Considering Asexuality as a Disorder?

  • treat02

    treat02 (100)

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    Asexuality is when someone does not have a sexual attraction to a male or a female.

    People before have told me it was a "disorder".

    Still, how could it be?

    I mean, people don't say heterosexuality is a disorder. I won't say the same about homosexuality or bisexuality. Why do people do this? In fact, a lot of people I've talked to about this, they've made it sound like Asexuality is wrong. The thing that stumps me is that they support gay rights.

    Tell me your thoughts on this.
    By the way, please no bashing :)

    Chat away.
    June 16th, 2013 at 08:11pm
  • folie a dru.

    folie a dru. (1270)

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    Asexuality is not listed in the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Homosexuality used to be, but is no longer considered.

    The people who told you that are most likely prejudiced and dislike asexual people. They may considered it a crime against God to not reproduce.

    However, if you want to know if it's an illness and consider "the book" to be the source, then it is not as it is not listed in the DSM-V.

    I personally don't believe any sexual orientation or gender identity is a disorder.
    June 16th, 2013 at 08:14pm
  • wx12

    wx12 (10125)

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    I think if someone wanted to make the argument its a disorder, they would say it's counterintuitive to survival and evolution.. but I don't think that's good science or valid. There are other species besides humans that reproduce sexually but exhibit asexuality, and there are forces that drive evolution besides reproduction (like alturism for group benefit and things like that).
    June 16th, 2013 at 09:44pm
  • Airi.

    Airi. (2240)

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    More often than not, someone who says something like that with any sexuality has a prejudice or hatred for the sexuality in question. With the exception of heterosexuality, I've heard almost every sexuality be called a "disorder" because the person in question thought heterosexuality was the one and only sexuality humans could be and say everything else as abnormal. There are a lot of reasons why someone would feel that way but in the end, it almost always boils down to a prejudice against the sexuality.

    For me personally, I don't think asexuality is a disorder nor do I think it's abnormal. I think it's actually quite naive and invalid to call it a disorder.
    June 17th, 2013 at 09:53am
  • marsflor

    marsflor (105)

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    Well, I identify myself as asexual, but it wouldn't make sense (to me) to call asexuality a disorder. Although asexuality is sometimes no considered a sexual orientation (some consider it to be a lack of sexual orientation), homosexuality and other orientations aren't disorders, so why do some people think it is? Probably from prejudice or lack of understanding.

    In addition, some people don't realize that having a low sex drive or not experiencing sexual arousal is not the same thing as being asexual. A lot of people compare it to Hypoactive sexual desire disorder, but the two are different.
    June 17th, 2013 at 02:13pm
  • kafka.

    kafka. (150)

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    I don't really understand why people keep suggesting that anything that can be interpreted as a sexual orientation can't be a disorder by default just because homosexuality isn't one? A lot of people use this argument to excuse pedophilia too and it (obviously) makes me incredibly uncomfortable. Not all non-heterosexual sexual orientations are constructed like homosexuality - and there's no reason to keep insisting that they are and to keep drawing comparisons between them. Not to mention that, yeah, there are PLENTY of people who still think homosexuality is a disorder - a lot more than people who think asexuality is a disorder - so the comparison seems really inappropriate.
    June 17th, 2013 at 03:01pm
  • folie a dru.

    folie a dru. (1270)

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    @ kafka.
    I actually considered pedophilia when typing up my response, but I don't think pedophilia is a sexual orientation. I mean, we don't consider people who only like older people to have a specific sexual orientation toward the elderly. They're a straight/bi/gay/pan person with a think for the elderly.

    I'm not saying pedophilia is just a "thing for kids". But I don't think it's a sexual orientation either.
    June 17th, 2013 at 04:44pm
  • treat02

    treat02 (100)

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    Airi.:
    More often than not, someone who says something like that with any sexuality has a prejudice or hatred for the sexuality in question. With the exception of heterosexuality, I've heard almost every sexuality be called a "disorder" because the person in question thought heterosexuality was the one and only sexuality humans could be and say everything else as abnormal. There are a lot of reasons why someone would feel that way but in the end, it almost always boils down to a prejudice against the sexuality.
    I've noticed that as well. Apparently some people think that what THEY believe and only themselves is right.
    June 17th, 2013 at 10:15pm
  • treat02

    treat02 (100)

