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Presenter: Arwen E. King

Faculty Sponsor: Joshua Becker

School: Greenfield Community College

Research Area: Psychology and Behavioral Sciences

Session: Poster Session 6, 4:15 PM - 5:00 PM, Concourse, B10

ABSTRACT

Asexuality, or the lack of sexual attraction, is an emerging sexual orientation that has begun to gain the attention of researchers in recent years.  Once thought to be a product of sexual disorder, empirical findings on asexuality as a valid sexual orientation is becoming increasingly accepted by psychologists as well as therapists.  It is now a niche topic of interest for psychological research, but unfortunately by being niche, studies on this topic remain few and far between.  As such, an overview on the current available research from the past few years is crucial to understanding what data is present on asexuality and the experiences of asexual individuals.  Recent studies tend to focus on a variety of affectionate and sexual behaviors in asexual people, as well as the discrimination asexual people face.  Some also focus on attraction, and how asexual people may differ from allosexual (non-asexual) populations.  A few of the selected studies also include people who are aromantic (lacking in romantic attraction), but the articles still largely focus on asexuality as the topic of interest.  Considering how many queer sexualities have historically been pathologized, coming to understand asexuality is an important step towards fully understanding the many facets of human sexual behavior.  This overview hopes to be able to bring awareness to asexuality, and the recent body of research that has been built around it.

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