'House' episode offends asexuals

Lesbian aromantic works too, how the AVEN definitions work for romantic drive it wouldn't make much sense to say you preferred one sex to another for romantic relationships while in the same breath saying you didn't feel a need to form romantic relationships.
 
The problem here was well defined over a century ago by Gilbert and Sullivan: "When everyobdy's somebody, nobody's anybody". When everything's an insult to some group, nothing is an insult to anybody.
 
This Archie Bunker fellow has been saying some very inaccurate things about African Americans.

Ooh, it makes me so angry...
 
Travis said:
They give those of us that were celibate against our will a bad name. :boggled:
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Travis, I'm tired of hearing about this -- <snip>
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On asexuality I recall this quote: "of all the sexual aberrations, the most peculiar is chastity." There was an article awhile ago in Slate about how some asexuals masturbate. That's ********. And what do they imagine? Has anyone here ever masturbated to thought of an inanimate object? (corpses don't count)
 
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Kevin_Lowe said:
Wait, what?

I suspect some people here are using a different definition of asexual to others.
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I second this observation.

If I'm not mistaken, asexual in reference to sexual orientation means no sexual desires for anything. Asexual in other contexts means something else, correct?
 
Cain said:
Travis, I'm tired of hearing about this --
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On asexuality I recall this quote: "of all the sexual aberrations, the most peculiar is chastity." There was an article awhile ago in Slate about how some asexuals masturbate. That's ********. And what do they imagine? Has anyone here ever masturbated to thought of an inanimate object? (corpses don't count)
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Perhaps the ones that masturbate don't imagine anything, they simply do it. With all the emotional investment of drinking a glass of water.

Don't try too hard to think of a way to relate. Certainly one thing I've learnt is that it's nearly impossible for anyone with a sex drive to honestly imagine not having one, or not being sexually excited by the idea of anything. When you're told asexuals aren't attracted to anyone, the only thing you can think of is that they must be attracted to something other than people.

Not sexually attracted to anything.
 
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Seismosaurus said:
Prejudice of a sort exists. It's not like people go around persecuting you or anything, but those who don't engage in relationships tend to be thought of as rather odd. The fact that you aren't part of a couple can be quite awkward at social events. People tend to assume that you're gay and don't want to admit it, or some such - more so when you've never been married rather than being separated or divorced. It can, in some cases, have work repercussions when you're middle aged and still single.
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Mostly I find people find asexual folk pathetic. Equating them to the creepy cat lady down the street or a 40 year old virgin playing Dungeons and Dragons.
 
Checkmite said:
Perhaps the ones that masturbate don't imagine anything, they simply do it. With all the emotional investment of drinking a glass of water.
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Then they're not asexual in the common-sense meaning of the term. Maybe they're not turned on by any particular thing, and maybe they don't desire a romantic relationship, but neither of those things are what asexual means.

Don't try too hard to think of a way to relate. Certainly one thing I've learnt is that it's nearly impossible for anyone with a sex drive to honestly imagine not having one, or not being sexually excited by the idea of anything. When you're told asexuals aren't attracted to anyone, the only thing you can think of is that they must be attracted to something other than people.

Not sexually attracted to anything.
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Why do you think such people should be called asexual? Shouldn't that term serve to point to people who have no sexual desires at all, and don't masturbate? Rocks are asexual. A biologically male or female human who masturbates isn't asexual.

This is purely a semantic argument. I'm making no claim whatsoever about whether "asexual-but masturbating" people are valid, or normal, or whatever. I'm just saying they aren't asexual and if they're co-opting that term for themselves it's a very poor choice of terms which is actively inviting misunderstandings.
 
Checkmite said:
Perhaps the ones that masturbate don't imagine anything, they simply do it. With all the emotional investment of drinking a glass of water.
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Perhaps, but you say that as if it's rank speculation. And even still, I'm with Kevin: a person cannot masturbate and call her or himself asexual. Wikipedia has a line on the subject: "Some may masturbate as a solitary form of release..." Well, then that's sexual. That's the exact everyday parlance -- a sexual release.

