One Side of The LGBTQ+ Debate: Bisexuality & Pansexuality
Written by Ariana King, Culture Staff Writer
It’s a quiet Sunday morning and my friend and I are on our way to Aix’s infamous book in bar. One of the only places that sells international LGBTQ+ novels, it’s a perfect place for two Gender Studies’ nerds.
We are, naturally, already in a deep discussion within minutes. This time it’s about pansexuality versus bisexuality. “Neither of them limit attraction to other people,” she asserts. If this is the case, then why does the label matter?
This is something many people both in and out of the LGBTQ+ community have difficulty understanding—the nuances between bisexuality and pansexuality. By the Merriam Webster dictionary’s defintion, bisexual is “of, or relating to, or characterized by sexual or romantic attraction to both men and women” (Merriam Webster Dictionary, 2019).
They define pansexual as “of, relating to, or characterized by sexual desire or attraction that is not limited to people of a particular gender identity or sexual orientation” (Merriam Webster Dictionary, 2019). Given these two “conventional” definitions, many people assume that bisexual people are only attracted to cisgender men and women, while pansexual people are attracted to anyone, no matter sex or gender. So, that makes the two completely different, right?
Maybe not—at least not for cultural consent blogger, Emma, who identifies herself as bisexual, as well as nonbinary. In “Bi is Enough: Parting With Pansexuality,” Emma asserts that bisexuality is not limited to an attraction towards cisgender men and women, rather it was meant to represent all genders (Cultural Consent).
The misconception that bisexuality is transphobic and only refers to cisgender males and females, Emma argues, played a huge role in the creation of pansexuality. Even more consequential, Emma declares that the belief that bisexuality is inherently transphobic is transphobic because it doesn’t count transgender men as men nor transgender women as women, nor does it include those who do fit into the gender binary (Cultural Consent).
Thus, Emma’s argument is that bisexuality is an inclusive label, but misconceptions about the term led to the creation of a more “progressive” yet unnecessary term—pansexuality (Cultural Consent).
Yet, on the flip side of the coin, there are many people who view the two as inherently different. According to Malaya King, a freshman at UW-Whitewater, “‘bisexual’ means you could be attracted to any type of human body. It does not, however, cover gender. A bisexual person might not be able to love an agender person or a genderfluid person. A pansexual person can.”
“Medium” blogger Hannah Pegg thinks differently. While she still defines “pansexuality” as a fluid attraction to all genders, Hannah acknowledges that the broad scope of attraction in pansexuality leads people to assume bisexuality “reinforces the gender binary.”
Still, bisexuality is, for her, primarily “an attraction towards traditional male and female genders” although it can include people not on the gender binary. So for both Malaya and Hannah, the two terms are not interchangeable.
In the end, both of their decisions to identify as pansexual instead of bisexual comes down to personal interpretation. For Malaya, the choice was easy. She told me that she identifies as pansexual because “it represents me the most and who I can love and be attracted to. It’s just who I am.”
In Hannah’s case, pansexuality was easier to identify with since it is “more fluid” than her definition of bisexuality.
As these cases illustrate, the differences between pansexuality and bisexuality comes down to personal interpretation. Whether those interpretations are based on ignorance and misconception is another debate.
While I am not knowledgeable enough on the subject to say whether bisexuality was meant to be completely inclusive of all genders, the conversations that this controversy brings up are extremely important.
The debate over whether bisexuality is transphobic shows a lack of consensus among the LGBTQ+ community. The fight against transphobia—on either side of the bisexual/pansexual debate—shows solidarity with members of sexual minorities within the trans community.
On the other hand, for those who define and identify as bisexual—in terms of exclusive attraction to cisgender men and women—prove that the LGBTQ+ community does not stand as one. There is a lot of transphobia within and outside the community, which is imperative for people to understand in the fight for trans rights.
In the end, the debate of interchangeability between bisexuality and pansexuality comes down to individual interpretation and preferences. So use whatever label you want and know that it means different things to everyone. It’s not a decision anyone else can make but you.
Sources:
Emma. “Bi Is Enough: Parting with Pansexuality.” Cultural Consent. Last modified n.d.
Merriam Webster Dictionary, online ed (2019), s.v. “Bisexual.”
Merriam Webster Dictionary, online ed (2019), s.v. “Pansexual.”
Pegg, Hannah. “The Bisexual and Pansexual Argument: How Do We Change Our Narrative?” Medium.com. Last modified December 7, 2017.