It's #AceWeek! Let's talk about some misconceptions about asexuality and the asexual spectrum.

(This is gonna be very Ace 101, but apparently it's still necessary.)

"Asexuality simply means having no interest in sex."

Asexuality actually means not feeling sexual attraction (i.e. sexual desire targeted at a specific person). There are asexuals who aren't interested in having sex, but that's not what makes them asexual.

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"Asexuality just means not having sex."

You're confusing asexuality (an orientation) with celibacy (a choice). Whether you're celibate or not, this doesn't say anything about your attraction. Plenty of celibate people are attracted to people, but don't act on it.

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"Asexuality means having no sexual and romantic attraction."

Even though people use other orientation terms like "bisexual" to describe both sexual and romantic orientation, asexuality *only* describes the sexual part. The lack of romantic attraction is aromanticism.

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A lot of asexuals are also aromantic (like me), but we still tend to consider our asexuality and aromanticism to be two distinct things that cause us to have different experiences. Only using the term "ace" when you mean "ace and aro" is aromantic erasure. Don't do it.

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[Rape/SA mention]

"Asexuals are not oppressed."

Asexuality is still listed as a disease in several medical catalogues. Misogyny-affected asexuals face higher rates of sexual assault and rape ("corrective rape"). Asexuals face discrimination in medical settings.

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Asexuals face a large amount of erasure. Asexuals deal with amisia from conservative religious families if they don't want to reproduce. Asexuals can't talk about being asexual without getting death threats a lot of the time.

"All asexuals feel uncomfortable with sexual things."

Sex-aversion, sex-indifference and sex-favourability exist on a different spectrum than the asexual-allosexual continuum. Whether we enjoy sex or not has nothing to do with our attraction.

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"Asexuality means low libido/your body doesn't respond to stimulus."

Again, asexuality is about the attraction we feel to other people, not about how our bodies work. A lot of asexuals masturbate, and a lot of us have sex with other people. It can still feel good.

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"Asexuality is one single identity."

"Asexual" or "ace" is a spectrum of identities. Some of us experience no attraction, other experience it sometimes and others under certain circumstances. What we all have in common is experiencing less attraction than allosexuals.

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"Asexuality itself is not LGBTQ+/queer."

Even heteroromantic asexuals don't conform to heteronormativity, is heteronormativity is allonormative and includes both the sexual and the romantic part. Having an orientation that isn't heteronormative makes us LGBTQ+/queer.

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"All asexuals are sex-negative."

Your attitude towards sex isn't your sexual orientation. I have honestly never met an ace, even a sex-repulsed one, who projected their discomfort with sex onto others and shamed them for having or talking about sex.

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"Asexuality is an illness."

Asexuality is an orientation. Lacking sexual attraction to a certain gender isn't considered an illness, so neither should lacking sexual attraction to all genders. Let's not go through the same arguments people used to defend homomisia.

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