“Bi Panic” Definition
“Bi panic” refers to intense bisexual attraction. For instance, when you go to a party and everyone’s all dolled up and looking their best, you might feel overwhelmed by how many hotties there are in one place. Bi panic may also refer to intense attraction towards one specific person: Someone who believes they’re 100% straight or gay but who “catches bi feelings” may be said to have bi panic as they reevaluate their sexual orientation. A bisexual person who experiences extreme attraction towards their crush may be flustered and overcome with bi panic.
How to Use “Bi Panic” in Everyday Conversation
Use it as a hashtag on social media. #bipanic is a popular way to succinctly indicate you’re feeling some type of way about your sexuality without explicitly saying so—whether you’re questioning it or just feeling overwhelmed by how attracted everyone is! What a world of hotties we live in, huh? Caption a post about your experience with #bipanic: “looking at photos from the met gala & screaming crying throwing up #bipanic”
Use it when you’re paralyzed in the face of someone you’re into. When you run into that special someone (typically someone of your gender) and are overwhelmed with butterflies to the point you can’t speak to them, that’s bi panic, baybee. “I bumped into Sayid the other day and oh, man, did bi panic get the best of me! My tongue was totally twisted. I just nodded and ran away!”
Use it to describe how attractive a group of people are. When you’re bisexual, no gender is "off limits"—and when you’re in attendance at an event full of babes, it can feel a little overwhelming. “There were so many hot people at that party last night, I was overcome with bi panic!” “Bi panic” is also commonly used to describe fictional characters, as in this popular meme about Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Use it to describe uncertainty over your own sexual orientation. If you’ve ever been pretty sure you were 100% straight or 100% gay only to catch feelings for a total hottie of a gender you don’t typically go for, we’d call that bi panic. “I thought I only liked guys, but I had to kiss Margo during spin the bottle last night, and I felt something I never felt before. I’m dealing with some serious bi panic now!”
“Bi Panic” Origins
“Bi panic” originated on tumblr in 2015. tumblr user tratserenoyreve created a comic about bi panic in Harry Potter. The post garnered over 20,000 within the span of 8 years. The term grew in popularity over the years, especially in fanart and memes on social media, such as the Brooklyn Nine-Nine meme mentioned above. “Bi panic” was added to Urban Dictionary in 2021, defined as follows: “When a bisexual person sees both a man and a woman that they are attracted to in one sitting—perhaps in a film—they go into ‘bi panic.’”
Alternative Meanings
“Bi panic” may refer to the panic non-bi people feel around bi people. There’s a lot of stigma around bisexuality, and some people use “bi panic” to describe the confusion and discomfort non-bi people might experience around bi people, mostly due to a stereotypical understanding of bisexuality. Bi people experience stigma from gay and straight people alike. There’s an assumption that bisexuality is just a phase, and that the bi person will eventually “commit” to either homosexuality or heterosexuality. Bisexual people are also sometimes stigmatized as overly sexually promiscuous, flirtatious, or fickle; using “bi panic” in the sense of being overwhelmed at one’s attraction to multiple genders may be viewed as a tongue-in-cheek way to deal with this biphobic assumption.
Related Terms
Straight panic "Straight panic" may refer to the discomfort a heterosexual man or woman might feel around LGBTQ people, possibly because of insecurity related to their own sexuality. The discomfort may be caused by uncertainty regarding their own sexuality, or fear surrounding non-straight sexualities. The term may also be used to describe the anxiety a gay or bisexual person might feel when they realize they are attracted to someone of the opposite gender.
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