What is the difference between bisexuality and pansexuality?
In: Culture
This hasn’t always been this way, but in 2020, most of the folks I know who identify as “bisexual” define it as “I am sexually attracted to people of my own gender and to people who are not.”
For someone who identifies as a bisexual man, for example, this could mean “I am attracted to men & to non-men” which might include women & non-binary folks.
For a while, “pansexual” was used by some people to mean “I don’t see gender” (problematic in its own right; gender can be really important to a lot of us & has pervasive cultural significance), and for a while similarly, “pansexual” was used to signal “hey, i’m also into trans/nonbinary folks” – which is problematic too, insofar as it might imply that it’s ok to be a trans-exclusionary bisexual.
Anyway. Long story short, the terms are somewhat interchangeable, but as we move towards a more diverse understanding of gender, “bisexual” makes a lot more sense and “pansexual” is a bit redundant & due to be phased out; any given person is either your gender or not. You only like people of another gender (heterosexual)? You only like people of the same gender (homosexual)? Vs you might like someone of either: bisexual!
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