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Bella Thorne: What is pansexual?

Bella Thorne
Bella Thorne says she is pansexual. What is pansexual? Pic credit: @ImageCollect/Admedia

When Actress Bella Thorne appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America on Monday to talk about her new book, titled Life of a Wannabe Mogul: Mental Disarray, she revealed that she only recently realized that she was pansexual rather than bisexual.

Thorne, who is currently dating the Italian singer Benjamin Mascolo, said she discovered she was pansexual and not bisexual after someone explained to her what it means to be pansexual.

She told ABC’s Juju Chang that being pansexual means that you just “like what you like” about others regardless of their gender.

Thorne, who announced on Twitter in 2016 that she was bisexual, was in an open relationship with YouTube star Tana Mongeau, while also dating rapper Mod Sun.

She split with Mongeau in February and also split with Mod Sun two months later in April. Thorne and Mongeau split on good terms and on Tana’s 21st birthday (June 24), Bella posted a photo showing the two cozying up to each other. She captioned the photo, “I love you Tana,” to which Tana responded, “I love u forever.”

When Tana announced her engagement to Jake Paul soon after, Bella responded on Instagram by posting a photo captioned “When your ex gets engaged.” She looked sad and tearful in the photo, but many fans thought that she was only joking that she was sad and crying because Tana was engaged to Jake Paul.

However, Thorne tweeted on July 17 that she and Mongeau were “no longer good” because Mongeau “broke girl code.”

“Tana and I are no longer good,” she tweeted. “She broke girl code I’m over it.”

It is believed that Thorne was reacting to news that Mongeau was spotted going out to dinner with Mod Sun.

Several people criticized Thorne for airing the issue on Twitter, saying she should have talked it over privately with Mongeau instead.

Thorne is not the first celeb to claim that they are pansexual. Others who have also recently identified as pansexual include Queer Eye’s Antoni Porowski, Brandon Urie, Miley Cyrus, and Janelle Monae.

What is pansesxual and how is it different from bisexual?

A person is said to be pansexual when they are able to feel sexual or romantic attraction towards people regardless of sex or gender.

Pansexuals are therefore sometimes described as gender blind as they often claim that gender of biological sex does not determine their feelings of sexual or romantic attraction for others.

Pansexuals can also feel attracted to people who are outside the gender binary (that is non-binary individuals), that is, people who do not conform to the binary model of gender self-identification.

However, the term bisexual is assumed to refer to people who only feel attracted to other people who conform to the gender binary, that is, people who identify either as male or female. This means that pansexuals have a more inclusive sexual orientation than bisexuals.

However, some have objected to the distinction, saying there is no reason to insist on a literal interpretation of the term “bisexual”  because the term emerged in the context of culture and society that assumed the gender binary. This means that people who identify as bisexual don’t necessarily intend to say that they are “fixated on gender.”

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