Pansexuality: A Deeper Look into Sexual Identity

Theorists are still divided as to the question of nature vs. nurture when it comes to sexual orientation and gender identity. What is known is that socialization-social mores and the cultural rewards and punishments in place to maintain them-has a great deal to do with behavior among and between the sexes, and perhaps a good bit to do with an individual’s gender presentation (i.e., the way a person “performs” being male or female in the world).

According to Tannahill’s Sex and History, up through and beyond the 19th century, Americans ascribed certain behaviors to either males or females. Men were encouraged to suppress emotion, to behave assertively, and to be dominant in interactions with the opposite sex; they were expected to pursue women. Women, particularly white, middle-to-upper class women, were expected to behave demurely; to be especially coy and polite in the company of men; and to behave submissively in interactions with the other sex.

Everyone was assumed to be heterosexual and either a man or a woman. This was part and parcel of the paradigm referred to as the sexual binary.

Fast Forward, Post-Sexual Revolution

Long before the 1960s sexual revolution in America and elsewhere, there were people who did not easily fit into the prescribed roles for their sex-people with mannerisms generally attributed to the opposite sex, desiring to wear the clothing of the opposite sex, or people who lived secretly in the dress and roles of someone whose biological sex was considered to be opposite their own.

Today, we recognize that gender is an internal understanding of oneself, while sex is simply the biological features indicating what we think of as either male or female. A person whose self-perceived gender does not match their biological sex is understood to be transgender. Someone who is transgender and also seeks medical intervention in order to align their internal gender with their body is called transsexual.

A transsexual individual may not be able to complete sexual reassignment surgery (SRS) or hormone replacement, he/she may have medical or financial barriers inhibiting their aims, but is still understood to be transsexual. In other words, transsexuality is not beholden to body modification or medical intervention. It is a gender identity.

Some people may be born intersex, formerly referred to as hermaphrodite, although this term is considered offensive by most today. Intersex people are born with a congenital feature of the reproductive system (in the external genitals, internal reproductive organs, and/or chromosomal marker for gender) causing them to be considered “abnormal.”

Sex Does Not Determine Gender

There are many other gender identities, such as genderqueer, bi-gendered, non-gendered or polygendered. What’s important to understand is that sex does not determine one’s gender, as the fact of intersexuality should make abundantly clear. Parents whose babies are born intersex were historically forced by their doctors to make a choice on behalf of their children-one sex or the other-very often with confusing and/or unhappy outcomes for their children later in life.

So What, Then, Is Pansexuality?

Pansexuals, omnisexuals, or people of fluid sexual orientations are those individuals who can be attracted to individuals regardless of sex or gender, or who may be attracted to many or all sexual orientations or gender identities. People who identify as pansexual are not necessarily attracted to every sex or gender-they may have preferences, as with anyone else-and should not be thought of as being attracted to everyone. Often, a person who identifies as pansexual may explain that they are attracted to a person for reasons which have nothing to do with sex or gender, such as intelligence, talent, or kindness, and prefer to acknowledge these features in priority to gender or genitals.

How is Pansexuality Different than Bisexuality?

Historically, bisexuals are thought of as people who are capable of being attracted to either men or women. Pansexuals may consider this definition too beholden to the gender binary, which they find restrictive and excluding of transgendered, transsexual, or other gendered people whom they are capable of attracting romantic or sexual interest. However, some bisexual people think of their identity as meaning that they can be attracted to people of the same or other genders, which is not restrictive to the binary.

The etymology of the term pansexual comes from the Greek ‘pan’ for ‘all’ and ‘sexual’ referring to attraction. As old as these terms may be, pansexuality is still a fairly new concept in our culture. As a result, people who identify as pansexual may face the unfortunate impact of prejudice from the heterosexual mainstream as well as within the LGBTQ communities.

The field of psychiatry has only recently (within the last 40 years) begun to remove the label of perversion and mental illness around homosexuality, and has yet to completely do so with other areas that may be a part of the pansexual spectrum of love and attraction (e.g., transsexuality). Just as homophobia, transphobia, and biphobia create a harmful and measurable impact on the lives of people who identify as pan/fluid/omnisexual, these individuals and their loved ones often face actual discrimination due to ignorance about the reality of sex and gender differences, and the reality that the world no longer functions under a strict binary social code.

Pansexality, at first glance, may sound bizarre and even perverse, but the reality is that thousands of Americans identify this way and they live functional, seemingly average lives. They raise children and work typical jobs and are neighbors and family members. To paraphrase Jennifer Ann Drobrac, greater awareness of pansexuality, sexual orientations, gender identities, and all the types of human attraction and love, can only help to create a more enlightened and fair society.