this post was submitted on 16 Sep 2026
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[–] hildegarde@lemmy.blahaj.zone 128 points 4 weeks ago (20 children)

Every definition I have heard for pansexuality or similar that defines the term in contrast to bisexuality reads like slander to my ears.

Bisexuality is a broad category, and it was never exclusionary. Bisexuals can be attracted to trans people, and enbies, and those with or without gendered presentations, but critically they don't have to be. Its a category not a checklist.

Bisexuality is broad. Other terms are more specific, and there is some amount of overlap.

As a trans woman, I am deeply opposed to the idea, implied by many definitions, that the only people who can find me attractive are those with a specific trans inclusive sexual orientation. Its both invalidating, and completely untrue in reality.

[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 67 points 4 weeks ago (5 children)

As a trans woman, I am deeply opposed to the idea, implied by many definitions, that the only people who can find me attractive are those with a specific trans inclusive sexual orientation. Its both invalidating, and completely untrue in reality.

This. Trans women are women. As a bisexual woman, I am attracted to women.

[–] Banana@sh.itjust.works 36 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (5 children)

Trans people are also included in the bisexual manifesto, written in 1990

In fact, don't assume that there are only two genders.

The way I always understood it was bisexual = attraction to your gender and other genders

and pansexual = attraction regardless of gender

now, functionally speaking, there is no distinction, but in terms of experience, I always identified more with pansexual than bisexual, as someone's gender was just never something I took into account when determining my attraction.

I often to use both, as I consider pansexual to be a sub-distinction of bisexual.

That being said I recognize there is no consensus on the distinction in the community so I usually go with bi for ease.

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[–] funkless_eck@sh.itjust.works 26 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I tell straight people I'm bi, i tell queer people I'm pan.

That way, you see, ha ha, I get the best of both worlds

[–] SuperNovaStar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

As a trans person and a pansexual, I would describe it like this:

I don't have a type. I don't even necessarily tend to find people attractive until I get to know them a bit. The people I find "hot" aren't tall people or feminine people or strong people or anything like that, instead I think clothing choices that tell me something about you and give me a feel for who you are as a person are hot.

If i'm attracted to you, I will find myself attracted to your body, rgardlesss of what your body happens to be like. You could literally be a glob of goo or an alien or a talking rock, if I like you I'll start thinking you're hot.

If you're thinking "isn't that demisexual"? then you're halfway there - i'm not ace. I do think people are hot when I pass them on the street, except what i'm attracted to is their "vibe" rather than anything about their physical form.

Naturally, pansexual is a subset of bisexual - i'm also proud to be bi and I use that label frequently. And yes both bi and pan are trans-inclusive.

[–] Dingo_Kidneys@lemmy.today 9 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

You wrote off demi too fast. When you say you find people passing with a good vibe hot, are we saying aroused, or are we saying "Ah, yes, quite the fuckable one, that". Because there's a third option and bi or pan only cover one while demi covers two.

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[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 10 points 4 weeks ago (7 children)

Yeah, the only way pansexual makes sense, to me at least, is if bisexual excludes feminine presenting men and masculine presenting women, but I don't see why it should. I feel like pan was just created either to make certain people feel like they're being more inclusive than just normal bi people, or to make bi people feel like they're being exclusive.

A lot of the gender and sexual orientation language of recent times is good and removes ambiguity. Some of it though, like pan, feels like people just treating it as a contest.

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[–] HalfSalesman@lemmy.world 40 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (11 children)

Pansexual: Attracted to people regardless of gender characteristics.

"Pan" because gender is functionally irrelevant. Any and all genders accepted because it doesn't matter.

Bisexual: Attracted to multiple genders specifically because of their gender characteristics.

"Bi" in the sense of being "bi-directional" in attraction, usually attracted to specific gender traits and as a result not all genders, just more than one.

