Further conversation on transexualism and gender identity.

[A Distant Star]

Lately there have been some posts regarding gender, gender identity and transfolk. Some wonderful things have been posted, and some really ignorant things have been posted. I was going to leave it at that, but I was cruising the Internet, as one does, and I happened across this little picture.

http://rcasa.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/1600-genderbread-person.jpg

Really, I think it lays out basic gender theory more concisely then any overly verbose post I could have made trying to explain it.

For those wondering: I am self identifying gender queer (With a slight leaning towards the masculine as my sex is male), sexually attracted to both genders, but with a romantic preference towards the feminine.

 

[Relish in Chaos]

Yeah, that's a pretty good layout of gender and sex stuff.

If we're going to be saying it, I'm a male man on the masculine and heterosexual ends of things.

 

[Professor Lupin Madblood]

As someone who knows very little about the subject, that does indeed seem pretty accurate. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Yeah, that's incredibly good. So I'm a somewhat masculine-androgynous male heterosexual man.

If only they could give a practical explanation of what "pansexual" is supposed to be. Because I've heard people explain it, but I've yet to hear anyone explain in practical terms how it differs from bisexuality.

They're also sexually attracted to satyrs?

*shrugs*

 

[Tufty94]

That picture doesn't really work very well for Sexual Orientation.

 

[Lieju]

So, I'm a genderqueer androgynous female homosexual?

Yeah, that's incredibly good. So I'm a somewhat masculine-androgynous male heterosexual man.

If only they could give a practical explanation of what "pansexual" is supposed to be. Because I've heard people explain it, but I've yet to hear anyone explain in practical terms how it differs from bisexuality.

The way I understand it, bisexual describes someone who is sexually attracted to both men and women, while for pansexual it's not important if the person is male or female.
These kinds of definitions can overlap. I know a woman who is attracted to gender-queer people, and she is in a relationship with a woman (who is not feminine or masculine).
She said 'heterosexual' describes her, because she is very feminine and sexual, but attracted to the opposite (whether physically male or female or something else)
She might be described as 'pansexual', but calling her 'bisexual' would be a bit odd, since she is attracted to one specific kind of person, no matter their physical sex.

Some people also think 'bisexual' implies there are only two kinds of people; men and women, when there are a lot of people who don't neatly fit into the gender-binary.

And from what I've heard, some people don't like the word 'bisexual', because it's assosiated with porn and threesomes.

 

[ShindoL Shill]

That seems fairly accurate, from what I've heard. Although, it doesn't include asexuals and the like.

If only they could give a practical explanation of what "pansexual" is supposed to be.

Sexual attraction regardless of sex, gender or expression.
It's really only a 'thing' if you're of the mindset that there are more than just 'men' and 'women'.

That picture doesn't really work very well for Sexual Orientation.

No, but sexual orientation is hard to define in that way. For example, where do asexuals come in? Plus, asexuality comes in its own little spectrum (for example, Demisexuals [http://www.asexuality.org/wiki/index.php?title=Demisexual]).
I suppose a better spectrum would be 'asexual', 'monosexual', 'pansexual'.
But that doesn't mention heterosexuality and homosexuality specifically.

 

[Darken12]

Yeah, that's incredibly good. So I'm a somewhat masculine-androgynous male heterosexual man.

If only they could give a practical explanation of what "pansexual" is supposed to be. Because I've heard people explain it, but I've yet to hear anyone explain in practical terms how it differs from bisexuality.

I'm fairly positive it means that they are attracted to people that might not fall into traditional gender rules of male and female, like people that are considered 'intersex.'

You also have different attractions based on gender identity and gender expression. Attraction isn't purely based on what set of genitals the other person has.

The way I understand it, apparently they reserve "bisexual" for those who like women with a feminine expression, and men with a masculine expression, but they wouldn't find genderqueer or androgynous people attractive. Which is kind of flawed, because I've met plenty of bisexuals who like themselves androgyny in their partners. Or who like "futanari" porn, which is basically a specific kind of intersex porn.

In theory, both terms are different, but in practice, there is a lot of overlap. Apparently bisexuals are just pickier pansexuals.

 

[an annoyed writer]

Seems generally accurate. Almost like it would be a set of sliders in a character creator for an RPG. Thanks for sharing.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Now I want some gingerbread. THIS IS A BAD THREAD FOR MAKING ME HUNGRY.