A 2004 study estimated that around 1% of the world’s population is asexual. So out of 7.5 billion, that’s about 75 million. Now, new research uncovers the discriminatory treatment many asexuals say they experience on a near daily basis.
Aasha Foster is a Counseling Psychology graduate student at Columbia University. As part of her PhD research, she’s developed the world’s first “Asexual Microaggressions Scale” used to gauge the different types of microaggressions asexual-identifying people suffer.
Related: These asexual guys are madly in love, they just have zero interest in having sex with one another
“Asexual prejudice encompasses anti-asexual beliefs and attitudes that stem from sexual normativity which promotes sexuality as the norm while positioning asexuality as deviant,” Foster explains.
The microaggressions, she says, are “conscious and/or unconscious daily occurrences of insults and invalidation that stem from implicit bias against asexual people and asexuality.”
For her research, Foster interviewed a total of 738 sexual-identifying people who she located through social media sites like Facebook, Tumblr, and Reddit, as well as Tumblr, where she found the majority (67%) of recruits.
She identified 24 of the most common microaggressions that asexual people face, including everything from being told that asexuality “doesn’t exist” or is “just a phase” to being called a “prude.”
Related: This married gay asexual is not interested in having sex with you, his husband, or anybody else
She also noted the impact those microaggressions have on their mentail health, including “psychological distress,” “emotional difficulty,” and “depressive symptoms.”
“Asexual women and men had higher rates of anxiety than heterosexual men and women,” Foster says, due to the constant marginalization they face.
So what can be done about this?
Well, Foster says, for starters there needs to be greater recognition of asexuality, as well as more research.
“Further study of the impact of these microaggressions and other macroaggressive experiences would be another area of next steps,” she says.
“When examined through [the lens of intersectionality], asexual prejudice and microaggressions may shift in salience, intensity, and/or frequency, thus further research will help contextualize and extend the findings of this dissertation,” Foster concludes.
Related: It’s time to stop joking and start taking asexuality seriously
h/t: Campus Reform
Donston
So, they’ve come up with some way to figure out if an individual is “subconsciously anti-asexual”. Any way possible for someone to feel like a victim.
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Salient point from the article: “as well as more research.”
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Anyone would think these academics are for some reason INVESTED in creating ever multiplying micro oppressions and finer degrees of grievance
Kangol
Look, it gives them something new to write and talk and post on social media about. More articles and a new, brand-able idea leading to a new book = new gigs and possibly tenure. Neoliberalism capitalism in academe at its finest, so conservatives should actually champion this kind of thing.
Heywood Jablowme
As a lefthanded person, I am outraged at all the Microaggressions and daily occurrences of insults and invalidation from you righties! We lefties are tired of your damned sinistralphobia! We are suffering psychological distress, emotional difficulty, and depressive symptoms as a result of your right-handed oppression!
Also – Jimi Hendrix rocks!
PRINCE OF SNARKNESS aka DIVKID
Devil handed deviant
dwes09
Actually the world is more dangerous for lefties, so your distress is justified. Left handed people have shorter lives on average and are morel likely to suffer injury. By contrast, folks subjected to
“microaggressions” have a real choice over whether to be affected or not. If someone hits you, the injury is real. If someone hurls an epithet or snubs you the choice of how to take it is yours (be hurt and upset, or constructively angry and filled with pity for someone who is clearly of small mind). Nobody has emotional power over us unless we allow them too.
I for one enjoy lending others my left handed secateurs and scissors and watching them trying to figure out why they are so uncomfortable to use!
crowebobby
How does this come up in a conversation ever, let alone on a daily basis?
jjose712
Most people didn’t even know what asexual means (probably think is someone who decides to not have sex).
Frankly, asexuality is not in the conversation (for good or for bad)
Xzamilloh
I am a simple man. I see “microagressions”, and I roll my eyes. A lot of this nonsense would merit more legitimate responses if it wasn’t such a transparent “look at me, I’m different” ploy for unicorn millennials.
PJBFan
Amen! “Microaggressions” are a creation of those who are simply seeking to make themselves appear different.
Paco
I have never had anyone tell me they were asexual. Ever.
Maybe the “microagressions” that some experience are from people that take being told that as a rejection. People can get damn mean when they are sexually rejected.
chryso
What about the micro-agressions done by asexual people ?
