She lied about being asexual so she could marry an asexual man, but luckily for her, her husband isn't asexual either.
|
|
Each year, AVEN conducts a census on the asexual community and those with related identities (demisexual, gray-asexual, etc...), contributing to the scarce research on asexual people.
|
|
Asexual people do not always identify as aromantic; aromantic people do not always identify as asexual.
|
|
For example, nearly half of asexual women and three quarters of asexual men reported both experiencing sexual fantasy and masturbating, despite reporting a lack of sexual attraction to other people and identifying as asexual.
|
|
The Asexual Visibility and Education Network defines an asexual person as someone who does not experience sexual attraction to others.
|
|
People who fit under that umbrella are called "aces" for short, and can identify as asexual, gray-asexual or demisexual.
|
|
Aces often have other identities It's hard to say how many people identify as asexual, but the most widely cited figure is that asexual people make up about 1% of the population, according to the Asexual Visibility & Education Network.
|
|
Asexual [ey-sek-shoo-uh l] | adjective (asexual people) An adjective used to describe people who do not experience sexual attraction (e.g.
|
|
But for people who identify as asexual — or under the asexual umbrella — online dating can be even more exhausting, and often downright fruitless.
|
|
Faced with the limitations of mainstream dating services, some asexual people prefer to stick to ace-specific alternatives, like Asexualitic and Asexual Cupid.
|
|
BoJack also goes where no other show has, bringing in the asexual community at large: Todd joins an asexual meetup group and agrees to a date with another asexual, Yolanda Buenaventura (Natalie Morales), indicating the series plans to continue exploring asexuality beyond Todd.
|
|
While we don't know what makes someone asexual, it's pretty certain that there's no physical difference between asexual people and everyone else, Siegel says.
|
|
LGBT and/or GLBT are also often used, as are LGBTI and LGBTQIA (with the I standing for intersex and the A for asexual). Asexual
|
|
Nathan Lickliter, a 32-year-old heteromantic asexual bank teller who lives on Maryland's Eastern Shore, first realized he was asexual after reading a Guardian article.
|
|
"If every asexual person on OkCupid suddenly was on ACEapp, I would ditch OkCupid," says Daniel Au Valencia, 24, who identifies as nonbinary femmeromantic gray asexual.
|
|
Asexual men weren't significantly less likely than sexual men to masturbate at least once a month; asexual women were slightly less likely, but around 70% still did.
|
|
It's a week not only for those of us who aren't asexual to educate ourselves about this lesser known sexuality, but also for asexual people to celebrate themselves and their community.
|
|
Science doesn't have any solid answers, Dr. McGuire says, although it's important to know that asexual people don't choose to be asexual any more than gay people choose to be gay.
|
|
Eventually, Doré realized that he's asexual (he's now on the project team at the Asexual Visibility and Education Network) and that there's a whole community of people out there just like him.
|
|
However, Aaron thinks the asexual community is growing as more people become aware of the LGBTQ community, which is also referred to as the LGBTQIA+ community to include those who are asexual.
|
|
Other aces (the umbrella term for those on the asexual spectrum) like Cutler identify as gray asexual or demisexual, meaning they sometimes feel sexual attraction once they develop an emotional connection with someone.
|
|
A big part of that was meeting other asexual people.
|
|
In today's parlance, you might call these homoromantic asexual relationships.
|
|
Asexual people also live their asexuality in an individual way.
|
|
Alex, 24, from Bologna, Italy, identifies as asexual and aromantic.
|
|
To my knowledge she was also asexual at that time.
|
|
And his story is a common experience for asexual people.
|
|
She's also badly crushing on Rob, the asexual house leader.
|
|
If the world were constant, organisms would likely be asexual.
|
|
"Explaining what asexual is is pretty simple," Eliza tells Teddy.
|
|
All yeasts engage in asexual reproduction most of the time.
|
|
Even people who identify as asexual have experienced these shifts.
|
|
It is a bit difficult to date as an asexual.
|
|
There is also I for intersex and A for asexual.
|
|
I love her asexual voice, writing in a man's world.
|
|
WATCH: But are there couples where both partners are asexual?
|
|
How do people react when you tell them you're asexual?
|
|
The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), the largest and most established of these organizations, estimates that approximately 1% of the world's population identifies as asexual based on a 2004 survey of 195 people.
|
|
And the answer is that a person who is sometimes sexually attracted to people might identify as "gray-asexual" or "gray-a," which means they identify somewhere within the gray area between asexual and sexual.
|
|
It's only recently that I've got my head around being asexual.
|
|
I don't particularly date, but I have asexual friends who do.
|
|
Amy, 19, from Brighton, UK, identifies as asexual and gray-romantic.
|
|
Eiko, 42, from Fukuoka, Japan, identifies as asexual and demi-romantic.
|
|
Michele, 20, from Campania, Italy, identifies as asexual and demi-romantic.
|
|
Yuzhi, 25, from Hunan, China, identifies as asexual and gray-romantic.
|
|
Some medical and mental health professional may still misunderstand asexual identity.
|
|
Last year, Archie Comics revealed that Archie's friend Jughead is asexual.
|
|
Some asexual people do have sex and don't totally hate it.
|
|
For most people, being asexual doesn't change, but sometimes it does.
|
|
"Use the term asexual as long as it's useful for you."
|
|
One thing an asexual person definitely isn't, is broken, Flores wrote.
|
|
Other asexual people might not be aware of the term itself.
|
|
He declared, simply: "For asexual Glyptotermes nakajimai, the future is female!"
|
|
Often, those people identify as gray ace or demisexual, which means they fall somewhere along the line between totally asexual and totally allosexual (which is the term for those of us who aren't asexual at all).
|
|
I have a friendship group of queer asexual people, which is amazing.
|
|
Personally, I never found the word 'asexual' until it was too late.
|
|
Game of Thrones' Varys and Sirens' Voodoo are both confirmed asexual characters.
|
|
I've gotten a lot of fan mail thanking me for being asexual.
|
|
In addition, I also liked ASEXUAL, BAD LUCK, DUE NORTH and GASOHOL.
|
|
Society already tells allies this; that's why asexual erasure cannot be disregarded.
|
|
People who only experience it sometimes, or very weakly are gray-asexual.
|
|
He's discursive, suave, inhumanly cool, confident, superior, deadpan, sinister, patronizing and asexual.
|
|
Nakhrov wasn't sure what asexual meant, but it certainly didn't sound right.
|
|
A sexual dynamic is always present between people, unless you are asexual.
|
|
Yeah, lots of asexual people watch porn and have their own fantasies.
|
|
The report cites Shadowhunters' Raphael Santiago and Degrassi: Next Class's Todd as examples of asexual characters on TV. GLAAD also encouraged The CW to explore Jughead's asexuality on Riverdale, as the character is asexual in the Archie comics.
|
|
A Halloween flashback episode overflows with art — look for a feline version of Alex Katz's 1985 "Green Cap" painting — as does an episode about the asexual Todd Chavez visiting the home of his asexual girlfriend's very sexual parents.
|
|
"I think it's empowering to see ace people talk about these experiences, especially as someone who has endured harassment and assault in my life," said Michael Paramo, 25, an aromantic, asexual, two-spirit person who founded the Asexual journal.
|
|
Or maybe you'll find that you simply are in fact aromantic or asexual.
|
|
But as any asexual person would tell you, it's none of the above.
|
|
I honest to God thought, 'Is this what it's like to be asexual?
|
|
But, those feelings aren't the only way someone realizes they're asexual, Doré says.
|
|
Still, none of these feelings mean that you have to identify as asexual.
|
|
"Most of the clades on our own planet use asexual reproduction," Gatti noted.
|
|
Including asexual people isn't just about adding more genders, sexual orientations, and filters.
|
|
Their new boyfriend identifies as a cisgender and allosexual (aka, not-asexual) man.
|
|
With asexual reproduction, conversely, there's no need for men to tire themselves out.
|
|
Those terms include: straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, demisexual, pansexual, queer and questioning.
|
|
So we asked him if he has ever read his character as asexual.
|
|
This asexual tendency may sound weird, but it's not unheard-of in biology.
|
|
The Kappas aren't asexual — after all, who is when Zac Efron is around?
|
|
How did the people around you react when you came out as asexual?
|
|
Dustin shows discomfort at moving beyond the asexual comfort of pre-adolescent hobbies.
|
|
It's possible that asexual soldiers are more efficient at defense, Dr. Yashiro said.
