Sexual Attraction And Asexuality: A Streetcar Named Desire

While confusing, the definition of asexuality that most studies seem to use, as defined by asexuality.org, is “a person who does not experience sexual attraction.” This definition can be confusing to most because it doesn’t specify if it’s defined for people who don’t feel sexually attracted to anyone in their whole life, which can be difficult to determine, or for the rest of their life. While some asexuals still have sex with others or sexually pleasure themselves, they do it for every reason besides sexual attraction, be it boredom, expectations, or simply because they want to since they’re still capable of feeling pleasure. “They still have a general ‘sex drive’, but they just don't connect that drive to anyone. So they have no sexual attraction

People who start losing interest in sex aren’t classified as asexual because “they used to be interested in sex and probably will be again” (Gordon). Because the definition of being asexual can be so broad, asexuality can be interpreted in various ways, thus the grey areas of asexuality.
Sexual Attraction and Relationships
“‘So is it like someone who has no appetite but can still experience the pleasant taste of food?’ ‘Yes, exactly,’ [Michael Dore] says” (Gordon). There are some asexuals that don’t like the idea of sex at all or even feel pleasure, but other asexuals can feel pleasure; it’s just not towards a specific person. For those in the gray area of asexuality, they range from having no sexual attraction towards others at all or some attraction. Even if one feels the supposedly normal amount of sexual desire as sexual people do, they can still be asexual if the desire isn’t inclined towards anyone in particular. Those that don’t feel sexually attracted to strangers but feel sexually attracted to people they’ve formed a “deep emotional connection” with are demisexuals (Gordon). Asexuals are still capable of having relationships with others because that is an emotional and mental part of the relationship, but

Depending on the questions asked and how it was phrased, people may have responded differently, but in all of the sources, more women than men tended to be asexual. Bogaert’s study found that 1.05% of the participants were asexual based on the responses and Prause and Graham found that “there were no significant differences in the proportion of individuals who identified as asexual based on gender. Asexuals were significantly older than non-asexual individuals. Also, asexuals and non-asexuals were predominantly single, and asexuals were more likely to have completed college” (Prause 349). From Van Houdenhove, Gijs, T’Sjoen, and Enzlin’s study, “71.3% were categorized as asexual based on self-identification, 69.2% were categorized as asexual based on lack of sexual attraction, and 48.5% were categorized as asexual based on lack of sexual behavior” (Houdenhove 674). Most of the participants tried higher education, were single, had no religious affiliations, and more women than men experienced only romantic attraction towards others. Bogaert’s study found that compared to non-asexual people, asexual people tended to be older, not white, started menopause later, more likely to be single, less well-educated and were usually “from lower socioeconomic conditions” (Bogaert 282). Bogaert also found that asexuals were shorter and weighed less, attended religious services more,