pansexuality

[Sylph]

To me, its like food.

Hetero=Vegetarians
Homo=Meat eaters
Bi=Both
Pan=Every fucking thing :p

Whereas Bisex would eat their meat and veggies with near equal liking but not go too far out the box, Pansex would eat anything you give them without discrimination.(within reasonable limits I'm sure :I )

I also think the term "Pan"sexual, comes from the Greek God/Figure Pan, who was a symbol of sexuality, in regards to pretty everything.

He was said to fuck men, women, goats(he was half sheep/goat) and so on, without discrimination.

So while over exaggerated, it could be taken to mean that Pansexuals are just persons who find attractive/sexual desire in anyone, regardless of physical gender, like Kyle said.

Which would adhere to the beliefs and meaning of Pan and his ways. Just ask Miles

[partis]

I will say the main reason a stupid person would say "im pansexual" is cause they cant stand the stigma they percieve they would get for being gay or to a lesser extent bi. So they solve that by disregarding SEX…

[Sylph]

I will say the main reason a stupid person would say "im pansexual" is cause they cant stand the stigma they percieve they would get for being gay or to a lesser extent bi. So they solve that by disregarding SEX…

Nuh uh Mr.Owl, there are several licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop;

Ah one; Some people may feel such stigma, but regardless a Pansexual person, still has sex and has the word sex on their term of sexuality, because in essence, it is still a sexual preference and way of life. Just a much more open one, even more so than Bisex is. And any sex always has a stigma on it from someone.

Ah two; Even if Pansexuality was Bisexuality, it is up to that person and them alone to feel and want to describe themselves in whichever way they want and feel comfortable with doing so. I may have been born biologically male, but mentally I'd say I'm Androgynous, would you tell me I'm wrong? That I don't know myself better than you do? If I am, then by all means, please enlighten me.

Ah three; Psychological manipulation as you seem to think this is about, actually has less sway in regards to sexuality than emotive adaptions do, so in essence, if anything, it's not anyone's way or method of making up a new sexuality or disregarding another for whatever reason, but adapting the sexuality to that person and their wants and needs based on an emotional attraction/desire they may feel or want.

Bisexuals prefer either Male or Female. Gays want the same sex only and Heteros want the opposite sex only.

Pansexuals would take someone of either gender, including persons of intersex or Transgender or so forth without the same limiting discriminations a gay/bi/hetero person might. Literally it's a person who has no single attraction to anyone, but for everyone.(not necessarily at the same time obviously)


And that Mister Owl is how many licks it took to get to the center of this Tootsie pop. *Crunch*

[VileKyle]

Partis, chill the fuck out. You've got your panties in a twist again. It's not that big of a deal.

[southbiochem]

Ehhhhh...OK...Partis....calm yourself..

I would agree with Kyle (he gives a very thorough definition),

I'm just going to add that it may sometimes happen that bi-sexuality coincides with pan-sexuality merely on how people define them

but there is still a necessity to throw in pan-sexuality as a term given (like Kyle mentioned) there is much more to the spectrum of sexuality than the binary gender standards..

(are you gay if you like a cross dresser?, for example...I mean it's still a dude but that dude likes to be seen as a woman..sooo...)

I would assume as Odi quite eloquently put it pan-sexuality would mean that you can be sexually an emotionally atracted to pretty much everything

[partis]

Okay, okay…

Slyph - I dont mind people describing themselves as they please "pan" or "bi" just dont tell me there any difference or that "pansexual" is anything else but another word for bi. Theres nothing wrong with bi, pan is just a made-up word.

[VileKyle]

Okay, okay…

Slyph - I dont mind people describing themselves as they please "pan" or "bi" just dont tell me there any difference or that "pansexual" is anything else but another word for bi. Theres nothing wrong with bi, pan is just a made-up word.

I think you're having a problem accepting the concept of the gender binary thing here, partis. It's cool if you don't agree with it, but it's still a good idea to understand what it is. Humans are born as either male or female, but not everyone identifies as either one. There's also the existence of people who will change from one gender identity to another throughout their lives. This breaks the gender binary. The idea of bisexuals is that they are attracted to the typical men and women within the gender binary. Pansexuals can be attracted to anyone, no matter if they stay within that gender binary or not.

As an example, a bisexual by the definition of the word would not be attracted to transexuals. A pansexual would be.

So there is a difference. The reason that it's usually not a big deal to anyone is that most people who are pansexual just use the more common bisexual term and don't really give a damn. I'm just trying to help you understand the basic difference between the two words, because they are not exactly identical.

[Woollyhats]

Ehhhhh...

Since when are you Canadian, eh?

And to continue Sylph's analogy.

Hetero: Carrots
Gay: Meat
Bi: Meat, carrots
Pan: Meat, Carrots, combine them, and cucumbers are okay too.

It's actually a little bit confusing to me where the clear line between bisexuality and pansexuality is, but I believe a bisexual would say he's attacted to conventional men and women, whereas pansexuals would also be attracted equally to transexuals, and people of mixed genders, and all of that stuff.

Therefore, even though the literal meaning is to be attracted to everything, in this context pansexual is effectively a bisexual with very wide and inclusive tastes, enough so to set him apart from a bisexual.

The wikipedia article helped to explain it to me....I seem to look it up everytime I talk about it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pansexuality

[nfisher1226]

What most of you said, with a few extras...

I can see Partis' point in that the extra label is of dubious utility. The first time I heard it (my son actually used it to describe himself) I had a strong reaction of, "Do we really need another label?"

Here's my life as an example. I was married to a woman for a rather long time and had a very active sex life. I can't say I didn't enjoy it. These days I only really date men. I tell people I'm gay because there's less explaining to do on my part and because I really do prefer men at this stage in life. I could easily describe myself as bisexual and it would be probably more accurate and it would be even more accurate to describe myself as pansexual if we're going to split hairs. But I don't really care to be the one educating every schmuck about what the terms mean, and if I'm not going to be dating a woman or a trans woman in the conceivable future then of what use would it be anyway? So frankly, gay is good enough for me and saves me a bit of grief.

At the same time I really don't give a fuck if someone wants to call themselves bisexual or pansexual and I'm not going to waste my precious time having a philosophical discussion with them about it. My ex wife, as another example, describes herself as polyamorous and bisexual. I joke in private that she's just a slut really, but in dealing with her I just let it pass without comment. It doesn't have to affect me.

What am I really? I think the labels have some use but should not be used to limit ones self. I think if you think of it in terms of "sexual preference" as opposed to "sexual orientation" it's a lot easier to just get on with life. I prefer being with a man so I say gay. I may at some point date outside of the masculine and biological male, well I'm not ruling it out anyway, but since I don't intend to right now then gay is just as good a label as any.

Fuck it.

No really, that last part is important. Fuck it.

[partis]

Okay I do get the gender binary thing, it just seems to me that theres no limits on the term bisexual, sure individuals can have different preference in personality but that's nothing to do with it because bi encompasses men & woman of any personality (even though they obviously dont)

Are you sure a bi person (by definition) cant be attracted to a transexual… im sure they can

yes i see theres a difference in the words and im sure most "pansexual" use the more common term "bisexual" because… lets face it… thats what they are. its no big deal.