|
|
Priceless. Okay Kaya "Asexual Wellbeing" Norwegians do it better, or maybe just weirder.
|
|
"Asexual means you don't like nothing, you don't have those feelings," explains another.
|
|
A House episode from 2012 depicted an asexual couple, but in the end revealed that one of them had a brain tumor dulling their sex drive and the other was in fact pretending to be asexual to stay in the relationship.
|
|
They recently created a safe-sex guide for queer, trans, intersex, and asexual people.
|
|
The Netflix show "BoJack Horseman" began exploring character Todd Chavez's asexual identity in 2016.
|
|
We're both asexual, so we're excited and hopeful that the play will be good!
|
|
Read on to see how 25 asexual people are celebrating their identity this week.
|
|
I showed her both my aromantic and asexual bracelets and waited for a response.
|
|
About 50 vertebrates are known to use asexual reproduction including fish, amphibians and reptiles.
|
|
What he's found in Asexual Activities is a community of aces eager to participate.
|
|
"The term 'allosexual' helps eliminate the idea that being 'asexual' is abnormal," Lampen writes.
|
|
For a while, I even called myself asexual but with a preference for men.
|
|
For asexual-identified people, the body is almost always something that goes too far.
|
|
Sin embargo, ser asexual no es una elección que impida la felicidad en pareja.
|
|
Sweden, on the other hand, is more cold, correct and asexual on the surface.
|
|
But the asexual, or ace, community has a lot more riding on Jughead's arc.
|
|
An amalgamation of Indian classical and tribal images, Rodwittiya's asexual goddesses evade easy categorization.
|
|
Perhaps most importantly, sexualizing something culturally asexual is an appealing form of transgression and reappropriation.
|
|
Some gender variant people are lesbian or gay, while others are bisexual, heterosexual or asexual.
|
|
But Sprouse, who campaigned to keep Jughead asexual in the series, hopes to change that.
|
|
Nikki first heard the word "asexual" in an interview with comedian and activist Janeane Garofalo.
|
|
Because the alternative was you were going to be the sassy, asexual, Confucius-Yoda friend.
|
|
Asexuals Project was originally born with the idea of visualizing part of the asexual community.
|
|
In this work, I want people to understand that asexual people are simply that — people.
|
|
Where to get it: iOS and Android Inclusivity: Non-binary, asexual, bi options explicitly offered.
|
|
Jughead is asexual in the Archie comics, but in the show he's portrayed as heterosexual.
|
|
The only tiny problem was that Carly felt Evan was giving off an "asexual" vibe.
|
|
But despite this rise, the asexual community was — and still is — often regarded with confusion.
|
|
Yet as a sexual minority by definition, asexual people fit into the larger queer community.
|
|
Identity: cis panromantic asexual VICE: Why is ace/aro inclusion in Pride a valuable thing?
|
|
EDT An earlier version of this post mistakenly identified the Archie Andrews character as asexual.
|
|
Some people are asexual and, for others, sex just isn't a big deal to them.
|
|
Ahead, five people explain what being asexual in your 20s and 30s is really like.
|
|
It kind of covers all of the asexual spectrum that doesn't fall strictly into asexuality.
|
|
I feel as if the label is for anyone sort of "between" asexual and allosexual.
|
|
Being gray-ace in a sexual relationship, I often feel alienated by the asexual community.
|
|
Growing up, it didn't occur to Sarah that she was asexual, because she enjoyed masturbation.
|
|
In most asexual colonies the researchers studied, multiple queens, as many as 25, were found.
|
|
That becomes more difficult when we treat all long-term care residents as asexual beings.
|
|
That becomes more difficult when we treat all long-term care residents as asexual beings.
|
|
But stories of asexual characters won't end here, maybe not even within these specific shows.
|
|
He pointed to the line in which Osipov describes the "asexual atmosphere" of the hospital.
|
|
That's why she said Jughead's behaviour so far doesn't necessarily rule out an asexual orientation.
|
|
María: Being asexual means never feeling sexual attraction, or feeling it only slightly, or rarely.
|
|
In fact, asexuality itself is a spectrum, and there is considerable diversity within the asexual community.
|
|
A lot of people ask me, how can you be asexual and have a queer identity?
|
|
Coming out to strangers as asexual — or even friends, family, and partners — is no small thing.
|
|
In 2014, "Game of Thrones" confirmed that the character Lord Varys was asexual, according to Vox.
|
|
People who identify their orientation as queer, asexual, or self-described make up 6% of participants.
|
|
A lot of asexual people start questioning themselves because they feel like they don't fit in.
|
|
The only thing that asexual organizations like AVEN do try to distinguish asexuality from is celibacy.
|
|
"It's not like you're committing yourself for life if you use the label asexual," Doré says.
|
|
"It's not correct to say that people who identify as asexual don't experience pleasure," he says.
|
|
Though asexual characters in media are rare, Jughead isn't the first example in modern pop culture.
|
|
"'You just need to sleep with me' is something asexual people hear a lot," Doré said.
|
|
A variety of species of ants, wasps and bees can switch between sexual and asexual reproduction.
|
|
The term "asexual" broadly refers to someone who doesn't experience sexual attraction or desire for sex.
|
|
A subset of flags represent other sexualities on the spectrum, such as bisexual, pansexual and asexual.
|
|
Connecting with romantic partners can be harder for them, especially when their partner is not asexual.
|
|
Angelica continues, "There are many asexual people who enjoy and actively seek out sex,"she says.
|
|
Instead, the company chose to use "ally," which critics say erases asexual individuals from the discussion.
|
|
Some Disassembly Required is a comic by 34-year-old Sarah*, an asexual artist from Oregon.
|
|
Thirty-seven of the colonies were asexual and exclusively female, while the rest were mixed-sex.
|
|
But his is from an asexual white male perspective and mine is from a lesbian perspective.
|
|
This is not the case for everyone, such as some of us in the asexual community.
|
|
People who identify as sapiosexual may also identify as gay, straight, bisexual, asexual or something else.
|
|
And then they will say, "So are you asexual?" and that is a totally different thing.
|
|
Jughead is canonically asexual—a revelation that was made in Jughead No. 4, released last February.
|
|
Kaye said she always knew she was asexual but she didn't have a word for it.
|
|
Still, Eliza says, some asexual people actually do enjoy kissing, like Teddy's parents do, but they don't like other physical expressions of love (like, you know, sex.) There are so many different ways for people to be asexual, she says, that we call it a spectrum.
|
|
Some will have sex with their partner to make them feel comfortable, like Joey Schwind, a 26-year-old from Ohio who is heteroromantic and gray-asexual (or "gray-ace"), a term that applies to people who generally identify as asexual, but still sometimes experience sexual attraction.
|
|
The researchers asked 739 people, 351 of them asexual, about their solo sex habits and sexual fantasies.
|
|
Archie made waves when Jughead was casually revealed to be asexual in Jughead No. 4 last February.
|
|
For a period of time, she identified as asexual, she said, reluctant to get involved with anyone.
|
|
Ultimately though, it's up to that person to decide whether the asexual label makes sense for them.
|
|
First came the establishment of AVEN (the Asexual Visibility and Education Network) by David Jay in 2001.
|
|
As with all minority stories, the road to acceptable representation for the asexual spectrum is a journey.
|
|
Netflix's dark comedy "Bojack Horseman" and Freeform's supernatural "Shadowhunters" brought audiences the first asexual characters on television.
|
|
We want bi, pan, straight ... We want asexual people to be able to relate to our music.
|
|
The term sometimes is extended to LGBTQ, or even LGBTQIA, to include queer, intersex and asexual groups.
|
|
Boy bands were squeakily asexual, even their bare chests as smooth and un-troubling as a doll's.
|
|
I like to think that despite being asexual, I'll be able to find love like anyone else.
|
|
Egg-laying queens in asexual colonies stored no sperm in their reproductive organs and laid unfertilized eggs.
|
|
A month later, Game of Thrones confirmed Lord Varys (Conleth Hill), a very prominent character, as asexual.
|
|
They are spaces open to all comers, including those who identify as trans, agender, asexual, and straight.
|
|
Now, my wife is asexual, we have an open marriage, but I'm picky about my sexual partners.
|
|
I spoke to María to find out what it's like to be asexual in our hypersexualized world.
|
|
Many people's first reaction tends to be prejudiced, often believing asexual people are gay or afraid of sex.
