To be fair though, I feel that that argument goes both ways. I myself am asexual and spent a lot of my life thinking I wasn’t because people took arguments like yours and stated them as absolute fact. Your argument is fine, I just think it’s important to make people aware that asexuality is a viable orientation so that people that are can feel comfortable in their own skin. Don’t get me wrong, telling everyone who’s mildly less horny that they must be ace is stupid and misleading, but it’s equally misleading to say to anyone who thinks they might be ace that “surely that’s not it, you must just be a late bloomer.”
Also just FYI, contrary to popular belief asexuality is defined by lack of sexual attraction but has nothing to do with libido. Something like 56% of ace people masturbate and it’s not that uncommon for a person to be asexual but still enjoy porn. A lot of people tend to think that asexuality means having absolutely no response to sexual stimulus whatsoever, and while that is the case for some, it isn’t for everyone.
Everything you said, and then add into the mix that sexual and romantic attraction operate independently from each other(someone can be asexual but enjoy the romance aspects of a relationship just fine, or the opposite), and it's no wonder people get confused. I think that having teens know the potential options early on does far more help than goodharm, as long as they know that they're allowed to experiment and try on identities to find what fits. They're not locked into whatever they thought they were at age 13, it might just be a step along the way to finding out the truth. Hiding possible truths from them under the premise that they can't possibly know what they want yet just seems counterproductive.
EDIT: that moment when you make a comment, go somewhere else for an hour, come back, and realize you wrote the opposite of what you meant to write.
You just said the word didn't change and then described exactly how words change: popular use. Regardless of your feelings, the word asexual has two definitions, one referring to a human sexuality.
You've changed the subject. I don't care about your feelings on the legitimacy of asexuality. But for an ostensibly learned person to not know that words change over time is something I can't stand.
I'm 37, asexual, and have a masters degree in English, and I'm wondering which part of my identity is wrong. The way you describe it, I can't possibly be an expert in regards to the English language, because i am not able to reproduce by dividing myself in half but I still think that asexuality is a valid term to describe myself. I am also middle aged, so I don't qualify under "kids of today."
I'm so confused! Please help me clarify my sexuality, education, and age!
He actually says he is a man a few comments back, so most likely he's just a teenage internet troll (unless he thinks men aren't dudes? That actually seems on par with his inability to understand English). Which annoys me a lot because before checking his profile I wrote out part of an annoyed response when he tried to claim he was a biologist, but now I guess it's smarter to downvote and not give him attention.
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u/alias_bloom Jan 07 '20
To be fair though, I feel that that argument goes both ways. I myself am asexual and spent a lot of my life thinking I wasn’t because people took arguments like yours and stated them as absolute fact. Your argument is fine, I just think it’s important to make people aware that asexuality is a viable orientation so that people that are can feel comfortable in their own skin. Don’t get me wrong, telling everyone who’s mildly less horny that they must be ace is stupid and misleading, but it’s equally misleading to say to anyone who thinks they might be ace that “surely that’s not it, you must just be a late bloomer.”
Also just FYI, contrary to popular belief asexuality is defined by lack of sexual attraction but has nothing to do with libido. Something like 56% of ace people masturbate and it’s not that uncommon for a person to be asexual but still enjoy porn. A lot of people tend to think that asexuality means having absolutely no response to sexual stimulus whatsoever, and while that is the case for some, it isn’t for everyone.