Asexuality

Asexuality (also known as nonsexuality^[1] ), in its broadest sense, is the lack of sexual attraction^{[2] [3]} or the lack of interest and desire for sex.^[4] Sometimes, it is considered a lack of a sexual orientation.^[5] One commonly cited study placed the incidence rate of asexuality at 1%.^[6]

Asexuality is distinct from abstention from sexual activity and from celibacy, which are behavioral and the latter is usually for a religious reason.^[7] A sexual orientation, unlike a behavior, is definitionally "enduring".^[8] Some asexuals do have sex, despite lacking a desire for it.^[9]

In the mid-twentieth century, Alfred Kinsey rated individuals from 0 to 6 according to their sexual orientation from heterosexual to homosexual. He also included a category he called "X" for individuals with "no socio-sexual contacts or reactions". He labeled 1.5% of the adult male population as X.^{[10] [11]} In Kinsey's second book, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female, he reported this breakdown of individuals who are X: unmarried females = 14–19%, married females = 1–3%, previously married females = 5–8%, unmarried males = 3–4%, married males = 0%, and previously married males = 1–2%.^[11]

Further empirical data about an asexual demographic appeared in 1994, when a research team in the United Kingdom carried out a comprehensive survey of 18,876 British residents, spurred by the need for sexual information in the wake of the AIDS pandemic. The survey included a question on sexual attraction, to which 1.05% of the respondents replied that they had "never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all."^[12] This study of this phenomenon was continued by the Canadian sexuality researcher Dr. Anthony Bogaert in 2004, who explored the asexual demographic in a series of studies. Bogaert believed that the 1% figure was not an accurate reflection of the likely much larger percentage of the population that could be identified as asexual, noting that in the initial survey 30% of people contacted chose not to participate in the survey. Since less sexually experienced people are more likely to refuse to participate in studies about sexuality, and asexuals tend to be less sexually experienced than non-asexuals, it is likely that asexuals were over-represented in the 30% who did not participate, compared to the 70% who did. The same study found the number of homosexuals and bisexuals combined to be about 1.1% of the population, which is much smaller than other studies indicate.^{[2] [5]}

In a 1994 U.S. study that did not include asexuality as a sexual orientation, some people reported having had no sex or no partners in a year: 11.9% of adults, 9.8% of men, and 13.6% of women.^[13] In 5 years, the number of partners was zero for 8.0% of adults: 7.1% of men and 8.7% of women.^[14] In all of adulthood until the time of surveying (given that surveyed people were of different ages), the number of partners was zero for 2.9% of adults: 3.4% of men and 2.5% of women.^[15]

Asexuals, while typically lacking in sexual desire for either sex, may engage in purely emotional romantic relationships.^{[16] [17] [18]} Terms concerning this:

• aromantic: lack of romantic attraction towards anyone of any gender
• biromantic: romantic attraction towards person(s) of either gender
• heteroromantic: romantic attraction towards person(s) of the opposite gender
• homoromantic: romantic attraction towards person(s) of the same gender
• panromantic: romantic attraction towards person(s) of any gender or lack of gender
• transromantic: romantic attraction towards person(s) of variant or ambiguous gender
• polyromantic: romantic attraction towards person(s) of more than one gender or sex but without implying, as biromantics do, that there are only two genders or sexes

The Kinsey Institute sponsored another small survey on the topic in 2007, which found that self-identified asexuals "reported significantly less desire for sex with a partner, lower sexual arousability, and lower sexual excitation but did not differ consistently from non-asexuals in their sexual inhibition scores or their desire to masturbate".^[9]

A 1977 paper entitled Asexual and Autoerotic Women: Two Invisible Groups, by Myra T. Johnson, may be the first paper explicitly devoted to asexuality in humans. Johnson defines asexuals as those men and women "who, regardless of physical or emotional condition, actual sexual history, and marital status or ideological orientation, seem to prefer not to engage in sexual activity." She contrasts autoerotic women with asexual women: "The asexual woman [...] has no sexual desires at all [but] the autoerotic woman [...] recognizes such desires but prefers to satisfy them alone." Johnson's evidence is mostly letters to the editor found in women's magazines written by asexual/autoerotic women. She portrays them as invisible, "oppressed by a consensus that they are nonexistent," and left behind by both the sexual revolution and the feminist movement. Society either ignores or denies their existence or insists they must be ascetic for religious reasons, neurotic, or asexual for political reasons.^[19]

