Contextual Information On Human Sexuality - 2306 Words

Contextual Information on Asexuality Asexuality has been an elusive and intriguing subject in American society. Dr. Alfred Kinsey published reports on human sexuality where â€Å"category X† was mentioned (Asexual History, 2015). This category was used to describe individuals with a lack of sexual relationships and reactions (Asexual History 2015). In 1979, Michael Storms came up with a model of erotic orientation and this model included asexuality (Asexual History, 2015). Paula Nurius published a study observing mental health and orientation and found that asexual individuals had both a lower desire and frequency for sexual activity than compared to heterosexual, homosexual, and bisexual individuals (Asexual History, 2015). Even more recently†¦show more content†¦Then, Poston and Baumle used a social constructionist viewpoint when analyzing the results. This approach looks at sexual orientation along a continuum (Poston and Baumle, 2010, p. 511). What they found was that the highest prevalence of asexuality was observed when only asexual behavior was taken into consideration. In other words, if we determine that asexuality only occurs when an individual has not had sex yet, or is a virgin in laymen’s terms, then we have a high percentage of people that would be considered asexual using this criteria only. However, this criteria is limited because some people abstain from sex due to religious purposes so it doesn’t paint a full picture of this minority group. The next highest prevalence of individuals occurred when self-identification was measured. Though, when looking at an individual’s desire, this criteria most resembled Bogaert’s findings. Since there is such limi ted research on a small population of people (relative to the heterosexual population) it is difficult to observe the prejudices that asexual individuals face in this society as a whole. Interview Summary and Personal Reflection I was personally unaware of asexuality until my freshman year in college when I took a human sexuality course. Though, I didn’t think much of it until I met Ariel in my junior year here at UNT. She and I shared come common interests and had a few classes