surveyed 1000 women aged 20 to 88 who identified as bisexual, pansexual or queer. She found bisexual-plus women often experienced prejudice while in relationships with people of different genders. “When a woman’s in a relationship with a man they look like they’re heterosexual, when they’re in a relationship with a woman they look like they’re gay and so people will call them that. [Participants] felt quite invalidated or oppressed by those labels.”