Difference between revisions of "Asexuality"

Latest revision as of 20:20, 3 May 2023

An asexual is someone who does not experience sexual attraction and/or desire or only experiences sexual attraction and/or desire in a limited way. Unlike celibacy, which people choose, asexuality is an intrinsic part of who someone is. There is considerable diversity among the asexual community; each asexual person experiences things like relationships, attraction, and arousal somewhat differently. Asexuality does not make anyone's life any worse or any better, they just face a different set of challenges than most sexual people. Asexuality is distinct from celibacy or sexual abstinence, which are behaviors, while asexuality is generally considered to be a sexual orientation. Some asexuals do participate in sex, for a variety of reasons. Some asexual people may also identify with other sexual orientatons such as heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, etc. as well as romantic orientations such as heteroromantic, homoromantic, biromantic, etc. or various LGBT labels.

Identity

Most people on AVEN have been asexual for their entire lives. Just as people will rarely and unexpectedly go from being straight to gay, asexual people will rarely and unexpectedly become sexual or vice versa. Another small minority will think of themselves as asexual for a brief period of time while exploring and questioning their own sexuality.

There is no litmus test to determine if someone is asexual. Asexuality is like any other identity; at its core, it’s just a word that people use to help figure themselves out. If at any point someone finds the word asexual useful to describe themselves, they are generally encouraged to use it for as long as it makes sense to do so.

Although asexuality shares a common set of values, it is expressed differently by each individual. Within the AVEN forum, asexual people use language to distinguish their varying opinions concerning sexual expression and romantic relationships.

Relationships

Full article: relationships

Asexual people have the same emotional needs as anyone else, and like in the sexual community asexuals do vary widely in how they fulfill those needs. Some asexual people are happier on their own, others are happiest with a group of close friends. Other asexual people have a desire to form more intimate romantic relationships, and will date and seek long-term partnerships. Asexual people are just as likely to date sexual people as they are to date each other.

Sexual or nonsexual, all relationships are made up of the same basic things; communication, closeness, fun, humor, excitement and trust all happen just as much in sexual relationships as in nonsexual ones. Unlike sexual people, asexual people are given few expectations about the way that their intimate relationships will work. Figuring out how to flirt, to be intimate, or to be monogamous in a nonsexual relationships can be challenging, but free of sexual expectations they can form relationships in ways that are grounded in their individual needs and desires. Asexuals may also get many similar relationship problems to sexuals.

Asexual spectrum

Asexuality isn't black and white, but exists on a spectrum between fully asexual and Sexual or allosexual at the ends. The space in between is usually refered to as Gray-asexual which also encompasses Demisexual and many more.Every asexual person thinks diffrent about sexual intimacy. Some consider themselfes antisexual while others are rather sex-positive Subidenties on the asexual specturm include:

• Demisexual - someone who does not experience sexual attraction until developing a close emotional bond with the person. This is the opposite of Fraysexual.
• Apothisexual - someone who is uncomfortable participating in sex.
• Accipiosexual - someone who is uncomfortable having sexual actions performed on them but does not feel comfortable peforming sexual acts onto others. This is the opposite of Placiosexual.
• Placiosexual - someone who is comfortable performing sexual actions onto others but does not feel comfortable having sexual acts performed onto them. This is the opposite of Accipiosexual.
• Apressexual - someone who does not experience sexual attraction until experiencing another form of attraction for the person.
• Aceflux - someone who's asexuality flucuates.
• Lithosexual - someone who experiences sexual attraction but does not feel comfortable with it being reciprocated by another. This is the opposite of Reciprosexual.
• Fraysexual - someone who experiences sexual attraction towards those that they do not have a close emotional bond with and loses their sexual attraction the more they get to know the person. This is the opposite of Demisexual.
• Caedsexual - someone who once was allosexual but is currently asexual due to trauma.
• Acespike - soemone who typically does not feel sexual attraction but occasionally does in sudden spikes.
• Gray-asexual - someone who experiences sexual attraction infrequently.
• Desinosexual - someone who does not experience "full-on" sexual attraction.
• Belussexual - someone who does not experience sexual attraction or desire but has an interest in particular sexual actions and/or components of a sexual relationship.
• Orchidsexual - someone who experiences sexual attraction but does not desire a sexual relationship. This is the opposite of Cupiosexual.
• Idemsexual - someone who does not know if they experience sexual attraction or platonic attraction.
• Quoisexual - someone who does not relate or understand the experience of sexual attraction or is unsure what their sexuality and/or experiences are.
• Cupiosexual - someone who does not experience sexual attraction but desires a sexual relationship. This is the opposite of Orchidsexual.
• Aegosexual - someone who experiences sexual arousal to sexual content but does not usually desire to engage in sexual behavior.
• Myrsexual - someone who has multiple asexual sexualites.
• Reciprosexual - someone who does not experience sexual attraction until made aware that someone is sexually attracted to them first.

