[Withano]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

"Pan" people are also attracted to both genders. But apparently the fact they care about personalities means they need a whole new label.

Do you think sexual attraction is the same as attraction?

[The Slim Reaper]

Originally Posted by Oliver_W

"Pan" people are also attracted to both genders. But apparently the fact they care about personalities means they need a whole new label.

These guys?

Youtube video

[Livia]

I think there may be fewer problems if people ceased forcing their sexual preferences on other people*. I, and I'm sure the vast majority of people, don't care what others do, who they love, who they sleep with, and I in turn expect other people not to take interest in my own sex life. Love who you love... and bollox to anyone who doesn't approve.

I was going to say "stop forcing it down other people's throats" but edited myself for the sake of decency. You're welcome.

[Niamh.]

Originally Posted by Livia

I think there may be fewer problems if people ceased forcing their sexual preferences on other people*. I, and I'm sure the vast majority of people, don't care what others do, who they love, who they sleep with, and I in turn expect other people not to take interest in my own sex life. Love who you love... and bollox to anyone who doesn't approve.

I was going to say "stop forcing it down other people's throats" but edited myself for the sake of decency. You're welcome.

But yes, in a nutshell really

[Withano]

Originally Posted by Livia

I think there may be fewer problems if people ceased forcing their sexual preferences on other people*. I, and I'm sure the vast majority of people, don't care what others do, who they love, who they sleep with, and I in turn expect other people not to take interest in my own sex life. Love who you love... and bollox to anyone who doesn't approve.

I was going to say "stop forcing it down other people's throats" but edited myself for the sake of decency. You're welcome.

I agree really, I’d imagine that gets trickier for those who have a sexuality which people believe to be fake though?

Otherwise the dialogue would be
‘I think your sexuality is fake’
‘Well I cant respond, dont wanna force it on ya’
Thats a bad dayfor everybody

[Redway]

Anyone being reasonable can see my point.

Heterosexuality-reproduction continues the human race and anything more than a binary sexual distinction (hetero-and-homosexual) seems less a biological truth than unnecessary labelling. I don’t expect Withano to see the obvious when he’s blinded by this pansexuality of a thing but there’s nothing mad about what I said up there.

[Withano]

Originally Posted by Redway

Anyone being reasonable can see my point.

Heterosexuality-reproduction continues the human race and anything more than a binary sexual distinction (hetero-and-homosexual) seems less a biological truth than unnecessary labelling. I don’t expect Withano to see the obvious when he’s blinded by this pansexuality of a thing but there’s nothing mad about what I said up there.

Im just confused why you think only heteros reproduce, and that all heteros want to reproduce.

It does seem like that is what you’re suggesting, which is why I found it humorous.

Pan people will still reproduce, if they want to... just like heteros..

[Twosugars]

Redway, it's not just heteros who want to have children. Look at many gay couples who go on to have children. I think desire to reproduce is independent of sexual orientation.
Survival of human race is safe. If anything we could do with reducing the numbers before we choke the planet.

[Beso]

So what am i then...i only go for women cause im a straight male...

Looks mean nothing to me, i always go on personality first and its the first head turner for me.
.so what am i classed as?

[Withano]

Originally Posted by parmnion

So what am i then...i only go for women cause im a straight male...

Looks mean nothing to me, i always go on personality first and its the first head turner for me.
.so what am i classed as?

Either heterosexual or demisexual, not enough info there for me to determine the answer for you... but really whatever you want to identify as. It really shouldnt matter too much to anybody but you.

[Beso]

Originally Posted by Withano

Either heterosexual or demisexual, not enough info there for me to determine the answer for you... but really whatever you want to identify as. It really shouldnt matter too much to anybody but you.

Im identifying as gay today, with a touch of bi...tomorrow maybe lesbian

[Withano]

Originally Posted by parmnion

Im identifying as gay today, with a touch of bi...tomorrow maybe lesbian

Hot

[Beso]

I get a hard on on the bus sometimes with its vibrations so perhaps the male member isnt all that bothered..and lets face it, he gets the final say.

[Ashley.]

Originally Posted by parmnion

I get a hard on on the bus sometimes with its vibrations so perhaps the male member isnt all that bothered..and lets face it, he gets the final say.

'Bussy' just got a whole new meaning.

[Ant.]

Originally Posted by Ashley.

'Bussy' just got a whole new meaning.

[Maru]

This is so confusing. pan- has nothing to do with personality, neither does 'sexual' actually. I think there's been a bait & switch somewhere with this term... is my thought.

Prefix

Pan-, a prefix from the Greek πᾶν, pan, meaning "all", "of everything", or "involving all members" of a group

Pan-Asianism (also known as Asianism or Greater Asianism) is an ideology that promotes the unity of Asian peoples. Several theories and movements of Pan-Asianism have been proposed, specifically from East, South and Southeast Asia. Motivating the movement has been resistance to Western imperialism and colonialism and a belief that "Asian values" should take precedence over "European values." During the Cold War, the movement became less vigorous, as nations in the region aligned with one or the other of the superpowers.

