Asexual Flag Buy
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These asexual flag shoelaces have striped pattern with the gray, black, white and purple \"asexual pride\" colors which are the colors of the asexual flag. Great to wear for a pride parade or other outdoor pride awareness event. The shoelaces are 56 inches long and a bit more than 1/4 inch wide. Each pair comes coiled in a bag.
Asexuality is the lack of sexual attraction to others, or low or absent interest in or desire for sexual activity.[1][2][3] It may be considered a sexual orientation or the lack thereof.[4][5][6] It may also be categorized more widely, to include a broad spectrum of asexual sub-identities.[7]
Asexuality is distinct from abstention from sexual activity and from celibacy,[8][9] which are behavioral and generally motivated by factors such as an individual's personal, social, or religious beliefs.[10] Sexual orientation, unlike sexual behavior, is believed to be \"enduring\".[11] Some asexual people engage in sexual activity despite lacking sexual attraction or a desire for sex, for a number of reasons, such as a desire to physically pleasure themselves or romantic partners, or a desire to have children.[8][12]
Acceptance of asexuality as a sexual orientation and field of scientific research is still relatively new,[2][12] as a growing body of research from both sociological and psychological perspectives has begun to develop.[12] While some researchers assert that asexuality is a sexual orientation, other researchers disagree.[4][5] Asexual individuals may represent about one percent of the population.[2]
Various asexual communities have started to form since the impact of the Internet and social media in the mid-1990s. The most prolific and well-known of these communities is the Asexual Visibility and Education Network, which was founded in 2001 by David Jay.[4][13]
Many who identify as asexual also choose to adopt other identities, which often include gender identity and classification of romantic orientation.[26] These are often integrated with a person's asexual identity, and asexuals may still identify as heterosexual, lesbian, gay, or bisexual regarding romantic or emotional aspects of sexual orientation or sexual identity in addition to identifying as asexual.[21] The romantic aspects of sexual orientations may also be indicated by a variety of romantic identities, including biromantic, heteroromantic, homoromantic, or panromantic, and those who do not experience romantic attraction may identify as aromantic.[14][21] Individuals who are both aromantic and asexual are sometimes known as \"aro-ace\" or \"aroace\".[27] The term \"gray asexuality\" refers to the spectrum between asexuality and non-asexuality (also referred to as .mw-parser-output .vanchor>:target.vanchor-text{background-color:#b1d2ff}allosexuality).[28] Individuals who identify as gray asexual may occasionally experience sexual attraction, or only experience sexual attraction as a secondary component once a reasonably stable or large emotional connection has been formed with the target, known as demisexuality.[14][29]
Further empirical data about an asexual demographic appeared in 1994, when a research team in the United Kingdom carried out a comprehensive survey of 18,876 British residents, spurred by the need for sexual information in the wake of the AIDS pandemic. The survey included a question on sexual attraction, to which 1.05% of the respondents replied that they had \"never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all\".[38] The study of this phenomenon was continued by Canadian sexuality researcher Anthony Bogaert in 2004, who explored the asexual demographic in a series of studies. Bogaert's research indicated that 1% of the British population does not experience sexual attraction, but he believed that the 1% figure was not an accurate reflection of the likely much larger percentage of the population that could be identified as asexual, noting that 30% of people contacted for the initial survey chose not to participate in the survey. Since less sexually experienced people are more likely to refuse to participate in studies about sexuality, and asexuals tend to be less sexually experienced than allosexuals, it is likely that asexuals were under-represented in the responding participants. The same study found the number of homosexuals and bisexuals combined to be about 1.1% of the population, which is much smaller than other studies indicate.[15][39]
