HIV Insight: Stories About Asexuality: A Qualitative Study on Asexual Women

This study aimed to explore how asexual women experience their asexual identity, sexuality, and relationships. The authors recruited participants through the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network's website and posts on several health- and lifestyle-related websites. Interviewees were 9 women between 20 and 42 years of age. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. The authors discuss 3 main themes that arose from the data: coming to an (a)sexual identity, experiencing physical intimacy and sexuality, and experiencing love and relationships. Participants described how they have always felt different and how they experienced their process of coming out. The authors found a great variation in the experience of (a) sex and physical intimacy and (b) love and relationships. Engaging in sexual behavior was mainly based on a willingness to comply with partner wishes. Whereas some longed for a relationship, aromantic asexual women did not. Some participants separated love from sex. Theoretical and clinical implications of these findings are discussed.

...In the present sample, we found much heterogeneity in terms of sexual behavior, just as described by Prause and Graham (2007), Brotto and colleagues (2010) and Aicken and colleagues (2013). When asked about their motives to engage in sex for the first time, participants named curiosity as the most important motive. In this respect, they do not differ from individuals in general, since it has been found that curiosity and wanting to know how it feels, are the most frequently reported motives to have sex for the first time (Skinner, Smith, Fenwick, Fyfe, & Hendriks, 2008). Moreover, some participants also described partner driven motives for their first sexual experience, which was also mentioned by a number of participants in our study. For none of the participants in our sample, the first sexual experience was pleasurable. Again in this respect, they do not differ from individuals in general, since it has been found that the first sexual experience is for a significant amount of persons a negative experience (e.g., Symons, Van Houtte, & Vermeersch, 2013). Thus, a nonpleasurable first sexual experience probably does not cause asexuality, but it could function as a confirmation for asexual persons that sex is not appealing for them. In terms of sexual behavior, most of our participants had experience with masturbation. Consistent with findings by Scherrer (2008), some women clearly stated that they do not consider masturbation a sexual act, whereas others were still in doubt on how to interpret masturbation. The fact that some women in our sample considered themselves to be asexual, even though they were still sexually active or engaged in masturbation, raises the question whether (absence or presence of) sexual activity should be taken into account as a key criterion in the definition of asexuality (see also Chasin, 2011; Van Houdenhove, Gijs, T’Sjoen, & Enzlin, in press).

The majority of participants stated to have an intact ability to get sexually aroused. This finding supports Brotto and Yule's (2011) hypothesis that asexuality cannot be regarded as grounded in a genital sexual arousal problem. However, our data do suggest that asexual women may have difficulties experiencing subjective or mental sexual arousal. In other words, it seems that their bodies can become aroused during sex, but their minds and feelings are not...

Full article at: http://goo.gl/DChshb