Attraction

Full article: attraction

There are many forms of attraction which asexuals feel, with Romantic attraction being the most common. Asexuals can desire close relationships and bonds of may types and forms.

Romantic attraction

A person can have a Romantic orientation which differs from Sexual orientation. Romantic orientations can be:

• Aromantic
• Heteroromantic
• Homoromantic
• Biromantic
• Panromantic

Sexual attraction

Not every asexual experiences absolutely none sexual Sexual attraction. Some can still experience Sexual attraction, but usually not as fequently or intense Sexuals. Those are usaually reffered to as Gray-asexual.

Platonic attraction

Platonic attraction is the foundation of friendships.

Arousal

For some sexual arousal is a fairly regular occurrence, though it is not associated with a desire to find a sexual partner or partners. Some asexuals will occasionally masturbate, but feel no desire for partnered sexuality. Other asexual people experience little or no arousal. Asexual people generally do not see a lack of sexual arousal as a problem to be corrected, and focus their energy on enjoying other types of arousal and pleasure.^[1]

Note: People do not need sexual arousal to be healthy, but in a minority of cases a lack of arousal can be the symptom of a more serious medical condition. If you do not experience sexual arousal or if you suddenly lose interest in sex you should probably see a doctor just to be safe.

Scientific research

Full article: research relating to asexuality

Although researchers in human sexuality have known about the existence of asexuality since at least the late 1940s, little research has been done. Most of what has been done has been recent, and there is increasing interest in the subject.

Proposed Models and Definitions

Being such a new and unexplored concept, the definition and categorization of asexuality has been the subject of much debate, not least among asexuals themselves. It is often conceived of as one of four or more orientations (homosexual, heterosexual, bisexual/pansexual, asexual), but is also spoken of as one of two (sexual and asexual) with gender preference being measured along a different axis.

In addition, a number of other definitions and more complex models have been proposed:

• Collective identity model
• Dual Definitional Model
• Nonlibidoism
• "Not interested" model

Asexuality and Religion

Views on Asexuality in the History of Religious Philosophy

In philosophy, there is a long tradition of interpreting the desire for sex as a moral vice that should be eradicated. Gautama Buddha had already posed this question. He proclaimed: “So long as the least desire of a man for women has not been eradicated, he is fettered in mind, like a sucking calf to its mother” (The Dhammapada #284). Then Plato in his Symposium propounds a myth that in primal times people were androgynous. The androgyne human being falls apart, separates from himself the natural female element, and falls slave to the power of feminine nature. Sex becomes the source, in the world, of tormenting, insatiable thirst for union. All man’s sexual life is only a tormenting and intense seeking for his lost androgynism, for the union of man and woman in one integral being. The feminine element became inwardly alien to man and hence outwardly it became compulsory. Man attempts to restore his androgynous image through sexual attraction towards the lost feminine nature.

