article help!!!!!!!

[SuperSinger]

I'm placing this here, and in "open Mic" since I feel those are the two best places for a topic such as this.

I've been working on a feature on asexuality for a few weeks now, and I just finished writing it. HOWEVER, I just did a word count on the finished product, and it's about 2,500 words! There's no way my college's 12-page newspaper will publish something that long, even though they've been pestering me about it! So, I'd like to post it here in hopes that some of you could read it and tell me what could be cut without loosing importance.

[SuperSinger]

Heterosexuality. Homosexuality. Bisexuality. Asexuality?

“Like, with worms and stuff?” on Monroe County Community College student asked, completely oblivious to the word. This is actually the response that most people give when they first hear the word, and with fairly good reason. That’s mostly all we hear the word use for. Webster’s dictionary, after all, defines asexual as “having no sexual organs or reproduction without the union of male and female germ cells.”

There is, however a new definition that is quickly becoming popular across the U.S. and U.K. “Asexual: A person who does not experience sexual attraction.” That is the definition that is broadcast on the homepage of The Asexual Visibility and Education Network, also known as AVEN.

The Agora staff seemed to fall victim to a hushed gasp at this epiphany, and one reporter at one point demanded, “So, wait. You mean there’s people who don’t like sex?”

The simple answer? Yes. The more complex answer, however, is that is just the beginning.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, a book that psychologists and phychiatrists hold as high as the bible, announces “Hypoactive sexual desire” as a mental phenomenon in which the “patient” has little or no sex drive. They have no desire to have sex with either gender, and in fact do not even anyone sexually attractive!

However, the question at hand is are these people with no sex drives diseased? Nicole Prause, a graduate student at Indiana University says no! Not only are they not mentally ill in any way, but as she says, “People are using it as a sexual orientation.”

This is where AVEN enters. The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (located at www.asexuality.org) exists to inform people about asexuality in humans. Before it’s appearance, the only public information on asexuality had to do with worms, plants and amoebas (in fact, many asexuals jokingly refer to themselves as amoebas because of this).

“While most sexual people are shown a multitude of ways to live a life which involves sex,” says David Jay, the founder of AVEN, “most asexual people find very little information on how to live life without it. We (AVEN) provide a safe space for asexual people to discuss our experiences in our online forum, and actively organize for the recognition and acceptance of asexuality.”

So, who is this David Jay person? In short he’s a very busy man! Because of his activity in AVEN, he’s spoken at several conferences including the annual LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Transsexual) convention, and has given interviews for magazines and newspapers including New Scientist Magazine. That’s why The Agora is honored that he made time for a phone interview with us!

Mr. Jay, surprisingly is a college student! He’s only 22 years old, and created AVEN in 2001 at the age of 18. He currently resides in St. Louis Missouri. He began referring to himself as asexual years before that, when he was only a high school student.

So, how does one so young come to the conclusion that sex just isn’t for them, especially when they’ve never had it? David says, “Everyone was discussing sex and sexuality, and I just couldn’t relate.”

He’s not the only one. 18 year old AVEN member Jessica Bull from Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia recalled, “I was exploring my sexuality and trying to find where I fitted in the world. But nothing I came up with felt right. After reading the article in the [New Scientist] Magazine, I realized why the other sexualities didn’t quite fit. I wasn’t interested in sex. After reading the various information on asexuality at the AVEN site, I concluded that I was asexual.”

Jessica is referring to the article for which David Jay interviewed with New Scientist in mid-October. It became one of the first times asexuality got national publicity.

How long has asexuality actually been around? Well, as an actual orientation, only for a few years, but it has been a known about occurance in mammals since the early 1990’s when three separate groups (The US Sheep Experiment Station, Oregon State University, and The Oregon Health and Science University) performed experiments on adult male sheep. Rams were put into pens with female sheep which were in heat. All but 10% of those rams mated with the females. Those remaining were placed with other males, and some of those attempted to mate, showing homosexual behavior. However, there were still rams that seemed completely uninterested in mating. About 3% of the rams showed to be asexual.

Alright, so we proved asexual behavior in sheep. Big deal! What about humans? A study given by Anthony Bogaert, a psychologist and human sexuality expert at Brock University in Ontario went to answer that very question. A survey was given to 18,000 people, and they were asked about their sexual preferences and experiences. One question on the survey was specifically to seek out asexuals and read, “I have never felt sexually attracted to anyone at all.”

Bogaert was surprised at the responces! One percent of the people taking the survey identified with this choice. One percent might not seem like much, but it becomes more meaningful when it’s taken into account that the number of people with homosexual responces was three percent.

“So, what’s the difference between being asexual and celibate?” asked John Seppala (yes, my father!). Celibate or abstinate people choose not to have sexual relationships. These choices might be tied to religious or moral views, or even because the person simply doesn’t find the act of sex to be pleasurable. Asexuals, on the other hand, have no desire what so ever to engage in sexual activities.

David Jay explained asexuality with an unusual but interesting analogy. “Let’s say there’s a bakery. Lots of people go to the bakery and buy baked goods and take them home and eat them. But, you can walk down to the bakery, go in, greet all the people working and shopping there, enjoy the displays and even enjoy the smells of the place, without ever actually buying anything.”

