Historian's Take

- I am pansexual.

- Technically I would say that I am pansexual.

- And I'm a pansexual demi-romantic illusionist.

- [Computer Voice] Pansexuality.

We're seeing this identity more and more in film and TV, but what does pansexuality mean?

- Pansexuality, as opposed to other forms of monosexuality or bisexuality, really is saying that people can have sexual attractions or sexual and romantic attractions to people regardless of gender identity.

- I like the wine and not the label.

- It's not about you being a woman or a man.

It's about your spirit.

- [Computer Voice] Let's get a Historian's Take on pansexuality and the history of queer representation in media, from fiction to reality.

- Up until last night, I was under the impression that you too only drank red wine, but I guess I was wrong.

- One of the first notable pansexual characters on scripted TV was David on Schitt's Creek.

- I do drink red wine, but I also drink white wine, and I've been known to sample the occasional rose.

- I was taken aback because it was the first time I could actively remember seeing someone who was at least insinuating or implying that they were pansexual, even if they didn't say the word.

- And a couple summers back, I tried a Merlot that used to be a Chardonnay.

- Oh, okay, yeah.

- Which got a bit complicated.

So you're just really open to all wines.

- I thought that was a very succinct way of understanding pansexuality.

- He's really interested in the person and the connection more so than he's interested in sex and gender.

- [Computer Voice] So is pansexuality a new term?

- Pan sexuality has a century long history, that starts in the early 19 hundreds when Freud in a very pathologizing way, understood pansexuality as someone who enjoys an array of sexual experiences.

So it was really more like a kind of fetish or sexual desire way of defining yourself.

The term was popularized in the eighties.

We understood pansexuality, as something that was a more gender based definition that it is today, which is that I'm attracted to all genders or I'm attracted to people agnostic of their gender.

I would consider queerness as an umbrella term within which pansexuality, bisexuality, sexual fluidity, all these different kind of identities can fit into.

So when we reintroduce something like pansexuality it's all of a sudden in conversation with all of these similar identities.

- [Computer Voice] Hmm, so when did we start seeing more queer identities in film and TV?

- From the early nineties and sort of mid-nineties we start to see sort of a shift in queer representation.

- Why do I have to be so ashamed?

I mean, why can't I just say the truth?

I mean, be who I am, I'm 35 years old.

- Ellen DeGeneres coming out on her series was nothing short of a revolution.

- Susan, I'm gay.

- Ellen was really that blueprint for a queer character coming out, being the lead, being able to still be funny and make jokes about herself and about the community that invited you to laugh with her, but not at her.

- It's not, I don't not want a relationship.

What do you think, I'm a freak?

- We see really landmark shows like Will and Grace, which again are landmark moments in queer representation, but only represent one kind of representation.

- Oops.

I did it again.

I played with your heart.

Got lost in the game.

Oh baby baby.

Yes it's totally it!

- It is a step forward, and it is positive representation of the queer community, but it's a pretty narrow representation of the community.

It didn't remind me of myself.

- [Computer Voice] Hmm, what were some shows that did remind you of yourself?

- Rickie, on My So-Called Life, was a really interesting character to me at a very particular age.

- Like seeing a comet, or just feeling like you're seeing one, seeing the other person's perfectness.

- Seeing someone who looked like me, who was a queer person of color, that was experiencing the same thoughts and feelings that I did made me feel hopeful and made me feel seen in a way that is really hard to explain to someone who maybe doesn't come from a marginalized community.

- The first time I saw myself on screen, it had to have been HIM from Powerpuff Girls.

There is this villain that is extremely gender nonconforming.

- [Announcer] The only safe way to refer to this king of darkness is simply, HIM.

- And yet the character has a little tutu and has a lot of like, kind of fem features, but also has this twisted little beard.

HIM gave me permission to see all the different facets of my gender and all the different facets of my presentation.

- The first big bi character that I remember that impacted me was Callie on Grey's Anatomy.

- She's a colleague and because she's an attending and because she's a she.

- She was the first time that we really saw a bi character who had nuance.

- There's been kissing, but no touching.

