Today is International Pansexuality Awareness and Visibility Day!
WHAT IS PANSEXUALITY YOU ASK?
It most definitely isn’t sexual attraction towards pans!
Pansexuality is a sexual orientation/identity.
The prefix pan comes from Greek and means ‘all’.
Pansexuals are attracted to people of all gender identities and biological sexes!
That is they could be attracted to someone who is
So a pansexual is attracxted towards persons of all gender identities and biological sexes (including but not limited to men or women, cisgender, trand, genderqueer, intersex, androgynous people, etc)
GUESS WHO USED THE WORD PANSEXUAL FIRST?
Yes, of course. The grand Appa of psychology Sigmund Freud coined the word in the early 1900s to define the sexual energy and desire that underpins all human interaction.
Its modern usage however is very different and was born in the 1990’s with the rise of awareness and visibility around different gender identities.
Google Trends data points out that the internet presence of pansexuality was born in September 2007 shortly after the online presence for genderqueer was born!
WHAT? BUT AREN’T THERE ONLY TWO GENDERS – MALE AND FEMALE?
Nope, there are three biological sexes – male, female, intersex! And there are numerous gender identities!
When a person’s gender identity is the same as their biological sex then they are cisgender.
Still confused?
Let Genderbread Person explain the difference between biological sex, gender identity, gender expression and sexual orientation.
This is an awesome project by Sam Killerman on ‘It’s Pronounced Metrosexual’.
Check out Genderbread Person 3.3 here.
Check out the Hindi 3.3 version at Agents of Ishq here.
ARE BISEXUALITY, POLYSEXUALITY AND PANSEXUALITY THE SAME THING?
*They are not the same but they exist on a spectrum of sexual fluidity*
A person who is attracted to people of their own gender and people of any other gender is bisexual!
Pansexuals are attracted to all genders! They’re “gender blind” or just looking for love!
Pan means “all” while Poly means “many“.
Polysexuals may be attracted to several genders but not all of them.
Pansexuals are open to any person regardless of their gender or sex.
IS THAT THE FLAG? WHAT DO THE COLOURS REPRESENT?
Image source here. From Pinterest.
SO… IF THEY ARE ATTRACTED TO EVERYONE, THEY CAN’T POSSIBLY BE IN A COMMITTED RELATIONSHIP?!
Sexual orientation and sexual behaviour are two completely different things.
For example, a straight person isn’t attracted to every member of the opposite sex, are they? Pansexuals too are attracted to some people!
Straight people choose to be monogamous, polyamorous or promiscuous. Pansexuals too make choices!
BUT I KNOW PEOPLE WHO IDENTIFY AS PANSEXUAL EVEN THOUGH THEY’VE ONLY EVER BEEN WITH AN OPPOSITE CISGENDER PERSON! ARE THEY CONFUSED? ARE THEY TRYING TO BE COOL?
Who a person chooses to be with and for how long doesn’t define their feelings about sexuality. They may feel their potential sexual attraction cannot be defined by any label other than pansexual.
Image source here.
Nobody has to prove their sexual orientation/identity. Take their word for it!
WHAT’S THE BUZZ AROUND PANSEXUALITY IN 2016?!
Popstar Miley Cyrus came out as Pansexual in late 2015 preceded by rapper Angel Haze.
Also our latest superhero crush ‘Deadpool’, played by the very sexy Ryan Reynolds onscreen, is Pansexual.
And here’s something we certainly didn’t spot growing up!
Ryan Gibley in his review of Deadpool for The Guardian points out how Bugs Bunny was pansexual cool way before Deadpool!
HAPPY May 24th!