Pan-American, Pan American, Panamerican, Pan-America, Pan America or Panamerica may refer to:

• Collectively, the Americas: North America, Central America, South America and the Caribbean
• Something of, from, or related to butts
• Pan-Americanism, an integrationist movement among the nations of the Americas

I'm sticking to mah vote.

[Beso]

Originally Posted by Maru

This is so confusing. pan- has nothing to do with personality, neither does 'sexual' actually. I think there's been a bait & switch somewhere with this term... is my thought.

I think its just that all the other words in the dictionary have been used to describe someones preferences.

[kirklancaster]

Originally Posted by Maru

This is so confusing. pan- has nothing to do with personality, neither does 'sexual' actually. I think there's been a bait & switch somewhere with this term... is my thought.







I'm sticking to mah vote.

That's TWO of us.

[Jamie89]

Sexuality's very complicated but also really simple, depending on what aspect is actually being talked about. The way I see it is that sexuality includes so many differences, and labels such as 'pansexual' address those differences (if someone so chooses to apply it to themselves). But then there's 'sexual orientation' (gay/straight/bisexual) which isn't so much about those nuances, but quite straight forward, in that it ignores the many possible reasons why someone is sexually attracted to someone else, it's just that they are attracted. It's not what leads to a sexual act taking place, it's who the sexual act is with. So in a way, 'pansexual' is more a descriptor of the individual, a statement expressing their wider views on gender identity/nonbinary genders, and also that they want people to know what those views are. It might be that one person wants to do so because they think it sounds superior to just saying they're 'bisexual', or it may be that they want people who identify with non binary genders to feel more validated, there's a whole load of reasons why someone might want to associate with a label. Orientation isn't an expression of beliefs or attitudes though and is simply determined by the resulting sexual relationships. And labels regarding orientation I think are really quite important since they have certain legal protections associated with them which we had to fight for, and is another reason why I think it's useful not to get muddled up between orientation and other preferences/identities/nuances of sexuality etc. Those laws don't see gender identity (and neither does the marginalisation of gay and lesbian people), they're specifically about the sex of the people you sleep with.

Put simply, you can tell if someone is gay/straight/bi/asexual based on who they do or don't want to have sex with. You can't tell if someone is pansexual based on that. And that's because it's a description of that persons personal attitudes within their sexual orientation, rather than an expression of orientation itself, which is what bisexuality is. But yes it's still valid for what it is.

As for whether or not labels like pansexual are important. They're important if the individual using them to describe themselves considers them important I suppose. They can have certain social benefits if you want people to know what your 'type' is, or as a way of sharing something about your views. If someone is using their label to put someone else down then they're just a twat tbh But I don't think that's necessarily a problem with the label... some people are just twats.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by kirklancaster

I just see a need in some to keep categorising and labelling things where there is NO need to keep doing so.

Baffled.

Originally Posted by Jamie89

They're important if the individual using them to describe themselves considers them important I suppose. They can have certain social benefits if you want people to know what your 'type' is, or as a way of sharing something about your views.

I guess, in terms of the question there Kirk and this part of what Jamie has said, I'm wondering if the "labelling culture" might be quite strongly linked to the fairly new "tech dating" trend? Pretty much the number one way for people to meet these days is through dating sites and apps... where people are sort of "selling themselves", trying to get across as much information as they can about themself in as small a space as possible, without their potential match getting bored and "swiping away" to the next person. So people feel like they need to be able to say "I am THIS, THIS and THIS, are you interested??" and the easiest way to do that, is to have everyone categorised... sort of... pre-packaged I guess? In a way that lets people know roughly what to expect from bare minimum interaction.

[Beso]

Couldnt pan be further broken down into what type of personality they go for..like liking a blokey bloke..or a girly girl..etc etc etc.

[Maru]

@Jamie98 I was about to call your aid, as you are usually so good with these topics.

Anyway, back to pan...

If it's so subtly nuanced, then it's no wonder it's not setting off a lightbulbs for me. The pan- prefix is misleading because it's an unexpected usage given the class of words it's being used alongside. So that doesn't help...

I have not heard about the attracted to personality definition before this thread, but maybe it was poorly explained before. And even then, I still can't say I understand it completely either...

To be 100% honest here, if I were dating and I'd read on an app that the person was pansexy/etc, I'd probably swipe to reject. By first impressions, it's thinking a bit too hard and taking oneself too seriously. Kind of like how things like 'gluten intolerance' crept into people's lexicon when those persons became members of certain subcultures...

But perhaps this is the intention... to signal to others within your common subculture that you. are. game. Bring me all your pansexual peni-... but for everyone else who can't wrap their little brains around my pansexiness, stay away... too "-normative", etc

Anyway, when I hear these nuanced terms I do sometimes think they're a bat signal to others within a subculture that they fit into the deep thinking definition, more sensitive in an otherworldly sense type of person, but it doesn't really imply any actual depth if that makes any sense. So, again, it would be a red flag for me, because it may imply a preoccupation with oneself. I've met those folk before when I was dating (a long time ago

Spoiler:

), and if I got it even slightly wrong one of those nuances, they were very unforgiving and took it very seriously my getting it correct the next time...

