What is the difference between Bisexuality and Pansexuality?

does it mean they “pan” across to include beasts too? why come up with a new term if it isnt something different? I did that in the 80s. and I had to look it up too.

Pansexuals are not attracted to genders. Bisexuals acknowledge that they are attracted to two genders and many of them prefer one over the other. Pansexuals do not care about gender and are just attracted to a person in general. Therefore, they would be more likely to be attracted to someone who looked like a woman, but had a penis or someone who looked like a man and had a vagina.

The distance from the bedroom to the kitchen?

One plays the pipes.

@dominicx They like transexuals? why label people? come on folks. we love people. we do people. if there is chemistry….we want to do them…....

It’s about love….not who you sleep with.

I’m pansexual, & I can look at a kitchen cabinet & think “Damn, that’s hot….”

But this is very, VERY rare! I prefer people over objects. And this DEFINITELY doesn’t apply to all pansexuals!

Here’s what I don’t get:
Why is there so much division in the realm of non heterosexuality?
I’ve seen lesbians throw punches because someone said they were bi.

@jazmina88

They would be more likely to be attracted to a transsexual than a homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual would, yes.

This question asks about the definition of a label, so I answered it.

Pansexuality works on the basis that there are a bunch of genders aside from “feminine” and “masculine.” Personally, I take issue with the term pan-“sexual” because this word implies that are more than two sexes. I would much prefer the term pan-“genderal” much more because that actually describes what it is that people under this umbrella of sexuality are attracted to.

There are two sexes three if you count people with both kinds of external genitalia which is why I think that “bisexual” is a much more accurate term for someone who is attracted to people with either kind of external genitalia.

Also, what gets me about this is that once you try and define what gender is, that makes everything so much more complicated.

@Draconess25 Do you want to be labelled or just be free to be yourself? sexual, loving and fun. I’m a scorpio, the kinda freak of the zodiac.

What is the difference you think between being bi and pan?

@jazmina88

People have a right to describe their sexuality with the most accurate label that applies to them.

@jazmina88 Oh, I agree with @DominicX.

I just felt like adding that, though.

I think labels suck. political. religious. intelligence….

we are free people….free to do was we will.

so some people choose to be straight and narrow.

I choose love.

what if people label you negatively? throw out the damn labels. and love.
labels is a type of judgement is our society, even medically.

Some use the word omnisexual. The idea being, one is drawn to a person and how that person identifies, rather than genitalia. I wouldn’t say someone who identifies as omnisexual is more likely to be drawn to someone who lives outside a gender binary, I would say they have room in their attractions for those who live outside a gender binary. and, @jazmina88 that doesn’t not necessitate bestiality.

@jazmina88

Good for you.

Personally, I prefer MILFs.

@liminal I was being a smart ass. i’m sorry. I’m not offending anyone.

Dont think it’s a big deal who sleeps whom with whom.

@jazmina88 thank you for clearing that up.

unless pedophiles are involved and kids.

The term “bisexual” excludes people like me. I’m female-bodied but never identify as female and sometimes don’t identify as male, either. More often than not, I identify as gender-neutral. So if someone’s very concerned with being “correctly” labeled and they’re attracted to me, “bi” doesn’t work because I’m outside the binary gender structure. “Pansexual” would fit them better.

@MacBean: That’s why I have the problem with the words themselves. If “sexual” was taken out of these words and replaced with “genderal” then they would be much more accurate. I identify as bisexual because I have the capacity to be attracted to people with either sex organs.

Just be yourself…..a grand creation…...and love who destiny puts in your life.

dont worry if you r not too female/male, be happy who you are.

LIVE LOVE LAUGH

I’ll just start calling myself queer. All these terms are confusing.

I like to think of it as, “Skin is skin.”

Pansexuals are attracted to all genders, and acknowledge the fact that there are more than two genders, and that gender is not dichotomous, it’s a spectrum. This isn’t to say that bisexuals cannot acknowledge it, it’s just that pansexuals feel it’s important to specify this.

you guys are being so scientific in matters of the heart.

is there a science for who turns you on?

