A Qualitative Exploration of the "Coming Out" Process for Asexual Individuals

"Coming out" is an important process not only for identity formation in sexual minorities, but also for increasing access to romantic partners of similar identities (Vaughan & Waehler, 2010). It is unclear how asexuality and the variations within the asexual community are revealed and communicated in the coming out process. Some asexual individuals may find no practical value in coming out, as they do not seek romantic partnerships, while others pursue romantic relationships that are devoid of sexual activity. 

To date, virtually no psychological research has explored the "coming out" experience for those with an asexual identity. The current research analyzed the "coming out" narratives of 169 self-identified asexual individuals recruited from three online asexual communities using a phenomenological approach. Salient themes were extracted from narratives about the experience of developing an asexual identity. Themes included skepticism from family and friends, lack of acceptance and misunderstanding, non-disclosure of the asexual identity, relief upon discovering the asexual community, and the role of the internet in asexual identity discovery and expression. 

A theoretical model of asexual identity development is proposed based on these findings.

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By:  Robbins NK1, Low KG2, Query AN3.

• 1Psychiatry Department, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
• 2Psychology Department, Bates College, Lane Hall, Room 120, 2 Andrews Road, Lewiston, ME, 04240, USA. klow@bates.edu.
• 3College of Social Work, Smith College, Northampton, MA, USA. 
• Arch Sex Behav. 2016 Apr;45(3):751-60. doi: 10.1007/s10508-015-0561-x. Epub 2015 Sep 3.

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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

By:  Ellen Van Houdenhove^a*, Luk Gijs^a, Guy T’Sjoen^b & Paul Enzlin^a

^a KU Leuven, Institute for Family and Sexuality Studies, Department of Development and Regeneration, Leuven,Belgium

^b Ghent University Hospital, Department of Endocrinology, Ghent, Belgium

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Queer in STEM: Workplace Experiences Reported in a National Survey of LGBTQA Individuals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Careers

A survey of individuals working in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer, or asexual (LGTBQA) was administered online in 2013. 

Participants completed a 58-item questionnaire to report their professional areas of expertise, levels of education, geographic location, and gender and sexual identities and rated their work and social communities as welcoming or hostile to queer identities. 

An analysis of 1,427 responses to this survey provided the first broad portrait of this population, and it revealed trends related to workplace practices that can inform efforts to improve queer inclusivity in STEM workplaces.

Below:  Histograms of participants’ openness ratings in (A) personal contexts, (B) to colleagues, and (C) to students. Note that only participants working in degree-granting institutions (academics) are included in panel C

Below:  Box-and-whisker plots of participants’ openness ratings for personal contexts (white boxes), to colleagues (black boxes), and to students (gray boxes), broken down by participants’ fields of STEM expertise

Below:  Across major STEM fields of expertise, the relationship between proportion of employed scientists and engineers who are women and participants’ median (±95% confidence interval) rating of openness to colleagues. A regression across all points is nonsignificant with p = .31 (solid line). However, a regression excluding data from psychology, in which professional standards may prevent openness independent of workplace climate, is significant with p = 0.02 (dashed line).

Below:  Box-and-whisker plots of participants’ openness ratings for colleagues (top row) and for students (bottom row), in relation to their descriptions of the safety (A, B), welcoming climate (C, D) and their employers’ support for LGBTQ needs (E, F).

Full article at:   http://goo.gl/c1rvxw

By:   Jeremy B. Yoder PhD^a & Allison Mattheis PhD^b*

• ^a Department of Plant Biology, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA
• ^b Division of Applied and Advanced Studies in Education, California State University, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, USA

 

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Asexuality Development among Middle Aged & Older Men

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The specific reasons for asexuality in the population without sexual intercourse

The distribution of chronic disease and sexual status among age groups

Abstract

Objectives

To assess erectile function in middle-aged and older men with asexuality status and further analyze their specific reasons for this condition.

Subjects and Methods

Men who had regular sexual intercourse attempts (sex frequency≥1 time per month) were classified into mild erectile dysfunction (ED), moderate to severe ED and non-ED according to International Index of Erectile Function-5, and men having no sexual intercourse attempts for at least 6 months were defined as having an asexuality status. The risk factors associated with ED were collected in a sample of 1,531 Chinese men aged 40 to 80 years, and the self-report reasons for asexuality were recorded in asexual cohort individually. Comparative analyses and multivariate regression models were conducted among these groups.

Results

The prevalence rates of ED and asexuality status were 49.9% and 37.2%. The asexuality status group had higher risk factors than the moderate to severe ED group in terms of old age (age≥65, adjusted odds ratio (OR) 17.69 versus (Vs.) 7.19), diabetes (crude OR: 2.40 Vs. 2.36) and hypertension (crude OR: 1.78 Vs. 1.72). The specific reasons for the asexuality status were “erectile difficulty” (52.9%), “do not care about sexuality” (53.5%)”, “no longer necessary to have sexuality at this age” (47.7%), “severe stress” (44.4%), “severe fatigue” (26.3%) and “masturbation” (26.9%).

Conclusions

Men with an asexual status suffer from higher risk factors for ED than men with moderate to severe ED. The majority of this asexual status could be attributed to a full ED, although the reasons for this transient asexuality also involved sexual attitudes and interests, sexual partners and masturbation.