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Pan-

Pansexual Flag Jasper V.png

Pan refers to someone who is attracted to all genders. This does not necessarily mean that pan is "gender neutral" in terms of attraction, or that one who is pan has no preferences.

Etymology

The prefix "Pan-" means "all."

Definitions

  • Feeling attraction to all genders and/or regardless of gender. - pride-flags, 2016[1]
  • Attraction to all genders. - Ezgender Google Docs, 2021[2]

History

While Freud is often credited with the coining of pansexual[3], Freud did not coin this term himself. The first known uses of pan-sexualism and pan-sexual are found within J. Victor Haberman's (1914) critique of Freud.[4] Freud is seen using this term in his own book later on in 1949.[5] However, all of these references are too Freud's hypothesis that all human activity is motivated by a “sexual instinct".[6]

Then during the 1960's, the term pansexual was used in reference to animals with no preference for gender.[7] It is also seen in 1964 the use of pansexual to mean "gratification from oneself (the autosexual or masturbatory), from one’s own sex, and from those of the other" within The Lesbian in America by Donald Webster Cory.[8]

The usage of pansexual in the way we know it today started within the 1970's, with references of "pansexual attitudes" to mean not wanting to be "fence[d] in" by the typical American ideal of relationships.[9] Alice Cooper, who identities as straight, also said in 1974:

Well, I actually prefer the concept of pansexuality, rather than bisexuality. The prefix "pan" means that you're open to all kinds of sexual experiences, with all kinds of people. It means an end to restrictions, it means you could relate sexually to any human being, it means and end to unreal limits. I like that idea.[10]

A strong focus on the sexual behavior or promiscuity of a person stayed the defining feature of the meaning of pansexual throughout the 1970's and 1980's, with musicians and rock music often being described as "pansexual."[11][12][13] Similarly, there was the use of pansexual in a 1986 biography on the poet Colette, stating:

Colette (1873-1954) possessed pansexual appetites, failing to discriminate between male and female, old and young, just so long as the flesh moved her.[14]

Jp means jumpei coming out day 2021.jpg
An illustration by Jumpei Ueoka for Coming Out Day 2021, featuring the pansexual flag.
Entering the 1990's, the word pansexuality is defined in different ways such as "one whose sexual interests include people who are gender minorities, i.e. not male or female,"[15] and "not gay, not really straight either in its sensibility,"[16] as well as the continuing trend of describing a famous (typically androgynous) figure's appearance as pansexual and a rise in the word being used within the kink/S/M community for "pansexual play,"

Controversy

It is sometimes claimed that Bi orientations are exclusive of transgender and nonbinary people, and therefore Pan is more inclusive. However, this is ahistorical; Nonbinary people have always been included in bi communities.

It should be noted, however, that because not everyone saw bisexuality as fluid or more than two in the past, there were definitions of pansexuality that were specifically stated to include transgender people and imply that bisexuality did not:

Bisexuality identifies persons who are attracted to women and men, to varying degrees. Pansexuality ... represents the broader sense attraction to persons of diverse gender attributes. For example, a pansexual woman may be attracted at times to some biological women, to biological men, and to some transgender women ... - Jones & Hill, 2002[17]

Orientations

  • Pansexual, Being sexually attracted to all genders.
  • Panromantic, Being romantically attracted to all genders.
  • Panalterous, Experiencing alterous attraction to all genders.
  • Pansensual, Experiencing sensual attraction to all genders.

Sources

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