Anthony F. Bogaert

Anthony Bogaert is an associate professor at Brock University who has published papers on asexuality. Given the low levels of current scientific attention to asexuality as a human orientation, Bogaert's work is some of the most well-known and widely quoted in the popular media. He has also appeared on the Montal Williams show discussing asexuality. His other areas of study include pornography, high-risk sexual behaviour, sexual crimes, and the origins of sexual orientation.

Papers

Asexuality: prevalence and associated factors in a national probability sample

Journal of Sex Research, August, 2004

Toward a Conceptual Understanding of Asexuality

Review of General Psychology. 2006 Sep Vol 10(3) 241-250

Paper Summary

This paper addresses the issues of defining and understanding asexuality. It defines asexuality as a lack of sexual attraction. Asexuals are not necessarily nonlibidoist, celibate, aromantic, or even people who voluntarily identify themselves as "asexual". Asexuals are also not the same as people with strange or unusual orientations such as pedophilia; they do not direct their sexual desire towards any person or object.

Some disorders, such as hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), can sound similar to asexuality, but they are not the same thing. Many people with lifelong symptoms of HSDD may fit the definition of asexuality. However, some asexual people have sex drives and derive pleasure from them; they simply do not wish to include other people in their private biological activities. This does not fit the definition of HSDD. Most people with HSDD do not have it their entire lives, but develop it at some point after previously being sexual. Also, HSDD is a disorder, and as such it can only be diagnosed when it causes marked distress or interpersonal difficulty. Therefore, an asexual who is happy with their asexuality and gets along well with others does not have HSDD.

One reason that people might not see asexuality as a real orientation is because it involves the lack of desire. If an asexual person's sexual desire could be increased, they might turn out to have an underlying orientation of gay, straight, or bisexual. But some asexuals cannot increase their sexual desire through any known means. Others can increase their desire - or already posess desire - but do not direct it towards other people, preferring to satisfy themselves through masturbation. Also, even if an asexual could potentially have their desire increased and be made straight, gay, or bisexual, that doesn't mean that they already posess one of those orientations. Orientation should be defined in terms of attraction that actually exists, not attraction that might exist eventually with intervention.

Another reason to refer to asexuality as a real orientation is simply because of social trends. People at organizations like AVEN already refer to themselves as having a separate sexual orientation and identity. This kind of identification is an important kind of self-expression, and it's the policy of the American Psychological Association to use the terms for orientation that individuals prefer.

Is asexuality a disorder? There is no information right now on the mental health of asexual people, but other studies suggest that many people who don't have sex are quite happy. Even if asexual people had a higher rate than average of mental distress, this wouldn't make asexuality itself a disorder. It could be argued that sexual behaviour is an important social dimension and therefore asexuality causes "marked interpersonal difficulty", but this doesn't match normal diagnostic practices: sexual dysfunctions are only defined as problems when they have negative interpersonal effects beyond the realm of sex. For example, celibacy is not a disorder.

Asexuality could result from unusual prenatal events, but that doesn't make it a disorder: homosexuality has also been suspected to result from unusual prenatal events, and it's not a disorder. Also, until recently, the absence of sexuality wasn't viewed as a bad thing: instead, excessive or nonreproductive sexuality was condemned. Even today, some religions and cultures view the absence of sexuality as positive. So to call asexuality a disorder would not make a lot of historical or cultural sense. Finally, calling asexuality a disorder may stigmatize asexual people and cause mental health issues for them.