Bi, Pan, and the Insufficiency of Prefixes

12/11/2018

First of all, Happy Belated Pansexual Pride Day!

Second of all, let’s stop touting pansexuality as a new-and-improved, more highly evolved version of bisexuality. That’s not what it is.

There exists an ugly myth that because the prefix “bi” means “two”, bisexuality reinforces the concept of a gender binary and only recognizes two genders — men and women. It is often assumed this also excludes trans men and women. In light of these myths, pansexuality is sometimes put forth as an enlightened, gender-inclusive alternative to bisexuality, because “pan” means “all”, and therefore subverts the gender binary.

Bisexuality is simply the attraction to more than one gender. Full stop.
Pansexuality is the attraction to all genders, or anyone regardless of gender.

Semantically, bisexuality encompasses pansexuality, but there is a point where we can distinguish between the two, and this is important to much of our community.

Bisexuality has never been defined - by actual bisexuals - as the attraction to only two genders. This misconception developed somewhere outside of our community, all-too-conveniently during a period of time when bisexuals were making a lot of headway organizing in partnership with the trans community, which inexplicably came to a screeching halt shortly thereafter...

Anyway, to illustrate this history, we can point to The 1990 Bisexual Manifesto, published in the Bay Area Bisexual Network’s literary magazine “Anything that Moves”, and as archived by BiNet USA:

“We are tired of being analyzed, defined and represented by people other than ourselves, or worse yet, not considered at all. We are frustrated by the imposed isolation and invisibility that comes from being told or expected to choose either a homosexual or heterosexual identity.

Monosexuality is a heterosexist dictate used to oppress homosexuals and to negate the validity of bisexuality.

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. Do not mistake our fluidity for confusion, irresponsibility, or an inability to commit. Do not equate promiscuity, infidelity, or unsafe sexual behavior with bisexuality. Those are human traits that cross all sexual orientations. Nothing should be assumed about anyone’s sexuality, including your own.
We are angered by those who refuse to accept our existence; our issues; our contributions; our alliances; our voice. It is time for the bisexual voice to be heard.”

This manifesto is a fundamental piece of bisexual history and culture. It explicitly denounces the idea that bisexuality means an attraction to only two genders, and the idea that there are only two genders. Yes, “bi” means “two”. The duality of the “bi” in “bisexual” refers to the combination of homosexual and heterosexual attractions - some people extend this to a definition of bisexuality as “attraction to genders similar to and different from one’s own”.

“Bisexual” is a relatively old term compared to much of our queer lexicon. It predates most of the gender-expansive language we have today. This doesn’t mean the word “bisexual” is incompatible with it. Some individuals who call themselves bisexual don’t have access to or knowledge of this language yet. There may also be bisexual individuals who are transphobic, but that’s their damage, and doesn’t reflect a problem with the word itself. For instance, there are also some transphobic gay and lesbian folks, but no one would infer that being gay or a lesbian is inherently transphobic.

Today, many individuals and organizations use “bi+” as an umbrella term for all of the identities and labels the non-monosexual (attracted to more than one gender) community uses. This includes, is not limited to; bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, queer, fluid, and unlabeled. This term is awesome and useful because it recognizes bisexual as the oldest and still most widely used term, while also being inclusive of the many other terms our community uses to describe our identities and experiences. It is also very common for individuals to use multiple labels simultaneously, or change labels as they move through various life stages or community spaces.

Bisexual writer, activist, and educator Robyn Ochs has coined the ultimate definition of bisexuality:

“I call myself bisexual because I acknowledge that I have in myself the potential to be attracted – romantically and/or sexually – to people of more than one sex and/or gender, not necessarily at the same time, not necessarily in the same way, and not necessarily to the same degree.”

This definition has resonated with much of the bi+ community, because it encompasses the entire range of bi+ experiences. No two people in the bi+ community experience attraction the same way. The space between and beyond homosexuality and heterosexuality is an immense and boundless sexuality galaxy. A handful of Greek and Latin prefixes falls painfully short of describing its entirety.

Furthermore, people of color are more likely to identify as bisexual than white people, particularly women of color. Youth of color identify as bisexual at higher proportions than white youth, and more white youth identify as pansexual than youth of color do. The bisexual identity is culturally significant in many communities of color. There is more tied to the bi/pan “label wars” than sexual orientation. What else are we implying by putting pansexuality on a pedestal above bisexuality?

