Religion and Ethics Forum

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Sriram on June 22, 2016, 06:56:08 AM

Title: Asexuality...!
Post by: Sriram on June 22, 2016, 06:56:08 AM: Hi everyone,

Here is a BBC article about asexuality. A condition in which some people don't feel any sexual desire at all for others. There is a whole community of people with this condition.

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20160621-i-have-never-felt-sexual-desire

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..2004, when the Canadian academic Anthony Bogaert, published the paper ‘Asexuality: Prevalence and associated factors in a national probability sample’ that the idea that a proportion of the population may experience no sexual attraction..

..around 1% of the population are asexual. Of that number, about 70% are women. The study suggested that there might be almost as many asexual people as there are gay individuals.

Unlike celibacy, which is a choice, often sanctified with a vow, and unlike sexual dysfunction, which is often treatable, asexuality is in fact innate and immovable. Asexual people are not broken or defective. “It isn’t celibacy,” says Dore. “It isn’t sex negativity. It isn’t a choice not to have sex. All these do apply to some asexuals – and to some non-asexuals for that matter – but not to all.”

“More research needs to be done on the origins of asexuality,” he says. “There are studies suggesting that asexuality is affected by early biological factors such genetics, prenatal hormones affecting early brain development. Just like other sexual orientations asexuality likely has an early biological origin, or at least an early biological predisposition.”

“I think we need to leave open the possibility that some asexual people have atypical circulating hormones, but there is not much evidence that this is generally the case for most asexual people,” says Bogaert. “Besides, some asexual people may still have some form of libido – but it just isn’t connected to others.”

“There's a whole spectrum. Someone might identify as grey-asexual or grey-A if they have lower sexual attraction than most people, but they can experience it sometimes.” There are also different romantic orientations, he says. An asexual person can be heteroromantic (falling in love with someone of the opposite sex), homoromantic (feeling love for someone of the same sex), biromantic (experiencing love for both sexes) or aromantic (craving love and intimacy from no one), to name a few. Some may enjoy non-sexual forms of physical intimacy – like cuddling – while others may find it disturbing.

The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (Aven)..a support group founded in 2001 in San Francisco, found that 70% of asexual people said they were virgins; 11% of asexual people said they are not virgins but are currently sexually inactive;7% of asexual people said they are sexually active; 17% of asexual people said they were ‘completely repulsed’ by sex. Another 38% said they were ‘somewhat repulsed’ by sex, 27% said they were indifferent about sex, but 4%, perhaps rather confusingly, said they enjoy having sex.

Aven has grown steadily during the past decade from 391 members in 2003 to 82,979 this year. Activism, too, appears to be on the increase. Many campus pride groups now actively include asexuality. There remains a lack of good data when it comes to true numbers, however. Clarity may be imminent. The Office of National Statistics is currently considering including listing ‘asexual’ as an option for sexual orientation in its list of questions for the 2021 UK census.

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For information.

Cheers.

Sriram
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: floo on June 22, 2016, 08:15:52 AM: Whatever floats your boat. I have no problem with asexuality.
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: trippymonkey on June 22, 2016, 08:41:12 AM: Why do we all seem to make such a fuss over sex anyway ? - as someone once said - It's much Overrated !!!
INDEED !
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: Harrowby Hall on June 22, 2016, 08:45:29 AM: Quote
“More research needs to be done on the origins of asexuality,” he says. “There are studies suggesting that asexuality is affected by early biological factors such genetics, prenatal hormones affecting early brain development. Just like other sexual orientations asexuality likely has an early biological origin, or at least an early biological predisposition.”

So ... "early biological origin" ... or ... "early biological disposition": I think that he trying to say that this is environmental or genetic in its origin, but the use of "early" in the second case somewhat reduces his clarity.

Homo sapiens, as a mammalian species is a little unusual in that almost all individuals tend to find a sexual partner, whereas it has been postulated that in most other species most males die virgins - dominant males propagate, non-dominant do not. (Consider - dominant human males kept harems, non-dominant were cannon - or arrow or spear or whatever - fodder. Perhaps asexuality is a device for ensuring that individuals with a particular genetic deficiency do not join the gene pool.

Pedants corner: "celibacy" does not mean abstaining from sex, it means abstaining from marriage.
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: trippymonkey on June 22, 2016, 08:51:49 AM: Can you imagine what would happen, as if it isn't already, we were ALL 'straight' & had several kids each. ONE generation & twice the human population.

Very often makes me think gay men & women are necessary !!!
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: Stranger on June 22, 2016, 08:54:37 AM: Quote from: Harrowby Hall on June 22, 2016, 08:45:29 AM
Pedants corner: "celibacy" does not mean abstaining from sex, it means abstaining from marriage.

Well, as we're in pedants corner, Oxford Dictionaries would give you an argument:

The state of abstaining from marriage and sexual relations [my emphasis]
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/celibacy
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: Shaker on June 22, 2016, 08:58:25 AM: Quote from: Harrowby Hall on June 22, 2016, 08:45:29 AM
Pedants corner: "celibacy" does not mean abstaining from sex, it means abstaining from marriage.
I was going to say that!

