Asexuality: how does this work?

[BentSecrets]

Recently someone revealed to me that they were Asexual, in response to a conversational joke that they had a fetish for confusing people. It was interesting to me on many levels I won't go into, but long story short: I'm trying to understand.

I've done a little reading about Pansexuals (which sounds an awful lot like bisexual to me) and Asexuals, but the info out there is fairly slim and often contradictory. I'm curious for many reasons, not the least of which is the simple fact that I'm struggling with my own orientation discovery and understanding, so it'd be helpful to understand this new (to me) paradigm.

Any ideas?

 

[A_Kefka]

Don't know much about people identifying as Asexual. When we talk biology an asexual creature is one that reproduces on its own, without sex. So unless people are just taking words as labels and making up their own definitions I'd think it would mean that they are satisfied without sex, just taking care of things on their own,and don't have any interest in finding a partner. I could be totally wrong though.

 

[sunandshadow]

IMHO asexuality is pretty simple, they are just not attracted to either men or women. Sometimes they have the biological urge to masturbate, sometimes not. Some feel platonic love but do not want sex, others may have sex as a casual recreational activity but never feel strongly attracted to a particular person or type. Asexuality can be a result of a hormonal or developmental issue, a symptom of depression or a few types of mental disorders, or a psychological response to physical or emotional trauma.

 

[Etoile]

My understanding is that asexual people have romantic relationships, care very deeply for each other, etc. but are not interested in having sex. It doesn't mean they don't want relationships or only masturbate. It means they do not want to have sex, period. I've never heard of an asexual person having casual sex, but platonic love is definitely part of the asexual experience.

Pansexual just means interested in sex with all genders, including people who are not fully male or not fully female. This can include someone who is in transition between genders.

 

[lightsaver]

http://www.asexuality.org