Pansexual is a real, valid, and beautiful identity. So is bisexuality. They don’t conflict with one another. They can and do coexist, because language is imperfect, messy, and always changing. It will continue to change. Is there a difference between bi and pan? Well, yes and no. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. Bisexuals and pansexuals are part of the same community, and deal with the same issues and challenges surrounding our sexual orientations. If you are not part of this community, you don’t get to participate in conversations about our language and labels, or write shitty uninformed think pieces that nobody asked for.

Sally Corbett
They/them/theirs
Administrative Assistant, Bisexual Organizing Project

16 Comments

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Allie

6/20/2020 01:40:13 pm

An accurate and astute articulation of the differences between bisexuality and pansexuality without discrediting the validity of other sexualities. Brilliant resource, thank you!

Teagan

6/25/2020 03:07:58 pm

Would that they could coexist, if it weren’t for the fact that pansexuals consistently and enthusiastically misrepresent and redefine bisexuality to others in order to look more inclusive and therefore more “woke”. Constantly putting us down in social media, and in real LGBT community spaces. Not only do they force incorrect definitions and harmful biphobic stereotypes on us, in the same breath they’ve stolen our historical definition and merely switched a few words to create a “new” label to distance themselves from bisexuals, as if we’re dirty and transphobic.They copied our flag for fuck sake! How are we supposed to be allies when they shit on us left and right? Pansexual is a pretentious and unnecessary label, made to make them feel superior to bisexuals, and it’s no surprise that privileged white kids prefer it, and that we PoC, who’ve predominantly built and fought for the LGBT community, do not.

Tina

6/30/2020 09:30:10 pm

I understand that you are angry and understandably so. Considering the things you were told by the loudest part of the group, there is nothing wrong with one feeling angered and mistreated. Yet again, it is the loudest part of the group and the pansexuals who don't look down on bisexuality (yet feel it doesn't describe them the best) don't want the biphobic ones to represent all of us. This article puts it way better than I ever could; especially the part about the messiness and fluidity of language. I personally identified with the label of pansexual because I was ignorant and recently figured out that I'm not fully gay. Bi prefix was described to me as two and pan as all, I identified more with pan but that didn't mean I thought something was wrong with bi. Just how I didn't think I was better than lesbians for having an attraction that wasn't a monosexual one. It just fit better considering the information I was told. By the time I learned about the manifesto, years went by and I got attached to the label. It felt like a part of my identity. Changing it felt wrong. Not because bisexuality feels wrong in itself but because it feels like it doesn't fit my identity. Hell, I'm not sure about pansexual either anymore, that's why I'm on this page. I'm still figuring things out. Sorry about the ramble and the personal info dump, it's just that your comment seemed to put all pansexuals in one box based on the behavior of some and that you believe the label was chosen because of a belief of superiority over bisexuals. Not trying to put words in your mouth, it's just what I got. The point is that while there are some biphobic pansexuals it's not a part of the label, yet ignorance within those individuals.

Aliya

7/27/2020 08:20:03 pm

There is definitely no right for one sexual orientation to dictate how any other should identify. We all started off somewhere, and went through our own different journeys in figuring our selves out. Our stories are valid, our existences are valid, and we have a right to identify in a way that feels true to us. Otherwise, we are no different than those outside the community who seek to tell us how we SHOULD be or SHOULD identify. We are better than that, and are stronger together! There will always be those who seek to spread hate and divisiveness, but when we are open to those who seek unity? THEN we are unstoppable <3

Anice Rob

7/30/2020 08:47:04 pm

Nice article and very objective. First of all, I consider myself bisexual, but i dont understand the panphobia increasing in twitter lately. So i was searching information of bisexual and pansexual history given the fact that those sexualities are heavily cuestioned by the community itself. I had the idea that bisexuality at the very beginning didn't "establish" to include non-binary people, until 90s with bi manifesto (i mean, they always included them but i guess at that time wasn't very clear idk). Meanwhile in 70s the concept of pansexuality "born" because it was their way to establish in a clear way the inclusion to non binary genders. I dont know how much accurate is this?? Sorry if I'm being disrespectful with someone, I really want to know what's going on (sorry for my english also)

Lena

12/17/2020 05:36:20 am

So as far as I know, pansexuality only started to get used as a sexuality in the 2000.