|
|
"Regardless of any specific reason that someone might be identifying as asexual, their identity is valid," Langevin said.
|
|
At its most basic definition, an asexual person is someone who doesn't experience sexual attraction to other people.
|
|
I don't know whether or not I've experienced discrimination as a result of being a heteroromantic asexual person.
|
|
Of the 61% of employees who responded, 7% identified as LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or asexual).
|
|
But on the other hand I was hoping Jughead would be asexual like he is in the comics.
|
|
She learned that he was apparently asexual and that there was no evidence of his ever even masturbating.
|
|
"A lot of conversation sounds like, 'If a person does X, then they're not really asexual,'" she says.
|
|
A lot of people have told me that I can't be asexual because I sometimes do have sex.
|
|
More generally, some people (asexual or otherwise) identify as having a romantic orientation different than their sexual orientation.
|
|
Things picked up in 2014 when USA's Sirens introduced Valentina "Voodoo" Dunacci (Kelly O'Sullivan), an asexual main character.
|
|
But 2016 is significant for another reason — it's also the year BoJack Horseman began articulating Todd's asexual identity.
|
|
And in 2017, both BoJack and a new drama called Shadowhunters would break new ground for asexual representation.
|
|
The door is open now for more series to bring in asexual characters, and I hope they will.
|
|
VICE reached out to a few people who identify as asexual to get their thoughts on this development.
|
|
There are thousands of ways an asexual and sexual person, or two asexuals can make a relationship work.
|
|
Being asexual is all about how attracted you are to others, but pure libido works independently from that.
|
|
Hopefully, these findings clear things up for those who are still unsure about what it means to be asexual.
|
|
However, when there are no males around, asexual reproduction, despite its shortcomings, is the best option for species survival.
|
|
Amazon MollyImage: Manfred Schartl/TAMUOne thing you might think about asexual reproduction is that it's bad for genetic fitness.
|
|
Bexx identifies as bisexual or asexual, and writes to inmates Neil* and Joe* in New Mexico and Indiana, respectively.
|
|
While those things can influence sex drive, Langevin says, it doesn't make that person's asexual identity any less valid.
|
|
Some asexual people call themselves "gray ace" or "demisexual," because they feel that they're in an in-between space.
|
|
Plus, GLAAD points out, this is the first time it's been able to include asexual and non-binary characters.
|
|
One is that the population models in these studies apply only to asexual organisms like bacteria and other microbes.
|
|
Further, there was significant overlap in the sexual fantasies experienced by participants, regardless of their asexual or sexual status.
|
|
He knew discussion of sex toys in existing asexual online communities might make some sex-repulsed people feel uncomfortable.
|
|
Some asexual commenters noted that they preferred fantasy designs, like those available at the specialty online store Bad Dragon.
|
|
"Some asexual people do experience arousal despite not experiencing attraction, but I am not one of them," she says.
|
|
I'm an asexual romantic person; I do experience romantic attraction to people, even though I don't experience sexual attraction.
|
|
GLAAD noted it was able to count asexual and nonbinary characters for the first time in the report's history.
|
|
We need more asexual characters, but also more variety in stories that move away from heterosexuality being the baseline.
|
|
It was sold to help Wangechi support L.B.G.T.Q.I.A. [lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual] people throughout Africa.
|
|
There are also asexual people who are in committed relationships just because they feel the social pressure to conform.
|
|
Other people are asexual and still fall in romantic love, so that's one kind of reason to disentangle them.
|
|
However, thanks to the growing number of online communities, those who identify as asexual are getting more support than ever.
|
|
In Victorian America, it was believed that women of "good character" were free of troubling lust—in other words, asexual.
|
|
Asexual reproduction in sharks happens when a polar body, or the cell adjacent to the egg fertilizes it, said Dudgeon.
|
|
Dudgeon described asexual reproduction as a "holding-on mechanism," passed down along generations of women until male partners are available.
|
|
In an asexual population, because the members are genetically identical, natural selection can't purge bad mutations rapidly without killing everyone.
|
|
"It is commonly thought that if an organism becomes asexual, it is doomed to extinction," Heitman said in a statement.
|
|
That makes asexual people different from those who choose not to have sex for religious reasons or to avoid pregnancy.
|
|
Just like there are many steps between straight and gay, there's a whole spectrum of identities between asexual and sexual.
|
|
The asexual community, named for its lack of interest in sex, struggles to navigate a movement defined by sexual attraction.
|
|
But, as asexual artist Kat Flores wrote on their blog, asexuality — like any other sexuality — is more complicated than that.
|
|
Identity: AVEN founder, cis aromantic asexual VICE: Why do you think there is disagreement on ace inclusion in Pride celebrations?
|
|
I didn't know, for instance, how depression can snatch away your sex drive, leaving you feeling newly—and involuntarily—asexual.
|
|
As Claire Lampen reported in Women's Health Magazine, the usage of the term allosexual is rooted in the asexual community.
|
|
You can be sexually liberated and be asexual or you can be celibate or you can be a sex worker.
|
|
In theory, just one female could have produced all the long-horned ticks spreading in the country through asexual reproduction.
|
|
If you're unfamiliar with asexuality, and most people are, an asexual person is someone who does not experience sexual attraction.
|
|
Three years later, American drama got its first asexual character via Huge, on the network then known as ABC Family.
|
|
The episode "Better Half" features a clinic patient (Corri English) who House (Hugh Laurie) believes is lying about being asexual.
|
|
And lest you wonder if that description means Elsa is asexual or aromantic, neither of those qualities is canon either.
|
|
It's part of the reason she said she wants to see an asexual character like Jughead portrayed in the mainstream.
|
|
Parthenogenesis — a natural form of asexual reproduction — is something that's common amongst plant species, insects, amphibians and many other life forms.
|
|
It is only the third documented case of a vertebrate of any species switching its reproductive strategy from sexual to asexual.
|
|
Instead of getting fixated on strict definitions, Doré says anyone who feels that "asexual" describes their experience can use the label.
|
|
Asexual people around the country found each other via forums, message boards, and online connections that turned into real-life ones.
|
|
They posted their comic on asexuality for Asexual Awareness Week, which started Sunday, October 22 and lasts until this coming Saturday.
|
|
None of these options is perfect, and all provide barriers to aces who want to meet compatible matches, asexual or not.
|
|
More than womanhood per se, pink represents girlhood, and it can be understood as a gendered yet asexual marker of femininity.
|
|
In every case, the descendants of sexually reproducing yeast cells bested their asexual rivals in the competition for food and resources.
|
|
The crucial test, though, came at the end of the experiment, when Dr Desai compared the asexual to the sexual strains.
|
|
Or, I'm the opposite; I'm completely and totally neutered and asexual and never thought of as having a sexuality at all.
|
|
Michelle Lhooq: Going out has always been about hooking up—anyone who tells you otherwise is either in denial or asexual.
|
|
That's when activist David Jay created the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) as an online space for the dispersed community.
|
|
However, being gay is not enough to earn the support of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual (LGBTQ2IA) communities.
|
|
Genetic analyses suggested that the asexual termites evolved from ancestors that split from other G. nakajimai around 14 million years ago.
|
|
Most of Barrie's contemporaries described him as asexual, although he was married twice (he never fathered any children of his own).
|
|
One thing that's important to note is just because Jughead has romantic feelings for Betty, it doesn't mean he's not asexual.
|
|
Of course, we're not asexual just because we live in a monastery, but we've chosen abstinence as our gift to God.
|
|
Not because she's unhappy, traumatized, insecure, or saving herself for marriage—as many people she meets assume—but because she's asexual.
|
|
Yes. Asexual men are accused of not being manly enough, or it's assumed that they don't want to admit they're gay.
|
|
Fans were thrilled to see an asexual individual — meaning they do not feel sexual attraction to other people — in a mainstream comic.
|
|
After Alice comes out as asexual to her girlfriend — and then quickly gets dumped — she's determined to give up dating for good.
|
|
Some asexual people have sex, whether out of sexual attraction, a desire to please their partners, or both; some are sex-averse.
|
|
One question in particular comes up often, especially for those who have survived sexual violence: Are you asexual because you were assaulted?
|
|
As Flores writes, asexual people can also be aromantic (meaning they also don't experience romantic attraction), or they can form romantic connections.
|
|
Words like 'asexual' and 'demisexual' are things we pick up because they're useful, and put them down if they're no longer useful.