This isn't me trying to pan the pan-sexual crowd (pun unintended)... just that if I were dating, this would be a huge stressor for me, deciding which side of the pan-sexual crowd that person fits in... genuine or superficial and I'd secretly worry if they were a furry (because I've seen that). Which is a failure of a label really... because shouldn't such labels enlighten or at least raise our awareness a bit on what those distinctive differences might be. Pan- doesn't clear this up because again, where is the "all"? I would think maybe a very likely chance there would be an irresolvable compatibility issue if I can't see myself simply slip my feet into their shoes after meeting them for a bit the first time, if simple labels present such obvious questions ... anyway, I wouldn't use the term in my dating profile, even if I identified that way, just because it fails the basic function of helping the other person screen whether we are actually compatible or not... (edit: unless I intentionally want to restrict my dating pool... )

I don't think labels by themselves are harmful, they're meant to be assistive. Like anything in life though, they come with preexisting connections and messages that can't be completely divorced from culture or other words in that same category (just like particular colors, smells, environments, etc)... which is why I'm trying to figure out where does this term apply in the culture in which we all currently reside in? I think resolve that and then it's easier to absorb pansexy's interpretation and to understand it's core meaning... we use words as social tools to relate to each other... it's like in graphic design... don't use words, messaging or colors in such a way that they connect others (unintentionally or not) to negative outcomes ... the goal should be crystal clear.

Googling this term makes it even more confusing!!

Free Dictionary
https://www.thefreedictionary.com/pansexual

pan·sex·u·al (păn-sĕk′sho͞o-əl)
adj.
Relating to, having, or open to sexual activity of many kinds.

Wiki agrees with Dezzy it seems...

Wikipedia: Pansexuality
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pansexuality

Pansexuality, or omnisexuality,[1] is the sexual, romantic or emotional attraction towards people regardless of their sex or gender identity.[2][3] Pansexual people may refer to themselves as gender-blind, asserting that gender and sex are not determining factors in their romantic or sexual attraction to others.[4][5]

Pansexuality may be considered a sexual orientation in its own right or a branch of bisexuality, to indicate an alternative sexual identity.[3][6][7] Because pansexual people are open to relationships with people who do not identify as strictly men or women, and pansexuality therefore rejects the gender binary,[3][7] it is often considered a more inclusive term than bisexual.[8][9] To what extent the term bisexual is inclusive when compared with the term pansexual is debated within the LGBT community, especially the bisexual community.[9]

5 pansexual misconceptions that are just plain wrong
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/love...meaning-myths/

2. We only fancy people based on their personality

There's a word for that: demisexual (when you only ever experience attraction to others after getting to know them).

I fully believe that you can be a shallow-ass person when it comes to looks (I know I am!) and still be fiercely pansexual.

I find the whole demi-sexual thing fascinating though. I think because I've always been a bit of a prude until I trust that someone exclusively... there's guys I dated that I wouldn't even let touch my hand. The idea of doing more with them grossed me out (it was in high school...)... but my trust can come quickly depending on the person, and so I can start seeing them that way relatively quickly... I just always thought I had very solid emotional and sexual brakes But anyway, I think most women have these brakes to a degree... that's why the men are sometimes annoyed with us and evolution doesn't kick us in our butts.

[Redway]

What do you think about agender people Withano? Males who get vexed whenever someone assumes their gender just because they’ve got a dick.

[Northern Monkey]

So after reading most of this thread and being confused as feck i decided to take my research to that bastion of intellectualism - YouTube.

Unfortunately it seems that the scholars of all things gender and sexuality related are just as fecking confused as the rest of us as they don’t agree themselves on the definition.
Hardly a coherent definition or differentiation to be heard.

I think what i got from it if anything was that ‘Pansexual’ seems to be a term used by those people who don’t believe in the so called ‘gender binary’ of man and woman.The kind of people who believe in the 72 genders theory.
This is still confusing.

So since nobody actually knows what it is.I conclude that it’s actually a load of bollocks.

[kirklancaster]

Originally Posted by Northern Monkey

So after reading most of this thread and being confused as feck i decided to take my research to that bastion of intellectualism - YouTube.

Unfortunately it seems that the scholars of all things gender and sexuality related are just as fecking confused as the rest of us as they don’t agree themselves on the definition.
Hardly a coherent definition or differentiation to be heard.

I think what i got from it if anything was that ‘Pansexual’ seems to be a term used by those people who don’t believe in the so called ‘gender binary’ of man and woman.The kind of people who believe in the 72 genders theory.
This is still confusing.

So since nobody actually knows what it is.I conclude that it’s actually a load of bollocks.