Asexual awareness week is just about over. It is a week dedicated to educating the public more about asexuality (i.e. having no sexual attraction for anyone under any circumstances) as well as the asexual spectrum (the “area” between being asexual and allosexual, aka, someone who is not asexual).
Every year the asexual community joins forces from all over the world to post on social media (Tumblr, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) to educate others about the community. For many, this is a time of celebration. It is also a time for some to revaluate their own sexual identity in regards to who they are (or are not) sexually attracted to.
Speaking as a sexologist, one of the hardest things about figuring out one’s sexual orientation is the fact that not even experts in the field can agree on one definition. Every “official” website or organization website will give you a slightly different definition. Hell, my own dictionary of sexology terms book makes “sexual attraction” just about synonymous with “sexual desire”, however, as many in the asexual community will say, this is absolutely not the case.
Another problem is the fact that there is constant fighting within the asexual community of what “sexual attraction” actually means. AVEN (asexual visibility education network) claims the definition is “Sexual attraction is an emotional response that sexual people often feel that results in a desire for sexual contact with the person that the attraction is felt towards.” and many dictionary websites essentially state it as “someone you are sexually attracted to”.
Ask 20 different people what sexual attraction is, and you will likely get twenty different answers. They will be similar in content and/or structure for their answer, but they will all be different. If the world (professional and/or laymen’s) can agree on one definition for “sexual attraction”, personally I feel it would make things a lot clearer.
At the time, the website asexuality.org/en is one of the best community websites to discuss asexuality. My favorite tumblr on the subject is “queerasexualspectrum.tumblr.com” and my favorite Facebook Page on the subject of asexuality is “Jace the Ace”.
