Introduction to How Asexuality Works

In his groundbreaking 1948 report, "Sexual Behavior in the Human Male," Alfred Kinsey wrote, "the world is not to be divided into sheep and goats" [source: Kinsey Institute]. By that, the controversial sexologist meant that it's a fallacy to neatly slice the human population into a sexual binary divided between heterosexual and homosexual camps. The Kinsey Scale he and his colleagues developed instead plotted people's sexual preferences along a sliding spectrum, leaving room for fleeting attractions and longer-term compulsions alike [source: Kinsey Institute].

For all that inclusiveness, one subgroup nevertheless didn't find a place on the Kinsey continuum. Adult men and women identified as Group X expressed "no socio-sexual contacts or relations" [source: Havlak]. That 1.5 percent of men and roughly 15 percent of women surveyed didn't appear to swing one way or the other; for them, sex was a moot point.

Kinsey's animal farm analogy was unwittingly apropos since it isn't uncommon for rams to fit into their own Group X. A study published in 2002 examined the mating preferences among adult rams and labeled 15 percent of its sample population as asexual, or not attempting to copulate with either male or female sheep [source: Roselli et al]. With his body of research, lead scientist Charles Roselli was using sheep brain imaging, hormone measurements and observational data to establish a biological basis for homosexuality, since a number of those same rams took up with other rams, rather than going for the females in heat [source: Saletan]. But just as Kinsey paid more attention to people's sexual proclivities, instead of Group X's lack thereof, Roselli largely looked over the asexual rams in the mix.

As of 2004, however, Group X and non-reproductive rams have cropped up in more classroom conversations. That was the year that asexuality -- considered by some to be the fourth sexual orientation -- came out of the closet.

What is asexuality?

According to the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), asexuality as a sexual orientation (distinct from the method of reproduction with the same name) is characterized by a lack of sexual attraction [source: AVEN]. It's also different from celibacy, which is a choice to remain sexually inactive as a resistance against desire and attraction. That doesn't, however, imply that something is physically wrong with asexuals. Going back to the asexual rams, for example, their lack of interest wasn't linked to deficient reproductive systems or dwindling levels of testosterone [source: Roselli et al]. Likewise, studies among self-identifying asexual humans have yet to establish any physiological differences between them and the greater population. At the same time, academic field work in asexuality is still in its infancy.

Anthony F. Bogaert, a psychologist at Brock University in Canada, ushered asexuality into academia -- and media headlines -- with a study he published in the Journal of Sex Research in August 2004. Bogaert examined survey data collected among British households in 1994 and zeroed in on a question regarding sexual attraction. Out of a sample size of nearly 19,000, 1.5 percent of respondents answered "I have never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all" [source: Bogaert]. Though small, that proportion wasn't much slimmer than the 3 percent of people reporting same-sex attraction [source: Bering]. In a follow-up theoretical paper published in 2006, Bogaert framed asexuality as a distinct sexual orientation, squaring out heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality [source: Scherrer].

Since sex is cornerstone of our evolutionary history and individual identities, it might be challenging to understand what the absence of that drive feels like. In 2005, Indiana University psychologists conducted in-depth interviews with four self-identified asexuals, which revealed their low desires for intercourse and sexual contact alongside yearning for non-sexual bonding and relationship [source: Prause and Graham]. On the flip side, asexuals also recognized certain benefits to their orientation, including more free time and low risks of STD contraction or unwanted pregnancy [source: Prause and Graham].

That initial research probably came as little surprise to David Jay, founder of the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network (AVEN). Jay started the site www.asexuality.org in 2001 as a home base for a burgeoning online asexual community and a virtual resource center [source: AVEN Wiki]. As a host of media outlets began buzzing about Bogaert's asexuality statistics, Jay, a handsome brunet, became the de facto public face of the orientation, repeatedly explaining that while he had never engaged in sexual intercourse, he built emotionally fulfilling relationships with other people [source: Westphal].

Meanwhile, psychologists, sexologists and gender studies scholars set out to unearth what asexuality looks like and where it fits in the sexual spectrum.

This Is What an Asexual Looks Like

Although the definition of an asexual -- "a person who does not experience sexual attraction" -- sounds strict, the asexual experience isn't so narrow. Some asexuals are virgins; others aren't. Some masturbate; others don't. Some pursue non-sexual, romantic relationships; others avoid close emotional bonding. Nevertheless, surveys to date have highlighted some hallmarks of the asexual community at large.