I was in a relationship with someone very probably asexual, and i was being told I was “sick” or “obsessed”, or that i was “raping” him when i was trying to have sex…
Most of the time it wouldnt even go that far, knowing that when i was starting an approach, i was immediatly told to “go go go” or to “go play [my] videogames”….
I can assure you that for the mind, this kind of rejection is awefull. Especially when the partner didnt disclaim his asexual status when the relationship started.
Chris
For your sake, I hope you ditched him and found someone else who is more compatible with you.
Chris
I’m guilty of microagressions? I must not have been clear enough!
mujerado
Unless someone wears a badge or verbally advertises their asexuality, how can they experience aggressions against themselves? Even if we “sexed” people do it unconsciously, how can we be aggressive toward a condition of which we’re unaware. This whole thing seems concocted for controversy’s sake.
greenmusic23f
“Do it unconsciously”—that’s one thing that can make it a micro aggression rather than an aggression.
Danny595
If asexuals were really oppressed or suffered serious discrimination or violence, then the author would have studied that. Instead, she bypassed all of that and focused on “microaggressions” which in this case seem to be minor put-downs. I have never heard of any mob going out to bash someone for not being sexually attracted to anyone or of any religion condemning people to hell for not wanting to have sex. Maybe asexuality could be a major issue in a traditional society where there are religious-based expectations that that everyone marry and reproduce. But in the modern West, the worst an asexual must endure is being called a “prude.”
Lustreck
Yeah, as someone who’s not asexual, you clearly know what you’re talking about. ? You can’t hear news of “any mob going out to bash” asexuals if your head is that far up your own ass, anyway. Too busy complaining about how bad you have it to recognize anyone who isn’t of your own sexuality. How predictable.
Danny595
So if there has been a mob lynching or bashing of an asexual, all ya have to do is tell us when and where it happened. But you won’t because there hasn’t been any such lynching or bashing.
KaiserVonScheiss
“Microaggressions”…. for when you really, really need something to complain about.
barkomatic
If you ignore the terminology, all this boils down to is to get people to be more understanding and compassionate toward one another.
That being said, the conversations that try to lead people toward compassion have themselves become openly hostile at times by those trying to “enforce” said compassion. “You will recognize your microaggressions toward me and grovel at my feet for forgiveness and pay reparations or I will ruin you”. Yeah, that’s become the conversation at times and it’s no wonder people are repulsed by it.
Xzamilloh
Not so much repulsive as it is exhausting… and now, it’s less of forced compassion and now forced unchallenged acceptance. “These are my pronouns, and they are nonnegotiable” is not going to get a kind response from people confused by virtually made up nonsense. And now these “microaggressions” BS. Anything can be a microaggression, and the ironic attempt for dialogue ends up shutting things down, because people just become weary of talking to these individuals because they don’t want to offend on accident. You know, because any word uttered could be triggering
JJinAus
I have never knowingly met an asexual. How would this ever come up in normal discourse? I would never date one because it is not my sexuality.
YourDad
Example:
TV news – “The average couple has sex 2 to 3 times a week. Experts agree a regular, healthy sex life is important to any relationship, but how much is too much?”
Example:
Coworker – “Are you seeing anyone now? No? Aww.”
I believe the point of the survey was to determine if society’s views of asexuality as “deviant” or a choice unworthy of respect correlates to an asexual person’s mental health. Article would benefit from examples of what unintentional “microagressions” the researcher is examining.
BosBro
Are you kidding me? This creates derision by telling people now there is another thing you have to watch what you say lest you offend! Grow up, the world is not fair, and you asexuals are not nor have they been “discriminated against” as gay people have for time immemorial.
Lustreck
Microaggressions: this comment section.
Do cis gay men really feel the need to bitch anytime something isn’t about them?
Donston
If this study were about trying to figure out “subconscious micro-aggressions” against “cis gender gay men” most would still roll their eyes or at least I would. For some reason or another the “a-sexual movement” might be the most not-so-mico-aggressive and angry and most desperate “movement” yet. And I’m failing to comprehend why. A lot of the anger seems to come from inside rather than however the world in treating them.
Donston
However, I am all about more legit studies on sexuality as a whole. And “a-sexuality”, no matter what form, is an interesting development.