Do you know the differences between bisexual and pansexual?
According to the etymology of the word, “bi” means something dual, and in matters of sexual orientation, a bisexual person feels attracted for two genders, usually defined by “umbrella term” it includes as well every case that differs from mono-sexuality (straight or a homosexual case), all persons who do not fit into mono-sexuality, that is, who are attracted to more than one gender, are bisexual.
The pride flag of bisexuality is made of the colors pink, lavender, and blue. The pink color represents sexual attraction to the same sex, the blue represents sexual attraction to the opposite sex only and the resultant overlap color purple represents sexual attraction to both sexes.
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A pansexual person feels attracted for any person apart of its sex or gender identity, it could be a straight, a lesbian, a gay, a transsexual or transgender, a asexual or a queer, includes literally every sexual orientation. It is about the inner connection with the person and not with the gender, is about developing relationships with meaning.
Pansexuality refers to the role of gender in sexual attraction and not to sexual acts and behaviors. “Hearts, Not Parts” is a phrase that defines how pansexual feels, loving people and not their gender.
The term “pansexual” started being diffused around seven years ago and its pride flag has been found on various Internet sites since mid-2010. It has three horizontal bars that are pink, yellow and blue. The pink band symbolizes women; the blue, men; and the yellow, those of a non-binary gender, such as agender, bigender or genderfluid.
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The Differences
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Before the term “pansexual” be created, the bisexuality already represented the sexual attraction that is not restricted to just one gender.
The difference between bisexual and pansexual is not about the number of genders that people feel attracted for or the refusal or acceptance, respectively, towards non binary genders, the difference is about the way they see other genders. When someone calls themselves “bisexual” they recognize the dissimilar genders and feels the attraction in various levels, according to Anna Julia Chicon (18) it works like a balance “sometimes one side is heavier than the other, it depends of the situation you have been through, the type of relationship you have with one gender, if the experiences you lived were good or not”.
She calls herself bisexual since she’s 12 years old when she kissed a girl and realized that she liked it enough to live a relationship of 3 years. She says “I don’t call myself pansexual because although I find people of other gender beautiful, I don’t feel attracted by them but it happens when it’s about girls.”
A pansexual person feels attracted for every gender with the same intensity, that’s why it is defined by “attraction besides gender” because the variation are not decisive as to whether or not to feel attraction.
Simply put, bisexuality is an attraction for more than one genre, or multiple genres. Pansexuality, on the other hand, can be defined as a sexual attraction to all genders – pan means “all” – that is, regardless of gender. Mirela Luz (18) told that realized she was pansexual because of her ex girlfriend “she used to say she was trans, but her family was too intolerant so she would do everything she could do to have a boy’s body, and I realized that even if she ‘became’ a boy physically I would still love her and feel attracted to her, it wouldn’t change a thing to me”. After that, Mirela understood that she likes the hearts not the parts.
The Myths
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Bisexual people don’t necessarily have a bigger sexual desire than the other sexual orientation. According to an article published in the scientific magazine “Archives of Sexual Behavior”, the sexual desire of bisexual is very similar to other gender identity.
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Being bisexual its not like having a doubt or living with an indecision, quite the opposite, a bisexual knows too well what they like and to who they get attracted for, not necessarily man and woman, it doesn’t not includes every no-binary gender and it’s not about simultaneous attraction.
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The prefix “pan” refers just to the gender and not to the sexual practices, thus pansexuality does not implies on acceptance of all sexual behavior like paraphilia for example.
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Feel attracted for any kind of person does not mean feel attracted for every person all the time.
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Promiscuity is not synonymous with any of the sexual orientations, after all, just as it is possible to be mono-sexual (only attracted to a gender) and poly-amorous (having more than one intimate relationship simultaneously) at the same time, an individual can also be poly-sexual and monogamous.
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