Following in the footsteps of Plato, many philosophers (Jakob Böhme, Vladimir Solovyov, and others) elaborated the concept of androgyny. For example, Franz Xaver von Baader wrote:

The Androgyne is the harmonious fusion of the sexes, resulting in a certain asexuality, a synthesis which creates an entirely new being, and which does not merely juxtapose the two sexes 'in an enflamed opposition' as the hermaphrodite does.

Baader says that Man was originally an androgynous being. In truth neither man nor woman is the image and likeness of God but only the androgyne. Both sexes are equally fallen from the original divinity of the androgyne. Androgynism is man's likeness to God, his supernatural upsurge. Hence it follows that sexes must cease and vanish. From these positions Baader interpreted the sacrament of marriage as a symbolic restitution of angelic bisexuality: “The secret and the sacrament of true love in the indissoluble bond of the two lovers, consists in each helping the other, each in himself, towards the restoration of the androgyne, the pure and whole humanity.” According to Baader, Christ's sacrifice will make possible a restoration of the primal androgyny.

Baader’s views were developed by Berdyaev who believed that the differentiation into male and female was a result of the cosmic fall of Adam.^[2] The female element fell away in the fall of man and became the object of an evil and false tendency, the source of enslavement.^[3] The root of man’s fall was connected with sex, and man’s sinful life, fettered in sexual drive, was preceded by the fall of the androgyne, the separation into male and female, the disfigurement of the image and likeness of God.^[4] From that angle Berdyaev examines the concept of sexual perversions in medicine.

The naturalism of sex, its “natural” norms, are now shaken… Never before have there been such widespread deviations from the “natural”, birthgiving sex… The “natural” boundaries between female and male are blurred and confused.^[5]

The concept of sexual perversions is being subject to refinement.^[6] And yet “it has never been finally recognized that the religion of Christ obliges us to recognize the 'natural' sex life as abnormal, the 'natural' sexual act as perversion.”^[7] Stressing in every way possible the Christian condemnation of sexual drive, Berdyaev criticises those workers who limit sexual disorders to some patterns of sexual behaviour (e.g., homosexuality, fetishism, etc.) and do not put the question whether the sexual act itself is anomaly.^[8] According to Berdyaev, mankind is to overcome sexual drive.

Similar views on the nature of the sexes and the necessity for androgynous reintegration can also be found in William Blake’s poetry.^[9]

History of the Definition

See "Asexuality: The History of a Definition"

See also

• Sexual orientation
• Aromantic
• Antisexual

References

1. ↑ Nicole Prause & Cynthia A. Graham Asexuality: Classification and Characterization // Arch Sex Behav (2007) 36:341–356. DOI 10.1007/s10508-006-9142-3
2. ↑ Nikolai Berdyaev. The Meaning of the Creative Act. London: Semantron Press, 2008, p. 184.
3. ↑ Nikolai Berdyaev. The Meaning of the Creative Act. London: Semantron Press, 2008, p. 203.
4. ↑ Nikolai Berdyaev. The Meaning of the Creative Act. London: Semantron Press, 2008, p. 185.
5. ↑ Nikolai Berdyaev. The Meaning of the Creative Act. London: Semantron Press, 2008, p. 199.
6. ↑ Бердяев Н. Смысл творчества (The Meaning of the Creative Act) // Бердяев Н. Философия творчества, культуры и искусства. В 2-х тт. М.: Искусство, т. 1, 1994, стр. 196. (The sentence adduced is missing from the English translation used.)
7. ↑ Nikolai Berdyaev, “The Meaning of the Creative Act. London: Semantron Press, 2008, p. 199.
8. ↑ Nikolai Berdyaev. The Metaphysics of Sex and Love // Бердяев Н. Новое религиозное сознание и общественность (The New Religious Consciousness and Society). Москва: Канон+, 1999, с. 242.
9. ↑ Hoeveler, Diane Long (1979). "Blake's Erotic Apocalypse: The Androgynous Ideal in "Jerusalem"." Essays in Literature (Western Illinois University) 6 (1): 29–41.

External links

• Asexuality - on Wikipedia