To me, pansexuality is the attraction to all genders, regardless of genitals. “pan” means ‘all’ in greek. It is essentially choosing your partner based on personality, rather than one specific gender.
It is different from being bisexual as bi (as far as i’m aware) is the attraction to your own gender and one other.
SIDE NOTE: Some pansexual people use the label bisexual as an umbrella term as it is a bigger and generally more publicly known sexuality. This is an individuals choice, however.
Google definition (for clarity): pansexual-not limited in sexual choice with regard to biological sex, gender, or gender identity.
I’d like to add more information. Pan- is most commonly defined as “attracted to all genders”, if the attraction is regardless of gender is up to the person. (I believe using ‘genitals’ in this context is transphobic but I’m not 100% sure) Now, the two most ofently used definitions for bi- are “attracted to two or more genders” and “attracted to the same gender and other genders”. I’m not bisexual myself so it’s based on what I’ve read from actual biromantics and/or sexuals. Though bi- is used as a way of describing a pan-’s orientation without furhter explanation, the most used umbrella term is “multisexual/romantic” as opposed to “monosexual/romantic”. Multisexuality and/or romantism includes bi- and pan- as well as poly-, omni- and much more I’m not currently aware of. I must admit that I’m not entirely sure of the definition of omni- so I won’t talk about it but I know that poly- is the attraction to multiple genders. I hope this doesn’t come out as rude or anything, I just wanted to politely add more info on my sexual orientation and the other multisexualities! :)
Trying to come up with a cute name for the non-monosexual creativity community. One problem I’m having is that I want it to be inclusive of other non-monosexual identities, since I don’t know if anyone pan or polysexual/polyromantic is planning anything similar yet (or already has something similar established). Since we have a lot in common, I don’t want them to feel erased or excluded from the community, so that’s taking some extra thinking. Here’s what I’ve considered so far, with commentary:
Bi Creative - Gets right to the point, but is pretty bi-specific, which (as mentioned above) I’m currently leaning away from. Can be kinda fun if you “mispronounce” bi as rhyming with bee, so it sounds like Be Creative, but I don’t think that’s quite enough?
Bi+ Creative/Bi Plus Creative - So this one is fun, because its like adding bi and creative, the plus can also be read as ‘bi positive’, and it also suggests that there’s more than just bi people involved. I don’t want to contribute to erasure, though, and saying “Bi and…” and then leaving the blank unfilled I’m pretty sure means I’m doing that. I mean, I’d definitely specify in headers and about sections, but is that enough?
More Than 2 Creative - Also good for puns, since it’s like “more than too creative”, but erases bi people who are only attracted to two genders. I really wish there were a quicker way to say “greater than or equal to” than, well, greater than or equal to, and I’m pretty sure that greaterthanorequal2creative is way too long for either Tumblr or Dreamwidth’s user name character limits, so that’s out.
MGA Creative - I like this one because MGA (multi-gender attracted) also seems like mega creative, which is definitely accurate, but I need to make sure that MGA is a term I can use. I’m a white person, and my brain is suggesting that MGA may be POC specific, but I have no idea (aside from making this post and/or asking people) how to find out if that’s the case; my Googling game is pretty sub-par these days. I know Same Gender Loving is POC specific, and I’m not entirely sure why I’m thinking MGA is, but that would be my major reason for leaning away from this one.
BPP Creative - As with Bi Creative, it gets right to the point, but is less bi-specific and explicitly references pan and polysexual/polyromantic folks right in the title. I still don’t want to erase anyone, though, so maybe I’ll use that plus here? BPP+ Creative? Hmm.
Thoughts and opinions welcome, though I think I’m leaning towards either Bi Plus, More Than 2, or BPP Plus (the last one’s most likely so far).
If your goal is to include every non-monosexuality then “poly” is the term you should base your name on, since polysexual is the umbrella term for that. So something like “Poly Creative”? Plus since poly means “many” it also tells about the different kinds of art (drawing, writing, crafting, etc) BPP creative is a great idea but it excludes omnisexuality and other orientations and like you said, adding a + is not going to stop erasure :/ I like the MGA Creative one too but you really need to make sure that it isn’t POC specific before using it.
We want to write about pansexuality today to help anyone get a clear picture of what it is and how it is different from other sexualities.
Many people confuse pansexuality, demisexuality, bisexuality, and polysexuality a lot and is understandable. Two of them are similar, two of them overlap in some ways, and three of them are relatively new formed sexualities.
For all of you funny ones, pansexuality is not being attracted to pans, or for you Spanish speaking people, nor the attraction to bread. Many people have come up to ask me about pansexuality. Before explaining it, I ask them what they think it is. Most of them tell me they had heard a pansexual was a person that wasn’t attracted to anyone unless they had a strong romantic bond with the person, which is in fact wrong, that is demisexuality.
Some people thought it was another word for bisexual just like homosexuals have other names such as gays, lesbians, queers, etc. which is also wrong.
Someone who identifies as pansexual is someone who is attracted to any person regardless of their sex or gender identity. In Greek, the prefix “pan” means all. Thus, pansexuality means all sexes/genders. Pansexuality, like all other sexualities, has been around forever, but has only been recognized recently.
what im saying is that bisexuals, pansexual, and asexuals should all join together so we can be in the fictitious trifecta. enough people will say we’re not real and we’ll all converge together in a massive, fierce mass only spoken of in myth. dont come near us or you too will cease to exist
can we include aromantics?
triforce of fabulousness
There we go, a shield to protect against the negativity
YES
okay but why would u include aromantics in this when it was talking about sexualities not romantic orientations why would you not include POLYSEXUALS and then make a different one for panromantics, biromantics, polyromantics and aromantics
?????
I can see why this did not happen yet, as bi, pan, and poly all have the same flag for romantic and sexual, but here is my contribution.
Anonymous: can you explain what pansexuality is?
