Thread by @lgbtfordummies

Starting off here's a thread on why pansexuality shouldnt be a thing!!!!

before anyone comes for my kneecaps LET ME EXPLAIN OKAY im not attacking anyone i promise

so. as yall probably have heard a million times, pansexuality is.... exactly the same as bisexuality we been knew!!

so let us begin with the basics what is bisexuality??

so! the definition of bisexuality is "sexual/romantic attraction towards more than one gender" easy right?

the problem here is, some people think the "bi" root in here means theres "two" genders, those being male and female... wrong!

firstly, lets take a look at the 1990 bisexual manifesto

yall saw that?? exactly! bisexuality is not binary!!!

so heres the thing, instead of thinking of gender as separate blocks, lets take a look at what it actually is: a spectrum, with this handy graph brought to you by me!

n is for what we would consider non binary genders

now we need to take into consideration a very important factor for things to make sense: gender expression!

so, as everyone should probably know by now, gender is just a social construct! society has established the rules of what is "feminine" and "masculine"

so why is gender expression important?? because our attraction for someone is based on exactly that! the way we express our gender is a key point for how people perceive us

this does NOT at all mean we should adjust ourselves to how society wants us to be: express yourself however the heck you want, be free and happy you go!!
there can obviously be dudes who are more confortable being feminine, and ladies who prefer a masculine expression

HOWEVER once again, what we're talking about here is the way people PERCEIVE us, meaning if someone is attracted to, say, the feminine side of the spectrum, they will most likely feel attraction to people with a more feminine gender expression, be it more on the F or the N side

If you happen to see someone walking down the street and think "oh wow theyre attractive", you probably wont stop to think about their whole identity, you will just think theyre attractive based on your own preference right? thats the whole point!!

now back to our sexualities: what do bisexuals and what do pansexuals feel attraction towards?? lets check our handy graph again

so what is the difference between both of them.... theres none!!! its the same!!!!!!

now lets move onto some arguments defending that pansexuality isnt the same as bisexuality

"pan includes trans and nb people!!"
yeah and... bisexuality does to!! we already saw the bisexual manifesto AND trans girls are... guess what... girls!! trans boys are boys!! saying theres a difference is transphobic and we aint tolerating that in this house

"pan people feel attraction regardless of gender"
and so do bi people! as a bisexual, we dont CHOOSE who we like, attraction just happens man! yall have this stigma that us bisexuals consider that gender is key for attraction or sumn but we fall for ppl just like anyone

plus as we saw in our handy graph before, we feel attracted to both sides of the spectrum! which is, the whole spectrum

"bisexuals are not equally attracted to each gender"
they dont HAVE TO but they can be! its perfectly fine to feel the same level of attraction for every gender and you're not any less of a bisexual for that!

with all that said you may be wondering: if its the same, what does it matter to call yourself bisexual or pansexual? no!!! it does matter!!!!!!

as a discriminated group, to this day bisexuals still need to fight for their rights and that IS exactly why the label exists
coming up with more terms that mean exactly the same because of individualsm takes our fight away and makes the bisexual community less visible

in conclusion, making up new terms to define the exact same concept actually does more harm to the community than it helps, which is why most of us feel that way about pansexuality

knowing that theyre literally the same thing, please ask yourself again why you cant define your sexuality as bi
is it, perhaps, biphobia?

and if anyone wants to add something, im gladly open for debate

forgot to add this argument
"pansexuals fall in love with people"
yeah and... so do bisexuals we aint falling in love with chairs as far as i know
the thing is, not looking at someone's physique is just not being superficial, and that shouldnt be labeled as a sexuality

as an addition to this thread i want to remark that labels ARE really important for this community
bisexuality has always been oppressed and invisibilized

suddenly adding something like pansexuality, which is just the same, ignores all these years the bisexual movement has already been fighting for their rights

and just as a lil psa, labels ARE important, theyre here for a reason, they matter SO much from a political point of view and its our only way to fight agains the systematic oppresion and discrimination against us

this is, and i cannot stress this enough, NOT a matter of individualism and personal feelings
real people are dying and getting beaten up for this so please just get your heads out of tumblr this time

adding this to the thread because i think its v important and well explained culturalconsent.com/vol1-no1/bi-is…