Greetings, good people.
First, apologies if the subject matter has been discussed a lot, and I missed it.
More apologies for what may be tl;dr because I have so many thoughts on the subject...and even more apologies because I'm likely to simply scatter-shot all manner of ideas, without much forethought.
Not that it matters, but I'm quite hetero-sexual. I first suspected the existence of a quiet category of asexuals when I was in college, in the 60's.
Sex wasn't in the zeitgeist of society then, as it is now. I knew zero outed homosexuals or lesbians back then. Pedophilia was unspoken, for the most part.
It was pretty uptight, even as people were getting much 'looser' and letting their hair down.
I was a chem major, and the people in my group largely struck me as sexless.
Of course, we never spoke of it. Mostly males, they seemed to be removed from the usual mating ritual stuff, and they didn't drink, or dance, or party, or attempt to be more attractive...unless pocket protectors, slide rules and crew cuts was part of the look of sex.
Decades later, homsexuality was not only 'out', it was sheik.
And then bi-sexuality came out.
And then transgenders.
All had one thing in common: Sex.
Still, I had this hunch that large numbers of people simply had no sex drive at all. They were the last to come out. Even now, one rarely hears about this.
I just saw a documentary on the subject (via streaming netflix) called "(A) Sexual.
It addressed a lot of the thoughts I'd had on the matter, so many years ago.
And it left as many unanswered.
Within the outed asexual community, there are many subdivisions, even though, overall estimates are about 1% of adults are asexual.
There are 'romantic' asexuals, that get married and like to snuggle with their partner.
Their are aexuals that form loving bonds with a community of others.
Some asexuals masturbate.
When I got wind of that, I couldn't help but wonder about the mental movie they would run to do that.
I've never been able to masturbate mechanically. I need to run a movie in my mind. I assumed that was the case for others, but I've never gone around asking.
Another curiosity in this is hormones and libido.
Western societies are so embedded in sexuality, that lack of libido is often referred to as a medical 'condition'. Something you should see your doctor about.
In the documentary, lots of the outed asexuals were quite attractive, happening people. Initial prejudicial thoughts might assume that asexuality is a reasonable pre-emptive strategy for people that will never get laid, because they are too fat and ugly, etc.
Another reasonable suspicion: asexuals are homosexuals that don't want to deal with that, in the ugly climate that still exists in much of the world.
I've mentioned elsewhere that my approach to chemistry was to feel certain personalities in the elements. There were very stable couples. NaCl, for instance. Single rouge guys could upset those couples. Double displacement reactions were predictable, even at the junior prom.
Yet, I also was aware, however delusional, of inert gasses. Their outter shells were full. They were complete in themselves; not interested in relationships.
Being asexual likely has a bigger stigma than being gay today.
And all the attention that the gay marriage issue has; it will need to address asexuality and various nuanced ways of teaming up in long-term relationships, for the various benefits to be had therein.
I'm of the opinion that the just way through this labyrinth is to eliminate all incentives and subsidies for various bonds and groupings.
If asexual marriage is allowed (oh it is, we just don't like to admit it) then why not 4-somes?
Why must these 'contracts' be limited to couples? Even of same sex?
And what's sex got to do with it?
I think we'll be delving into these subtleties much more in the near future.
(Thanks for listening. That was pretty long, and poorly written.)
Thoughts?
First, apologies if the subject matter has been discussed a lot, and I missed it.
More apologies for what may be tl;dr because I have so many thoughts on the subject...and even more apologies because I'm likely to simply scatter-shot all manner of ideas, without much forethought.
Not that it matters, but I'm quite hetero-sexual. I first suspected the existence of a quiet category of asexuals when I was in college, in the 60's.
Sex wasn't in the zeitgeist of society then, as it is now. I knew zero outed homosexuals or lesbians back then. Pedophilia was unspoken, for the most part.
It was pretty uptight, even as people were getting much 'looser' and letting their hair down.
I was a chem major, and the people in my group largely struck me as sexless.
Of course, we never spoke of it. Mostly males, they seemed to be removed from the usual mating ritual stuff, and they didn't drink, or dance, or party, or attempt to be more attractive...unless pocket protectors, slide rules and crew cuts was part of the look of sex.
Decades later, homsexuality was not only 'out', it was sheik.
And then bi-sexuality came out.
And then transgenders.
All had one thing in common: Sex.
Still, I had this hunch that large numbers of people simply had no sex drive at all. They were the last to come out. Even now, one rarely hears about this.
I just saw a documentary on the subject (via streaming netflix) called "(A) Sexual.
It addressed a lot of the thoughts I'd had on the matter, so many years ago.
And it left as many unanswered.
Within the outed asexual community, there are many subdivisions, even though, overall estimates are about 1% of adults are asexual.
There are 'romantic' asexuals, that get married and like to snuggle with their partner.
Their are aexuals that form loving bonds with a community of others.
Some asexuals masturbate.
When I got wind of that, I couldn't help but wonder about the mental movie they would run to do that.
I've never been able to masturbate mechanically. I need to run a movie in my mind. I assumed that was the case for others, but I've never gone around asking.
Another curiosity in this is hormones and libido.
Western societies are so embedded in sexuality, that lack of libido is often referred to as a medical 'condition'. Something you should see your doctor about.
In the documentary, lots of the outed asexuals were quite attractive, happening people. Initial prejudicial thoughts might assume that asexuality is a reasonable pre-emptive strategy for people that will never get laid, because they are too fat and ugly, etc.
Another reasonable suspicion: asexuals are homosexuals that don't want to deal with that, in the ugly climate that still exists in much of the world.
I've mentioned elsewhere that my approach to chemistry was to feel certain personalities in the elements. There were very stable couples. NaCl, for instance. Single rouge guys could upset those couples. Double displacement reactions were predictable, even at the junior prom.
Yet, I also was aware, however delusional, of inert gasses. Their outter shells were full. They were complete in themselves; not interested in relationships.
Being asexual likely has a bigger stigma than being gay today.
And all the attention that the gay marriage issue has; it will need to address asexuality and various nuanced ways of teaming up in long-term relationships, for the various benefits to be had therein.
I'm of the opinion that the just way through this labyrinth is to eliminate all incentives and subsidies for various bonds and groupings.
If asexual marriage is allowed (oh it is, we just don't like to admit it) then why not 4-somes?
Why must these 'contracts' be limited to couples? Even of same sex?
And what's sex got to do with it?
I think we'll be delving into these subtleties much more in the near future.
(Thanks for listening. That was pretty long, and poorly written.)
Thoughts?
I'm making myself sad, so many people who can't express who they are because other people who aren't like them will hate them for it...
