I know I like hyper-masculine men, effeminate women, and more androgynous folks too. Then you’ll have folks who see gender and are actively attracted to various genders. Body parts-or how a person expresses their gender-isn’t what’s attractive to them. These people see everyone simply as humans with different body parts.
My close friend, John, 24, can be heard saying “gender is a social construct” no less than ten times a day. I know.yet another way that pansexuality is confusing, but here’s all this means: You’ll speak to some pansexual folks who will say they don’t believe in gender. (I do this often, too!) Some pansexual people see gender whereas others do not.
Many individuals will state they identify as both to illustrate that they’re attracted to all genders. In fact, actress Sara Ramirez will state she identifies as both pansexual and bisexual since she is attracted to all genders. However, just like pansexuality, bisexuality can mean you’re attracted to all genders too, since, after all, multiple genders can also mean all genders. She’s a perfect example of someone who’s bisexual but not pansexual. Sarah, 28, is a cisgender woman who identifies as bisexual, and she’ll date trans men, cis and trans women, and gender nonconforming folks, but never a cisgender man. While this could mean you’re attracted to only cisgender men and cisgender women, you could also be like my close friend Sarah. With Ochs’ definition, bisexual simply means that you’re attracted to two or more genders. Instead, we use renown bisexual activist Robyn Ochs’ definition: “I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge that I have in myself the potential to be attracted-romantically and/or sexually-to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree.” Many folks, myself included, don’t view the “bi” in bisexual to mean that they’re attracted to only cisgender folks. What's a Polyamorous Relationship, Exactly? It would also be why you’d likely prefer to use the pansexual label as opposed to identifying proudly as bi. If you’re one to believe this, you may think that the term bisexual is exclusive of trans and nonbinary folks. Because of this, many folks, perhaps even the majority of people, believe that a bisexual person is attracted to only two groups of people: cisgender men and cisgender women. Now the prefix “bi,” as we’re all aware, means two. Pan, after all, comes from the Greek prefix meaning “all.” Thus, a pansexual person would be attracted to cisgender, transgender, gender nonbinary, genderfluid, and agender folks (a person who doesn’t identify with any gender). Pansexual simply means a person is attracted to all genders. But let’s start with defining pansexual, since it has one universally-accepted definition. Pansexuality was birthed from this confusion. Even within the LGBTQ community, people use the label “bisexual” differently. Pansexuality can be different from bisexuality, but sometimes, both identities indicate the same attractions.Ĭonfused? You’re not alone. So what exactly is pansexuality, who are more likely to identify with the P, and how does it differ from bisexuality? Let’s break it down. That day, searches for the word pansexual on Merriam Webster rose by a whopping 11,000 percent, becoming the most looked up word of the day.
In April of 2018, Janelle Monáe came out as queer and pansexual in a Rolling Stone cover story. Undoubtedly, the growing number of identity labels is a lot to keep track of, but in this explainer, we’re going to focus on the P, which stands for pansexuality.
(The added letters stand for Queer, Questioning, Intersex, Asexual, Ally, Pansexual, Two-spirit, and plus for the remaining labels not represented in the acronym.) Twenty years ago, the queer community referred to itself as the LGBT community.