Healthy Living

The Difference Between Pansexual and Bisexual

The Difference Between Pansexual and Bisexual

What does pansexual mean? 

Pansexuality is a kind of sexual orientation in which people are sexually attracted to others based on their personality and appearance, but not based on their particular sex. Pansexual people have a sexual desire for men or for women devoid of the distinctive features of their gender or traits of the gender opposite to their own biologically assigned gender.

A pansexual is sexually interested in other people regardless of gender including males, females, transexuals, tansvestites, hermaphrodites, intersexuals, androgenous people.

This often leads to the misconception that pansexual orientation is a sort of lifestyle, or that someone who is pansexual wants to have sex with anybody and everybody.

However, this is not true. Pansexual people do not desire everybody, they just don’t rule a person out because of gender. They are attracted to certain personality types and physical features, just like anyone else.

What does bisexual mean?

Generally speaking, bisexuality defines the sexual orientation of a person who takes pleasure in having sexual intercourse and/or emotional relationships with people who belong to the same sex and the opposite sex. Bisexual people have physical attraction to the same sex and the opposite sex. The bisexual person (diminutive bisexual or BI) may then experience sexual attraction and take affairs with members of both sexes.

A bisexual is therefore someone who is in all ways attracted to both guys and girls. It is not because they can't decide. Being bisexual is not a phase for people who haven't fully come out yet as homosexual. You might have a preference over one sex, but bisexual means you can be attracted to both genders sexually, physically and emotionally.

Commonly, people who do not have an exclusive orientation to one sex over the other are easily identified as bisexual.

What is the difference between pansexual and bisexual?

It's hard for people to correctly identify pansexual orientation. While some people call themselves properly pansexual, others do it incorrectly to communicate a political continuity of thought between the genders (transgender) when more could probably recognize themselves in bisexual orientation. Finally, many people do not define themselves as pansexual despite having sexual desire for people without masculine or feminine traits typical of their gender, preferring to be called heterosexual, homosexual or bisexual.

In general, the definition of a sexual orientation is not necessary for the individual's sexual well-being, but it can be useful to understand the specific trend of their sexual orientation in order to direct their sexuality towards the most satisfying goal.

Pansexuality can often be exchanged with bisexuality, but the difference is evident.

Pansexuals are individuals who can be attracted to women, men, transgender, or intersexual people. At the same time, we are not talking of a debauchery. Sex in the choice of a partner is not important to pansexuals.

On the other hand, bisexuality provides attraction exclusively to the two sexes or man and woman. Bisexuals are attracted to both men and women. For pansexuals, the partner's sex does not exist. Pansexuality suggests that the couple should try solely on the basis of personal qualities of a person, common ideals, and emotions that transmit you.

In pansexuality, physical organs that call to a person's sex are not important. The most important thing is the character, personality and everything for what you can love a person for. For these people, sex stems from intellectual and spiritual intimacy. The physical appearance or gender does not matter and doesn’t count in a relationship.

Sexologists claim that pansexual individuals consider sex in a different way.

Pansexual celebrities

Many famous celebrities have opened up about their sexuality in exclusive interviews. Lady Gaga, for example, is a woman who has fun with the concept of sexuality. Lady Gaga has kissed women, appeared in bed with homosexual males, and she has identified as a pansexual.

Laci Green, a well-known YouTube star and MTV personality, dedicated a full video entitled “I’m Pansexual?!” explaining in detail who she is as a pansexual person. She claims that being pansexual simply means to be gender-blind. In other words, she chooses partners based on things outside of one’s assigned gender or gender identity.

Billie Joe Armstrong has considered himself pansexual. He has appeared in a few shows and movies like Nurse Jackie and This Is 40. However, he is most known as being the singer and lead guitarist for the band Green Day with hit songs like "Wake Me Up When September Ends", “Basket Case”, “21 Guns” and “Boulevard of Broken Dreams".