I have slept with men and women. I’m old now…...i just love people.

dont overanalyze your desires. just live.

At my age, and with my social life, I’m coming around to the belief that there is no such thing as sex.

Dammit.

@jazmina88

Then why don’t you go “live” and stop criticizing everyone’s responses?

@tinyfaery: I just simplify things by saying I’m Bobsexual now. For a time I was Chrissexual. Before that I was Jeremysexual. :)

will be edited by mods

@KatawaGrey by that naming convention, I’m mesexual, sometimes bibliosexual. I sort of liked it better when I was younger and was autosexual.

@tinyfaery: I did exactly that a long time ago.

I learn a lot of stuff on Fluther. Special thanks to @MacBean, @DominicX, @tinyfaery.

guys, most of us older people havent had to learn the difference between genderal and sexual to figure out who we are sexually. I’m sorry that’s a bit scary. I feel sorry for you having to go through this. Sometimes it’s just easier to simplify than to tear things apart.
Is there a real difference between pan and bi?
do they overlap?

there is too much therapy and “gay boot camp”. meaning families who send their kids off to become straight again…..what a waste. what resentment that must hide. Parents and society should just accept you and you should look for love, where ever it may be.

I do <3 you pans. I think i could be one of you, in my younger days.
Open yourself to love and the chemistry. “It” could be anywhere.

@tinyfaery and @MacBean it is definitely heading that way for me.

bisexuality is when you like guys and girls.
I myself and pansexual.
Pansexual is when you like the person for the person.
Like the personality is all that matters.
Not necessarily the look or the gender.
In other words, you’re less shallow.

They think it’s bisexual but most bisexual people are slutty. LOL

I want to know what it is when young women like old guys. I could use some of that, please.

PS: ‘Young’ means ‘if you feel young’. I’d prefer to be the judge of how you feel, and it might take a lot of feeling for me to judge properly.

@Shuichi

Wow. I don’t know which part of that reply to vomit because of first.

@Shuichi: That is an awful generalization to make and it is exactly why I never volunteer the information that I am bisexual. I am attracted to some males and I am attracted to some females. Does that make me slutty? Absolutely not. What it makes me is attracted to some males and some females. I am also not shallow simply because I do not call myself pansexual. I am attracted to a certain kind of male, it is true, but this attraction is not based on looks. It is based on certain personality traits. I am also attracted to a certain kind of female, also based on certain personality traits.

Anyway, all pansexual people are elitist snobs so I guess it doesn’t matter.

Hm… interesting thing about generalizations, isn’t it?

Typo much?
Eeep, I meant to put most **people think** bisexual people are slutty.
Woops.. sorry guys.

Hate me if you wish though. Obviously cannot take back a typo. _;

@Shuichi

Well, I didn’t too much like your comment about how pansexuals are “less shallow” either. That’s not necessarily true at all. Pansexual doesn’t mean you don’t care about looks, it means you don’t care about gender. A pansexual could be extremely shallow. Your definition of “pansexual” was false to begin with.

Furthermore, it’s not my problem that I am only attracted to one gender. I am not “shallow” because of it and the notion is ridiculous.

I still don’t really get why your reply got any GA’s at all, but that’s not the first thing to bewilder me about this site.

dead

Ugh. You read me wrong.

I rather not go into further explanation however.

Think as you wish ma copine.

@Shuichi

If you can explain how I read you wrong, please do so.

I don’t understand why semantics matter so much at times. I’m a hetero though, what do I know~

@CyanoticWasp: Lolitas!

ME ATTRACTED TO SELF. me narcissisexual.

@Shuichi In other words, you’re less shallow.
They think it’s bisexual but most bisexual people are slutty.

Have you been taking “judgmental” supplements or are like this out of the box?

This certainly went downhill after @DominicX‘s answer.

see, the labeling and generalizations caused some slashing…...got me off the hook though. :)

Can you believe this question got 50 replies?!

