Bisexuality or Pansexuality: A Controversial Identity | A Look into the History, Meaning and Nuances of these Sexual Orientations’ Hard to Distinguish Labels

 Preface

As a bisexual man myself, I am tackling this premise with an obejctive eye but a subjective mind. I am open to criticism and do not claim to have any authority to dictate what is or isn’t. This is simply a result of research. – Ricardo Pestana (author)

Bisexuality

Bisexuality is a sexual orientation that may be defined in a multitude of ways as it might refer to romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior. In general, bisexual individuals feel possible attraction to more than one sex/gender. The term “bisexuality” seems quite simple and straightforward and yet there is a lot of discourse around what it actually means, mainly when confronted with the concept of “pansexuality”.

What Is a Sexual Orientation After All?

If we mark half a population as male and the other half as female, we may theorize the possible sexual orientations as being homosexual (attraction towards individuals of the same sex), heterosexual (attraction towards individuals of the opposite sex), or non-monosexual/bisexual (attraction towards both male and female individuals). In reality, however, we don’t just use male/female in society, as we have ever-expanding concepts of sex and gender. So, is a sexual orientation based on sex or based on gender? Human psychology is very complex, which makes it hard to define things such as “attraction”, since people’s attraction to others and how it manifests may be influenced by a number of social and psychological factors, not to mention that it is not static – a lot of people experience fluctuations in the intensity but also direction of their sexual or romantic attraction. When people are asked their sexual orientation and what it means, they actually give the most varied answers, which means that at the end of the day, sexual orientation in humans isn’t so much of an observable behavior as it is a self-identity. 

Pansexuality
Pansexuality is a non-monosexual sexual orientation, as it happens with bisexuality. Pansexual individuals, however, feel potential attraction regardless of their partner’s sex/gender. Most pansexual people claim that gender and sex are not determining factors in their attraction to others. This opens up some serious discourse, since if you don’t subscribe to the idea that there are more than two genders, this will make no sense to you. Note that not all pansexuals define “pansexuality” in the same way, which makes sense, as no two pansexual individuals will experience it the exact same way.

Does Identifying as Bisexual Reinforce an Arguably False Gender Binary?

There is some discourse inside the queer communities around pansexuality being more inclusive than bisexuality, some even claiming that identifying as “bisexual” and not “pansexual” comes from a place of transphobia. This, however, seems to be ignorant as to what the concept of bisexuality actually is, seeing as it’s widely understood as attraction to more than one gender, and not – as some people think – attraction to two genders. 

“Bisexuality is a whole, fluid identity. Do not assume that bisexuality is binary or duogamous in nature: that we have 'two’ sides or that we must be involved simultaneously with both genders to be fulfilled human beings. In fact, don’t assume that there are only two genders.” –The Bisexual Manifesto (Anything That Moves Magazine; 1990)

« The Word “Bisexual” Implies Attraction to two genders! »

Although it is understandable why people would have this idea, the prefix «bi-» did not always refer to the number of sexes or genders to whom bisexual individuals are attracted to. Let’s not forget that language evolves and words change meaning; in reality, in 1859, anatomist Robert Todd first used the term “bisexuality” to refer to the possession of both “male” and “female” physical characteristics in the same body, which today we might consider “intersex”. Other scientists would also use the word, for example, in botany, as a synonym for “hermaphroditic”, sometimes also using the now obsolete terms “bisexous” and “bisexuous”. Later, a lot of people also used “bisexuality” as today we would use the term “androgyny”. A lot of times, there was also the idea of “bisexuality” meaning “both sexualities”, the individuals being both heterosexual and homosexual; for example, Sigmund Freud famously claimed in the 1910’s that everyone is “bisexual” at birth and is then socialized into either heterosexuality or homosexuality. This all was slightly confusing, with the term “ambisexuality” being proposed to be used in psychology instead of “bisexual predisposition” so that it became clearer what was being discussed, although this didn’t really seem to catch on. It wasn’t until the 1980’s that the more modern concept of “bisexuality” as a sexual orientation became common, as groups and events started being established. With more people finding out about this term and relating to it, it was fairly common for people to casually define bisexuality as “attraction to both men and women”. Note that around this time transphobia was rampant in the gay community as well, since homosexual individuals wanted to be integrated in heterosexual society and not be confused for “a man who wants to be a woman” or “a woman who wants to be a man”; this made homosexual/bisexual individuals exclude trans people from queer spaces. In response to this very cis-normative and binary view of sex, gender and sexuality, the term “pansexuality” became popular in the 90’s, «pan» meaning “all”. As said above, however, “bisexuality” in and of itself was/is not defined by a binary view of gender. Words do have meanings, but they change with time and context; for example, “October” comes from the Latin «octo» which means “eight”, yet nowadays we use the term “October” for the tenth month and not the eighth.

Bisexuality versus Pansexuality

If bisexuality refers to the attraction to more than one sex/gender and pansexuality refers to the attraction to all sexes/genders, does that mean “pansexuality” is a branch of “bisexuality” or is it its own sexual orientation? I would argue both are right, since you may say you’re “pansexual” as a way to specify that the type of bisexual attraction you experience doesn’t stop at the binary and you do in fact feel attraction to any and all genders; but you might also say you’re “pansexual” as a way to say that not only do you experience non-monosexual attraction, but you also don’t take into account the other person’s sex/gender at all. Personally, I find that it best makes sense as “bisexuality” and “pansexuality” being two sexual orientations inside of the “non-monosexual” term, as separate branches. My reasoning for this is that bisexual individuals will usually feel different types and intensities of attraction depending on the other person’s gender (for example, a bisexual man may feel that his romantic attraction is overwhelmingly directed at women, but still feel sexual attraction towards men), whereas pansexual individuals usually claim to not even take the other person’s gender/sex into the equation. This, however, does not mean that pansexual individuals feel attraction in the same way towards all genders and partners, as it’s essentially impossible to quantify your attraction or how much you love someone, as these are extremely abstract concepts.