For instance, I'm finsexual, which is a subcategory of bisexual because it describes specific gender elements that I am attracted to but is not a sub category of pansexual as a result.

[–] TranscendentalEmpire@lemmy.today 20 points 4 weeks ago (9 children)

For instance, I'm finsexual, which is a subcategory of bisexual because it describes specific gender elements that I am attracted to but is not a sub category of pansexual as a result.

I don't know why but this is making me feel my age. I feel like I mentally just patted down different pockets across my mind like an old man, looking for a pamphlet or flow chart that I know I don't have but desperately need.

The autism is compelling me to make a laminated pocket sized booklet with an updated chart of all gender, sexual orientation, and flag colors. But I also feel being spotted in public using the LGBTQ Pokedex might be faux pas?

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[–] Grizzlybur@piefed.ca 11 points 4 weeks ago

Pansexuals loving pans 🤝 finsexuals loving fish

Tbh I’ve always considered myself pansexual just because I am attracted to what I’m attracted to, no guardrails or borders. I usually view these terms as more like shackles than support. I suppose 99% of the time I could be considered finsexual aside from the stray guy. Usually I just explain pansexuality to my boomer family as my sexuality is whatever gets me horny and can give moral enthusiastic consent. Thats what it means to me at least. I don’t overthink it beyond that.

[–] DaGeek247@fedia.io 9 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Honestly, I think I like these definitions best. Just2look is also probably correct about a lot of people too though.

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[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 32 points 4 weeks ago (44 children)

As a bisexual girlie, would someone let me know what the true difference is when it's figured out??

Honestly it seems like a generational divide between the two labels.

[–] just2look@lemmy.zip 52 points 4 weeks ago (6 children)

I've heard a ton of different definitions, but honestly I think people just pick the label they like better and there isn't a functional difference. I identify as bisexual because the flag is better haha.

[–] N0tTr0xy@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

bi is also one character less to type

[–] 0ops@piefed.zip 19 points 4 weeks ago

Say you're a Linux user without saying you're a Linux user

[–] just2look@lemmy.zip 13 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
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[–] velma@sh.itjust.works 14 points 4 weeks ago

The bisexual flag is SO much better. You get it haha

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 13 points 4 weeks ago

I identify as bisexual because the flag

vexilosexual

[–] VGpunx@lemmy.world 10 points 4 weeks ago

I identify as bisexual because the flag is better

this.

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[–] tacosanonymous@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 4 weeks ago

Bi here. Generally, attracted to men and women for the characteristics they have.

Pan is more that they’re attracted to people regardless of their sex. Like, it doesn’t really play into it.

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[–] Zachariah@lemmy.world 31 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago) (2 children)
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[–] ToastedRavioli@midwest.social 25 points 4 weeks ago (2 children)

Bisexuals that grow from the ceiling are called “bicicles”

[–] bizarroland@lemmy.world 10 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

I thought they were bilagmites.

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[–] BarrelAgedBoredom@lemmy.zip 24 points 4 weeks ago (6 children)

Bisexuals have a cooler flag, pretty sure that's the only difference. Otherwise they're both labels that fail to adequately describe the infinitely personal and variable elements of human attraction and sexuality. Use whichever one feels right. I flip between bi and pan when labeling myself but omnisexual probably "fits" the best

[–] ebc@lemmy.ca 46 points 4 weeks ago* (last edited 4 weeks ago)

Problem: There are 2 competing labels for universal attraction

Solution: "Omnisexual should represent universal attraction"

Problem: there are 3 competing labels for universal attraction

[–] Madagaskar_sky@lemmy.world 13 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Oh look what you've done now. You've made it worse. Omnisexual? Now there's three terms confuddling the concept.

[–] BarrelAgedBoredom@lemmy.zip 10 points 4 weeks ago

Behold the magnificence and terror of my eldritch, unknowable sexuality!

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[–] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 23 points 4 weeks ago (5 children)

You're only pansexual if you're from the Panne region of France, otherwise you're just sparkling bisexual.

