ASExUALITY INVESTIGATED
LAURA DOHERTY
Nobody can deny that the world around us is pretty sexy. It’s fit into traditional stereotypes. It’s an attractive place for those
how advertising agencies sell products to us, it’s how we like our experiencing ‘unique’ sexual orientation due to the many
music videos and soap operas, it’s how we like our agony aunt subcategories of asexuality: the term asexual isn’t quite as
columns, it’s just how we like things, ok? But imagine there were simple as it might first seem. Under the asexual umbrella there
people in the world who had no interest in sex whatsoever, that are different types of ‘a’s; those who seek romantic relationships
would be weird, right? Well, not really: a rather large proportion (‘ro’s), those who lack a romantic drive (‘aromantics’), those
of society maintain they have no sexual desire whatsoever, and who maintain romantic attraction to others (-hetero, -homo,
what’s more are completely happy with their situation. -bi) and even those who are sexually active within their own
relationships but lack sexual attraction. With this in mind, you
The definition of an asexual is ‘a person who does not can label an asexual with romantic inclinations to both men and
experience sexual attraction’ – not to be confused with celibacy, women as an ‘a-bi-ro’, an asexual-bisexual-romantic: how’s that
asexuality is not a lifestyle choice but an orientation itself. for precision?
A study conducted in Britain in 1994, in the fallout of the AIDS
epidemic, asked participants for information regarding their Angela, a 25 year old asexual, offers her insight into the
sexual orientation: 1.05% of those asked answered that they network: “When I found AVEN it suddenly all made sense: It
had ‘never experienced any form of sexual attraction’ while was helpful just to know there was a word to describe me and
30% of those surveyed declined to answer this section of the I was not the only one.” Angela had realised the differences
questionnaire. between herself and her peers in her early teens: “I could not
understand why they would refer to a boy as ‘hot’. I could
If we consider the original statistic of 1.05% of the population recognize what others found attractive, it just didn’t do anything
claiming that they feel no sexual desire, this percentage still for me. I always assumed I would meet someone and have
represents 60 million people worldwide. Dr. Anthony Bogaert, sex to have children, the idea of sex for pleasure didn’t really
a Canadian professor of sexuality, has also highlighted that this enter into it.” Now Angela has found her own identity within
figure may not be telling the whole story. the asexual label, she finds the sexual presence in the world a
lot more bearable: “I have to say I am rather indifferent – it
He argues that statistics representing the number of homosexual just doesn’t interest me so I ignore it, although I know some
and bisexual people frequently fail to accurately calculate the asexuals can find it alienating.”
actual number of people on the ground. Thus when calculating
the number of asexuals throughout the world the figure we She remains positive that attention around asexuality can only
currently have will no doubt prove to be much higher. be a good thing: “I would like to think that it will mean the
word gets out, that the asexuals are there, they just aren’t saying
As with any growing community in the world there comes an it. At least if the word is out there they have a word to describe
online presence. Aven, the Asexual Visibility and Education themselves and they would know they are not broken. The only
Network, is the biggest asexual online community connecting thing is the implications of ‘coming out’ are not as clear: to
those wishing to discuss asexual matters. The interesting thing come out as gay you might know what the implications might be
about AVEN is that it doesn’t just attract one type of person in terms of your job, religion and family, whereas with asexuals
but acts as an information and support point for friends or it is not that clear. Until we get those answers - who knows? A
partners of asexuals and is a haven for those who just don’t few more coming out wouldn’t hurt though...”
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