|
|
Identity: cis heteroromantic asexual VICE: How has the inclusion of ace/aro voices in Pride helped you understand your own sexual identity?
|
|
Camps help ease anxiety for LGBTQ campers and for their parents back home How the queer community can embrace the asexual spectrum
|
|
They're poorer than their parents were, they aren't buying property, they've been described as apathetic, asexual, and even lacking basic survival skills.
|
|
Because an asexual doesn't experience sexual attraction, Taryn recognizes that her blog might seem counterintuitive from someone not of that sexual orientation.
|
|
Some recovery efforts, like coral transplantation, are trying to make up for the damage by artificially redirecting coral's natural asexual reproduction process.
|
|
Also, recognize that non-binary people can be ANY sexuality—including straight, aromantic, asexual, queer, lesbian, bisexual, gay, and so on. 31.
|
|
The basic definition of an asexual is someone who doesn't experience sexual attraction or desire, but that doesn't mean they don't fantasize.
|
|
I find it frustrating that asexual-driven storylines on these series aren't an escape from the message that I need a boyfriend.
|
|
BoJack Horseman could take advantage of Todd's meetup group to introduce a wider range of people (and animals) within the asexual spectrum.
|
|
He also embarks upon a chaste romance with Yolanda Buenaventura (Natalie Morales), an asexual salamander who works for the Better Business Bureau.
|
|
Users can now choose up to three options from a list of choices that includes straight, gay, queer, asexual, bisexual, and demisexual.
|
|
By all outward signs, the Babadook is nothing more than an asexual charcoal drawing and a symbolic vehicle for maternal rage. 26.
|
|
It did not include responses from those identifying as LGBTQ or asexual, and it assumed that all married couples had had sex.
|
|
They also run forums through their site where people can ask questions about their own sexuality and connect with other asexual people.
|
|
The only thing that asexual people have in common is that we don't really feel the impulse to sleep with other people.
|
|
When tests showed that the pups were only carrying their mother's DNA, it became clear that the shark had likely achieved asexual reproduction.
|
|
Those who identify as asexual may be open to romance and platonic affection, but sexual desire is not a factor in those relationships.
|
|
I had to contextualize it again — my first encounter with the term "asexual" was eight years ago, and I was eight years younger.
|
|
In recent years, the Archie comics have introduced a gay character to the core cast and allowed Jughead to come out as asexual.
|
|
Many asexual people do pursue romantic relationships, while others identify as aromantic and seek out romantic relationships only occasionally or not at all.
|
|
As a result, asexual people may be told that their lack of sexual desire is due to a mental illness or a disability.
|
|
Langevin says a good way to explore this identity is through online resources about asexuality and talking to others who identify as asexual.
|
|
Josephine Moss, a 28-year-old aromantic asexual woman who occasionally dates, has been romantically attracted to only three people in her lifetime.
|
|
Maybe you're queer and you haven't yet had the opportunity to express your sexual identity; maybe you're asexual and you're already expressing it.
|
|
He is the remarkable case of a sexually inactive fictional character who isn't immediately dismissed as asexual, confused, or ailing in some way.
|
|
An asexual individual may not experience sexual attraction, but may nonetheless engage in sexual fantasy, perhaps to facilitate physiological sexual arousal and masturbation.
|
|
But it's still interesting that so many people who qualify as asexual the way we currently define the term have fantasies about sex.
|
|
Another identity within the asexual umbrella is demisexual, which also refers to conditional sexual attraction, generally to someone the individual knows very well.
|
|
For the first time in the history of the report, GLAAD was able to count non-binary characters and asexual characters on shows.
|
|
But the asexual termites, which are found in remote, coastal areas, might not have needed that trait to fight off parasites and pathogens.
|
|
And asexuality would have been an efficient way to expand — asexual populations are known to grow at twice the rate of sexual ones.
|
|
While jezebels were rooted in hypersexual stereotypes about black women, the "mammy" stereotype framed black women as heavyset, asexual caretakers of white families.
|
|
Fan art centering around the concept of a show about two roommates (an outgoing, flirtatious asexual and a socially awkward pansexual) went viral.
|
|
"She is considered asexual, unattractive or on the other extreme: desperate and only wanting sex." said Goyal, who has a visual impairment herself.
|
|
They're just respecting who their students are: nonbinary, male, female, gay, straight, asexual, or any of a variety of the above and beyond.
|
|
There was this one time, when a friend of a friend found out I was asexual, and she started asking tons of questions.
|
|
While I appreciate the goodwill and solidarity of cisgender heterosexual males and females self-identifying as "queer," it befuddles an already murky term, given the vast array of things it can mean, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, pansexual, gender queer, bigender, asexual, agender, nonbinary, asexual, (literally, the list can go on forever and ever), which dilutes its power and renders it almost meaningless.
|
|
" The most common fantasy among asexual women and men was, "A special person is devoted to me and showers me with love and attention.
|
|
You have become an asexual, friendless, low self-esteem person handcuffed to a file cabinet that contains your mortgage and your student loan debt.
|
|
But outside ace social circles — "ace" is an umbrella term for asexual people — harrowing stories from people with those identities have gone largely unheard.
|
|
Here's what asexuality is and what it isn't, based on resources from Aces and Aros, The Asexual Visibility & Education Network and The Trevor Project.
|
|
But most people remain unfamiliar with asexuality, and some might not even realize that asexual is a term they can use to describe themselves.
|
|
She hopes to represent a mixed group of voices who feel underrepresented: women, African-Americans, young people, intersex people, lesbians, asexual people, transgender people.
|
|
Nor is there shame if you identify as asexual during a certain portion of your life and then later start identifying a different way.
|
|
But if a child is saying they are bisexual, gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, pansexual or asexual ... those words have taken courage to speak aloud.
|
|
In particular, Netflix's animated dark comedy BoJack Horseman features the only asexual character GLAAD's study found on streaming platforms: Todd Chavez, BoJack's trusty sidekick.
|
|
"While the Jughead character is asexual in the Archie comics, The CW's Archie series Riverdale is not yet telling this story," the report states.
|
|
Archie Comics, however, has just revealed that one of its classic characters, Jughead Jones, is actually asexual (meaning he's not sexually attracted to anyone).
|
|
He's going for a much more basic appeal, like a Tiger Beat cover star who is not entirely asexual: the emotionally healthy soft jock.
|
|
Lanza told the woman he believed he could be "asexual" and that he was sexually attracted to one or two people during his life.
|
|
In a voluntary survey of Facebook's U.S. employees about sexual orientation, 7 percent self-identified as being lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer, transgender or asexual.
|
|
Lex is a queer dating app for lesbian, bisexual, non-binary, trans, genderqueer, intersex, two spirit, asexual, and queer people — everyone but cisgender men.
|
|
For a while, I identified as asexual, but as time went on and I changed, I realized that maybe I wasn't that way anymore.
|
|
And that's slowly happening via television, which is gradually making room for storylines about asexual characters — but few shows are up to the challenge.
|
|
Kerry is based on a schoolmate described by Daisy May as "this really terrifying, asexual Smurf" who masked her insecurity with bluster and bravado.
|
|
Read more: 'The Walking Dead' star Norman Reedus says he has read Daryl as asexual and even receives fan mail thanking him for it
|
|
" While she concedes that writers could still be planning on making Jughead asexual, she said she is tired of the issue being "tiptoed around.
|
|
" Hannah is in a relationship today, but describes herself as primarily asexual: "I feel like my sexuality has been taken from me by surgery.
|
|
Because many asexual people are transgender or non-binary, some professionals may attribute their lack of sexual attraction to hormone therapy, medications or other causes.
|
|
The study notes that while Freeform's Shadowhunters and Netflix's BoJack Horseman both feature asexual characters, The CW's Riverdale ignores progressive elements of its source material.
|
|
Tests on the treadmill showed that sexually-reproducing salamanders walked about four times longer than their asexual counterparts, which corresponded nicely with the genetic analysis.
|
|
Roughly 1 percent of the population identifies as asexual, but there's a spectrum to lack of sexual interest just as there is for sexual interest.
|
|
Sex Education never uses the word demisexual (or asexual, bisexual, or most other classifiers), but Otis struggles to negotiate his sex drive from the outset.
|
|
An asexual who's attracted to all genders, such as myself, can sometimes pass as bi, and then be included in queer spaces for that reason.
|
|
But I'd like to remind you that you don't need to argue for your identity or asexual orientation, prove it, or defend it to anyone.