@davidbetterman I’d be more astonished to find even one that made actual sense.

@jazmina88 No it doesn’t mean they ‘pan’ to beasts and I question why you’d make such an inference. New labels always come up when existing labels don’t fit people and if people actually cared ONLY about love, then we wouldn’t have homophobia, transphobia, etc.
@KatawaGrey To have a label of pan-genderal is interesting but I do think some pansexuals accept their labels because there aren’t only two sexes (intersex people, for example) but I do think they’re in the minority. When I learned the difference between bisexual and pansexual (hope this clears things up for you @CyanoticWasp ) I learned it like this: SOME bisexual people do not believe there are more than two genders/sexes but instead of being attracted to one of the two, they are attracted to both. OTHER bisexual people do accept that there are more than two genders/sexes but are predominantly attracted to people who present as men or women (males or females). Pansexual people as @Hexr said above might be attracted to both of the dominant genders/sexes or to those outside the binaries or at least want it know that there are other options. Some time ago, I used to identify as pansexual and now I identify as queer like @MacBean – because I don’t want a gender identity, my partner (born male) doesn’t identify as straight (it makes no sense). Even longer ago than that, I identified as bisexual before I met any transgender people.

@KatawaGrey says:
I am bisexual. I am attracted to some males and I am attracted to some females. I am also not shallow simply because I do not call myself pansexual… It is based on certain personality traits. I am also attracted to a certain kind of female, also based on certain personality traits.

Okay, I am still confused here. Your definition seems to indicate pansexuality, rather than bisexuality. Is this something that even the involved communities don’t agree on?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir if I accept the dictionary definitions of the word “pansexual” ... and since no one else has defined it, it’s all I have to go on, then:

From Dictionary.com:
1. Psychiatry. pertaining to the theory that all human behavior is based on sexuality.
2. Also, omnisexual. expressing or involving sexuality in many different forms or with a variety of sexual outlets.

Okay, from a psychiatric point of view, yeah. I’m pansexual (it’s an adjective). Everything I do is based on sex. (You don’t want to know what I’m thinking when I buy cucumbers at the supermarket. Neither do I.)

And even the second definition makes some sense: When a friendly and willing female partner isn’t available, I… uh… ‘express my sexuality’ with other outlets. We don’t have to go into details here.

But nowhere in the definition is there mention of “other sexes”. Nowhere in science—not that I’ve studied the topic extensively—is there mention of “other sexes” or “other genders”. If you want to posit that, then you need to show some evidence. I understand and accept homosexuality, bisexuality and transgender issues as well as hermaphroditism (even if the term offends some) as various manifestations of human sexuality. Fine. I’m not even going to be the least bit judgmental and say that any of those are wrong, abnormal or ‘not right’ in some way.

But you need to make a case for ‘more genders’ if there’s a case to be made. It can’t be something unique to pink unicorns and people with magical auras.

@filmfann: My issue is purely with the semantics. “Sexual” refers to someone’s genitalia. I say that i am bisexual because at times I am attracted to people with penises and at times I am attracted to people with vaginas. I personally think it’s silly to try and base your sexual preference on gender since it is such a fluid and impossible to define thing. I would go so far as to say that gender does not even exist because there are a huge number of factors. For example, I consider myself a woman of the feminine gender but there are a number of things about me that are considered masculine. However, the only reason these things about me are masculine is because someone else decided that they were.

When it comes right down to it, I’m attracted to who I’m attracted to. I just happen to be attracted to some people who have different parts than I do and some who have the same parts that I do. I call myself bisexual for ease of explanation more than anything else.

@CyanoticWasp that is why I earlier said a self-identified omnisexual doesn’t limit their human attractions to a binary based on genitalia. A person who is omnisexual can feel sexually attracted to those who identify as homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual, transgendered, asexual, gendered, not gendered, or mix gendered. A person who is a intersexed, female sexed, or male sexed may also hold allure to the omnisexual person. I would say, for the omnisexual, defining how a person is sexed let alone how they are gendered is not a priority.

