In this work, we will attempt to educate and inform on all the different concepts of sexual identity in a fun and engaging way by exploring the types of sexual orientations and their impact on people's lives through explanatory and fictional media.
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**In celebration of Pansexual Pride Day 2016, we thought we'd bring you a post filled with definitions, explanations and bad puns regarding this somewhat misunderstood orientation**
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What is Pansexuality?
Pansexuality - also known as omnisexuality - is the sexual attraction, or the capability of feeling sexual attraction towards people irrespective of their biological sex or gender identity. The word stems from the Greek prefix 'pan', meaning 'all'. Pansexuals may see themselves as gender-blind, highlighting the fact that gender and sex are insignificant or irrelevant for them to determine whether they will be sexually attracted to someone or not - thus, a pansexual could be attracted to men, women, androgynous, transgender, genderfluid, genderqueer, agendered or intersex individuals.
Misunderstandings of the orientation:
However, it is important to point out that they may not be attracted to all these people. Just as a heterosexual women is not attracted to all men, pansexuals may also have certain preferences, be they physical or otherwise. I think this is where the vast bulk of misunderstanding comes from regarding this orientation - pansexuality is not merely 'attraction to everyone', but more an identity label used to express the openness and fluidity of the orientation; an open rejection of the gender binary, with pansexuals 'coming out of the kitchen instead of the closet.' {Scoring a reasonable eight on the pan-o-meter there. Sorry, sorry. I'll stop. Best get back to discussing punsexuality}
*brief pause whilst I run away screaming from all the objects being thrown in my direction. I mean, I did warn you that the puns would be bad, you don't have to throw all your pans at me...*
Furthermore, it has been noted that people tend to confuse or interchange 'pansexual' with 'polysexual'. Now, these are two different terms - whilst 'pan' means all, 'poly' means many and although there are some similar overlaps, what this essentially means is that a polysexual may be attracted to some genderqueer/non-binary individuals, but do not have the desire to be with others. As we have noted, pansexuals do - although this desire is not felt for everyone simultaneously, the ability to form it remains there.
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