Are babies asexual? Old, old women? Castrated men?

Wikipedia also lists famous asexuals, which reads like a bunch of people who choose not have sex, confusing voluntary celibacy with asexuality. I can wrap my head around being able to have sex but choosing not to. I can understand why people do not bother with the effort.
 
tyr_13 said:
I second this observation.

If I'm not mistaken, asexual in reference to sexual orientation means no sexual desires for anything. Asexual in other contexts means something else, correct?
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I assume (possibly incorrectly) that...

In the first (behavioral) context, it means no sexual attraction. Not necessarily no capacity for sexual pleasure or urges, just no attraction.

In the second (biological) context, it means lacking a sex, or gender. If you have genitalia (as most people claiming to be asexual do), you are not asexual in this sense of the term.
 
Sexual orientation refers solely to sexual attraction, sex drive or libido is completely separate. Asexuals can still have a sex drive, it's just not aimed at anything or anyone.

Rocks are not asexual, they're not sexual (because they're not living). Masturbation doesn't require fantasizing, it doesn't sound any different from massaging a sore muscle. Cain, it's not speculation, we do the shocking thing and ASK people rather than pulling claims from the rear orifice.

In terms of discrimination or prejudice, Sledge's comment at the start of the thread is one example--the thought that sex solves problems. Other pressures are familial (where's my grandchildren?) or as in the pedophiles thread (every male over thirty who's never had a girlfriend or boyfriend MUST be a pedophile!!!). Given the current political situation in the US, slapping the pedophile label on anyone is a serious risk to their life.
 
Cain said:
Perhaps, but you say that as if it's rank speculation.*
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It is informed speculation. Rank speculation would be "do they fantasize about inanimate objects when they masturbate?"

Cain said:
Are babies asexual? Old, old women? Castrated men?*
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I would consider babies and young children to be asexual. In fact, if a person identifies themselves as asexual and also says they do feel a non-sexual but "romantic" attraction to certain people, try recalling a kindergarten or first-grade crush if you had one - an attraction without any actual sexual component to it. I would posit that's pretty close to the kind of attraction they're describing.

Cain said:
Wikipedia also lists famous asexuals, which reads like a bunch of people who choose not have sex, confusing voluntary celibacy with asexuality. I can wrap my head around being able to have sex but choosing not to. I can understand why people do not bother with the effort.
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There's a whole lot of crossover. If they are celibate because they never felt driven to engage in sex or never found themselves interested in it, they could very well have been asexual. If on the other hand they are celibate because they are ordered to be by some authority, or because they feel sex is "wrong" or "immoral" or whatnot, or because they are interested but fearful of diseases or getting caught or being rejected and so forth, then they aren't asexuals.
 
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Checkmite said:
It is informed speculation. Rank speculation would be "do they fantasize about inanimate objects when they masturbate?"
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No, that would be a question.

I would consider babies and young children to be asexual. In fact, if a person identifies themselves as asexual and also says they do feel a non-sexual but "romantic" attraction to certain people, try recalling a kindergarten or first-grade crush if you had one - an attraction without any actual sexual component to it. I would posit that's pretty close to the kind of attraction they're describing.
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I was thinking more or less along those lines. Homosexuals report "knowing" they were gay as young as five or six. Sex was a critical component of who I had a crush on. I liked my best friend Chris, but felt differently toward Crystal.

There's a whole lot of crossover. If they are celibate because they never felt driven to engage in sex or never found themselves interested in it, they could very well have been asexual.
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Again, I think there should be a distinction between this and being asexual. Just because a person does not find it all that urgent to have sex or does not particularly enjoy engaging in it, does not mean s/he is asexual.
 
zooterkin said:
How's your study of English coming on? Are you doing the past tense soon?

Beneath contempt.
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Restored quote. Do not change someone's post without clearly marking what it is that you have changed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, another display of self-righteous anger.
 
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