@CyanoticWasp My community doesn’t go by dictionary definitions – as a sociologist, I believe the dictionary is about a century behind on ALL terms. Just because the term pansexual as a sexuality hasn’t been added to the dictionary doesn’t mean squat. You don’t need scientific evidence of a social construct – it is enough that some people feel the gender binary doesn’t fit them and it is enough that some people don’t want to be with only men or women. As I mentioned before other sexes includes people who are intersex (ones you deem as hermaphrodites) and other genders are about being who are transgender or people like me who don’t feel that either of the dominant genders apply to me. Finally (and thanks for working all this through, I know it’s confusing) I am separating biological sex from gender (even if I believe but this is really getting deeply into queer theory that biological sex was also constructed to some extent in a social manner so that only two sexes were legitimized legally and the rest of people had to be cut to fit into one or the other) which is a social construct. Some people and you may be one of them believe that one inevitably describes the other as in ‘oh he’s got a penis that means he will be xyz’ and so forth and some people (myself included) do not believe this.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir should we assume that definitions will arise spontaneously from a soup of words like that, the way some believe that life began from a primordial soup of nutrients?

I still have no clear understanding of how you define the term “pansexual”. I could go for “male” on a continuum and “female” on a continuum and “indeterminate” for those who really could go either way and haven’t (or won’t or can’t) ‘make up their minds’ about it (whether it’s any kind of choice or other-determined thing).

Or should we all just have a JFK moment and declare that “We are all pansexuals now… and the term ‘gender’ has zero meaning.”

My understanding is that Kennedy mispronounced the word, and actually said he was a jelly donut.

It is my understanding that he was an actual jelly donut at the time he claimed to be a Berliner. To me, this explains the activity on the grassy knoll.

Right now, after all this semantics debate, a jelly donut sounds more appealing than sex.

@MacBean That all depends on the filling.

Which gender would you rather have a donut than, @MacBean? I mean, exactly.

@CyanoticWasp These labels are about something personal to us – if you don’t need them don’t use them but don’t trivialize the process some of us go through in order to have a language that describes what we feel.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir I’m not trying to trivialize anything; I’m truly trying to understand. But words have to have meanings, or we’re just making interesting noises at each other. (And I suppose there’s a place for that, too, but it wouldn’t be Fluther.)

So how do you define “a pansexual”. I really do want to know. Even if you “don’t go by dictionary definitions” the words you use have to have a common meaning that others in the conversation can duplicate, don’t they?

@CyanoticWasp These words have meanings – all my friends are queer (except a couple who are straight) and we are all aware of what pansexual, queer, intersex mean. And I defined pansexual in my above post. When a person wants to know, I share what it means to me and they either like it or they don’t.

@jazmina88 I’ve never heard that scorpio’s are the freaks of the zodiak. Why is that?

I’ve always considered myself bi-sexual and had never heard of pansexual. I do know that I am attracted to some men and am attracted to some woman but I also find myself attracted to androgynous individuals (don’t mean to offend anyone but do struggle to find a way to explain myself).

I often find myself attracted to someone and I wholeheartedly wouldn’t have a clue if they had a vagina or penis (or both).

Does bisexual still fit? I am so confused now…

@Rachienz: Call yourself whatever you feel most comfortable with, but going by what you’ve said, if you didn’t have a label preference, I would call you pansexual. Basically, it just takes “bisexual” a step further and includes people of ambiguous gender, which you’ve said doesn’t bother you.

Now I’m wondering myself what I would be. I was comfortable with thinking of myself as bi, but now pansexual seems to work. Although, my only hang up is that the androgynous look doesn’t work for me. I believe that when someone falls in love or is attracted to someone it isn’t because of the gender, but because of the personality. On the flip side, when I’m with a guy I tend to want a manly man looking guy and when it comes to a female I like a more feminine female, sometimes.