Taking Queen’s recommendation to coronary heart, we requested three younger individuals who establish as pansexual to share what being pansexual means to them.
Alexa: “If I dig your power, I dig you.”
“I’ve discovered that being pansexual is extraordinarily empowering as a lady. I do not really feel outlined by the ridiculous gender roles of our society,” says Alexa, a 25-year-old who found her pansexual identification post-college, when she first fell in love with one other lady. “I would not go up to now [as] to say I am gender-blind, however I work off power. If I dig your power, I dig you.”
Danielle: “I by no means wish to alienate anybody in my sexual expression.”
Danielle, a 28-year-old who got here from a conservative Caribbean tradition, found her pansexuality after first pondering she was bisexual. She took a course in queer research, and assessed her sexuality. “To me, pansexuality feels essentially the most natural option to exist on this world,” she explains. “It’s all about power and who you’re drawn to, and to close your self off since you are predisposed to pondering you’re not drawn to males or no matter, can prematurely shut you down from a connection that you simply would possibly have the ability to have. I are typically drawn to individuals who maintain a bit of masculine and a bit of female power.”
HB: “My sexual attraction shouldn’t be primarily based on gender task or gender expression.”
“I knew since I used to be a child that I favored each ladies and men. Joan Jett made me really feel humorous in the identical means as Bruce Springsteen,” says HB, a full-time pupil who identifies as pansexual. “I had recognized as bisexual for many of my life, however as an grownup, I heard the time period pansexual and I spotted it was a extra correct description of the way in which I felt. I would say one of the best definition can be that my sexual attraction shouldn’t be primarily based on gender task or gender expression. I’m drawn to women and men in addition to nonbinary individuals who do not establish as both. I’m drawn to sure persona varieties and bodily options, similar to anybody else.”
What are some misconceptions about pansexuality?
Private definitions on pansexuality differ, however the overarching theme is that gender doesn’t restrict attraction. This typically results in the misunderstanding that pan persons are hypersexual. Similar to not all straight ladies wish to hook up with each straight man they see, not all pan persons are attracted to each individual they see.
It’s a ridiculous assumption, however Alexa says some folks nonetheless have hassle taking her sexuality critically. “It definitely makes the courting pool extra like a courting lake,” she says. “However I’ve discovered that many hetero males and gay ladies have hassle seeing a long-term future with me and suppose I am simply ‘in a part.’”
HB agrees, saying the most important false impression about pansexuality is “that we are attempting to have intercourse with anybody and everybody. [Again], I’m drawn to sure persona varieties and bodily options, similar to anybody else.”
“It’s not like I’ve this loopy intercourse drive and I want extra folks to fulfill it, and that’s why I’m pansexual,” says Danielle. “It’s that I’m open to everybody and their wonderful power; however whether or not it meets up with mine is a completely completely different factor. It’s a tough factor for folks to wrap their heads round when they’re already carrying their very own bizarre insecurities and biases about how folks ought to establish.”