0:00

All the language that is challenging from that

0:02

a sexual new romantic can you to be

0:04

yes A gifts people precision for thinking of

0:06

themselves and wake is that it was impossible

0:08

to think of her as far as before

0:11

because languished and access to my favor big

0:13

what the fuck? sexual which is like just

0:15

refusing to engage with like the whole spectrum.

0:18

Of. Haven't tried it and find terms of attraction?

0:21

There's. This like whole world underneath

0:23

people's clothing that no one talks

0:25

about or sciences some ways is

0:28

catching up with people's existences. I

0:31

Meghan Mcdonough and you're listening to

0:33

Scientific American science quickly. This is

0:35

part for have a four part

0:37

fascination on the science of pleasure.

0:39

In this series were asking what

0:41

we can learn from those with

0:43

marginalized experiences to redefine sexuality, get

0:45

to the bottom of Bdsm and

0:47

find the female orgasm. In

0:50

this episode will look at how the

0:52

way in which scientists think about a

0:54

sexuality has shifted. I'm

1:03

scrolling through the A Sexuality Visibility

1:05

and Education network or even website.

1:08

One. Of Evens recent newsletters covers Valentine's Day

1:11

it asks what do you do on

1:13

this day and how do you cope

1:15

with this day? As an asexual and

1:17

or a romantic one person writes that

1:19

they believe that love doesn't necessarily have

1:21

to have a sexual or romantic element

1:23

to it, and I spend the day

1:25

with people I love. A. Sexual

1:27

or Ace people typically experience little

1:30

to no sexual attraction and comprise

1:32

about one point seven percent of

1:34

adults and sexual minority groups. According

1:36

to the Williams Institute of the

1:38

University of California. Los Angeles School

1:40

of Law even is the largest

1:43

online community of these people and

1:45

has been steadily growing for more

1:47

than two decades. It has forums

1:49

such as members questioning older, a

1:51

sexual as and intersectionality. At the

1:53

time of my visit, there were

1:55

one hundred fifty three thousand. Eight

1:58

hundred eighty four total members. According.

2:00

To an automatically updating tally at the

2:02

bottom of the even compete. Most of

2:05

these members would classify their sexual orientation

2:07

as a sexual as opposed to Aloe

2:09

sexual which is a term for people

2:11

who do not identify as part of

2:13

the A spectrum. But. It is

2:16

only about a decade or so

2:18

ago that the Sister doesn't have

2:20

the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of

2:22

Mental Health Disorders or Dsm. Five

2:24

officially specified that a sexuality is

2:26

not a disorder, That it is

2:28

not something to be diagnosed, treated,

2:30

and cure. He sexuality is a

2:32

definition that has evolved over time.

2:34

Initially was thought to capture. People

2:36

with lifelong and complete.

2:39

Lack of attraction to anyone and

2:41

over time and with a lot

2:43

of research we know that there

2:45

are variations in how a sexual

2:47

people have experience attraction. This is

2:49

Laurie Broader, a psychologist at the

2:52

University of British Columbia who has

2:54

studied a sexuality for two decades.

2:56

So I started studying a sexuality

2:58

in two thousand and Six and

3:00

it was our the same year

3:02

that I think a really important

3:05

landmark publication came out by Anthony

3:07

Bogart that found that about. One

3:09

percent of the population endorses I

3:12

lock sexual attraction. I'm not attracted

3:14

to anyone and and it was

3:16

actually in my clinical setting. I

3:18

had a psychiatrist approach me. And

3:21

say. You know? how

3:23

can this be possible? Sexual attraction is

3:25

in a neat aspect of being human.

3:27

Happiness be. Maybe this is just an

3:29

extreme version of low desire or there's

3:32

something else going on. history of trauma

3:34

cetera. So we set out to really

3:36

empirically test In Twenty Thirteen, Laurie was

3:38

part of a team that helped clarify

3:40

that a sexuality said be seen as

3:43

a sexuality rather than the symptom of

3:45

a disorder that requires treatment and deism.

3:47

five. This was after research she and

3:49

her team conducted in partnership with Even

3:52

and. We had two parts, one

3:54

was of surveys that asked about

3:56

their experiences of desire and arousal

3:58

and attraction and or go the

4:00

mean and mood and other things

4:02

like that. And then we followed

4:04

it up with a interviews in

4:07

depth interviews with a smaller subset

4:09

of the participants from the quantitative

4:11

fees and we concluded. In.

4:13

That study, which again was a long

4:15

time ago now has been a lot

4:17

more research since, and that we concluded

4:20

that a sexuality has some similarities with

4:22

low desire, but it's really quite distinct.