The Importance of Identity for Queer Individuals

Identity is complex, it is an intersection of multiple aspects of our person and it’s what defines who we are in society. As such, our gender, class, ethnicity, and other social categories will have an impact on our social positioning and, by consequence, our sense of belonging. Our identities are dynamic and speak to how we experience the social game, which means we might experience privilege or oppression depending on the setting. Since identity is multi-faceted, when individuals identify with two conflicting groups, they show a natural tendency to conceal one or the other, so as to not be ostracized by the social group they’re more integrated in, whereas choosing to stay true to multiple aspects of your identity may lose you your membership to one or several groups – for example, a very religious catholic person identifying as homosexual may hide or repress their homosexuality as a way to not get shunned from their religious community. Humans are social beings and, as such, we find comfort and safety in communities. This means that when someone feels like their identity is made up of things that they don’t see representation of and maybe don’t even know a word for, they will experience social isolation and, because of that, a higher chance of mental health issues. Hence, labels are important for queer individuals, as it lets them give a name to their experience, instead of it simply being abnormal or deviant behavior. Identifying as “queer” no longer means just “non-heterosexual” as it more so means “part of the queer community”. Since these terms and labels have become somewhat of a safe place (and for some the only one they ever had), it has become a sensitive topic for many when others try to police what certain labels are or question their validity.

Are LGBTQIA+ Labels Going Too Far?

The list of labels for sexual orientation and gender grows dramatically with time. The acronym itself is something homophobic individuals always point out because of its constant change. The idea behind adding letters to the acronym comes from wanting to highlight different struggles that people who live outside of gender and sexual expectations face. Memorizing big acronyms and labels can become overwhelming, but a lot of times it seems like critics create problems where they don’t exist as a way to catastrophize. In general, as labels can both be helpful and hurtful, you can never go wrong by using what someone has asked of you to use for them. You don’t have to memorize all existing terms and labels, all you have to do is understand that there is a lot of fluidity in identities and a lot of people who don’t use the more common labels such as the gender binary. Labels are the best way for queer individuals to find people to connect with, which means that if you don’t know what a very niche label means, then it’s not really going to have any impact in your life at all. One of the most common and cathartic experiences you’ll have as a queer individual is connecting with other people in the queer community through conversations that go through questions such as “how did you come out?”, “when did you know you weren’t straight?”, “what’s your relationship with your gender?”, and many others. Labels help us find “our people”, since as an LGBTQIA+ teen you won’t usually relate to your family. This means that the more labels you have next to your name, the more accurately you’ll find people who are just like you. It’s worth pointing out that although words are very useful to us, they don’t change who we really are nor should they limit our experience.

Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Labels can be harmful when they are forced upon those who don’t want them. Coming out is still an awkward and scary situation despite the increase in social acceptance of LGBTQ people, sometimes even dangerous. Choosing a label for yourself may be empowering and help you find support and a sense of community, but being labeled in ways you don’t want to can generate more frustration than anything else. Identifying as “bisexual” or “pansexual” shouldn’t be forced on anyone nor should one feel like they have to change their “pansexual” label to “bisexual” or vice versa. This also means that we don’t always have the best understanding of our identity right from the start, it is completely normal to switch labels as you grow and figure out who you are. Both “bisexuality” and “pansexuality” are valid self-identification labels deserving of respect and worthy of being taken seriously. There is no point in trying to invalidate one or the other, both exist under the “queer” umbrella term and are therefore brothers and sisters and the common goal should be that of celebrating sexual fluidity. Language and its change should never be an excuse to dismiss people’s identities and attractions. Actually, understanding the fluidity of language and how communities have evolved shows us that nothing is really set in stone, terms and ideas shift and change and grow and expand, as do we.

References

1. April Scarlette Callis (2014): Bisexual, pansexual, queer: Non-binary identities and the sexual borderlands, DOI: 10.1177/1363460713511094
2. Corey E. Flanders, Marianne E. Lebreton, Margaret Robinson, Jing Bian & Jaime Alonso Caravaca-Morera (2016): Defining Bisexuality: Young Bisexual and Pansexual People's Voices, Journal of Bisexuality, DOI: 10.1080/15299716.2016.1227016
3. https://web.archive.org/web/20191228190632/https://thephoenixnews.com/2014/11/bisexuality-and-pansexuality-are-two-different-identities/
4. Shiri Eisner, Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution (2013)
5. Sigmund Freud translated by James Strachey, Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality: 1. The Sexual Aberrations (1915 edition)
6. Lachlan MacDowall, ‘Historicising Contemporary Bisexuality’, Journal of Bisexuality (2009)
7. S. Ferenczi, "Sex in Psycho-Analysis," transl. Ernest Jones, Boston, 1916
   

Want to read more on this topic?

1. https://biresource.org/what-is-bisexuality/
2. https://www.webmd.com/sex/what-is-bisexual
3. McAllum, Mary-Anne (2017). Young Bisexual Women's Experiences in Secondary Schools. Routledge.
4. Hayfield, Nikki (2020). Bisexual and Pansexual Identities: Exploring and Challenging Invisibility and Invalidation. Routledge
5. https://web.archive.org/web/20140410160854/http://bisexual.org/qna/doesnt-identifying-as-bisexual-reinforce-a-false-gender-binary/
6. https://www.stonewall.org.uk/about-us/news/short-history-word-bisexuality
7. https://medium.com/@avaadore/manifesto-bissexual-449500cd3bf
8. https://www.frentebissexualbrasileira.org/manifesto-bissexual-brasileiro