大象传媒

Jenni Goodchild is asexual and Joseph De Lappe is finishing a PhD in Asexual studies.

Jenni discovered as a teenager in college that 鈥渙ther people had these set of feelings that I didn鈥檛 have access to.鈥�

She said it exists in the background of her day-to-day life. 鈥淚鈥檇 compare it to food preferences 鈥� it would impact aspects of your life, but you wouldn't have it as the centre point鈥�

鈥淵ou can have sex without sexual attraction鈥� she added; the confusion being that 鈥渘ot all asexual people are celibate.鈥�

Joseph clarified the distinction - celibacy is where people choose not to have sex, and asexuality is where they have no or low sexual attraction.

He said it鈥檚 more common than we might expect. The 1994 The National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles estimated 1% of the survey responded they didn't feel interested in sex 鈥� and has been consistent in the last six decades.

Alfred Kinsey鈥檚 1948 report, Sexual Behavior in the Human Male, labelled 1.5% of the adult male population with "no socio-sexual contacts or reactions" as Population X.

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