I currently identify as bi but what is the difference
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This is a pretty common question, and personally I use them interchangeably, but bi is not really distinct from pan under most definitions that are internally consistent.
Even linguistically the roots of homo/heterosexuality are same/other. As such if you are bisexual you are both homo (same) and hetero (other). Whilst linguistics is not prescriptive, it still gives us insight into the historical understandings that have birth to an idea.
In the end, be bi, be pan, identify however you choose and never listen to someone telling you that your identity is not what you choose or feel. :)
Thank you, I don’t want to make this about my problems but I’m just tired of people hating us because of our sexuality. I appreciate the kind words
I know, truly I do! It’s a brutal world and we’re just trying to get by in it, it’d be nice if people let us do it in peace. Nonetheless keep it up and keep that flag flying, whichever one/s you choose. You got this <3
Pretty simple:
Bi: Attracted to more than one gender.
Pan: Gender is not a factor in attraction (aka nominally attracted to all people of all genders).
So as an example, you can be bi but have a preference towards men or women, that would be not be congruent with being pan.
At very very very nitpicky technical linguistics (and daft) interpretation bi would mean two genders but in common tongue it has the meaning you say. However some would rather not have even the slightest linguistic link to the binary (two).
Edit I could actually be wrong it could also mean sexualities hetro and homo which covers all
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Pan seems to be gender blind, i.e. attracted to people with no regard to gender or attracted to all genders.
Bi has one definition in being attracted to both men and women, both sides of a binary.
Bi also has a less common usage to mean attracted to more than one gender which may or may not include both halves of the binary or the entire spectrum.
So if I like the whole spectrum I’m pan? For fucks sake, what am I gonna do with all the bi stuff I made
Keep it? I think Bi is the big umbrella which contains pan, omni and poly/multi.
I heard of omni but what is poly/multi? I’m new to the terminology
S’okay. I’m pretty new to it myself. I’m reading articles and stuff as I write this.
Using this as a reference: Pan is gender blind, omni is all genders but gender does matter and may include preference, poly is more than 2 but not all genders. Bi is a big tent that includes all of these.
Bi can also mean attracted to the whole spectrum. Really, what it’s come to mean is attracted to more than one sex/gender.
I agree with Fleur more that Bi means that you’re attracted to multiple sexes/genders similar to pan, but pan is effectively genderblind whereas sex/gender is still a factor for bi folks, it’s just not a factor that excludes most people.
But these definitions aren’t entirely agreed on. If you feel more comfortable identifying as bi, that’s fine. If you feel more comfortable identifying as pan, that’s also fine. We’re very, very similar to the point that it’s common for people to not know the difference. The distinction appears to be more personal.
Even the Bisexual Manifesto, from the 90s, didn’t limit bisexuality to two genders. It hasn’t “come to mean” that recently. It pretty much always did.
Like others have said, bi = m+f attraction whereas pan = attraction regardless of gender or sex
In practice theyre often interchangable; most bi folk are open to attraction to NB and trans people etc. Pan is just a way to include that in the identity specifically
I might be pan. Still keeping the bi label tho
Yeah thats what i do 🤷♀️
generally they are synonomous terms, so choosing one or the other is purely personal preference.
As far as i know, bi means liking male and female gender, while pan means every gender. Don’t know how correct i am tho…
Bisexuality is not restricted to male and female gender. Bi means homosexual and heterosexual attraction. So attracted to genders same as mine. And attracted to genders different from mine. It means basically attracted to at least 2 genders, but not necessarily all genders.
The spelling is different.
Iirc pan refers to “gender blindness” if that makes sense
Don’t know if you’ll find it interesting, but I really enjoyed verilybitchie’s video on the subject https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XiuHsugRgNQ
As far as I can remember, there’s a long history of bi people being attracted to people with both the same gender and different genders (homo/hetero) and supporting the trans movement historically. But then there was a period where pan became a popular term, and so people tried to make bisexual into something much more restricted than it had been, depite the fact that lots of bisexual people were saying “that’s not what it means for me”.
In modern times, just use whatever feels right to you! Everyone has their own associations and connotations for words. Some people hate queer as a slur, some people prefer it to more traditional terms like ‘gay’ (which actually feels a lot more like a slur to a certain generation). A small amount of folks complain about ‘bi’ being exclusionary but they’re the minority, and defintely not representative of bi culture, or the wider world. Equally, I’ve heard people say nonsense like “pansexuals are even attracted to animals or objects!” which is not accurate, but the main drawback for pan is that most people are more familiar with the ‘bi’ label than ‘pan’.
I personally prefer “bi” but I don’t care much either way, and might use “pan” if I was speaking to certain folks, or even just “I’m attracted to attractive people” if it’s someone who would be weired out by a label ending in “SEXual”.
I think pansexuals are attracted to people regardless of their gender. I identify as bi because I like masculine and feminine characteristics in people but I’m usually not attracted to androgynous presenting people, obviously if I really like a person I’ll be attracted to them anyway so it’s not all black and white but as a broad distinction I understand it like this
Scientifically speaking, pansexuals are cooler. It’s just science.
Science says that the differences are,
- Bisexual colors match my eyes better
- Pansexual is better for hooking up with nonbinary, trans and polyamorous people
- Bisexual is better for hooking up with binary and monosexual people
- Pansexual colors look better when painting walls
Similarities,
- Both describe sluts and whores
- Both describe me depending on who I’m trying to sex
its deeply insulting to call bisexuals sluts and whores.
alot of biphobia is rooted in people viewing us as sluts and whores.