|
|
But it just reads, frankly, a little gross—especially the ending assertion where Conan yells about her thinking he's an "asexual freak," which, c'mon dude.
|
|
She considered herself asexual for a long time, before realizing she was gay—which makes looking for a partner in the straight edge scene difficult.
|
|
It's a common misconception that someone who is asexual - or "ace" as they've nicknamed themselves — would have no use for gadgets that are, well, sexual.
|
|
" McArthur adds: "Anyone who is bisexual, or asexual, or consensually non-monogamous knows that erasure is a powerful force, maybe just as potent as hostility.
|
|
The "A" in LGBTQA+ traditionally stands for "asexual" or sometimes "agender," representing those who either don't feel sexual attraction or identify outside the gender spectrum.
|
|
" As a lifelong celibate, he pointed out, he was basically asexual: "I've never said that I was gay and I've never said that I wasn't.
|
|
As an asexual aromantic — meaning I'm not interested in having sex or relationships — I considered myself "nothing" for years because I didn't see an alternative.
|
|
Nor is that imagination asexual; Mickey, the stark naked hero of "In the Night Kitchen," is baked into a cake batter by three adult men.
|
|
Around 1 percent of the British population self-identifies as asexual—a sexual orientation that broadly means someone doesn't feel sexually attracted to other people.
|
|
As for the +, it's meant to indicate everyone else who isn't straight, but doesn't identify with the L, G, B, T, or Q. You may also be familiar with other acronyms to describe the LGBTQ+ community — such as LGBTQIA (the I stands for intersex and the A for asexual), LGBTQQIA (the two Qs are for both queer and questioning), LGBTQ2 (the 2 stands for Two-Spirit, a term used for gender non-conforming or genderqueer folks in the indigenous community in North America), LGBTTQQIAAP (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, pansexual), and QUILTBAG (queer, intersex, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, asexual, and gay).
|
|
Last year, of the 61 percent of employees who responded to Facebook's LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or asexual), 7 percent identified in that way.
|
|
GLAAD also notes that this is the first year in history it's been able to count asexual and non-binary characters in the study at all.
|
|
It's a common feeling for many asexual people as they figure out their identity, and also used to be what doctors and other medical professionals thought.
|
|
"Asexual reproduction should dominate and sex should be rare because sex is enormously wasteful, primarily because males don't produce offspring, (at least not directly)," Auld says.
|
|
While the rainbow flag represents the entire LGBTQ+ community, there's also a Bisexual Pride Flag, a Pansexual Pride Flag, an Asexual Pride Flag, and many others.
|
|
I believe if more people were aware that asexual/aromantic identities exist, many people would be more accepting of their disinterest in sex or romantic relationships.
|
|
The argument over asexual inclusion isn't a new one; in fact, Dore and co-author Emma Absolon wrote a pamphlet on the topic back in 2011.
|
|
The all-female soldiers in asexual colonies were more uniform in the size of their heads, which they use to block enemies from invading their nests.
|
|
In one such study, Abraham E. Tucker of Southern Arkansas University and his colleagues studied 11 asexual species of water fleas, a tiny kind of invertebrate.
|
|
" But he didn't actually come out as asexual then, a personal revelation he avoided tooth and nail until his late 20s, preferring the safety of "nothing.
|
|
I was the person that I describe in 'I Love Dick,' this very shy, asexual woman, bad teeth, not a good haircut, not the right clothes.
|
|
And the official character description calls him a 'heartthrob,' which puts him in the context of sex and romance," said McAlpine, who considers herself "solidly asexual.
|
|
Being asexual can make you feel like you've missed a big punchline somewhere, like, everyone's in on a secret but they're not letting you in on it.
|
|
The site did not use the word in other parts of the site except the guide, which was written specifically for queer, trans, intersex, and asexual people.
|
|
Someone who is gray-asexual, or graysexual, experiences sexual attraction rarely or only in specific circumstances or they might experience sexual attraction without the accompanying sex drive.
|
|
The term, which can represent gay, lesbian, asexual, intersex and transgender people, among others, used to be a derogatory one, but Cannon and others are reclaiming it.
|
|
My own companion, a nerdy engineer named Parvati (who is basically an asexual version of the character Kaylee from Firefly) had begged me not to do it.
|
|
So while some people might choose to save themselves for marriage or forego sex for other reasons, they aren't asexual (as long as they feel sexual attraction).
|
|
Just as heterosexual people can be allies for Pride and the queer community, people on the asexual spectrum can, and regularly do, support others' enthusiasm for sex.
|
|
"That can mean having premarital sex and hooking up a lot, but it can also mean being asexual, or choosing to wait to have sex," Twenge said.
|
|
Todd, as his voice actor, Aaron Paul, says, may be "the first asexual character on television," and his loyalty to BoJack is often rewarded with heartbreaking indifference.
|
|
Apart from the design of the product itself, the way sex toys are packaged and marketed are also something that many asexual people had specific opinions on.
|
|
The A is a source of strength for the asexual community and should not be taken away in order to thank heterosexuals for being decent human beings.
|
|
To coincide with sponsoring Pride in London, Budweiser's British arm released beer cups in the colours of nine different Pride flags, including asexual, intersex and non-binary.
|
|
We need more transgender characters, more queer characters on the LGBTQ spectrum (nonbinary, asexual, intersex, pansexual), and more queer disabled characters, portrayed fairly and free of stereotypes.
|
|
To coincide with sponsoring Pride in London, Budweiser's British arm released beer cups in the colors of nine different Pride flags, including asexual, intersex and non-binary.
|
|
The only primetime series on one of the big four broadcast networks to address asexuality was a 2012 episode of House, which didn't include any asexual characters.
|
|
And BoJack Horseman changed asexual representation forever by devoting a multi-season arc to Todd coming to terms with his sexuality and finally feeling like he belongs.
|
|
At CliniQ, asexual health center for trans people, operating from London's Dean StreetClinic, co-founder Michelle Ross says that invisibility in HIV campaigns is a huge problem.
|
|
When I was at school, and you're a teenager just trying to fit in in this intense, peer-pressured environment, being asexual makes you feel even more different.
|
|
At the same time, asexual pests do have plenty of ways to evade our chemical weapons, as we're brutally finding out now with the rise of bacterial superbugs.
|
|
Specifically, they recommend the Asexual Visibility & Education Network, which contains a large archive of information as well as forums to talk to others and read about their experiences.
|
|
"A lot of people feel that they have to live up to these labels and tick all the boxes, otherwise they can't be a real asexual," Doré says.
|
|
Although asexual-specific dating services exist, they aren't well-trafficked, and many aces say the lack of accommodation on mainstream apps often makes them feel ignored and frustrated.
|
|
There are no identification or filtering options for aces, so if you want to identify as asexual or aromantic, you have to work around the app's existing infrastructure.
|
|
However, Auld and his colleagues devised a way to directly measure the biological benefits of sex using wild-caught waterfleas, an organism that is both sexual and asexual.
|
|
This is why visibility is so important: If you don't know the word for asexual, then you end up doing things like I did, where you get pathologized.
|
|
The Budweiser UK account tweeted out photos of various bottles stylized specifically for the different identities that make up the LGBTQ community, including: bisexuals, pansexuals, and asexual folks.
|
|
They also only kill parasites at the asexual-stage where they cause fever but not at the sexual-stage where they are picked up by mosquitoes in blood.
|
|
" While the short film is indeed beautiful and celebratory, we do wish it had taken the opportunity to showcase asexual identity instead of allyship for the letter "A.
|
|
Reedus didn't confirm that Daryl is asexual on the show, telling another reporter on the red carpet as much when they attempted to ask more about Daryl's sexuality.
|
|
Out of context, you might not even be able to tell that an asexual person wrote many of the reviews at all — and that's kind of the lesson.
|
|
At the time, Elisa says, she didn't fully understand that she was asexual, and instead felt something was "wrong" with her as she tried to power through it.
|
|
Perhaps the first depiction of asexuality on television came in 2003, in the form of Craig Kilborn's recurring character Sebastian, the Asexual Icon, for CBS's Late Late Show.
|
|
In photographs such as "Baby Sleep" and "Family Portrait," Lawson plays with the stereotypes of black women's supposed lasciviousness while she derails the myth of the asexual mother.
|
|
Her discovery of asexuality also led her to the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN)—connecting her to other people with little or no desire to have sex.
|
|
There are asexual people who still go searching for a partner because that romantic ideal is just as much ingrained in us as it is in anyone else.
