Rain
Comic 505 - And Emily Reveals...
Author Notes:
People have been demanding a character of this sort for a while. I'm certainly happy to accommodate too! Of course, this has been planned for a long time, but I needed the right time to bring it up and make it work. Not to mention, because there IS a lot of confusion as to what it actually means, I wanted to make sure I could explain it properly alongside the reveal (alongside the mention of a few common misconceptions).
I... hope I achieved all of this.
[EDIT] - Please stop sending me links or trying to teach me how wrong I am (or in the handful of extreme cases, accusing me of things I never said or outright attacking me; yes, that's happened). For every person telling me the description on the above page is wrong, there is another telling me it's right. I'm not saying that makes me right. I've been wrong before and I'll be wrong again. I've done research though and I know plenty of people who identify by these labels, and this was simply the answer I came to. That said, according to other commentary I've read, there is more than one possible definition which can vary depending on the individual, or where or when someone learned it. And according to another source, even professional sex educators and academic sexologists can't agree on the definitions.
However, given that accuracy and not offending people is very important to me, I'm going to get to the bottom of this. I will be continuing to research and will alter the page's dialogue in the future. Please be patient. It might not be immediate, as this is proving to be an extremely complex and sensitive subject. You don't need to remind me that it's wrong, because I'm already working on it.
Thank you for your patience and your cooperation.
©2004-2014
Rain, all characters and all other aspects of the story are copyright material belonging to me.
Rain looks... more than surprised.
Though it amuses me that people actually think that pansexuality refers to pans. I'd think it would be exclusive to parodies or fiction, but after telling someone about asexuality and getting the infamous "you mean like budding" line I wouldn't be surprised... -_-;
I have come across this before when a girl recently moved to my town. I walked up the group she was in and said, "Hey, guys." She then acted offended and told me she was a girl. Which was confusing to me because I knew she was a girl.
Kind of like how in Spanish a bunch of women are ellas, but a bunch of women and one man are ellos. One-drop rule for masculinity.
Except "you guys" will get used for all women, too.
Note I'm not saying it's unrealistic for Emily to be using it that way, it's not, as you say. But it is odd if you think about it.
I wasn't shipping Rain and Emily before, but after Rain's reaction...
PSSSSTT!!! RAIN
Now would be the time to come out to Emily seeing that she just opened up big time.
Also I believe pansexual is more commonly used nowadays, but unless it applies to people who are actually attracted to people of any gender I think it gets misused. If I'm wrong here let me know.
For example
A Cis-Female who has attractions towards other cis-females and trans-men but not towards cis-men,trans-woman,genderfluid,etc... can't be considered pansexual correct?
Sorry if I'm being annoying and nitpicky, just wanted to clear this up :P great comic though, and excellent revelation!!
Rain *needs* to come out to Emily now.
...so we can ship them harder.
Regarding the "Bi doesn't mean that" thing (Note: Not speaking as a Bi person, or with a large amount of experience with any Bi communities) -- I've usually seen Bi and Pan differentiated by Pansexuality is where gender doesn't factor into it at all, whereas Bisexuality is where gender doesn't limit it. So like, a Bisexual person would be in a different sort of relationship if they were with a woman than with a man, or an agender person, or a genderqueer person, etc.
But that's just one "what's the difference" that I think I've seen a lot (and I could definitely be biased because I think that's such a cool idea of distinguishing those), and I honestly have no idea what people really think of that in Bi or Pan communities.
Personally, as a math(s) person, I feel like sexual identities should just be described as the set of all relationships the person would be comfortable in.
... Whaddaya mean that would be impractical because it's not worth using at-least-sentence-long-and-theoretically-unbounded sexual identities just for accuracy's sake?!?..
Also, panel 5 is great.
Pan - attracted to men, women, and non-binary people
Trans men *are* men, and trans women *are* women, so both Bi and Pan people can be attracted to us. Including trans people in the Pan list implies that we aren't really men and women, since Bi people aren't attracted to us.
I am a trans woman, which means I am a woman. Straight men, gay women, bi people, and pan people can all be attracted to me.
That isn't what was said. I know trans men are men and trans women are women. I know bisexuals can and will date trans people (I never said they can't; just that pans can). I added transgender to the list of things Emily says to stress that she is open to any kind of potential relationship. I never ever said otherwise and no such implication is intended.
bisexual |bīˈsekSHo͞oəl|
adjective
sexually attracted to both men and women.
• Biology having characteristics of both sexes.
noun
a person who is sexually attracted to both men and women.
DERIVATIVES
bisexuality |ˌbīsekSHo͞oˈalitē| noun
pansexual |panˈsekSHo͞oəl|
adjective
not limited or inhibited in sexual choice with regard to gender or activity.
noun
a pansexual person.
DERIVATIVES
pansexuality |-ˌsekSHo͞oˈalitē| noun
us bisexual people didn't choose that word, and i won't be defined by what the dictionary says.
So bisexuality is a superset of pansexuality, but there are some people who are bisexual who wouldn't identify as pansexual.
I've also seen people describe pansexuality as 'unconcerned with gender', basically that gender doesn't factor into physical attraction. Not necessarily different from being bisexual, but more descriptive.
Further complpicated by the fact that a lot of people simplify their identity into more broad terms; I'm homoromantic, pansexual, transgender and genderqueer, but usually just call myself a queer lesbian, or even more simply, a queer woman.
However, I must object to the mental image they both developed. They should have been picturing a cake or pie pan, not a frying one. (Insert "hot" pun here.)
Please people keep in mind, that the characters opinion and what it says are as fictional as the character itself. Whatever it says or thinks is NOT nessesary the opinion of the author. And if Emily defines pansexuality the way she does, it doesn't mean that this is the one and only true definition. It is her (the fictional character) definition.
Think of the part where most of the students thought, that Rudy was "cured" from being gay. It is not the opinion of Jocelyn that gay people can be "cured" but some of the fictional charaters in the story said it. It is part of a good fictional work that characters are saying what they are beliving and not what the author is beliving.
Jocelyn does a great job because she brought up a theme which is now widely discussed and it is good to discus about definitions and labels and how we see ourselfs. But I think it is wrong to blame Jocelyn for being wrong with a definition a fictional character has given.
The way "bisexual" is defined here is typical to how I've seen it defined by people who identify as pansexual -- which is what Emily is. Perhaps Fara would have a different definition.
*hugs Emily*
I predict there will be much Raimily shipping soon, if there wasn't yet.
I'm not giving Joceyln and flak, I agree, don't jump down her throat. An attraction to all genders is the best basic way to put it. There's more to LGBT than the LGBT. I'm sorry, I know you said don't argue about it, and it's an old post. I jusy wanted to make a point not to jump on some one for (at least at this poimt) limited knowledge of what may be an obscure sexuality.
Also, yay! Representation!
And I think we can now officially ship Emily/Ky. Emilky? Emikylie?
The character page says Emily is straight. An oversight, or just avoiding spoilers?
Love the pan-love thought bubble, and Emily's reaction to their thoughts immediately after.
Bi = attraction to similar and different genders, or to multiple genders
Pan = attraction regardless of gender