Eli5: How are bisexuals different to pansexuals?

Question

Eli5: How are bisexuals different to pansexuals?

In: Other

Answer 1

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.