Model Tess Holliday comes out as pansexual
Tess Holliday. (Astrid Stawiarz/Getty for Refinery29)
Plus-sized model and body-positivity activist Tess Holliday has revealed that she is pansexual.
In an interview with Nylon, Holliday—who has become famous across the world in recent years—spoke candidly about her sexuality.
Holliday said that she was in Mexico recently when a man at a bar asked her: “Are you bi?”
“I said, ‘Thank you so much for asking. I’ve been thinking a lot about my relationship to my own queerness, and I think the word pansexual speaks to me more than bi does.”
However, it turned out that Holliday misheard the question.
“He said, ‘Thank you for telling me about that, but actually, I said, Are you buying?”
Tess Holliday feels ‘a sense of relief’ since figuring out that she is pansexual
The 33-year-old model—who is also a published author—is married to a man, but said that “a lot of stuff” in her life makes sense now that she knows she is pansexual.
“I definitely have a sense of relief,” Holliday said. “I can connect with people on a more intimate level than I was before, because I don’t have to pretend to be someone I’m not.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about my relationship to my own queerness, and I think the word pansexual speaks to me more than bi does.”
When asked if she would be in a romantic relationship with a woman, Holliday said: “Yeah!”
She said she might not know “what to do” but would “figure it out.”
Who is pansexual model Tess Holliday?
Tess Holliday is one of the world’s most famous plus-sized models and body positivity activists. In January 2015, she was signed to Milk Model Management, becoming the first model of her size to be signed to a mainstream modelling agency.
She has appeared in a number of high-profile campaigns in recent years. Last year, she was famously featured on the front cover of Cosmopolitan magazine with the strapline: “A Supermodel Roars: Tess Holliday wants the haters to kiss her ass.”
The magazine cover was praised across the world, however Holliday faced some backlash from online trolls.
Responding at the time, Holliday wrote: “To everyone saying I’m a burden to the British health care system, I’m American so you don’t have to worry about my fat ass. Worry about what horrible people you are by whining about how me being on the cover of a glossy magazine impacts your small minded life.”
What is pansexuality?
Whereas bisexuals can be attracted to people of more than one gender, pansexuals are attracted to people regardless of their gender.
Drag performer Courtney Act—who identifies as pansexual—told PinkNews last year that pansexuality falls “under the umbrella of bisexuality.”
“It means that you are attracted to people regardless of their gender – or are attracted to many genders, depending on how you look at it,” Act said.
“I just like to think that I’m attracted to who I’m attracted to, and I’m not attracted to who I’m not attracted to.”
