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Asexuality: When Sexual Attraction Is Lacking

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Gender and Sexuality Development

Part of the book series: Focus on Sexuality Research ((FOSR))

Abstract

In the past decade, human asexuality has garnered much attention and emerged as an empirically documented sexual orientation. Asexuality is generally defined as an absence of sexual attraction and approximately 1% of the general population report not feeling sexually attracted anyone. In this chapter, we examine the evolving definition of asexuality and diversification of individuals who identify as asexual. We provide an overview of gender differences and review the extant literature on human asexuality, which has mainly focused on exploring how to best conceptualize asexuality. Various theories have been proposed to classify asexuality as a mental disorder, a sexual dysfunction, or a paraphilia. However, we challenge these speculations and pose that asexuality may best be thought of as a sexual orientation as it is likely a normal variation in the experience of human sexuality. We discuss factors that make the study of asexuality challenging and propose possible solutions for researchers to consider. Future research into asexuality is necessary and might inform our understanding of sexuality in general. Researchers need to examine and understand the biological correlates of asexuality and directly test asexuality as a sexual orientation.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Women’s Health Research Institute, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Lori A. Brotto

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada

    Lori A. Brotto & Sonia Milani

Authors
  1. Lori A. Brotto
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  2. Sonia Milani
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Correspondence to Lori A. Brotto .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada

    Doug P. VanderLaan

  2. Gender Studies Programme and Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Science, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

    Wang Ivy Wong

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Brotto, L.A., Milani, S. (2022). Asexuality: When Sexual Attraction Is Lacking. In: VanderLaan, D.P., Wong, W.I. (eds) Gender and Sexuality Development. Focus on Sexuality Research. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84273-4_19

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