I like to think that you meant 'Accuracy Corner' ;)
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: floo on June 22, 2016, 08:58:34 AM: Quote from: trippymonkey on June 22, 2016, 08:41:12 AM
Why do we all seem to make such a fuss over sex anyway ? - as someone once said - It's much Overrated !!!
INDEED !

I definitely agree it is overrated, there are so many other more important things in life.
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: Harrowby Hall on June 22, 2016, 09:11:41 AM: Quote from: trippymonkey on June 22, 2016, 08:51:49 AM
Can you imagine what would happen, as if it isn't already, we were ALL 'straight' & had several kids each. ONE generation & twice the human population.

Very often makes me think gay men & women are necessary !!!

But in the "natural state" - without technology and medicine - the attrition rate for homo sapiens was probably quite high. For every child born who survived to adulthood there would have been another - possibly two - that didn't. Go into any churchyard and look at the gravestones from the 18th century.

The growth in population of homo sapiens has not primarily been due to fecundity but to the development of modern medicine. This has had two main consequences:

Children surviving into adulthood, and

Adults surviving into old age.

My understanding is that demographic evidence shows that with prosperity there is a corresponding drop in the birth rate.
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: Harrowby Hall on June 22, 2016, 09:17:05 AM: Quote from: Floo on June 22, 2016, 08:58:34 AM
I definitely agree it is overrated, there are so many other more important things in life.

You've not been doing it right .... [can't do smileys - but the little devil one]
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: floo on June 22, 2016, 09:34:34 AM: Quote from: Harrowby Hall on June 22, 2016, 09:17:05 AM
You've not been doing it right .... [can't do smileys - but the little devil one]

I did my duty, but thank goodness the drawbridge is now pulled up, locked and bolted! :D

When I was a kid I never had any interest in having a relationship with anyone. That probably would still be the case, if when I met my husband to be we hadn't been fascinated with each other, me with his extremely high intelligence, and him with my very different life style to his own. We have absolutely nothing in common apart from our wonderful kids and have always done our own thing. He loved the academic life and I was content to raise the kids and be the homemaker. We have stuck it out for nearly 47 years and haven't murdered each other yet, so we must be doing something right, I guess! :D
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: Bubbles on June 22, 2016, 10:31:23 AM: Somehow the term " the condition " grates on me.

This is just the way some people are.

I suppose it's the opposite end of the scale from being a nymphomaniac.

As long as they are happy, it's what counts.
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: Rhiannon on June 22, 2016, 10:54:10 AM: Nymphomaniac???

Really? ::) >:(
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: Brownie on June 22, 2016, 12:37:09 PM: Quote from: Rose on June 22, 2016, 10:31:23 AM
Somehow the term " the condition " grates on me.

This is just the way some people are.

I suppose it's the opposite end of the scale from being a nymphomaniac.

As long as they are happy, it's what counts.

I agree with you, it's just a variation of the human state.
Nothing new Sririam, plenty of people are and have always been 'asexual'.
'Asexual' people sometimes fall in love and are, for as long as it lasts, not asexual (I think there's another word or label for that). They are the sort of people who wouldn't dream of looking for sex for its own sake but are capable of loving another person completely, and not looking elsewhere. We've all met them, just not thought about it.
I suppose asexual people feel they have to 'come out' because they get stick from others who think of nothing else but sex, when it is a perfectly natural way to be. There's nothing wrong with them and their bits work perfectly.
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: Rhiannon on June 22, 2016, 12:58:19 PM: Stupid pigeon-holing of perfectly normal people.
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: Brownie on June 22, 2016, 01:05:58 PM: Well said!
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: floo on June 22, 2016, 01:11:46 PM: Quote from: Rhiannon on June 22, 2016, 12:58:19 PM
Stupid pigeon-holing of perfectly normal people.

I agree.
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: Brownie on June 22, 2016, 02:39:15 PM: I also agree with you, floo, about the drawbridge :D.
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: floo on June 22, 2016, 03:04:26 PM: Quote from: Brownie on June 22, 2016, 02:39:15 PM
I also agree with you, floo, about the drawbridge :D.

Without going into gruesome details, it was necessary after a gynae op in 2008!
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: SqueakyVoice on June 22, 2016, 03:10:58 PM: Drawbridge. .?

Couldn't Messrs Floo and Brownie have ... cut off the supply lines to the troops at the front..?
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: Brownie on June 22, 2016, 04:09:33 PM: What makes you think we didn't do that? There is such a thing as belt and braces you know. ;)
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: wigginhall on June 22, 2016, 04:14:37 PM: There's more than one way of killing the cat.
Title: Re: Asexuality...!
Post by: Brownie on June 22, 2016, 09:17:01 PM: Said the bishop to the actress no less.