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[–] psycotica0@lemmy.ca 23 points 4 weeks ago

I'd say the only meaningful distinction is that some people make up a definition "bi" could have had but never did, and then use "pan" in opposition to that 😛

But more honestly I asked my sister why she identifies as pan rather than bi, and her answer was that bi attracted the wrong people and pan attracted the right people 😉

[–] SethTaylor@lemmy.world 22 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)

Oooooh, so THAT'S what was growing in my sex cave

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[–] jambudz@lemmy.zip 14 points 4 weeks ago
[–] Snowclone@lemmy.world 14 points 4 weeks ago (18 children)

Just a heads up to everyone that has a Bisexuality definition that isn't Bisexual, I'd really recommend not putting anti-trans labels and bullshit on Bi people, it's never failed too piss off every Bi person I've ever been or known.

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[–] marcela@lemmy.blahaj.zone 14 points 4 weeks ago

People who say they are not attracted to trans women are absurd. It is like saying "I am not attracted to sisters of friends." Being unattracted is different than consciously deciding you shouldn't be.

[–] svcg@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

There are some transphobes and/or enbyphobes who will insist that bisexual means attraction to only two genders, and we all know why they're doing that.

Others will say that bisexual means they based on the meaning of the prefix "bi-". But that is the etymological fallacy. The current meaning of a word is not necessarily related to its etymological origin. Words change meaning literally all the time, and we should all be nonplussed about it by now [1].

In reality, words only mean what people generally understand them to mean [2]. Most dictionaries still retain, at least implicitly, a two definition, but most LGBT+ orgs and psychological associations and whatnot tend to define it as "more than one" gender, or similar.

Similarly, pansexual is generally defined as attraction to all genders or attraction being irrelevant of gender in the vast majority of places that care to declare a definition. But there are those who use it to mean the same thing as the latter definition of bisexual because they believe bisexual to mean the former definition of bisexual.

So what is the actual difference? It probably depends where you are and who you're talking to. Womp womp.

There's a joke/stereotype that many people who describe themselves as bi are attracted to one specific type of guy, and literally all women.

In my practical experience, people are more likely to identify as bisexual if they tend have a preference for certain gender presentations over others, and more likely to identify as pansexual if they are (closer to being) equally horny for all. Or if they have a preference for more pastel colours.

🤷‍♀️

[1] Even I believe, in my heart, that using the word nonplussed this way is wrong.

[2] Ha! I got the linguistic prescriptivists and the logicians with that one!

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[–] 5318008@lemmy.ml 12 points 4 weeks ago

For practical purposes, it's a judgement call:

-If they're under 30, I say I'm pansexual.

-If they're over 40, I say I'm bisexual.

-In between, I pick one based on vibes.

For theory purposes:

Studies on sexual attraction predate studies on gender identity. "Bisexual" hails from a day that we just considered the physical presentation of the people a study participant is attracted to, with the options of 1: Same, 2: Different. The studies allowed for people to be homosexual, heterosexual, or both-sexual.

"Pansexual" has had different definitions in the 1920s, 1970s, 2020s, and presumably the years in between. The current popular definition of "attraction to all genders" or "attraction regardless of gender" is basically a subset of "bisexual", since this includes both people of the same sex, and people of different sex.

It's more inclusive in the aspect of rejecting the gender binary at the start. But also, I believe that words are for communication, so at the end of the day, I'm using the most useful word based on the information I'm trying to communicate.

[–] Setiyeti93@lemmy.ca 12 points 4 weeks ago

Can confirm. Am pan. Am also stuck on the ceiling

[–] Staden_@pawb.social 12 points 4 weeks ago

At this point I just think they're different names for the same thing.

[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 11 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

I thought pansexuals needed to be seasoned first and washed immediately after each use then thoroughly patted dry?

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[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 4 weeks ago (1 children)
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