Another upcoming shirt design coming soon! I'm still kinda humming and hawing about the specific wording, so the final version might read a little differently. But the general message will remain the same.
More will be announced soon, leading up to it's release later this week. In the meantime, there are other designs currently available at our store.
Cute; But Miley Cyrus finally made a statement worth quoting,"I am literally open to every single thing that is consenting and doesn't involve an animal and everyone is of age. Everything that's legal, I'm down with. Yo, I'm down with any adult -- anyone over the age of 18 who is down to love me. I don't relate to being boy or girl, and I don't have to have my partner relate to boy or girl." An actual definition of the term Pansexual that makes sense.
Random, I would have to politely disagree. Bisexuals in general don't necessarily care about which box someone fits in any more than a pansexual does. And it seems somewhat unnatural that someone who is bisexual would only be attracted to only those who firmly identify as a man or woman.
The two differences I've seen agreement on between the differences are fairly narrow. First is that pansexuality's definition is always explicit about all forms of gender expression. With bisexuality it is generally more implicit about being attracted to other gender identities.
The second major difference is that someone who is bisexual may not be attracted to all forms of gender identity. There isn't anything inherently good, bad, or virtuous about being attracted to all gender expressions or being attracted to some. It isn't something one chooses.
As far as what people choose to call themselves, one should respect it. It is a highly personal decision, especially when there are multiple identities that could describe how one feels. It certainly carries some meaning.
First off, I have a tendency to express myself poorly and/or ramble, so I generally try to avoid discussions like this to prevent further complicating matters.
Rereading what I wrote, the fact that I've known some very narrow minded bisexual people may have caused me to make some poor word choices in the heat of the moment. That is very unfortunate and I didn't mean to imply that bisexuality in general is a bad thing, nor that any orientation is good, bad or virtuous.
However, I never stated that any orientation is a choice and I agree that one should respect what a person chooses to call themselves. But from my perspective this conversation started with sesquipedalia mentioning they had been using the wrong term and T-Dog dismissing the distinction between the two terms, so I hope that your last thoughts were in general not specifically to me, otherwise I really did not get my point across at all.
There is one part of your comment that bugs me though, and that is your use of the term "unnatural". Maybe this is just my personal experience, but I've only heard that used as meaning "that's different from me so that's bad" which goes against what I believe in, and a lot of what you said.
Finally, to anyone reading but T-Dog in particular, if my comments have come across as being hostile and/or preachy, I apologise. That wasn't my intention, I tried to simplify a complicated issue and did a bad job of it. I'll be more careful in the future.
I've heard a couple different ways to describe bisexuality; As a sexual attraction to two or more gender identities (but not all), or as a sexual attraction to one's own gender identity and one or more others. I've also found people who use the second use the first to describe polysexuality.
I consider myself bi as far as the second description goes but as you both have pointed out, it's never so cut and dry as that for everyone.
Sesquipedilia, the non-gender binary definition I'm more familiar with is the "sexual attraction to two or more gender identities" without the "but not all". I think what we see as more subdivisions are made, that some of the labels have over lap. I prefer bi, but pan I'd also be alright with.
Random, that is cool. The part about respecting people's choice of identity was aimed in general and addressing T-Dog. Also, don't feel bad, apparently I worded a few things poorly myself.
Unnatural wasn't the best of word choices. What I meant is that it seems illogical to me personally that someone attracted to both masculinity and femininity would not find at least some parts of the continuum between the extremes attractive. Not that attractions like that have to make sense or be logical. (I'm sure there are people who feel that way.)
Also, I absolutely didn't mean to imply you said sexuality was a choice, but rather that things that are natural are by definition amoral (see naturalistic fallacy).
Also, I think it is more than a little sad that we still struggle with open mindedness through out the LGBT community. :-/ I guess we can only aim for a better understanding despite these inadequate words.
Ranthog, I suppose in that case it really is a matter of personal choice to identify as one or the other, mostly having to do with which one you feel fits better.
In all honesty, I prefer to think of it as the second simply because it makes sense to me. But you're right, in the end we should respect how each person identifies themselves.
