hmm... interesting. i've never heard of pansexuals. i took a human sexuality course a few semesters back and i'm surprised this topic didn't come up. my professor had discussed intersexed relationships, which pansexuality somewhat relates to, however, pansexuality was never brought up. i'm going to have to do more research on this.
I first saw the word used on an adult video message board to describe the same European porn stars (mainly Hungarian) who have no qualms about appearing (and performing marvelously) in straight, gay, bi and transsexual features.
In certain segments of Central European and Brazilian populations, there is a real blurring of roles and an openness that extends way beyond the rigid, boundary-heavy paradigms of American and Western European sex performers.
It's also a decent enough label for straight men getting "pegged" (strap-on/dildo fucked by a woman) during a scene which otherwise includes the same couple having more "traditional" sex. Or guys JOing each other during an otherwise standard gang-bang flick.
Since porn is a kind of projection of the fantasies of the director/producer(s), it's an interesting new trend in representing what has always been part of human sexuality, unrestrained by conventional mores. I have the feeling that the ancient Romans, for instance, were widely Pansexual. And am I the only one who's read his
Sade? It is entirely Pansexual.
On the message board I mentioned earlier in the post, the term Pansexual(ity) was pretty controversial, it being neither fish nor fowl. The majority of members was male and American, Canadian, Australian or from the UK, and struck a lot of raw nerves. Anglo-Saxon notions of what constitutes gay, straight and/or bi tend to be much more rigid than in other places.
The actual product, which is one of my favorite categories of porn, ranges from almost excessively vanilla and romantic to as extreme as fetish porn ever gets. It's a tiny but growing segment of the market.
My sister, who is two years younger than me, was the most adventurous pansexual/polyamorous person I've ever met, at least in her younger years. Unrestrained totally by any conventional sense of labels or "appropriate" behavior, she would inevitably leave a gay nightclub with the most beautiful person there: male, female, transgendered or (occasionally) a couple. Boston in the early 80s had a very open scene until the advent of AIDS. Having dodged the bullet (many times), she retreated into a more standard lesbianism by 1984-85, where she's stayed ever since.
