UPDATE: Big Mouth co-creator Andrew Goldberg took to Twitter to respond to the controversy:
"We missed the mark here with this definition of bisexuality vs. pansexuality, and my fellow creators and I sincerely apologize for making people feel misrepresented," he wrote. "Any time we try to define something as complex as human sexuality, it's super challenging, and this time we could have done better. Thank you to the trans, pan, and bi communities for further opening our eyes to these important and complicated issues of representation. We are listening and we look forward to delving into all of this in future seasons."
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Netflix’s animated comedy for adults, Big Mouth, which follows the sexually charged lives of teens going through puberty, has proven again and again to be edgy and hilarious while refusing to punch down. But a clip from the show tweeted out by the streaming service's comedy account has some people claiming biphobia.
The clip, taken from episode eight of the recently released season three, features a new character voiced by comedian Ali Wong joining the class and immediately announcing that she’s pansexual. In doing so, she pans bisexuality as just being into boys or girls, claiming that pansexuality is more evolved because it means she’s into trans people and "everyone in between" male and female too.
While the actual remaining narrative of the episode confronts some issues with biphobia and features one of the main characters finally coming out to his friends as bi, the isolated clip, as well as the outdated notion that bisexuality centers around attraction to binary genders, were not sitting very well with people on Twitter.
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Other folks had a different view of the scene, largely claiming that it set the stage for biphobia to be explored further by the narrative of the show.
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Regardless of how anyone felt about the scene or the show itself, it seems to have opened up an educational dialogue in regards to how bisexuality isn't actually as limited or binary as some people like to think it is. Now if only that notion would actually stick with people...