Most notably, adult women far outnumber men in the self-identified asexual community. In the initial 1994 sexuality survey in Britain, women comprised 71 percent of those who acknowledged no sexual attractions [source: Bogaert]. More recent data also reflects a significant gender gap. In 2008, the Asexual Visibility and Education Network conducted an informal survey among its online community to gauge demographics and behaviors; again, 71 percent identified as female [source: AVEN]. Respondents to the 2011 Asexual Census were slightly more diverse. Sixty-four percent identified as female, 14.1 percent as male and the remaining 22 percent as gender-neutral or androgynous [source: Asexual Awareness Week].

The asexual community also acknowledges varying degrees of interpersonal desire. In fact, a majority of asexuals feel romantic attractions toward other people, and some even get married [source: Cox]. Closer to 17 or 18 percent are aromantic, or completely uninterested in fostering non-platonic relationships [source: Asexual Awareness Week]. Of course, it isn't guaranteed that asexual people will fall for other asexual people, which is why some are sexually active for the benefit of their partners. That said, a majority of self-identified asexuals remain virgins [source: Asexual Awareness Week].

No matter where asexuals fall in their comfort levels with sexual contact, most aren't opposed to others having sex, or the concept of sex; it simply provokes no desire on their part. To get that message across to the public, the asexual community has adopted a slice of cake as its unifying symbol. Allegedly, the confectionary mascot came from an asexual who explained his regard for sex thusly: "Between cake and sex, I'd choose cake" [source: Havlak].

But in some corners of the academic and clinical communities, asexuality is met with a measure of skepticism and concern.

Asexuality: Sexual orientation or sexual disorder?

Since the Asexual Visibility and Education Network went live in 2001, the online community has swelled to between 19,000 and 30,000 members worldwide [source: Cerankowski and Milks; AVEN Wiki]. But the growing recognition and acceptance of asexuality in recent years has also raised eyebrows. In clinical settings, disinterest in sex is more often regarded as a problematic symptom rather than a healthy, acceptable aspect of one's identity [source: Cerankowski and Milks]. Asexuality critics therefore counter that asexuality equates willful disengagement, like a protracted form of celibacy; the product of psychological trauma; or a hormonal imbalance that saps sexual impulses [source: Melby].

To understand how the dearth of a sex drive is so quickly pathologized, one need only flip through a copy of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), mental health professionals' handbook for doling out patient diagnoses. Two disorders are characterized by a lack of, disdain for and avoidance of sexual contact: Sexual Aversion Disorder (SAD) and Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD) [source: Brotto].

Whereas SAD manifests as an anxiety-inducing sexual phobia, which doesn't align with the communal definitions and characteristics of the asexual community, HSDD poses more of a challenge to the acceptance of asexuality as a sexual orientation. Defined in the DSM-IV as "persistently or recurrently deficient (or absent) sexual fantasies and desire for sexual activity," HSDD doesn't sound all that different from the asexual experience. However, pathologizing a sexual identity because it exists beyond the bounds of normative behavior is also a slippery slope toward discrimination.

Though asexuals and people diagnosed with HSDD may share common behaviors, there's one crucial footnote: According to the DSM, nonexistent sexual desire must incite "marked distress or interpersonal difficulty" to meet the criteria for HSDD [source: Brotto]. Since the asexual community embraces the absence of sexual attraction and reports building healthy, solid relationships otherwise, they argue that theirs is an orientation that necessitates no clinical treatment. For that reason, some have petitioned the American Psychiatric Association, which publishes the DSM, to revise its HSDD definition in the upcoming DSM-V edition to allow exception for the asexual orientation [source: Cerankowski and Milks].

Asexuals' challenge to the DSM classification is reminiscent of the successful protest gay rights advocates pitched to remove "homosexuality" as a mental illness from the handbook in 1973 [source: American Journal of Psychiatry]. Yet to be formally recognized as a fourth sexual orientation, such a designation could help solidify asexuality's place within humanity's sexual spectrum, and redefine sexuality beyond merely a measure of with whom or what, to also encompass by how much and how often. And if that happens, the community will most likely celebrate with a mouthwatering slice of cake.

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