In a study published in 1979 in Advances in the Study of Affect, vol. 5, and in another article using the same data and published in 1980 in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Michael D. Storms of the University of Kansas outlined his own reimagining of the Kinsey scale. Whereas Kinsey measured sexual orientation based on a combination of actual sexual behavior and fantasizing and eroticism, Storms only used fantasizing and eroticism. Storms, however, placed hetero-eroticism and homo-eroticism on separate axes rather than at two ends of a single scale; this allows for a distinction between bisexuality (exhibiting both hetero- and homo-eroticism in degrees comparable to hetero- or homosexuals, respectively) and asexuality (exhibiting a level of homo-eroticism comparable to a heterosexual and a level of hetero-eroticism comparable to a homosexual, namely, little to none). Storms conjectured that many researchers following Kinsey's model could be mis-categorizing asexual subjects as bisexual, because both were simply defined by a lack of preference for gender in sexual partners.^{[20] [21]}

The first study that gave empirical data about asexuals was published in 1983 by Paula Nurius, concerning the relationship between sexual orientation and mental health. Unlike previous studies on the subject, she used the above-mentioned two-dimensional model for sexual orientation. Six hundred eighty-nine subjects—most of whom were students at various universities in the United States taking psychology or sociology classes—were given several surveys, including four clinical well-being scales and a survey asking how frequently they engaged in various sexual activities and how often they would like to engage in those activities. Based on the results, respondents were given a score ranging from 0 to 100 for hetero-eroticism and from 0 to 100 for homo-eroticism. Respondents who scored lower than 10 on both were labeled "asexual." This consisted of 5% of the males and 10% of the females. Results showed that asexuals were more likely to have low self-esteem and more likely to be depressed than members of other sexual orientations; 25.88% of heterosexuals, 26.54% bisexuals (called "ambisexuals"), 29.88% of homosexuals, and 33.57% of asexuals were reported to have problems with self-esteem. A similar trend existed for depression. Nurius did not believe that firm conclusions can be drawn from this for a variety of reasons. Asexuals also reported much lower frequency and desired frequency of a variety of sexual activities including having multiple partners, anal sexual activities, having sexual encounters in a variety of locations, and autoerotic activities.^[22]

Another study with both quantitative and qualitative sections has been done recently, but the results have not yet been published, though some of the results can be found online.^[23]

Though comparisons with non-human sexuality are problematic, a series of studies done on ram mating preferences at the United States Sheep Experiment Station in Dubois, Idaho, starting in 2001 found that about 2–3% of the animals being studied had no apparent interest in mating with either sex; the researchers classified these animals as asexual, but found them to be otherwise healthy with no recorded differences in hormone levels.^{[24] [25]}

A community of self-identified asexuals coalesced in the early 21st century, aided by the popularity of online communities.^[3]

Dr. Elizabeth Abbot, author of A History of Celibacy, acknowledges a difference between asexuality and celibacy and posits that there has always been an asexual element in the population but that asexual people kept a low profile. While failure to consummate marriage was seen as "an insult to the sacrament of marriage" in medieval Europe, asexuality, unlike homosexuality, has never been illegal, and asexual people have been able to "fly under the radar". However, in the 21st century the anonymity of online communication and general popularity of social networking online has facilitated the formation of a community built around a common asexual identity.^[26]

The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) was founded in 2001 by David Jay with two primary goals: to create public acceptance and discussion of asexuality and to facilitate the growth of an asexual community.^[27] Since that time, it has grown to host the world’s largest online asexual community, serving as an informational resource and meeting place for people who are asexual and questioning, their friends and families, academic researchers, and the press. The network has additional satellite communities in ten languages. Members of AVEN have been involved in media coverage spanning television, print, and radio and participate in lectures, conferences, and Pride events around the world.^[28]

As an emerging identity with a broad definition, there is an enormous amount of variation among people who identify as asexual. Some asexuals may masturbate as a solitary form of release, while others do not feel a need to.^[3] The need or desire for masturbation is commonly referred to as a "sex drive" and is disassociated from sexual attraction; asexuals who masturbate generally consider it to be a normal product of the human body and not a sign of latent sexuality. Asexuals also differ in their feelings towards performing sex acts: some are indifferent and may even have sex for the benefit of a partner, while others are more strongly averse to the idea.^[29]

The notability of Asexuality in religious text can vary, and can be misinterpreted as celibacy or sexual abstinence, but asexuality has been acknowledged in a few works. In Christian circles, people who are asexual may be assumed celibate. The sexuality of St. Paul is cited as one of the few examples of this, but it is nearly impossible to say if he was indeed asexual or not.

