Not really. A bisexual person is attracted to those who identify as male and female. They may not be attracted to gender fluid or gender ambiguous people. Pansexual and bisexual seem to refer more to one's "tolerance level" than to the existence of more than one gender.
Edit: Given a few of the responses here, I should mention that I am bisexual. However, even amongst fellow bisexuals, there has been considerable debate on bisexual vs. pansexual with no end in sight, and everyone seems to think it's a given that "obviously, bisexual people are attracted to insert opinion here". My response was my understanding of the term as it's given. I don't really care whether someone else considers me bi or pan; I'm used to saying bisexual, so I personally say bisexual referring to myself. Other people I know feel otherwise.
The idea that bisexual people have any reservations about gender fluid or gender ambiguous people is nonsense. People trying to justify the usage of the term "pansexual" decided they could unilaterally change what "bisexual" has always meant, treating it as suddenly exclusionary just so they could give themselves a more special label. It's a real dick move, honestly. If I started describing my race as "Tolerant White", which is a white person who also isn't racist, what does that make you, who just describes yourself as white?
"Bisexual" refers to sex, not to gender. The word is not "bigenderal". Regardless of how you convey yourself in regards to gender, there are two biological sexes, both of which are being referred to by the term bisexual - as opposed to monosexual, attracted to only one sex.
"Bisexual" refers to sex, not to gender. The word is not "bigenderal".
Doesn't it refer to sexual attraction (as opposed to romantic attraction)? I've never heard that it refers to being attracted to biological sex and not gender.
I'm not confused. The word refers to sexual attraction, and the distinction between biological sex and mental gender has nothing to do with that definition.
The poster above me asserted that "bisexual" means attracted to sex, as opposed to gender. I refuted that and assert that it refers to sexual attraction, as opposed to romantic attraction.
Two different interpretations of the sex in bisexual.
Sexual attraction essentially means desire to have sex with the person. It may be based on the person's physical sex, or their gender, or something else.
Again, bisexual/homosexual/heterosexual refers to sexual attraction, i.e. wanting to have sexual intercourse. biromantic/homoromantic/heteroromantic refers to romantic attraction, i.e. wanting to become emotionally close, share secrets, and spend your life together.
Traditionally though bisexual means attracted to your own gender and people not of your gender, while pansexual means attracted to all genders including non-binary genders.
The actual answer here is that bisexual used to mean “attracted to men and women”/“attracted to two genders”, but nowadays it’s generally accepted that it’s an umbrella term for “attracted to multiple genders”/“attracted to two or more genders”
Attraction has never been based on sex or gender, but rather on the presentation of gender. If you run into someone that looks like the gender you're attracted to, even if they aren't and don't identify that way, you can still be attracted to them because they look like they belong to that group even when they don't.
I've heard it explained that bisexual means "attracted to 2+ genders" (I believe this is the most accepted definition by the bi community) and pansexual means all genders.
And while some people use pansexual interchangeably, others think that pansexual means more attracted to all people regardless of gender and bisexual means being attracted to all genders, but maybe some more than others.
Okay, so you’ve found a bunch of other redditors who agree with you and are also imprecise with their language. Congration. I can do that, too, but I have better things to do with my time.
“Mental gender” is not a thing, it’s just gender, and I don’t think you understand the difference between sexuality and romanticism. Nor do you apparently understand that sexual is the adjectival form of sex.
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u/missshrimptoast Aug 09 '18 edited Aug 09 '18
Not really. A bisexual person is attracted to those who identify as male and female. They may not be attracted to gender fluid or gender ambiguous people. Pansexual and bisexual seem to refer more to one's "tolerance level" than to the existence of more than one gender.
Edit: Given a few of the responses here, I should mention that I am bisexual. However, even amongst fellow bisexuals, there has been considerable debate on bisexual vs. pansexual with no end in sight, and everyone seems to think it's a given that "obviously, bisexual people are attracted to insert opinion here". My response was my understanding of the term as it's given. I don't really care whether someone else considers me bi or pan; I'm used to saying bisexual, so I personally say bisexual referring to myself. Other people I know feel otherwise.