It’s Asexual Awareness Week And Here’s A List Of What Exactly Makes A Person Asexual-

It’s Asexual Awareness Week and here’s a list of what exactly makes a person asexual-

-Asexuals don’t experience sexual attraction. Suppose, sex equals to cake in a cake shop. Some people might see the cake, and wish to eat it. Those are people who experience sexual attraction. Some may look at the cake, may even like, hate or don’t care about it, but they don’t wish to eat it. Those are asexual people. Not everyone wants to eat the cake you know? (Also, forgive me for using that age-old example :) )

-Libido is not same as sexual attraction. People might experience strong feelings for cake, but that doesn’t mean they are any less asexual. Libido is the body’s response, not the sexuality of a person.

-Some people do eat cake occasionally. Some people only eat the cake after they have spent some time knowing more about how the cake is. Those who eat cake occasionally are gray-asexuals or graysexuals. The latter ones are demisexuals. They exist on asexual spectrum, which includes many types of asexual sub-orientations. In short, asexuality is an umbrella term.

-Sexual attraction is not same as romantic, sensual, platonic or aesthetic attraction. Sexual attraction means you want to get laid, which is different from romantic attraction where you just want to do romantic stuff with that person(hugs,cuddles,dates,etc.), aesthetic attraction where you appreciate the looks of the person, sensual attraction where you want to touch the person(in a non-sexual way) or platonic attraction where you are extremely fond of a person (in a non-romantic way).

-Some asexuals experience romantic attraction. Hence romantic asexuals may call themselves biromatic asexuals, homoromantic asexuals, heteromantic asexuals or panromantic asexuals depending on which gender they are attracted to. They may even call themselves demiromantic aces, akoiromantic aces, grayromantic aces, etc. depending on how they experience the romantic attraction.

-Some aces don’t experience romantic attraction at all. Such aces are called aromantic aces. Not all asexuals are aromantic and not all aromantics are asexuals. And no, aromantic people aren’t heartless and cold-hearted, they can still experience other types of attraction I mentioned above. They can still get into a romantic relationship or queer-platonic relationship.

- Some people like cake. Some people hate cake. Some people have no opinion about cake. This is called one’s attitude regarding sex. Asexuals who like cake are sex-positive, asexuals who hate cake are sex-negative and asexuals who have no opinion about it are sex-neutral. Remember, having an opinion about cake and eating the cake is different.

Some don'ts-

-When someone comes out to you as an asexual, you don’t say “It’s just a phase” or “How do you when you haven’t tried it?” Sexual people know which gender they want to get laid WITHOUT trying sex. Don’t treat that person as a child or dumb person. Respect their courage to come out and the trust they have on you.

-Just because demisexuals and graysexuals experience sexual attraction, that doesn’t mean they are any less asexual. That’s all I am going to say.

-If someone asexual or sexual person decides that their sexuality has changed, don’t judge them. Sexuality is a fluid thing. I have come across many people who thought they were straight at first, but now they are bisexual or stuff. You have no right to bash the person for changing their sexuality.

-Regarding heteromantic aces, don’t just assume that they are basically ‘straight’ anyway, and are trying to be a 'speshul snowflake’. They are still asexuals and you have to respect that.

-Acephobia exists. And you don’t need to be a part of it.

Lastly, you have no right to degrade and judge a person’s sexual preferences. No one has power to repress what anyone wishes to do behind their bedroom door. So learn to respect one’s sexuality and appreciate them as a person, whether they are straight or LGBTQ+ Happy Asexual Awareness Week again! 🎉🎉🎉🎊🎊🎊

PS- My list may not be perfect. So don’t come and attack me. Point out my mistakes politely.

Edit1- I forgot to mention about the concept of sex aversion and sex repulsion. Some aces can be sex-averse which means they don’t mind if others have sex, but they hate to have sex themselves. Sex repulsion is hating the concept of sex in general. Sex repulsion can be or can be not caused by trauma. There are instances of sexual people being repulsed by sex. The concepts of repulsion or aversion can also be applied to other things like- nudity-averse or nudity-repulsed, touch-averse or touch-repulsed and more. I hope this post helps!