pan vs bi
^made by @kingof.therats on ig ^
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NOT HERE TO FORCE ANYONES OPINION TO CHANGE. THIS IS 100% FOR EDUCATION ON THE PANSEXUAL LABEL AND ITS HISTORY
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please read the 'about the creator' section for why im making this and some context of my beliefs.
about the creator
-im bisexual
-im a Battleaxe bi
-im a transguy (he/him only)
-im an exclusionist
-im a minor
-i used to id as pansexual about 3 years ago and have identified as bi since
!! im open to instagram dm debates,, just be civil !!
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feel free to share this carrd! no need for credit to me as my @ on the home page.
my opinions (for context)
-pan is bi erasure
-ace/aro are valid but not lgbt
-pronouns = gender
-enbys and men cant be lesbians
-full acronym is LGBT (LGBT+ at stretch)
-enbys are valid (and part of trans)
-anti neopronouns
-preferences arent sexuality
-anti microlabel
why make this???
as a bisexual i am sick of having my sexuality redefined and my history erased. it makes our community look like a joke with radical inclusivity and microlabels speaking over lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. keep in mind i have NO ill intent towards pansexuals but instead their label.
theres a LOT of misinformation on the internet so i wanted to compile all the facts into one place.
this is for the benefit of myself, other BaBs and pansexuals themselves looking for information.
!!updates as necessary!!
!!sources button on homepage!!
credit / sources
-battleaxe bi flag (background picture) from u/Aspennie on reddit
-massive credits to:
@pannieflops @confusion_course and @battleaxebiibaby on ig for some of the info! theyre all very well spoken and their posts really helped me word my points. photo credits from these creators are in the picture AND next to it.
-none of their resources are used in this carrd but ig user @elysian.lucas has an AMAZING highlight filled with literally hundreds of posts
-the bisexual manifesto. link to key quotes and history below. from the debunking page
-2002 pansexual redefinition link below from the pansexual origins page
-credits to tumblr user frieddiscourse for an excellent timeline on pansexual history
HOME BUTTON AT BOTTOM OF PAGE
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"pansexual is attraction to men, women and trans people!"
this isnt as common as it was a few years ago but i still see people say this so heres why this is super transphobic! im a transguy and that makes me a man. If someone is attracted to men (for example heterosexual women, gay men and bi people) they have a chance of being attracted to me, wether im trans or not. saying pan is seperate to bi because of attraction to trans people is just another way of saying im not a real man. it also invalidates every other sexuality by saying that they cant be that sexuality if theyre attracted to trans people.
"pansexuals include non binary people! bisexual is just men and women"
here i introduce you to the bisexual manifesto. a 1990 piece of text made to remove the stigma around bisexuality. it explained to both cishet people and the lgbt community what it meant to be bisexual. Here is a quote from it '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 simultaniously with both genders to be fufilled human beings. in fact, dont assume there are only two genders.' this does not mean EVERY bisexual has to be attracted to enbys. it means that bisexuality is the possibility to be attracted from everything in between men and women to just men and women to everything all at once.
"bi is 2 or more and pan is all!" and "bi means 2 pan means all!"
the prefix bi comes from latin meaning 2. in words like 'bicycle' and 'bilingual' these refer to 2 wheels and 2 languages. the prefix pan comes from greek meaning all. in 'panacea' it refers to an all-cure. people get hung up on prefixes too much. bi in bicycle means 2 wheels but adding stablisers (extra wheels) doesnt make it not a bike. bisexuality was coined when non binary identities were not widely recognised. the 1990-current day bisexual definition is fluid as stated in the bisexual manifesto. this predated the 2002 pansexual definition (see the origins tab on the home page).
"pan means gender isnt a factor in attraction" / "pansexual means genderblind" / "pan is like bi but without prefernce"
referring back to the manifesto mentioned above, this is ahistorical! the literal definition of bisexual is impossible to pin down as it is a fluid identity. bisexuals can have no preference. for some people bi is 50:50 with just men:women. for others it includes enbys with no preference for any gender. these (+more) have been the examples of bisexuality for over 3 DECADES.