And what if I'm not into it?

What, what if, what if I'm horrible?

At all that stuff.

- In the same way when I saw Rickie, I thought, oh, I recognize something here.

I think it's important for young people to have that same moment.

- [Computer Voice] So when did representation become more inclusive?

- It wasn't really until later in the 90s and into the 2000s that we started to see more stories about bi people, about trans people, and about LGBTQ people who were also people of color.

One of the big moments I think was the introduction of Glee, in 2009.

We were seeing characters who were LGBTQ, but that were also teenagers.

- I'm gay.

- I know.

- Really?

- I've known since you were three.

- I know that was something for me, particularly being from a small Midwest town, Glee was exactly what I related to.

- If that's who you are, there's nothing I can do about it.

And I love you just as much.

- There is a kind of crucial moment now where we're seeing lots of pushback against queer communities and LGBTQ+ communities, in the form of really restrictive legislation, that's been passing through various states.

- [Announcer] The bill prohibits classroom instruction about sexuality or things like transgender in K-3 classrooms.

- [Danielle} There are rising numbers of young People who identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Now we're seeing sort of a boom in pansexual or bi plus characters in film and television.

- [Computer Voice] The rise in younger queer communities was what made this moment in TV so revolutionary.

- I am pansexual.

- Holy (bleep).

- Big Mouth is a really interesting example that introduced a pansexual character, Ali, who's voiced by Ali Wong.

And she comes out sort of famously as pansexual.

- When this character came out as pan, there was some kind of clarification around the difference between pansexuality and bisexuality, which a lot of people disagree about.

- Pansexual means I'm into boys, girls and everyone in between.

- I thought that was bisexual.

- No, bisexuality is so binary.

- The main element of the backlash was that there was a definition of bisexuality that basically said I'm attracted to two genders.

- Okay, it's like, some of you borings like tacos and some of you like burritos.

And if you're bisexual, you like tacos and burritos.

- Within that definition, it was not very trans-inclusive, for lack of a better way of putting it.

Bisexuality and pansexuality are not always diametric opposites.

And I find that most people that I know that are bi, might also identify as pan.

And I have friends that identify as pan, that might also identify as bi.

That might not be true for everyone, but there is clear overlap.

- I'm saying I like tacos and burritos and I could be into a taco that was born a burrito, sure okay, or a burrito that's transitioning into a taco, comprende?

- What makes Ali's character so special is that she is unapologetically herself.

You know, so this is who I am and I don't care what any of y'all think.

And that is just not how we're used to seeing queer and trans characters portrayed.

- [Computer Voice] Outside of fiction, where else did we see and pansexual identity?

- Unscripted series were often ahead of where scripted series were, because those series allowed LGBTQ people to talk in our own words, share our own experiences.

So you had really amazing kind of groundbreaking moments in reality TV.

- Norman didn't really come out and say, you know, I'm bisexual.

How do you feel about that?

You know, it just sort of surfaced and no one's had any reaction to it at all.

It's just great getting to be around him.

- Well, I will tell you, you're not the only gay guy out here.

- You?

- Shh, I'm playing a game, yeah.

- One of the biggest touch points is season eight of Are You The One?

on MTV, which is a reality dating series.

That season was focused on having cast members who all identified as bi, pan, queer or fluid.

- The eighth season of Are You The One?, it was a season of television that made leaps and bounds for people that identify as sexually fluid.

- It showed us characters who were messy and flawed in the same way that any other season of a reality dating show is, and it wasn't because of their identity.

- And we all love you and we support you.

And we believe that you can change and you can change your relationships with people in this house.

- That is kind of the power of reality TV when it comes to letting us own our narratives.

- It's important to think about representation, not only in the fictional realm of film and television, but also in terms of in real life, who is being represented in the community, who's coming forward, and who's putting a face to this identity?

- The future of queer and trans representation is multiplicity of perspective.

It is as many of these stories that we can see as possible.

- TV and film and celebrities, yes, it can feel sometimes fluffy or frivolous, but we know it has incredible importance and power to impact people.

- [Computer Voice] Thanks for watching Historian's Take.

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