|
|
Switching from sexual to asexual reproduction is far less common, although not impossible, Dudgeon told The New Scientist, citing an eagle ray and boa constrictor who have done so.
|
|
Several of your teammates fill their character sheets with terms like "Asexual Gender-Neutral Kite Alien," mimicking the same "I identify as___" jokes transphobes make to delegitimize our existence.
|
|
Here, Abril shares with BuzzFeed News pictures and words from those who identify as asexual, as well as her thoughts on how the project has evolved since its beginnings.
|
|
The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) forums are a popular place to meet and connect, to discuss and grow, pose problems, and make themselves known, free of stereotypes.
|
|
" But, Rose said "I would rather keep getting roles -- gay, straight, bi, asexual, who cares -- in versatile situations than the idea of just me being gay and playing gay.
|
|
Some people identify as demisexual (interested in sex but only when there's a strong emotional connection) or as graysexual (moving fluidly between asexual and sexual depending on the circumstances).
|
|
As Houser points out, our society tends to think of people with disabilities as asexual, and are therefore "infantilized" and less likely to be taken seriously when reporting abuse.
|
|
An asexual person also jumped into the conversation, to lament how difficult it is to get doctors to believe that some people aren't interested in having sex at all.
|
|
Why some couples have more sex Another really interesting aspect of the paper dealt specifically with asexual people's fantasies, which were elicited by open-ended questions on the survey.
|
|
Even though my sex ed was progressive in that there was mention of how people are gay, lesbian, trans, or asexual, they were framed as out of the norm.
|
|
When he posed the question, "What would an asexual sex toy be, if a company wanted to try to market sex toys to aces?" it garnered over 400 responses.
|
|
At around the three week point, both SB-1 and SB-3 had laid a new generation of tardigrade eggs via parthenogenesis, which is an asexual form of reproduction.
|
|
In fact, a recent study of 351 people who identify as asexual found that nearly half of women and three-quarters of men reported having sexual fantasies and masturbating.
|
|
Last year, Shadowhunters won the GLAAD award for Outstanding Drama Series for its depictions of multiple LGBTQ characters, so perhaps Raphael won't be the last asexual on the show.
|
|
The publisher Abrams is beginning a graphic novel imprint dedicated to expanding the presence in the medium of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual creators and stories.
|
|
AVEN was founded in 2001 with the goal of "creating public acceptance and discussion of asexuality and facilitating the growth of an asexual community," according to the organization's website.
|
|
" Robyn Franklin, 22, Louisville, KY "Lithromantic, on the asexual spectrum, describes someone who can feel romantic attraction toward others and also enjoy being in romantic relationships, but only in theory.
|
|
Aces & Aros notes that this is likely because people of color may be less likely to participate in asexual communities and surveys and have access to online resources about asexuality.
|
|
People on the asexual spectrum who do experience some sexual attraction, but only in certain situations, like after they've formed a strong emotional or romantic connection with a partner. Dyke
|
|
There's also the more ethically comfortable idea of asexual reproduction, which would involve planting biophores on habitable—but uninhabited—worlds, where they could start a new riff on Earth life.
|
|
Regardless of where they stand on the asexual spectrum, individuals who see themselves in this community aren't represented in a media and culture that's striving to embrace and destigmatize sex.
|
|
The campaign aims to center the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and other sexualities, sexes and genders (LGBTQIA+) and black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC).
|
|
There are a bunch of interesting, obvious questions touching on facets of sexuality that don't entail getting together with another person: To take two, how often do asexual people masturbate?
|
|
Oftentimes, they fantasized in a third-person sort of way, with both asexual men and women far more likely than their sexual counterparts to fantasize about situations not involving them.
|
|
Still, we're not shy about talking about sex here and many people — especially those who feel like they may identify within the asexual (aka ace) spectrum — have plenty of questions.
|
|
Elisa Hansen, a 35-year-old living in North Carolina, is biromantic ace, meaning that she is attracted to more than one gender romantically, while her sexual orientation is asexual.
|
|
Brilliantly portrayed by the legendary Lotte Lenya and Robert Shaw, Klebb and Grant embody Hollywood's preferred vision of Cold-War Russian spies: powerful, yet coldly asexual extensions of the state.
|
|
It would be four more years until television saw its first sincere asexual character in Gerald Tippett (Harry McNaughton), introduced in 2007 on the New Zealand soap opera Shortland Street.
|
|
Val was the focus of a major storyline where she forms a strong bond with fellow EMT Brian (Kevin Bigley), who isn't asexual but is hopelessly in love with Val.
|
|
I think something like asexuality is underrepresented, and since we have a character who was asexual before people had the word for it, I'm continuing to write him that way.
|
|
What I wish people knew about asexuality is that it's OK not to have sex, and that it's OK to have sex and to be asexual, and there's no definitive asexuality.
|
|
Once I was discovering more about this community and what it meant to be asexual, the idea was also to show the differences within the spectrum: gray-sexuality, demisexuality, aromantic, etc.
|
|
Sexual and romantic identities are also distinct; a person may identify as asexual, but not aromantic (uninterested in emotional relationships), and therefore pursue romantic relationships with little or no physical component.
|
|
I am just getting to the point now at 42 of accepting that I'm a heteroromantic asexual It seems like the inclusion of heteroromantic and cis asexuals is the most contested.
|
|
In 2012, for example, an "autistic pangender asexual demiromantic trans-asian cat" with thousands of followers admitted to being three bored teenagers, none of whom identified as any of those things.
|
|
Some people experience occasional sexual attraction (gray-asexual), some people don't experience sexual attraction until a bond is formed (demisexual), some people feel sexual attraction but don't want it reciprocated (lithosexual).
|
|
Now there's also I, for intersex; A, for ally (or asexual, depending on whom you're talking to); and often a plus sign meant to cover anyone else who's not included: L.G.B.T.Q.I.A.+.
|
|
In this honest, visually stunning, and ultimately life-affirming graphic novel, writer and illustrator Kobabe has truly given the world — but especially gender-nonconforming, gender-questioning, and asexual folks — a gift.
|
|
The actor told told Hollywood Life last week that he is "fighting... pretty heavily" to write Jughead as asexual in the future of the show, despite his apparent heterosexuality in season 1.
|
|
" 163, gay, male"Asking before touching/groping — even in a dark, cruisy bar ;-)" 33, asexual, female"When I was (a lot) younger, I could get kind of 'butthurt' if someone rejected me.
|
|
One of the most common signs that might indicate someone is asexual, Langevin says, is not being able to relate to peers when the talk about who they find "hot" or attractive.
|
|
One of the hardest things about dating as a person with disabilities is being perceived as asexual—or even worse, being dismissed entirely because the disability is seen as an overwhelming drawback.
|
|
The Williams Institute estimates that one percent of the population is asexual, though that number is sourced from a study by Anthony F. Bogaert in which he says it's a rough estimate.
|
|
According to the study, similar filaments in existing marine species "typically fulfill stabilization, defense, nutrient transport, or (asexual) reproductive roles" and hypothesized that the same could be true of the rangeomorph structures.
|
|
But even with these advances, that's still only a handful of American television shows that have ever made room for asexual characters, and there hasn't exactly been a rush to introduce more.
|
|
" Down the hall, Mildred Toussaint, a 20-year-old volunteer who identifies as asexual and agender, said: "I wanted to expand my horizons, meet more people, possibly make a friend or two.
|
|
In this video, one person gets real with Refinery29 and explains what it really means to be asexual, from the moments of self-discovery to helping others feel comfortable in their own skin.
|
|
"The national inquiry's findings support characterizing these acts, including violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2SLGBTQQIA (two-spirit, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual) people, as genocide," the report states.
|
|
"Obviously, I can't separate being a woman from being an asexual person, because I'll always be both," said Julie Sondra Decker, 40, the author of the 2014 seminal ace book The Invisible Orientation.
|
|
"There are lots of different ways a person can be asexual, but it usually has to do with the ways people want to physically express their romantic love for other people," Eliza says.
|
|
Read More:Sales For This Lush Body Lotion Are Up 184% — & For Good ReasonWhat It Means To Be Asexual, Bicurious — & Other Sexualities You Need To Know For The Modeling Industry, The Future Is Transgender
|
|
Garden snails, in particular, are capable of asexual reproduction, which means they're able to reproduce without another mate, but according to Davison, still prefer to get it on with another individual, if possible.