Yomama

11/17/2020 02:39:19 am

I was bisexual before I knew about the wide spectrum of gender identities and lack thereof, and I was bisexual after I knew I had the potential to fall in love with all of them. I'm not omnisexual, not polysexual, and not pansexual. Bisexual always covered the ENTIRE spectrum of non-monosexual attractions. ALWAYS. All these other subsets is like insisting you're a Floridian but denying that you're an American. Call yourself what you will but accept your role in misinformation and erasure and straight up biphobia when pans say things like "let's replace the B with a P in the acronym" or go around getting the definition of bisexuality wrong and perpetuating inconsistencies.

Alice

11/17/2020 03:13:58 am

All sexualities are inherently transgender and nonbinary inclusive. “Transgender” and “nonbinary” are merely umbrella terms that describe different relationships to one’s assigned sex. “Transgender” is not a gender a transgender wo/man is just as fe/male as a cisgender one and “nonbinary” is not just one gender. Anyone can date a nonbinary person. Just because some gay men say they’re only attracted to cisgender men doesn’t mean that gayness is “attraction only to cisgender people of the same gender.”

Bisexuality isn’t limited or inherently distinct from pansexuality. We’ve been saying bisexuality is broad, non-binary, and all-encompassing since the 1970s. As the American Institute of Bisexuality tells us, bisexuality “is inherently inclusive of everyone, regardless of sex or gender.” The Bisexual flag itself clearly is inclusive with the pink for same-sex attraction, blue is for different sex attraction, and purple is to represent the attraction across the gender spectrum and attraction to Non-binary individuals.

Almost every modern description of pansexuality not only denies this history of Bisexuality but bases itself on and perpetuates the misconceptions listed above, if not other forms of bigotry. Stop giving validity to bigotry!

Armel

11/22/2020 08:41:29 am

See there is the thing...

1) some of us out here think of bisexuality as attraction to two genders...full stop. We do not go and assume that those two genders are forcefully men and women. By two genders we mean any two genders of the spectrum of genders.

2) If, as time goes on, definitions change, do you not think it is appropriate to change the name as well? This is creating confusion now as Bi means two. See, I am not saying that Bisexuality might mean something else than its terminology, I am saying that if it does mean something else than what the word "Bisexual" typically means, change the name. I have bisexual friends who have no idea of this. They are attracted to any two genders but they have no idea that somewhere, someone wrote a manifesto saying that Bisexuality includes more than one gender. Your definition has changed, we respect that...change the name as well, use the name that goes with it!!

12/17/2020 05:46:28 am

Sorry but I don't agree with this. So, I mean I get your point of saying that the name draws confusion into this debate, but "bi" could mean a lot of things. Me personally I've always understood bi as 2 dimensions, therefore somewhere between heterosexual and gay and now I've broaden that idea with more genders. And again, it is true that a name-change could help with this, but the main problem is that there are sexualities that put a label on bisexuality by reducing their history and meaning simply because the name has "bi" in it. And another thing, I'm mostly okay with bi+ cause at least it understands that bi doesn't exclude anyone. But I'm not okay with people saying that pan is a fully different sexuality from bi and they are not under the umbrella term of bisexuality. This is not only a name thing now, it is about people wanting to redefine my sexuality!

12/17/2020 12:53:04 pm

For my part (and I am talking about me), it is not about redefining YOUR sexuality. It is about you giving me a definition that does not go with the etymology of the word. It is confusing, even amongst bisexuals.

Rose

4/23/2021 10:56:24 am

Okay, so this is just bad etymology.

If you think root words define modern meanings of words, then stop using the words “you/your” in the singular familiar. The old French dictates that they are unfamiliar plural. You also need to stop using “Lesbian” for WLW. For most of human history, into the modern era, this word meant people from Lesbos. It ALSO could mean, due to the island’s reputation, women who gave good fellatio/who were very openly (heterosexually) sexual. The word became tied to WLW in the last three centuries, but was not the most popular WLW word until the 20th century. “Gay” comes from the Old French “Gai,” which means “carefree.” It was not tied to homosexuality until the 20th century, is still used for its other definition concurrently, and has had its definition expanded infinitely to become synonymous with “Queer.” Oh, and “Queer” comes from a few Germanic origins meaning “oblique,” which basically means “slanting” for a line. The word was used in Early Modern Scottish and English to mean “odd” and (psychologically) “mad.” Neither of which are terms related to slanting lines or non-parallel lines, as the root words demand. The word was then used in the 20th century as a slur against LGBT+ people, thus expanding its definition way passed its roots. Would it have been more grammatically correct for homophobes to use a different word with a more homosexual root? It has now been claimed by the LGBT+ community as an all-inclusive non-Cis/Het identity. Should we throw it out and create a word more rooted in accurate words from ancient languages and their assumed meanings?