I came out this summer and met with a super cool spectrum group. I met some other pan friends there as well and we shared some of the legitamentally asked questions to us, that are said seriously and are a bit annoying:
-"How do you KNOW you're pansexual, have ever done it with a boy/girl/transgender?"<<<<<<<----- my orientation is internal, I don't have to "test" it to know
-"how can you like all genders, there's only two?"<<<<<------gender is not binary
-"does that mean you like "like" animals? <<<<<<------ NOPE! That's not what it means
-"Are you attracted to pans? You know, like, frying pans?"<<<<<<<------- I still can't believe this one is a serious question. :/
As annoying as these questions are, I still answer them to the best of my ability so that they can understand my orientation a bit better.
The term pansexual implies a willingness to be with someone regardless of where they fall on the gender scale.
Which words are confusing you?
Someone who is bisexual may not be aware of that, or may even be actively against the idea of a person being greater than the sum of their parts.
Someone who is pansexual is aware of that, and cares about who the person is, not whether they fit into easily defined categories.
The two differences I've seen agreement on between the differences are fairly narrow. First is that pansexuality's definition is always explicit about all forms of gender expression. With bisexuality it is generally more implicit about being attracted to other gender identities.
The second major difference is that someone who is bisexual may not be attracted to all forms of gender identity. There isn't anything inherently good, bad, or virtuous about being attracted to all gender expressions or being attracted to some. It isn't something one chooses.
As far as what people choose to call themselves, one should respect it. It is a highly personal decision, especially when there are multiple identities that could describe how one feels. It certainly carries some meaning.
Rereading what I wrote, the fact that I've known some very narrow minded bisexual people may have caused me to make some poor word choices in the heat of the moment. That is very unfortunate and I didn't mean to imply that bisexuality in general is a bad thing, nor that any orientation is good, bad or virtuous.
However, I never stated that any orientation is a choice and I agree that one should respect what a person chooses to call themselves. But from my perspective this conversation started with sesquipedalia mentioning they had been using the wrong term and T-Dog dismissing the distinction between the two terms, so I hope that your last thoughts were in general not specifically to me, otherwise I really did not get my point across at all.
There is one part of your comment that bugs me though, and that is your use of the term "unnatural". Maybe this is just my personal experience, but I've only heard that used as meaning "that's different from me so that's bad" which goes against what I believe in, and a lot of what you said.
Finally, to anyone reading but T-Dog in particular, if my comments have come across as being hostile and/or preachy, I apologise. That wasn't my intention, I tried to simplify a complicated issue and did a bad job of it. I'll be more careful in the future.
I consider myself bi as far as the second description goes but as you both have pointed out, it's never so cut and dry as that for everyone.
Random, that is cool. The part about respecting people's choice of identity was aimed in general and addressing T-Dog. Also, don't feel bad, apparently I worded a few things poorly myself.
Unnatural wasn't the best of word choices. What I meant is that it seems illogical to me personally that someone attracted to both masculinity and femininity would not find at least some parts of the continuum between the extremes attractive. Not that attractions like that have to make sense or be logical. (I'm sure there are people who feel that way.)
Also, I absolutely didn't mean to imply you said sexuality was a choice, but rather that things that are natural are by definition amoral (see naturalistic fallacy).
Also, I think it is more than a little sad that we still struggle with open mindedness through out the LGBT community. :-/ I guess we can only aim for a better understanding despite these inadequate words.
In all honesty, I prefer to think of it as the second simply because it makes sense to me. But you're right, in the end we should respect how each person identifies themselves.
*sigh*
-Arietta
-"How do you KNOW you're pansexual, have ever done it with a boy/girl/transgender?"<<<<<<<----- my orientation is internal, I don't have to "test" it to know
-"how can you like all genders, there's only two?"<<<<<------gender is not binary
-"does that mean you like "like" animals? <<<<<<------ NOPE! That's not what it means
-"Are you attracted to pans? You know, like, frying pans?"<<<<<<<------- I still can't believe this one is a serious question. :/
As annoying as these questions are, I still answer them to the best of my ability so that they can understand my orientation a bit better.