|
|
"The fact that he's gay — that doesn't mean he has my back as a trans person," said LGBTQIA+ educator and activist Jamey Jesperson, who identifies as a progressive queer non-binary asexual transfemme.
|
|
They exude asexual wholesomeness (in the case of William and Kate) and bad-boy cheekiness (in the case of Harry), and give the appearance of working alongside, not in opposition of, public opinion.
|
|
"Pretty much the main reason I was interested in watching Riverdale was cause I wanted to see if they would follow that arc," said Graveson, who realized they was asexual three years ago.
|
|
There's a lot of diversity within the community—we have asexual people who do feel a romantic attraction to people, which means they have a nonsexual desire to share their life with someone.
|
|
I was 17 years old when I started to realize that I didn't feel the same desire as most people, but back then, I didn't know that being asexual was even a thing.
|
|
I remember the first time I met asexual people, I just wanted to talk to them forever, because it was so empowering to hear your experiences reflected back at you for the first time.
|
|
While the rainbow flag works as a general flag for all LGBTQ+ people, other parts of the queer community — transgender people, asexual people, bisexual people, genderqueer people, and more — have created their own flags.
|
|
He's been trying to rectify the lack of diversity we see on TV by pushing for his Riverdale character Jughead to be asexual, like he was in the Archie Comics series it's based on.
|
|
In it annual report on diversity on the small screen, GLAAD found 329 regular and recurring LGBTQ characters across all broadcast, cable and streaming TV platforms, including the first asexual and non-binary characters.
|
|
Sexuality and gender identity aren't really that hard to understand, yet we hear again and again that identities like intersex or asexual are too hard for straight, cisgender people to wrap their minds around.
|
|
It's weird to think of dance music as asexual, but Zedd—unlike the Calvin Harrises of the world—doesn't talk about those aspects of his private life, and there's something endearing about that guardedness.
|
|
NAIROBI (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Disabled women around the world are being denied basic health services from family planning advice to pap smears because they are seen as asexual, disability rights campaigners said on Thursday.
|
|
Imogen, her commitment to Posthumus total, wants nothing to do with the childish Cloten (brought to crazed life by Christopher Geary, who attacks the role with fervor and gives it a quirkily asexual style).
|
|
You love working with Joe Mantello so much that when he directed the Sting musical, "The Last Ship," you wanted him to write you a cameo role as an asexual deckhand named Swabby. Yeah.
|
|
Ms. Coel's performance as a nerdy wallflower bursting out of repression is matched by those of Susan Wokoma as her angrily devout sister and John Macmillan as her supercilious and curiously asexual boyfriend. 231.
|
|
This would seem to be the earliest strata of the Jesus logion and the import of it is that in God's kingdom marriage is not required since human beings are asexual and do not reproduce.
|
|
Asexual populations are very much limited in their evolutionary potential by the genomes currently present within a population, while sexual populations can evolve much further by mixing and matching genes initially present in different individuals.
|
|
But in order to get a better sense of the issue, I decided to speak to people within the asexual community, and get their take on exactly why this has been such a polarizing issue.
|
|
The results, just published in Archives of Sexual Behavior, strongly suggest that the "asexual" label could be capturing too broad a group, and that it might be time to get a bit more fine-grained.
|
|
Queer is an umbrella term for non-straight people; intersex refers to those whose sex is not clearly defined because of genetic, hormonal or biological differences; and asexual describes those who don't experience sexual attraction.
|
|
Princess Carolyn and her mouse boyfriend Ralph (Raul Esparza) are trying for a baby while she runs her own management company, and even Todd finds something like stability when he joins an asexual support group.
|
|
But that doesn't mean they don't happen: In the 2015 asexual community census, a volunteer-run project, 43.5% of nearly 8,000 aces surveyed reported having experienced some form of sexual violence (including rape, assault, and coercion).
|
|
People who identify as gray asexual might have a very low libido, or only feel sexual attraction toward someone in special circumstances, like when they've formed an emotional bond with someone or are in a relationship.
|
|
Ms Waithe, a lesbian, went on to thank her "LGBTQIA family" (standing for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual): "The world would not be as beautiful as it is if we weren't in it".
|
|
There were a few adults who did not compulsively visit our website every day: these were mostly very elderly, severely vision-impaired, and truly asexual, amounting collectively to about 2.3 percent of the global adult population.
|
|
On paper, the concept is clear -- asexual people simply don't experience sexual attraction -- but since scientists are so early on in their attempts to understand the phenomenon, they're not quite sure about many of the specifics.
|
|
The asexual termites have an extra chromosome compared with the sexual ones, suggesting the two groups may now be diverging into different species, said Nathan Lo, an evolutionary biology professor also at the University of Sydney.
|
|
The sexually open-minded Murdoch had only a few years earlier married the largely asexual literary critic John Bayley, but I knew nothing of her past, or her present, and, of course, nothing of her future.
|
|
If they don't, though, Raphael and Shadowhunters are back for their third season, and as far as representation goes, those of us who are asexual could do a lot worse than the coolest vampire in Brooklyn.
|
|
Leonie the leopard shark (also known as a zebra shark) from Reef HQ aquarium in Townsville, Australia, has stunned researchers by becoming the first of her species with a recorded mating history to switch to asexual reproduction.
|
|
In still other cases, though, Fertig suspects that it also stems from a widespread view that people with disabilities are asexual beings who wouldn't be interested in, able to have, or desired as partners for sexual encounters.
|
|
He worked on Mr. Peanutbutter's abortive campaign for California governor, got railroaded into a sham engagement to the vapid actress Courtney Portnoy (Sharon Horgan), embraced his asexual identity and launched an ill-advised business venture: clown dentists.
|
|
These were minor, disposable mascots who played to stereotypes, provided shallow comic relief or merely died first to show that others were in danger — the obnoxious gay best friend, the asexual Asian bookworm, the West Indian nanny.
|
|
So there are asexual people who decide to have sex, either because they enjoy pleasuring their partner or because although they don't feel that desire, they still know that they are going to have a good time.
|
|
Users can also elect to either display or hide these identifiers — which include asexual, demisexual, queer, questioning, and more — on their profiles, as well as choose to see people of their same orientation first in their Discovery Preferences.
|
|
"They also concluded that asexuals, like sexual people, are a very diverse group: "There are likely a large number of variations in how (lack of) sexual attraction is experienced that might lead a person to identify as asexual.
|
|
As more research has found wide variability in how people experience their desires, and as bisexual, asexual, and pansexual activists have challenged the binary model of attraction, the notion of a fixed, inborn sexuality is ripe for revision.
|
|
Users can choose up to three terms from the nine initial options — straight, gay, lesbian, bisexual, asexual, demisexual, pansexual, queer, and questioning — and they can then decide whether they want that orientation to show up on their profile.
|
|
The album's biggest single, "Dance to This," is a collaboration with Ariana Grande that sets the scene for a night of drunken kitchen sex, but Sivan and Grande sing it with enough innocence to render it nearly asexual.
|
|
Critics have been quick to declare the film a positive representation of disability -- Elisa is employed, independent and a sexual being, a rarity for a group of people often portrayed in movies and books as childlike and asexual.
|
|
Despite constant contact with him, Daniela told the jury, she believed she was "kind of asexual" up until her early 20s, when she discovered she had romantic feelings for another man in the NXIVM community named Ben Myers.
|
|
In that role, Downton Abbey's Harry Hadden-Paton is underrated and brilliant, as he pulls off the herculean feat of staying likable and ensuring that Higgins still makes sense as a character who's, in this production, essentially asexual.
|
|
Of the 56 broths tested, five were found to exert greater than 50% growth inhibition against asexual blood stages of the parasite, with two having comparable inhibition to that seen with a leading antimalarial drug, the researchers report.
|
|
Demisexual [dem-ee sek-shoo-uh l] | adjective (demisexual people) People on the asexual spectrum who do experience some sexual attraction, but only in certain situations, like after they've formed a strong emotional or romantic connection with a partner.
|
|
Amer, who recently came out as non-binary, joins their friend Teddy (a talking teddy bear) to explain everything from what it means to be gay or asexual to gender pronouns and what it means when someone is transgender.
|
|
"Women with a disability are viewed as asexual - that we are not human and do not have needs or sexual desires," said Mildred Omino, a campaigner with Kenyan charity Women and Realities of Disability who needs crutches to walk.
