BY ALAINA INOUYE
COMMUNICATIONS EDITOR-IN-TRAINING
In honor of the first International Asexuality Day, which took place on April 6th, this article will bust some of the myths about asexuality. Asexuality is a commonly misunderstood sexuality, and there is a lot of misinformation about it in the media and online. This article aims to help people understand acespec identities more and be a better ally.
The first myth is, “Asexual people also don’t experiance romantic atraction.” This is false because being asexual (experiancing little to no sexual attraction) and being aromantic (experiancing little to no romantic atraction) are two separate identities. Therefore, someone can be asexual without being aromantic and vice versa; people can also be both. Next, the second myth: “People fake asexuality for attention.” Anyone who believes this must surely have a lack of information about what kind of attention someone gets for being asexual. Asexual people commonly face bullying and verbal abuse. They also experiance sexual violence at a high rate because of beliefs that it will “fix them.” Why would someone come out as asexual for attention if the majority of the attention they will receive is negative? The final myth that will be discussed here is, “Asexuality is a hormone problem.” This has been disproved countless times because many acespec have gotten their hormones tested and gotten back normal results.
Furthermore, asexual is an umbrella term that includes many identities within it such as grey-asexual, demisexual, reciposexual, lithosexual, and aceflux. Someone who is grey-asexual is somewhere between being asexual and allosexual (experiancing sexual atraction); grey-asexual people have vastly different experiances, but all are valid. Demisexual means someone who doesn’t experience sexual attraction until a strong emotional bond is formed. Reciprosexual is someone who only is sexually attracted to people who are attracted to them. Next is lithosexual (also called akiosexual); this means someone who only experiences sexual attraction when it is not reciprocated. Finally, we have aceflux which is someone who’s sexuality moves along the spectrum between asexual and allosexual. It is also important to note that attraction is not necessarily the same as action. Hopefully this article has helped you be a better ally, and thank you for taking the time to educate yourself.
Sources:
https://www.glaad.org/amp/ace-guide-finding-your-community
https://www.galop.org.uk/anti-asexual-hate-crime/
http://www.asexualityarchive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/AsexualityABriefIntroduction.pdf