"pansexuals are attracted to personality and not gender"
this is similar to the above but instead invalidates literally every sexuality. everyone is attracted to personality??? gender is a factor for gay men, lesbians and straight people because they are monosexual (attracted to only one gender) but thats like saying a gay man would date an awful guy just because hes a guy. bisexuals are not monosexual but as i stated above, bisexuality has always included every gender so there is no reason for pansexuality to exist.
"hearts not parts!"
hearts not parts causes all kind of problems. especially when you consider that it used to be a bi slogan. it was created to stop the stereotype that bisexuals are 'greedy' and 'sex obsessed' as the idea of being attracted to all genders caused non-bisexuals to believe it was to have a wider dating/sexual-pool. the phrase showed that bisexuality was about love too and not just about what was in peoples pants. it was also used to stop people from blaming bisexuals for the AIDs crisis. AIDs is more common in gay couples because most dont use contraception (as theres no risk of pregnancy). Bisexuals were blamed for 'spreading AIDs to staight people' so the slogan was used to show once again, that bisexuals werent obsessed with sex. pansexuals using this term is active bisexual erasure.
"youre invalidating pansexuals!" and "were not hurting anyone"
being invalidated by people on the internet giving facts, historical sources and solid arguements over why your label is harmful is your problem. try to consider that maybe what you first heard about pansexuality is wrong and that it hurts bisexuality. try listening to what we have to say instead of complaining about how were 'invalidating' you. why is pansexuals invalidation more important than bisexuals? the entire label is founded on misinformation and biphobia. why is my invalidation from that label less valid then someone who refuses to look at facts? i understand that the pannies themselves arent actively trying to erase us. but you are. and thats why we make carrds and instagram posts. all we want to do is spread information and history.
"im bisexual and i support pansexuality"
congrats!! youre allowed to have your own opinion. but that opinion erases your own history and redefines your own sexuality for you. why do you want your fellow bisexuals to sit quiet about our experiences of bi erasure because of pAnPhObiA (ill talk more about later). by supporting pansexuality, youre harming your own community. i understand that maybe you support pansexuals because you have pansexual friends, or know pansexual people that are really cool and fine with bisexuals. we are NOT here to invalidate people or their experiences with sexuality. trust me every single BaB knows how hard it is to question your own sexuality and then have it questioned by others. The difference when it comes to pansexuality (not pansexuals. again, the label NOT the people) is that it was founded in a disgusting way (seepansexual origins on the home page) and then redefined to be 'more inclusive' than bi.
"pansexual just makes me feel more comfortable"
thats internalised biphobia! what about beinf bisexual makes you so uncomfortable that you have to use another label that actively erases bisexuals and our history.internalised biphobia is HARD and as someone whos still struggles with it, its normal to feel like this. but supporting pansexuality and the continuation of talking over bi people and their experiences is not ok.
"discourse and gatekeeping is tearing the community apart" and "LGBT(and its qia+ varients) is about acceptance"
i hate to break it to radical inclusionists but.... gatekeeping is NEEDED. for every community, not just ours. white people arent part of the black community. thats gatekeeping. neurotypicals arent part of the autism community. thats gatekeeping. cishets and hell even zoophiles and necrophiles would be lgbt without gatekeeping. without gatekeeping those MAP freaks that claim to br lgbt would be a part of our community. for those unaware... MAPs are literal peadophiles. im sorry if me not agreeing with microlabels offend you but its because of them that ive had countess encounters of 'so what are you like stargender or something' 'i identify as an attack helicopter!' and 'youre such a snowflake. if you can change genders i can be a toaster' comments after i came out as trans. if not supporting a label that is founded on bisexual erasure makes me a gatekeeper and an exclusionist then so be it. Sometimes people forget that LGBT oppression goes far beyond getting called a pannie on the internet. Im not saying I know anything about yur experience with lgbt oppression but im telling you that MOGAI identities and microlabels arent helping our case. LGBT isnt meant to be some cute little club where anyone with a slight difference of attraction can join and make pretty flags. Its a community of marginalised identities. in my eyes, to be LGBT you have to have same gender attraction (LGB) and/or gender dysphoria (T).