There is significant debate over whether or not asexuality is a sexual orientation.[4][5] It has been compared and equated with hypoactive sexual desire disorder (HSDD), a diagnosis which was in the DSM-4, in that both imply a general lack of sexual attraction to anyone; HSDD has been used[by whom] to medicalize asexuality, but asexuality is generally not considered[by whom] a disorder or a sexual dysfunction (such as anorgasmia, anhedonia, etc.), because it does not necessarily define someone as having a medical problem or problems relating to others socially.[9][21][43] Unlike people with HSDD, asexual people normally do not experience \"marked distress\" and \"interpersonal difficulty\" concerning feelings about their sexuality, or generally a lack of sexual arousal; asexuality is considered the lack or absence of sexual attraction as a life-enduring characteristic.[15][21] One study found that, compared to HSDD subjects, asexuals reported lower levels of sexual desire, sexual experience, sex-related distress and depressive symptoms.[44] Researchers Richards and Barker report that asexuals do not have disproportionate rates of alexithymia, depression, or personality disorders.[21] Some people, however, may identify as asexual even if their non-sexual state is explained by one or more of the aforementioned disorders.[45]
Since the release of the DSM-5 in 2013 which split HSDD into diagnoses for female sexual arousal disorder and male hypoactive sexual desire disorder, both disorders have been criticised for similar issues to HSDD.[46] Although the DSM-5 mentions asexuality as an exclusion criterion for these two disorders, it is necessary for individuals to self-identify as asexual to meet the differential diagnosis and this requirement has been criticised for imposing a diagnosis on people who are possibly asexual but do not yet identify as such.[47] As of 2021[update], HSDD continues to be used to describe transgender women.[48]
In a 2013 study, Yule et al. looked into mental health variances between Caucasian heterosexuals, homosexuals, bisexuals, and asexuals. The results of 203 male and 603 female participants were included in the findings. Yule et al. found that asexual male participants were more likely to report having a mood disorder than other males, particularly in comparison to the heterosexual participants. The same was found for female asexual participants over their heterosexual counterparts; however, non-asexual, non-heterosexual females had the highest rates. Asexual participants of both sexes were more likely to have anxiety disorders than heterosexual and non-heterosexual participants, as were they more likely than heterosexual participants to report having had recent suicidal feelings. Yule et al. hypothesized that some of these differences may be due to discrimination and other societal factors.[51]
With regard to sexual orientation categories, asexuality may be argued as not being a meaningful category to add to the continuum, and instead argued as the lack of a sexual orientation or sexuality.[5] Other arguments propose that asexuality is the denial of one's natural sexuality, and that it is a disorder caused by shame of sexuality, anxiety or sexual abuse, sometimes basing this belief on asexuals who masturbate or occasionally engage in sexual activity simply to please a romantic partner.[5][23][25] Within the context of sexual orientation identity politics, asexuality may pragmatically fulfill the political function of a sexual orientation identity category.[28]
The suggestion that asexuality is a sexual dysfunction is controversial among the asexual community. Those who identify as asexual usually prefer it to be recognized as a sexual orientation.[4] Scholars who argue that asexuality is a sexual orientation may point to the existence of different sexual preferences.[5][8][25] They and many asexual people believe that the lack of sexual attraction is valid enough to be categorized as a sexual orientation.[52] The researchers argue that asexuals do not choose to have no sexual desire and generally start to find out their differences in sexual behaviors around adolescence. Because of these facts coming to light, it is reasoned that asexuality is more than a behavioral choice and is not something that can be cured like a disorder.[25][53] There is also analysis on whether identifying as asexual is becoming more popular.[54]
Research on the etiology of sexual orientation when applied to asexuality has the definitional problem of sexual orientation not consistently being defined by researchers as including asexuality.[55] While heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality are usually, but not always, determined during the early years of preadolescent life, it is not known when asexuality is determined. \"It is unclear whether these characteristics [viz., \"lacking interest in or desire for sex\"] are thought to be lifelong, or if they may be acquired.\"[12]
One criterion usually taken to be defining of a sexual orientation is that it is stable over time. In a 2016 analysis in the Archives of Sexual Behavior, Brotto et al. found \"only weak support\" for this criterion being met among asexual individuals.[56] An analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health by Stephen Cranney found that, of 14[a] individuals who reported no sexual attraction in the study's third wave (when subjects ranged in age from 18 to 26), only 3 continued to identify in this way at the fourth wave, six years later.[58] However, Cranney notes that as