Asexuals have no one fixed symbol, and none has ever officially been declared as the primary symbol of the community, however some have through the years become more prominent and important than others.

One of the symbols most easily associated with the asexual community is the asexual triangle also known as the AVEN triangle due to its origins on the AVEN forum. It was created by David Jay, the founder of AVEN when he was first starting the forum and before the AVEN community, or any asexual community outside of AVEN had started up proper. The top line of the triangle represents the Kinsey Scale with the third point representing the other dimension of how strongly you're sexually attracted to people and from there comes the triangle and the gradient representing the fade between sexual and asexual ^[30] . Though it's since become obvious that applying the range of asexual people can be so complicated that it's now more a metaphor than a accurate diagram of human sexuality and the asexual community's place in it. It has, at times, been adapted to a gradient filled heart but the triangle version is by far the more common version.

Other common symbols are the Ace of Spades or the Ace of Hearts due to a play on words, 'Ace' being also being a shortened word for asexual. There's no fixed choice between which one works best though it's been suggested that the Ace of Hearts works for the romantic asexuals and the Ace of Spades for the aromantic asexuals^[31] . This however isn't a strict rule by any means nor accepted by all asexuals.

Another common symbol for asexuality is cake, or rather a slice of it. Coming from the idea that 'cake is better than sex' and also as an general feel good welcome, comfort or congratulatory gesture^[32] . It's even been worn on shirts when AVEN members have marched during Pride along with a mash up of the AVEN triangle and the Ace of Spades.

Some asexuals have also taken to wearing a black ring on the middle finger of their right hand. It is not as widely used as the triangle, Ace of hearts/spades, or a slice of cake.^[33]

• David Jay, founder of AVEN, the largest asexual community on the internet.^[34]
• Edward Gorey, writer and illustrator. Gorey never married or had any known romantic relationships and responded to an interviewer's questioning of his sexual orientation with, "I'm neither one thing nor the other particularly ... I am apparently reasonably undersexed or something." He agreed with the interviewer's suggestion that the "sexlessness" of his books was "a product of his asexuality".^[35]
• Keri Hulme, author of The Bone People , winner of the 1985 Booker Prize, discussed asexuality and her involvement with AVEN in a 2007 interview.^[36]
• Paula Poundstone, American comedian.^[37]
• Bradford Cox, American musician, leader of the bands Deerhunter and Atlas Sound.^[38]
• Emilie Autumn, an American singer-songwriter, poet, and violinist who is best known for her wide range of musical styles and her usage of theatrics.^[39]

Fictional characters and persons

• Gerald Tippett, character from the New Zealand drama series Shortland Street .^[40]

• Androgyny: the mixing of masculine and feminine characteristics, personality, fashion, or culture
• Antisexualism: the views of someone who is antagonistic towards sexuality
• Affectional orientation: alternative views on attraction not based on sexuality, but more on purely romantic relationships
• Erotophobia: psychological fear of sexual intercourse and sexual feelings in general
• Genophobia: the fear of sexual intercourse
• Hypersexuality
• Platonic love: a nonsexual affectionate relationship
• Sexless marriage: a marriage in which little or no sex is performed throughout the marriage
• Sexual anorexia

• AVEN: Asexual Visibility and Education Network
• Apositive
• Asexual Explorations Promoting the Academic Study of Asexuality
• Asexual Explorations. Existing Research, an annotated bibliography, as accessed Feb. 23, 2010.
• "The Fourth Way", Fyne Times Gay and Lesbian Magazine
• Study: One in 100 Adults Asexual
• AVENTube, a group of asexuals on youtube with videos about asexuality
• Asexual site listing A fairly extensive listing of asexual sites on the web.
• Asexualitic – Meet asexual people, Build a Platonic Relationship
• "We're married, we just don't have sex", UK Guardian, September 8, 2008
• Asexuals leave the closet, find community – SFGate.com

• Non-sexuality
• Sexual orientation
• Sexual attraction
• Asexuality

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