For Them, Just Saying No Is Easy

NY Times ^ | June 9, 2005 | MARY DUENWALD

[neverdem]

BIRDS do it, bees do it. But not necessarily all of them. Among bees the sisters of queens do not engage in sex. And in certain species of birds - Florida scrub jays, for one - some individuals, known as helpers, do not breed but only help the breeders raise their offspring.

But could indifference to sex extend to humans, too? An increasing number of people say yes and offer themselves as proof. They describe themselves as asexual, and they call their condition normal, not the result of confused sexual orientation, a fear of intimacy or a temporary lapse of desire. They would like the world to understand that they can live their entire lives happily without ever having sex.

"People think they need to convert you," said Cijay Morgan, 42, a telephone saleswoman in Edmonton, Alberta, and a self-professed asexual. "They can understand if you don't like country music or onion rings or if you aren't interested in learning how to whistle, but they can't accept someone not wanting sex. What they don't understand is that a lot of asexuals don't wish to be quote-unquote fixed."

Considering the pervasive advertising for drugs to enhance sexual performance, the efforts to market a testosterone patch to boost sexual desire in women and the ubiquity of sexual references in pop culture, it is not surprising that those professing no sex drive whatever have been misunderstood, or at least overlooked. Only one scientific survey seems to have been done. And many experts in human sexuality, when told there is a growing Internet community of people calling themselves asexual, say they have not heard of it. Yet most of those experts find the concept unsurprising.

Three-fourths of the patients who go to the Center for Sexual Medicine at Boston University lack any sex drive...

[SteveMcKing]

Hitler also knew that Hirschfeld's facility had extensive records that could be damaging to himself and his inner circle. This was the reason for the raid, according to Ludwig L. Lenz, the assistant director of the Sex Research Institute, who was in charge on the day of the raid. A part of the following quote was cited earlier: ...our Institute was used by all classes of the population and members of every political party...We thus had a great many Nazis under treatment at the Institute. Why was it then, since we were completely non-party, that our purely scientific Institute was the first victim which fell to the new regime? The answer to this is simple...We knew too much. It would be against medical principles to provide a list of the Nazi leaders and their perversions [but]...not ten percent of the men who, in 1933, took the fate of Germany into their hands, were sexually normal...Many of these personages were known to us directly through consultations; we heard about others from their comrades in the party...and of others we saw the tragic results....Our knowledge of such intimate secrets regarding members of the Nazi Party and other documentary material-we possessed about forty thousand confessions and biographical letters-was the cause of the complete and utter destruction of the Institute of Sexology (Haberle:369).

Homosexuality and the Nazi Party

[neverdem]

FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list. If you want to read about another bizarroma, read Losing Our Country (another Krugman bizarroma, he loses it)

[bitt]

outrageous information I never had a clue about....thanks, I guess!!!!

[CarolinaGuitarman]

In what way is this article related to homosexuality or Nazis? If some people are not interested in sex, how does that make them perverted or dangerous? In the Bible I remember Paul cautioning earlier Christians to forgo sex; since most couldn't control this urge, he recommended they get married. If some people have no desire for sex, would that not make them closer to the ideal that Paul sought?

[endthematrix]

"Why was it then, since we were completely non-party, that our purely scientific Institute was the first victim which fell to the new regime? The answer to this is simple...We knew too much."

Not refuting any data. I do give note that many, then most, non-party entity fell under NAZI authority. It could have been for the slightest offense, say the director slighted or refused a party member. Then the party member would make inquiry. The whole establishment was up for grabs and under direct or bureaucratic control of the NAZI Party.

[SteveMcKing]

Completely absent from this analysis is the fact that many "asexuals" are not so by choice. They may declare it openly and proudly, but noble intent should not be conferred automatically as this article presumes of asexuals.

My own view is that sex is often a non-issue for those who "can't" - not something of which to feign judgement and personal rejection.

This is the common condition for senior citizens (the ones not desperately downing Viagra). Most go asexaul in their final years, if not in the abandonment of secret desires then in the physical practice of pursuing intercourse.

But you don't see them cheering themselves over it. The whole issue is patently ridiculous.

[lizma]

how does that make them perverted or dangerous?

They are not contributing to the abortion industry. Nasty, nasty people. < /Sarc>

[El Gato]

If some people have no desire for sex, would that not make them closer to the ideal that Paul sought?

I believe Paul wanted them to forgo sex outside of marriage, not altogether.

Regardless of what these people say, it's not normal for young healthy people... make that reasonably healthy adults of any age, to not want sex, at least on occasion...even us "over the hill" types.