Hi! I just found your Tumblr and maybe you can help me?
Thing is, I'm still very confused with the difference between bi and pan. I remember reading somewhere that pan is, like, being bisexual and demiromantic, so pansexuality is some kind of bisexuality in a way?
Please tell me what you think...
Anxiety has me shivering posting this question :\
Hi! For some reason I didn’t get a notification for this so I’m not sure if you sent it yesterday or a month ago, oops. Anyway, I’ve seen a lot of people try to quantify the differences between bi and pan and nobody has been able to, basically what everyone can agree on:
bi - attraction to two or more genders
pan - attraction to all genders
Of course, people have personal definitions for their own labels and really it’s about which community speaks most to them. For example, I personally labeled myself pansexual when I realized that I didn’t really separate my attraction between what gender the person was. I saw a lot of bi people saying “I’m bi which means I’m attracted to all women and a few men” or something like that, which I just could not relate to because I didn’t separate my attraction in that way. I know there’s been pushback about that kind of post recently, but at the time I didn’t relate to a lot of aspects of the bi community and felt more comfortable in the pan one. That’s just one of the many reasons someone might pick one over the other.
Other reasons I’ve seen:
-I like specifying I’m attracted to all genders in my label
-I like the well-documented history and larger community that comes with being bi
-I’m not attracted to all genders so pan doesn’t fit me (if anybody tells you bi always means all, they are wrong I know people irl who disprove that)
-I vibe most with being bi (or pan)
-I like the bi (or pan) flag better
Basically, I don’t think anybody is qualified to speak on the “difference”, because there will never be one single objective difference between bi and pan. It’s all about which label(s) you feel fit you best, and which community you want to be a part of.
~Editor Luxe