4:24

Most notably, a sexual people aren't distressed,

4:26

they don't want treatment. Is. This

4:28

is an aspect of their identity and who they

4:30

are. They've always felt this way. And.

4:32

That for a lot of them, they. Didn't.

4:35

Feel arousal. The.

4:37

Would. Masturbate they would experience orgasm so

4:40

it really wasn't a dysfunction of

4:42

the sexual response system. Lorries team

4:44

set out to test this. We

4:46

brought East people into the lab

4:48

where are we would use cycle

4:50

physiological equipment to look at how

4:52

the body responds when they're viewing

4:54

sexual stimuli and will be much

4:56

for the most part the body

4:58

completely response in the same way

5:00

that aloe sex or sexual people

5:02

do. But it's

5:04

really that kind of self reported attractions

5:07

are that are are quite different. There

5:09

has also been a lot of questions

5:11

speculation that may be a sexuality as

5:14

a result of on result trauma or

5:16

depression or. You. Know is this

5:18

kind of a manifestation of a

5:20

mental illness of some sorts. We

5:22

ask that I think in two

5:24

of our studies and there was

5:27

no evidence of higher rates of

5:29

sexual assault or Ptsd or kind

5:31

of trauma in general. In

5:33

the east. Samples.

5:35

Compared to the Aloe sexual samples

5:37

and that's not to say that

5:40

life experiences such as disability, illness,

5:42

or trauma can inform a sexual

5:44

identity. Sexual identity is complex and

5:47

see by variety of factors. None.

5:49

Of which is more or less valid

5:51

than the others. Recognizing this without a

5:53

touching stigma to it has only been

5:55

possible in recent years via the advocacy

5:57

and. Research. Of grassroots groups like.

6:00

Now. It's a really exciting moment you to work.

6:02

Honey Security did It refers to

6:05

many people engaging repeat biting. His

6:07

election the line at as has or

6:09

perhaps right Elena is T University I

6:11

can watch on a to sexuality for

6:13

well over a decade now. Allah also

6:15

self identifies as these when I started

6:18

to has Than. Eight

6:20

very few people cared. It was

6:22

kind of just coming into existence. Northern

6:24

areas that exists at the time

6:26

were very troubling. Allah says that

6:28

some of the most interesting research he seen

6:30

in recent years has to do. It can

6:33

see me today sexuality. As especially. If

6:35

you think about. Coming into something like

6:37

against he usually does many. You

6:39

know it's all the way and

6:41

it doesn't just. Finish at a particular

6:44

place so. Maybe some was sick

6:46

for his sexuality. They're like oh on,

6:48

just relax fan but they're like split

6:50

it up. But there's like something with

6:52

gender here as well. Okay, made me

6:54

or not want to sing of yeah,

6:56

but then wait a second. Now I

6:59

also like searching for taxes differently for

7:01

thinking about. For

7:03

a. Match. Can

7:05

change. Depending on where you are in

7:07

your life force and for the people are

7:10

a very consistently to so many. Such late

7:12

and suffered for decades. After some

7:14

people it shifts in and out.

7:16

A twenty twenty one survey by

7:18

the Is Coming The survey team

7:20

found that almost one five respondents

7:22

self identified as Grace Sexual or

7:24

somewhere in the middle of the

7:27

sexuality spectrum. Almost one in five

7:29

also self identified as demi sexual,

7:31

which means feeling sexual attraction only

7:33

after forming the close emotional bonds.

7:35

More. Than one in three a sexual

7:38

people said they experienced sexual attraction

7:40

or desire rarely or something. So.

7:42

Yelp. Moving away from the a sense

7:44

that everyone is either. Completely

7:46

sexual or completely sexual Most people

7:48

for somewhere in the middle. The.

