binary suns Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 Is sexual attraction different from sexual desire or are they the same thing? How do they differ? Link to post Share on other sites
Ennis Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 You will get many different answers to this question on AVEN. Are you familiar with how the AVENwiki defines it? http://wiki.asexuality.org/Sexual_attraction http://wiki.asexuality.org/Sexual_desire Link to post Share on other sites
Abigail Rose Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 Attraction would suggest a certain specific person, where desire could just be that you are ready for a place to focus that attention. Just my thought on it. Link to post Share on other sites
Philip027 Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 To me attraction is just directed desire. "I want sex with someone" vs "I want sex with you specifically" So no, not different in any significant way. Either one points toward not being ace. Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 The eternal question. How we define the eterms does not really make something vaild or not valid. attraction vs desire both have the same root which is the "self" now the question would be is that from the true self or a shadow... Which only you are able to truly find the answer to that question. Why worry about terms just be in the moment and everything else does not matter. My two cents. Link to post Share on other sites
Gifted With Singleness Posted May 28, 2020 Share Posted May 28, 2020 In terms of defining asexuality, sexual attraction and sexual desire are pretty much equivalent. But if you really want to be pedantic about it, I suppose that the term "sexual attraction", understood correctly, can have more explanatory power in describing how sexual desire manifests itself. Think about how magnets attract each other. The magnets exert attractive forces on each other that pull them closer together. The closer the magnets are to each other, the stronger the force of attraction is. Eventually, these magnets will touch each other, provided that there are no external forces preventing this from happening. I suppose that sexual attraction operates pretty similarly. As an example, let's say that someone catches your eye. You don't want to have sex with them in that moment, but you do want to look at them. By looking at them, you begin to notice their personality, which makes you want to spend time with them. The more time you spend with them, the more of an emotional connection you feel. This results in romantic feelings, and you ask the person out on a date. While dating, you begin to show each other more and more physical affection. Then one day, in the middle of a passionate make out session, you begin to want sex. But even though you only wanted to have sex when you were making out, it can still make sense to say that you were sexually attracted to that person from the moment they first caught your eye. You were attracted to this person in such a way that, if you let this attraction guide your actions and don't resist, you naturally end up having sex. To be clear, that is just one example, and sexual attraction isn't always experienced in that one particular way. I just brought it up to illustrate that you can define sexual attraction as "the process that leads to sexual desire", making the terms technically different. Still, they go hand in hand, which is why, when it comes to defining asexuality, it doesn't really matter which term you use. Link to post Share on other sites
KiraS Posted May 29, 2020 Share Posted May 29, 2020 I think these are both very fuzzy and vague terms, so it's probably better to ask "what do you mean when you say sexual attraction/desire" rather than assume that everyone agrees that there is a strict difference between the two. Link to post Share on other sites
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