"DROP THE B!" and "pansexual is just more inclusive"
this one just makes me angry. if anyone hasnt heard of #droptheb it was a social media trend on mainly instagram and twitter of people (completely unironically for people with the 'iTs jUsT a JoKE' mentality) where people shamed bisexuality and bisexuals for being 'enbyphobic' and praising pansexuals for not 'enforcing the binary'. bisexuality has ALWAYS included non-binary identities. wether you believe in genderfluid and genderq/eer and all that is irrelevent,,, bi will always and has always been gender inclusive. you get people saying we should be the 'LGPT' community because bi people are 'backwards thinking'. the image below is from the amazing @confusion_course on ig (see credits button on home page for more!) can you see why we are so angry? BaBs can come off as aggressive because we are sick of being told the same things after providing facts and historical backing.
origins of pansexuality
(MODERN PANSEXUALITY)
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these can be debunked as bisexual erasure in the debunking pan arguements tab but heres the 2002-recent history of pansexuality w/o my arguements
pansexualism was coined in 1917 as a psychological theory that stated "the sex instinct plays the primary part in all human activity, mental and physical" credited to Sigmund Freud. This was in relation to the theory of pansexualism being attraction to everything, including necrophilia, beastiality and paedophilia. i WONT be referring to this definition but i think its important for pansexuals to know their routes.
modern pansexuality was coined in 2002 as a 'more inclusive' of bisexual. heres an image from a 2002 blogpost (credits to ig user @confusion_course). in the souces button on the homepage theres a direct link to this blogpost.
as you can see, the OP poster says that 'pansexuals love people of all genders, male and female, but unline bisexuals, pansexuals love transgendered, androgynous and gendefluid people. people who dont fit into the categories of male or female'. ive already said in detail in the 'debunking pan arguements' section why this is super transphobic AND not historically accurate. as far as i can find this is the earliest that pansexual has been described as a 'more inclusive' or 'alternative' to bisexual.
(credits and link to timeline in the credits / sources section)
in 2010 the pansexual pride flag emerged on the web, with a pink stripe, blue stripe, and a yellow stripe in the middle to symbolize 'trans, intersex, agender, bigender, nonbinary etc gender identities.'
the pansexual flag does not credit one singular person.
the word pansexual has been one of google's top search terms since the Miley Cyrus called herself pansexual in an interview with Paper magazine in July of 2017.
"I am literally open to every single thing that is consenting and doesn't involve an animal and everyone is of age. Everything that's legal, I'm down with. Yo, I'm down with any adult -- anyone over the age of 18 who is down to love me. I don't relate to being boy or girl, and I don't have to have my partner relate to boy or girl."
what is a battleaxe bisexual?
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!!plus other vocab!!
-a battleaxe bisexual (or BaB) is a bisexual person who fights against bisexual erasure. many/almost all believe that pansexual is the same as bisexual and is a breeding ground for biphobia/bi erasure. However this isnt the only role for a BaB. We are against all kinds of biphobia/erasure such as; being told we are 'basically gay/straight' or 'straight passing' by both LGBT and cishet people.
BaBs are often against the other 'm-spec' identities and microlabels. these usually include; omnisexual, polysexual, abrosexual and pansexual
-an mspec identity is the belief that bisexuality does not cover all types of non-monosexual attraction. m-spec identities are often debunked by BaBs as bisexuality has always included all genders.
-monosexual attraction is attraction to only one gender. for example: lesbians are women who love women. gay men are men who love men and heterosexuals are either women who love men or men who love women exclusively.
-longsword lesbian is a term commonly found alongside BaBs. they are lesbians that fight against thesbians (non binary lesbians) and hesbians (he/him lesbians) because non binary people are not women and pronouns = gender. Lesbians are also commonly left out of pride posts so LsL fight against lesbian erasure! biggest solidarity to my LsL out there yall are epic
-below are terms that were created to help non binary people describe their monosexual attraction. nonbinary people cant use gay/lesbian because those are men/women only terms which invalidate their gender id. nb people also cant be labelled heterosexual because there is no 'opposite' gender to non binary as there is to men/women.
-feminanoric means nblw and is a term for enbys who exclusively like women
-viramoric means nblm and is a term for enbys who exclusively like men
-enbian is a term for nblnb and is a term for enbys who exclusively like enbys (im not so sure on how big this is in the nb community feel free to correct me via instagram dms)