I’m sure you’ll think, “None of this is the same as bisexuality.” But it is. How do I know this? Understanding premodern words and etymologies is part of my actual education and work.

Ahlani

1/16/2021 06:58:18 pm

As a person who I identifies as omnisexual, I have been told time and time again that being omnisexual is biphoic because it implies that bi people are transphobic. I love how this article explains how being bisexual isn’t excluding trans people or enby people, and gives validation to subcategories and micro-labels of bisexuality like pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual, etc. Sexualities can’t discriminate against other sexualities.

At the end of the day, as stated in the article, we should just be accepting of any and all sexualities that join the LGBTQA+ community (unless it is pedophilia or beastiality). The only thing that the invalidation of other sexualities and genders does is divide up a community all about unity and inclusion. Just let people identify how they want to identify as!

Providence

4/5/2021 10:42:29 am

> This misconception developed somewhere outside of our community, all-too-conveniently during a period of time when bisexuals were making a lot of headway organizing in partnership with the trans community...

You have the time period wrong. The misconception is actually older than the correct definition, or to put it another way, when a word's definition changes or gets a new definition, it'll take a long time for it to escape the baggage of its older definitions.

As you acknowledge, the word 'bisexual' "predates most of the gender-expansive language we have today" and in fact it predates gender itself. The word was used in biology and botany to refer to sex not sexuality, specifically to the presence of both male and female parts. Not saying that words can't change (they do all the time) or that people think of botany when they hear the word 'bisexual' (unless you're a botanist), but the word was originally constructed around the reproductive binary, or at least some binary, and that etymology is much more obvious at a glance.

People "outside the community" are probably going to have misconceptions about the definition because the definition is working against its apparent etymology. Unfortunately, "outside the community" vastly outnumbers inside the community people in the know, and trying to take the word back in an act of prescriptivist linguistics is like trying to put the genie back in the bottle. We just have to be persistent with our usage and wait for the definition to change outside our silo communities.

Olly

5/3/2021 10:35:00 am

You have cherry picked sources to create a feel-good narrative in which bisexual activists have always defined bisexuality as the attraction to more than one gender, and therefore one in which they were always aware and supportive of transgender issues.

Even in pioneering works like Lorraine Hutchins and Lani Ka'ahumanu's 'Bi Any Other Name', bisexuality was defined, contrary to your assertions, as the 'attraction to men and women', and trans- issues were virtually unacknowledged. The fact that one of the only references to a transgender person's experiences (or, a 'male-to-female transsexual/hermaphrodite', as they are called) is to note what a 'perfect playmate' they are 'for bi-sex', speaks for itself.

Of course, that book was written before the language and ideas of gender theory, third wave feminism and queer theory were coined and conceived. It is no wonder that its concerns can seem rather dated, and those who it excludes seems glaringly obvious.

So lets not pretend that bisexuality has always been defined the way we want it to be now, or that transphobia has never existed among bisexual activists just because underground San-Francisco bis were keen to forge a bi-trans alliance. We need to recognise the difficult and complex realities of LGBT history, instead of ignoring them in order to celebrate ourselves today.

Casey link

7/21/2021 08:10:09 pm

Right now my only hero and bisexual activist is Kravitz M who has unraveled the history of bisexuality that was appropiated to create this other labels. I have experienced a lot of internalized biphobia due to this labels as if im not inclusive enough,as if im genital obsessed as if solely for being bisexual i cannot be nonbinary,i cannot value other people s personality or their heart. When we validate all these other definitions we are saying bisexuals are dirty, don t care about pdrsonality, don t care about acknowledging other s people gender identity In fact I am genderfluid , I care about personality and I acknowledge other people s gender identity and I Am STILL Bisexual the more pan and omnis try to separate themselves from bi s the more they prove its a pretentious label when I look at peoples definition to separate themselves from the Bisexual label they say " I care about personality more than looks " I unlike bisexuals would date a trans or intersex person " " I am all inclusive bisexuals are exclusive "

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