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    @ kafka.
    kafka.:
    I don't really understand why people keep suggesting that anything that can be interpreted as a sexual orientation can't be a disorder by default just because homosexuality isn't one? A lot of people use this argument to excuse pedophilia too and it (obviously) makes me incredibly uncomfortable. Not all non-heterosexual sexual orientations are constructed like homosexuality - and there's no reason to keep insisting that they are and to keep drawing comparisons between them. Not to mention that, yeah, there are PLENTY of people who still think homosexuality is a disorder - a lot more than people who think asexuality is a disorder - so the comparison seems really inappropriate.
    I said I wouldn't say the same about homosexuality and bisexuality.
    June 18th, 2013 at 05:31pm
  • treat02

    treat02 (100)

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    I don't think that pedophilia is a sexual orientation, either.
    June 18th, 2013 at 08:48pm
  • wx12

    wx12 (10125)

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    Peodphilia is similar to sexual orientations in the sense that it develops before or during puberty and is stable throughout someone's life. Like a sexual orientation, you cannot "cure" it, only repress it. So I think that's different than most fetishes or sexual preferences which can change and be discovered or fostered at any stage of life. Really, thinking of asexuality as a sexual orientation is something entirely new, and not all psychologists agree with that classification, but rather see asexuality as a complete lack of sexual orientation. Peodphilia seems more similar to sexual orientation to me than asexuality does.

    If some asexuality is due to sexual dysfunction, I can see how that can be called a disorder. I don't see it as insulting to asexual people, it's just an accurate way to describe disordered hormone levels or someone who may have HSDD. But, I don't think research supports that every asexual person has something medically "wrong" with them.
    June 19th, 2013 at 11:44pm
  • folie a dru.

    folie a dru. (1270)

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    Pedophilia is considered a disorder, however. (As in, found in the DSM.)
    June 21st, 2013 at 05:07am
  • treat02

    treat02 (100)

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    Kurtni:
    If some asexuality is due to sexual dysfunction, I can see how that can be called a disorder.
    How?
    June 22nd, 2013 at 04:59am
  • Rave on Spaceboy

    Rave on Spaceboy (350)

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    Even if there isn't acceptance of homosexuality as a "lifestyle", people still believe it exists. For some unfathomable reason there seems to be a group concensus that asexuality doesn't actually exist, and the person in question instead suffers from an intensly low self-esteem, or was sexually abused, or is a "prude" and is in truth scared of sex, or the very clever argument is brought up "How can you know until you've had sex?" which immediately questions all "known" facts like "How do you know you're alive if you haven't died yet?"
    June 24th, 2013 at 05:40am
  • Chicle

    Chicle (100)

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    Asexuality isn't a disorder.
    July 1st, 2013 at 02:22am
  • Chicle

    Chicle (100)

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    I think that asexuality is a sexuality. People shouldn't call it a disorder, because it's not. Those are mean people who don't like any other sexuality than their own. I'm asexual. Some people I know have been mean to me because of it. Asexuality isn't a disorder, and people who say that are mean, and dumb.
    July 1st, 2013 at 02:22am
  • treat02

    treat02 (100)

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    @ Chicle
    I agree. People who say it is a disorder don't like asexual people most of the time.
    July 1st, 2013 at 05:33pm
  • precursors

    precursors (105)

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    treat02:
    How?
    From what I interpreted from what Kurtini said, they mean that if some kind of dysfunction of the body (hormone imbalances, HSDD, etc.) and they consider themselves asexual, then it could be considered a disorder. Obviously, not every asexual person has any type of imbalance or dysfunction that causes them to identify as asexual, but it is possible that some do.

    In any case, to call the entirety of the asexual community disordered is a sweeping statement that is not well justified, if at all.
    July 1st, 2013 at 08:15pm
  • lumy.

    lumy. (100)

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    I really don't think that asexuality is a disorder at all and I am not exactly sure why anyone would think of it as one, but people are just strange like that, I guess.

    I just think of asexuality as a sexuality... or, lack thereof, I guess. Similar to homosexuality or bisexuality. Those aren't considered a disorder, so why would asexuality be considered a disorder? It just doesn't make vert much sense to me, honestly.
    July 2nd, 2013 at 08:49pm
  • Ktulu

    Ktulu (100)

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    Sometimes people cannot grasp the fact that another may have no interest in something that they feel so strongly compelled to do.

    There's nothing wrong with being ace. Cute

    and that is that
    October 28th, 2013 at 10:31am