The Asexual Couple

As part of The Guardian’s First Person series, Paul Cox, 24, explains how he and his wife found love and happiness as an asexual couple, despite not being physically attracted to each other.

In a fascinating post touching on many topics in her area of expertise, Dr Petra Boynton—a psychologist specialising in sex and relationships health—comments on the interview and its after-effects.

Asexuality has long been documented within sex research but has only become a public issue recently with the rise in our sexualised culture (so people are shocked that some of the population don’t have or want sex) and the increase in asexual awareness groups. We’re seeing a treatment of asexuals within the popular press that echoes the way the media has previously dealt with gays and bisexuals. So asexuals are seen as folk who’re just going through a phase, who’ve not met the right person yet, or who just haven’t made up their minds what they want. And we’re very keen to ‘fix’ those who say they don’t want sex in much the same way we want to curb those who say they want it a lot. So it’s nice to see a general interview with a couple that lets them tell you how they see things – although disappointingly this story has led to numerous discussions on TV and radio, mostly with people saying ‘but how can they not want sex? There must be something wrong with them!’

via Mind Hacks

Tags: