13 replies to this topic

[Robyn99]

Apparently tomorrow's (Tuesday’s) episode of The Revolution on abc will have a segment on how you can spice up your sex life. I saw a tiny preview of the episode today on TV in which Tim Gunn, one of the show's experts, states that he hasn't had sex in 29 years.

I am curious to see where the discussion goes, and to hear Gunn’s perspective on the matter of sex and hopefully asexuality.

I haven’t watched the show in the past, and I am not entirely aware of how popular it is but I thought I’d bring it up so that people can tune in if interested.

Peace
Robyn


P.S. I’m no good at forums or navigating the Internet so I apologize if this has been discussed already or is in the wrong place.

[cleuchtturm]

"They" say he is asexual, but isn't he just celibate because his partner died or something? I'm no expert on Tim Gunn, but...yeah...

[The Great WTF]

"They" say he is asexual, but isn't he just celibate because his partner died or something? I'm no expert on Tim Gunn, but...yeah...

I seem to remember him actually coming out as asexual. According to Wikipedia he hasn't dated since the 1980s since his last relationship ended suddenly, but his last partner is still alive.

[Gray Mouser]

Just saw an article on this here. The article writer is overly dramatic about it (he was LEFT SCARRED by sex oh noes!) but still interesting. In any case, his partner didn't die, he broke up with Gunn because of the sex issue.

[cleuchtturm]

Ah, well, shows what I know.

[endplusone]

Has Tim specifically said he is asexual? I don't like the conflation between not engaging in sexual activity/relationships and asexuality. Not having sex and identifying one's Self as asexual in orientation are different things.

[Faelights]

Just saw an article on this here. The article writer is overly dramatic about it (he was LEFT SCARRED by sex oh noes!) but still interesting. In any case, his partner didn't die, he broke up with Gunn because of the sex issue.

Sounds like he's celibate, not asexual, then. XD

But hmm, I wonder if there will be any mention of asexuality. Likely not, just judging from that article?

[Club_of_Diamonds]

Well actually...

[Gray Mouser]

Here are some scans I made from a People article a year (WOW!) ago. He does says "I've always been kind of asexual."

Page 1

Page 2

[Faelights]

I can't help but feel like he said "kind of asexual" as a way to describe behaviour, not orientation, in that People article. o.o

On the other hand, he did say he didn't feel interested in either guys or girls, though he obviously fell in love with a guy. XD I can see an argument that he used it to refer to asexuality... but... I still feel like he's using it to describe behaviour.

Hmmmm.... *wanders off*

[sinisterporpoise]

Tim Gunn has described himself as Asexual. I thought this show had already aired. I'm not a fan of reality television so I cannot say I've ever seen Project Runway.

[Faelights]

Tim Gunn has described himself as Asexual. I thought this show had already aired. I'm not a fan of reality television so I cannot say I've ever seen Project Runway.

Has he described himself as asexual in the sense that it's a sexual orientation, or has he been using it as a description of his behaviour? =P

That's what I find unclear.

"Asexual-ish" sounds like the latter to me.

[Lord Happy Toast]

From what I've been able to gather from the history of asexuality, distancing asexuality from celibacy and defining asexuaity in terms of sexual attraction are largely innovations on AVEN (at least AVEN was instrumental in popularizing them). Prior to the dominance/influence of AVEN, the most common understandings of "asexuality" tended to be along the lines of "preferring not to have sex" (and such conceptualizations may continue to be dominant in some non-English-language asexual spaces.) Maybe he's working with a kind of old-school concept of asexuality?

[Faelights]

From what I've been able to gather from the history of asexuality, distancing asexuality from celibacy and defining asexuaity in terms of sexual attraction are largely innovations on AVEN (at least AVEN was instrumental in popularizing them). Prior to the dominance/influence of AVEN, the most common understandings of "asexuality" tended to be along the lines of "preferring not to have sex" (and such conceptualizations may continue to be dominant in some non-English-language asexual spaces.) Maybe he's working with a kind of old-school concept of asexuality?

I suspect something similar. =P