Brooke Candy is a controversial rap artist who has openly identified in pansexual orientation. She is also a great supporter for the LBGT community.

Angelina Jolie has also identified as pansexual. She encompasses the idea of gender fluidity in many roles she has played, showing her confidentiality with this topic.

The most controversial pansexual person of all time might be Miley Cyrus. The former Disney star is now outspoken for the LBGT community and has shared her point of views regarding sex and relationships. Cyrus highlighted she doesn’t fit into the mainstream definitions of sexuality or gender.

What is a pansexual?

Pansexual is still a word that is not fully understood. Wikipedia speaks of love or attraction to a person regardless of gender; but if this could be enough, there would be no difference between bisexual and pansexual. Several associations that promote sexual well-being and a certain mental flexibility, argue that the pansexual individual is attracted not only to men and women, but also to other individuals from an undefined and indefinable gender or from individuals who combine the classic dichotomy represented by male and female.

In practice, a pansexual can please both men and women, but also transexuals, agenders, genderfluids, asexuals, hermaphrodites and so on. In short, a pansexual is exclusively influenced by the substance, relegating entirely in accordance the form.

The root of the word “pan-sexuality”, however, greatly differs from the roots of the word “bi-sexuality”.  Pansexuality, also known as omnisexuality, has an Ancient Greek prefix: “pan“, meaning “all” or “every”.  Bisexuality, on the other hand, has a prefix: “bi-“, meaning “two”, and thus still falls within the “gender bi-nary” system.

On other words, "pan" means “everything”, and the pansexual is just an all-encompassing sexual orientation. Can this be considered the most "pure form" of love?.

Pansexual is a word with which you can define the 3.9% of American men and the 3.8% of American women aged from 18 to 44 who are not represented by any definition of sexual orientation previously given.

Pansexuality

Pansexuality supports love in many forms. Like in bisexuality, but even more fluid, a pansexual person can love not only the traditional male and female genders, but also transgendered, androgynous, and gender fluid people.

The "Theory of Pansexuality" was presented by Joan Peter Boom, writer, actor, activist and theorist of pansexuality. She was in the Sixth Congress of the European Federation of Sexology in Limassol (Cyprus) in June 2002 and subsequently led "The Philosophy of Pansexuality" at the IX Congress of the European Federation of Sexology which she held in 2008 in Rome.

According to Boom, she is a pansexual. She said that sex is strictly classified as hetero-, homo-, bi-sexuality, masturbation, fetishism, sadomasochism, and many other forms of sexual characterization. When babies are born, their attractions, pleasures and likes are all natural and acceptable. Babies grow into children, and children grow into adults, and their natural attractions and pleasures become more confined by society. Later still sexuality usually becomes more defined, but the range of all of these options remains. These options, depending on the type of society or tribe in which you live, are partially repressed. Remember, we have so many options as to who we can have relationships with, but we think our options are limited because of what our surroundings have taught us.

Pansexuals and bisexuals

If we want to put aside theory and definitions for a moment, we can take a look at what is the behavior of a person who is deemed pansexual, because this is the big question that people usually arise to just before the definition.

BisexualPansexual

Being pansexual means to anchor appreciation for another person irrespective of his or her sex, condition, or more or less present, trans-sexuality. It is a way of relating a more complete and somewhat less "superficial” love. Sex and gender aren’t important.

The orientation of pansexuality is often confused with bisexuality for similarities in behavior, but the difference between the two approaches is to be found in the fact that people find attractive male or female traits of other people, while the pansexual people are okay with the absence or presence of both traits.

The pansexual orientation can be confused with other sexual orientations, because the pansexual behavior may overlap with bisexual, homosexual, or heterosexual intercourse, relationships and behavior. Both bisexual and pansexual people may end up being mistaken as heterosexual, because it is possible for them to end up with someone of the opposite sex. Both can also be mistaken as homosexual, as they may end up in relationships with people of the same sex.