|
|
Angelica (who asked that her last name be withheld to protect her privacy), is a 21-year-old demiromantic asexual; the former term means that she only experiences romantic attraction after developing an emotional connection with a person first.
|
|
Identifying themselves as gay, bisexual, asexual, non-binary, transgender, fat, Black, Chicana, disabled, and more, these young Americans congratulate Trump on attaining the highest office in the land before imploring him to take the potential impact of his new position seriously.
|
|
But if I were to push up my glasses here and talk about the technicalities, I might mention that asexual plant reproduction à la stem-cutting — like Rocket growing a new Groot from a twig — would actually qualify as a clone.
|
|
As Skurtu said, a great relationship (at least, between people who aren't asexual) needs for the partners to feel loyal and connected to each other, like family, to like spending time together, like friends, and to have chemistry, like lovers.
|
|
And asexuals are no different—"asexual" is an umbrella that covers a broad number of intersectional sexual, romantic, and gender identities, including heteroromantic, homoromantic, panromantic, aromantic, cis or trans, or "gray asexuals" (those who do experience some sexual attraction on occasion).
|
|
Despite having two sexes, known as mating-types a and alpha, yeast's default mode of reproduction is asexual, so Dr Desai's first task was to work out a way to turn his yeast cells on to sex, as it were.
|
|
Using phrases such as "other forms of physical expression" shows parents that they can avoid having the sex talk with their kids and still explain what it means to be asexual — which breaks down a common argument used with many sexualities.
|
|
Betty got together with Jughead (Cole Sprouse) — revamped from the comics' burger-obsessed asexual into a broodingly sarcastic writer — and shippers immediately dubbed the pair Bughead and started filling Tumblr with fanfiction and GIF sets and analysis devoted to their romance.
|
|
Old-school personal ads — once the domain of newspaper back pages before Craigslist — are the currency of Personals, an Instagram dating community she has built for lesbians; bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual women; and gender-nonconforming and nonbinary people.
|
|
Earlier this year, Lyft changed their app settings to allow passengers to specify preferred pronouns, while Tinder added a sexual orientation tab that let users choose from options such as: Straight, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Asexual, Demisexual, Pansexual, Queer and Questioning.
|
|
I identify as more or less asexual so this inadequate education doesn't really affect me too much, but I still think it would have been beneficial for me and my fellow students to have heard a more honest account of sexuality.
|
|
Meanwhile, Felicity must educate herself in secret, covertly relying on books, and is bound for finishing school with no chance of ever becoming a doctor; she will probably be forced to marry, even though she is fairly certain she is asexual.
|
|
Kirchick's piece is filled with the common gripes of white, cis, gay men, citing protests of Pride parades by Black Lives Matter activists, questioning the inclusion of asexual people under the LGBTQ banner, and displaying general disregard for the needs of trans people.
|
|
But a transgender person can identify as a woman, even though she was assigned male at birth, and be gay (attracted to other women), straight (attracted to men), bisexual, asexual (sexually attracted to no one), or attracted to a traditionally undefined gender.
|
|
One of her most affecting subplots comes from Sim's sweet flirtation with Felicity, which forces the asexual Felicity to think about whether she is also aromantic, or whether she wants to make room in her life for an unconventional kind of romance.
|
|
I knew I was different and sometimes felt like I was excluded from activities, but I don't know if that had anything to do with being an asexual or if it was because of many years of experiencing bullying as a kid.
|
|
In a year that has seen a significant increase in violence toward L.G.B.T.Q. and intersex or asexual people throughout the United States, according to a report by the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs, the work of brASS has taken on another dimension.
|
|
While these forums could provide valuable insights to the makers of sex toys, if they wanted to market directly to aces, they also provide a valuable service to asexual people who are in the process of discovering more about what their orientation means.
|
|
The asexuality one is particularly disheartening; After introducing the rare destigmatized asexual character, Sex Education feeds us a cursory explainer and then sends her on her merry way, magically immune to peer pressure, further confusion, or the pros and cons of coming out.
|
|
The idea that there are some people who just do not experience sexual attraction has a more prominent place in our cultural consciousness today, something for which the the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), founded in 2001, gets much of the credit.
|
|
But a trans person can identify as a man, even though he was assigned female at birth, and be gay (attracted to other men), straight (attracted to women), bisexual, asexual (sexually attracted to no one), or attracted to a traditionally undefined gender.
|
|
"One theory is that in the wild, if for some reason males can't have contact with the females for one breeding season, they can keep their lineage going for one or two seasons [through asexual reproduction], until they can reproduce the traditional way," said Tristam.
|
|
Much to the chagrin of Will (Noah Schnapp), his friends all seem way more interested in having girlfriends than in embarking on new D&D adventures, and as the group's only late bloomer or asexual and/or queer kid, he's feeling pretty left out.
|
|
They appeared in a rainbow of colors and read (in descending order): Lesbian Street, Bisexual Street, Trans Street, Queer Street, Intersex Street, Asexual Street, Nonbinary Street, Pansexual Street, Two Spirit Street and + Street, with the plus sign designating any group that might feel excluded.
|
|
At a recent rally in the shadow of the Capitol in Washington, D.C., some of the young people in the crowd identified themselves as asexual — a sexual orientation in which a person feels little or no sexual attraction — which has recently gained increased awareness.
|
|
The first thing you need to know about your mom, as long as she isn't asexual or hasn't denounced sex for other reasons (like the amazing Jane Fonda, who's just over it), is that orgasms give her the same kind of pleasure that they give you.
|
|
When Sherlock needs to confront his humanity through red-blooded sexual attraction to a woman (since Moffat had scoffed repeatedly at the idea of him being either queer or asexual), there's Irene Adler, a self-described lesbian, inexplicably and immediately falling in love with Sherlock anyway.
|
|
"The lack of sexual attraction is just as much an important part of the sexuality spectrum as the rest of the LGBTQ community's sexual and romantic orientations," Aaron says, but he notes that even some within the LGBTQ community don't understand, or hold contempt for, asexual people.
|
|
Historically, there has been very little research dedicated to understanding the asexual/aromantic community (also known as the ace/aro community), in large part because it undermines what many psychoanalysts have been telling us for so long: that sex is the most essential of human desires.
|
|
Television has yet to depict an asexual who is romantically gay, bi, or pan: Sirens, Shadowhunters, and BoJack Horseman's storylines focus heavily on potential romances between men and women, and the idea that these characters might find romance in same-gender relationships is never brought up.
|
|
Instead, it created humanely rendered portrayals of his support system: the depressed writer Diane (Alison Brie); his on-again, off-again girlfriend, manager, and agent Princess Carolyn (Amy Sedaris); the overly optimistic actor Mr. Peanutbutter (Paul F. Tompkins); and his asexual slacker friend Todd (Aaron Paul).
|
|
These days, of course, science has removed most of the risks of spoilage with dry ice and jet travel, as well as most of the fun from the lives of oysters with asexual triploid reproduction and year-round farming, so they probably want us to eat them, really.
|
|
In the new season, you meet a young artist who hires a sex worker for a "boyfriend experience" and finds him somewhat needy; there's an asexual (but not aromantic) amateur magician, a recurring character, who must overcome his aversion to physical touch when he starts dating an intimacy coordinator.
|
|
They seemed to want women to be asexual, when the point of his crusade was to celebrate their wonderful differences: as displayed by those Bunny Girls who staffed his clubs and casinos, so cute in those black-satin corsets that made their breasts bigger, those big ears and fluffy tails.
|
|
Here is a charming story from Jamie Lauren Keiles about Personals, an Instagram dating community built for lesbians; bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex and asexual women; and gender-nonconforming and nonbinary people: The page, which has over 40,000 followers, works like this: Text-based personal ads are submitted once a month.
|
|
To better understand this group, a trio of University of British Columbia researchers, Morag Yule, Lori Brotto, and Boris Gorzalka, conducted a survey in which they asked 739 people, 351 of them asexual (as defined by an inventory of questions designed to capture asexuality), about their sexual experiences and fantasies.
|
|
Scientists said on Monday they have deciphered the genome of the Amazon molly, one of the few vertebrate species to rely upon asexual reproduction, and discovered that it had none of the genetic flaws, such as an accumulation of harmful mutations or a lack of genetic diversity, they had expected.
|
|
To better understand what it's like to be in a romantic relationship when you do identify as ace, I spoke with asexual people who experience romantic attraction on what they would like non-ace people to know about their identities and partnerships, and what they wished they'd known earlier, too.
|
|