Eli5: How are bisexuals different to pansexuals?
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Neither one is strictly defined, so different people use them differently. Commonly, many people use “bi” to mean “attracted to multiple genders” (which still means they may not be attracted to trans, genderfluid, etc) vs “pan” meaning “gender doesn’t factor into it at all”.
Some people use both interchangeably. Some people may use one, but not know about the other.
When it comes to specific people using those words, you need to ask them what they mean by them.
Bisexual means attracted to multiple genders, and pansexual means attracted to all genders. These are different because “multiple” isn’t the same thing as “all.” Let’s say you ask your friends what their favorite colors are. One friend might say, “Actually, I like more than two colors!”
“2” has a different meaning than “more than 1”, right?
If I say I like two things, that means I like **exactly** two things.
If I say I like *more than 1 thing*, that means there are a *lot* of other things I might like.
I would classify bisexual as someone attracted to the same sex and opposite sex, and pansexual as someone who is attracted to any gender. The difference in terminology is intentional.
There’s very little actual difference.
* Bisexuals are more “I am attracted to both people of my gender identity, and people not of my gender identity.”
* Pansexual are more “I am attracted to people no matter what their gender identity may be.”
In practice, these are pretty much the same. But the name matters to some people. Some people feel that bisexual isn’t as inclusive a term. Others feel that bisexual is more commonly accepted and traditional. But overall, the two terms are pretty much identical.
The difference varies between people. I identify as bisexual, but I could develop feelings for anyone. Some people think there’s an important difference, and some don’t. I personally don’t think any difference matters, but it’s important to be respectful of people who do.
Bisexual means attracted to 2 different things (the prefix ‘bi’ means two, like a bicycle). So this can de defined in a couple of different ways:
1) attraction to 2 different genders, so (usually) women and men, but could also be women and non-binary people, or men and non-binary people, etc. You can be a bisexual person who is into everyone but men, or everyone but non-binary people, so this is different than pansexuality.
2) attraction to 2 different categories of people, genders the same as you, and genders different than you. This one is functionally the same as pansexual.
So the first definition is the one that has more of a distinct difference from pansexuality, but there’s also a level of nuance that some people apply to the second definition which makes it also (albeit more subtly) distinct from pansexuality, which I will explain next:
In this view, pansexuality is characterized by having gender just not be a factor in your attraction at all. Whereas for bisexual people, even if they may be attracted to all the same genders as a pansexual person (genders the same as you and different than you) gender *is* a part of your attraction. So in this way of looking at it, a bisexual person might be attracted to someone’s “man-ness” or “woman-ness” (or “non-binary-ness”) whereas a pansexual person is just attracted to someone’s general “person-ness.”
It’s a bit complicated, but I hope that helps! I identify as bisexual because I’m mostly attracted to women and men. Non-binary people are such a huge and diverse spectrum though that I can’t really say I’m not attracted to them as some kind of rule, so I would still be bisexual in that second ‘same as me/different than me’ sense. However gender is a big part of attraction to me and I experience attraction differently with different genders, so I still identify as bisexual because of that. “Bisexual” just feels more true to my experience than “pansexual” even though they are functionally very similar from an outside perspective.
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