7:51

a community has also made the

7:53

distinction between a sexual and a

7:55

romantic about two and five respondents

7:57

in the twenty twenty one survey

7:59

consider them some to be on

8:01

the aromantic spectrum. So romantic attraction

8:03

and sexual attraction while related they

8:05

really are on distinct planes and so

8:07

you know we think of kind of

8:10

a typical sexual person they

8:12

have sexual attractions to people and

8:14

they might also have romantic attractions

8:16

to people and by romantic attraction

8:19

this is the desire

8:21

for all of the relationship

8:23

aspects that are not

8:25

sexual so companionship safety security

8:28

trust touch non-sexual touch

8:30

etc among the ace

8:33

community there can be varying degrees

8:35

of romantic attraction all the way from

8:37

an asexual person who

8:39

has full romantic attraction which means that

8:42

they want to be in a relationship

8:44

which includes everything but the sexual aspects

8:47

all the way through to an aromantic

8:49

asexual so this is the person who

8:51

desires neither sex nor any kind of

8:54

any of those romantic attributes as well

8:57

at the same time most asexual

8:59

people will end up in relationships

9:01

with allosexual people or those

9:03

who don't identify as asexual almost one

9:05

in five respondents to the ace community

9:07

survey said they were currently in a

9:10

partnered or intimate relationship and about half

9:12

reported that they had previously been in

9:14

order i think it's just important again

9:16

to just affirm that there can be

9:18

differences that it has to be something

9:20

that's up for discussion that the

9:23

ace up call person isn't in the wrong for wanting

9:26

or not wanting to confront his

9:28

effects because that is another thing a

9:30

lot of asexual people they might not

9:32

experience sexual attraction but they're so motivated

9:35

to have sex for various reasons or

9:37

there's also a community of people

9:39

who might not experience sexual attraction but

9:42

are interested in BDSM as a

9:44

practice of exploring power the body pleasure

9:46

you know and so forth so it's

9:48

not like it being asexual means that

9:50

you will never have any of that

9:53

your full life it is

9:55

just up to a discussion between the

9:57

people involved as more research is

9:59

done on asexual The more has emerged

10:01

about the demographics of the community. The

10:03

Twenty Twenty One Is Community Survey found

10:05

that about one in three participants identified

10:08

as non binary compared with one per

10:10

cent of the general population. Ellis

10:12

us that aces earn more of a

10:14

physician to explore and question gender than

10:17

the general population because they've already done

10:19

so with sexuality. Among the Aces that

10:21

did fall under the gender binary, about

10:23

four out of five identified as a

10:25

woman versus just one out of five

10:28

who identified as a man. The.

10:30

Williams Institute found that about eighty six

10:32

percent of a such source were assigned

10:34

female. At birth. Flurry. Brought Oh

10:36

says that see as sexual orientation

10:38

researchers about this and that the

10:40

response was up. There is more

10:42

diversity in general among female individuals

10:44

when it comes to gender, sexual

10:47

orientation, and a shirt. Some.

10:49

Members of the Is community point to

10:51

the ways in which men and women

10:54

are socialized differently with regard to sexuality,

10:56

their dominant masculine ideals that the man

10:58

that sucks be essential feature of male

11:01

identity, and dominant feminine ideals that discards

11:03

woman from exploring sexuality. The Williams Institute

11:05

study also found that about ninety one

11:07

percent of a sex or people are

11:10

aged eighteen to twenty seven. In.

11:12

A press release, the study's lead

11:14

author as thirty Ross Bloom, said

11:16

a sexuality as an emerging identity.

11:18

Given that the majority of a

11:20

sexual respondents were young, we expect

11:22

that the prevalence and understanding of

11:24

a sexuality will grow as more

11:26

Youtube reached adolescence and become familiar

11:28

with the identity. Laurie. Agrees

11:31

that more research is needed. We.

11:33

Rely on people telling their stories and

11:35

had lived experiences and then we as

11:37

researchers try and make sense of that

11:40

which involves putting it in categories and

11:42

looking at similarities to other people. But

11:44

it is limited so I think. We.

11:47

Need more! Stories and more. Public

11:49

discussion and awareness about a sexuality

11:51

so that. You. Know at

11:53

some point the future people know what a

11:55

sexuality is without. Having to explain

11:58

it and define it justify it. It. etc.

12:01

According to Evin, there is no test

12:03

to determine if someone is asexual. Asexuality

12:05

is like any other identity. At its

12:08

core, it's just a word that people

12:10

use to help figure themselves out, then

12:12

communicate that part of themselves to others.

12:15

Acknowledging that asexuality is self-defined and can

12:17

ebb and flow doesn't make it any

12:20

less sound. We can all stand to

12:22

benefit from this understanding, as well as

12:24

from the idea that we should honor

12:26

and prioritize the non-romantic and non-sexual love

12:29

in our lives, too. For

12:33

Science Quickly, this is Megan McDonough. This

12:36

was episode 4 of a four-part series

12:38

on the science of pleasure. Science

12:40

Quickly is produced by Tulika Bose

12:42

and Jeffrey DelVizio. This

12:44

episode was reported and edited by

12:47

me, Megan McDonough, with music by

12:49

Dominic Smith. Subscribe to scientificamerican.com for

12:51

more in-depth science news. Science

12:56

Quickly is produced by Tulika

12:58

Bose and Jeffrey DelVizio. Subscribe

13:01

to scientificamerican.com for more in-depth science news.