• stringere@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    >The “pan” prefix on the other hand, means all, or including everything. Thus we can assume pansexual to (literally) mean a person who is sexually attracted to any and every gender that there is or could be.

    >The “pan” prefix on the other hand, means all, or including everything. Thus we can assume pansexual to (literally) mean a person who is can be sexually attracted to any and every gender that there is or could be.___

    Hetero, bi, and gay people are not attracted to any or every of their preferred gender. It’s a small difference in language but I think pansexuals would agree that phrasing it as “is sexually attracted to any and every gender” implies pansexuals are out there trying to bang anything with a pulse whereas the truth is just that gender or sexuality are not barriers to them. I guess it would be more accurate to say “pansexuals are sexually attracted to partners independent of sex and/or gender identity”?

    This is probably oversimplified, but maybe helpful:

    Straight - consider themselves sexually attracted to opposite gender/sex

    Gay - consider themselves sexually attacted to same gender/sex

    Bi - consider themselves sexually attracted to either gender/sex

    Pan - consider themselves sexually attracted

    • Stoneykins [any]@mander.xyz
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      1 year ago

      I agree that pansexuality doesn’t mean an attraction to every individual of every gender, yes. I should have been more direct in how I said this part, but when I say “a person who is sexually attracted to every gender that there is or could be” I am just trying to communicate what you said. I suppose I would personally see a distinction between “attraction to a gender” and “attraction to a person of said gender”, where the prior means overall sexual compatibility with that gender, and the latter means a literal instance of someone feeling attracted to someone else. But I can see how there isn’t any actual clear distinction between the two, I should say it different.