Pansexual is someone who appreciates and absolutely adores sexuality in its many forms. They are similar to bisexuals, only more fluid. A pansexual person loves not only the traditional male and female genders, but they also love androgynous, transgendered, and gender fluid people.
“Being a queer black woman in America, someone who has been in relationships with both men and women—I consider myself to be a free-ass motherf#cker,” Janelle Monae who identified herself as a pansexual told the Rolling Stones.
Miley Cyrus also opened up about pansexuality: “Who I’m with has nothing to do with sex,” she said. “I’m super-open, pansexual, that’s just me.”
So, here are 8 things that you need to know about pansexuality, whether you are a pansexual or you have someone in your life.
1. PANSEXUALITY IS A REAL THING
There are a lot of misconceptions and stereotypes about pansexuality. The most prominent one is that it doesn’t exist or that it is not ‘real.’ This is wrong. According to Dr. Corey Flanders, an associate professor of psychology at Mount Holyoke College, pansexuality does exist, and it is very real.
2. PANSEXUALITY IS NOT THE SAME AS BISEXUALITY
The term ‘pan’ means ‘all’ in Greek. So, a pansexual is not someone who is bisexual, but someone who is all sexual. This means that they can get sexually attracted to anyone – a man, a woman, or a transgendered person.
3. IT IS NOT UNCOMMON FOR PEOPLE WHO ONCE IDENTIFIED THEMSELVES AS BISEXUAL TO BECOME PANSEXUAL
Like Janelle and Miley, there are many people who had formerly identified themselves as bisexual, only to identify themselves as pansexual later. “Bisexuality as a term has experienced criticism for adhering to a binary system of gender, a.k.a. ‘I’m attracted to men and women,’ even though this strict definition of bisexuality doesn’t fit many bisexual-identified folks,” explains Mr. Rena McDaniel, a specialist in gender and sexual identity.
4. PANSEXUALITY DOES NOT TRANSLATE TO PROMISCUITY
Yes, pansexuals may be attracted to all types of people, however, that does not mean that they are promiscuous, and they will try to have intercourse with anyone they find attractive. Instead, they can be quite choosy.
5. PANSEXUALS WANT TO BE IN A RELATIONSHIP TOO
Being attracted to many different people does not mean that they don’t want to be in an exclusive relationship. “One of the ways society shames those who are attracted to more than one gender is to say that they are ‘greedy’ or a ‘commitment-phobe,'” McDaniel explains. “However, no one says this about heterosexual folks who also have about half the population of the world to choose from.”
6. LESS THAN 1% OF THE POPULATION IDENTIFIES AS PANSEXUAL
Pansexuality is a new concept and that’s why it is difficult to estimate correctly how many people are pansexual. Richmond believes that it is less than 1 percent. However, as there are more and more people who are becoming aware of this term, the number may go up.
7. GENDER HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH PANSEXUALITY
People too often confuse sexual identity with gender. However, they are not the same. Anyone, male or female, can identify themselves as pansexual.
8. PANSEXUALITY IS NOT JUST ABOUT BEING PHYSICAL
When two pansexual individuals are in a relationship, their focus is much more to the connection between them. They want to be in a meaningful and deep connection more than just being intimate sexually with someone.