Confused? Well, an asexual person can find other people attractive (just not sexually enticing) and even have romantic relationships. That doesn’t mean they need to have sex, however. Jay points out that asexuals have the same esencial needs as sexual people, just intercourse doesn’t happen to be one of them.

The bakery analogy, though, also describes asexual masterbation. That’s right, some asexuals masterbate! You might now be wondering, “If they don’t have sexual desires, then what do they think about when they masterbate?”

The answer: a-sexy things! Hugging, pecks on the cheek, meaningful conversations… “Masterbation doesn’t imply wanting a sexual partner,” Jay explains. “It is an act not related to sex at all. If asexuals think about other people during masturbation, it is onle as a fantasy. If they were actually given the opportunity to be sexual with that person there would be no attraction, or the drive would be so low as to be completely ignorable.”

To get more of an aspect on asexual thought, I decided to check out some more online asexual communities.

At this, The Agora’s Editor-in-Chief Taryn Kapp looked surprised. “You mean there’s more?!”

Yes, there are many more. Geraldin (Geri) Levi, co-founder of The Asexual Society (found at www.theofficialasexualsociety.com) says, “In fact, there are millions of asexuals scattered about the planet.”

While there is no way to tell exactly how many people are asexual, we can make a guess. Assuming that the aforementioned survery which stated that one percent of the population is asexual, that would mean that there are around 700,000,000 asexuals on the planet!

This number is so outstanding, that it seems unbelievable that there is so little information on the subject available for public use. That’s why Geri Levi has written “Strangers in a Strange Land.” It’s a book which has many asexuals discussing their asexuality as well as having a history of asexuality in general and results of medical research. It will also include asexual comedy, and look at asexuality in celebrities. The book is thought to be published sometime next year.

A big thing covered in these asexual communities is the problems they face due to the public opinion on sex. There are many myths that have been formulated on asexuality. The largest of these is that it doesn’t even exist.

Edmund Fortuin, the other co-founder of The Asexual Society said: “One thing that I hear often is that I, and people like me can never be Asexual, because colored people are always ready for sex. This is SUCH an insult… not only to us, but probably an insult to a lot of people. Not everyone wants to sleep with someone at the drop of a hat!”

Even some publications have gone so far as to renownce asexuality as being non existant. Vision 2002, a religious article, recently ran an article called “Eight Myths about Religious Life”. The article touched on asexuality only briefly, but what it did say caused somewhat of an uproar. “Question: what do you call a person who is asexual? Answer: not a person. Asexual people do not exist. Sexuality is a gift from God and thus is a fundimental part of our human identity.”

Other myths include: asexuals are just closet gays, asexuals are just late bloomers, asexuals just haven’t found the right person yet.

Oh? They haven’t found the right person? Well, what about those asexuals who are married? That’s right, married!

Take Nancy, for instance. She is a 51 year old asexual who has been married for the past 6 years. She began identifying herself as asexual as a junior in high school in 1970, though at that time she had made the word up simply putting the pre-fix “a” meaning “not” in front of sex. She and her husband do not have sex, and she tells me that her husband doesn’t mind it.

No, in her case, I suppose age could be a factor, since she didn’t even marry until the age of 45. Well then, how about 23 year old Esther Dail who is also in a sexless marriage! Her husband also doesn’t seem to mind, and Esther says he never pushes her for it.

One man logged onto AVEN to ask “How can you have a relationship without sex?” The answers came flooding in!

Geri Levi came over and answered: “Asexual relationships can be just as close and intimate as sexual ones. There are hundreds of ways in which one can express oneself without sex, and an Asexual has all these hundreds of feelings, and perhaps even more.”

David Jay said: “Some asexuals keep close friendships, some enjoy ‘traditional’ (but not sexual) romantic couplings. Asexuals can ‘be more than friends’ or even consider their relationships ‘closer than lovers’. Asexual relationships are a ‘blank slate’, there are no rules dictating how non-sexual love is expressed. The possibilities for non-sexual intimacy are vast. Some asexuals enjoy physical closeness, perhaps cuddling or stroking, with their partner. Some express intimacy through talking, maybe sharing their innermost fears and secrets or by making each other laugh. Some asexuals feel intimacy with their partners by sharing common interests and activities or by working together toward common goals. Others experience intimacy in other deeply personal ways or by a combination of some, all or none of the above.”

Even I felt the need to pitch in my two cents. “Love and sex are two completely different things! You can have sex without love, which is evident in many people having one night stands. You can also have love without sex, which I think is obvious to anyone who spends five minutes paroosing the message boards of AVEN.”

So, exactly what kind of people are asexuals? They’re the same as sexuals, actually. On AVEN, they range from 15 to 65, (Geri Levi mentioned that she knows women in their 80’s who’ve never had sex). Their jobs range from high school and college students, to clerks and receptionists, to a former monk. Their sexual experience ranges from virgins, to having had sex once or twice, to a former prostitute.

Basically, other than the fact that asexuals feel no need or use for sex, they’re just like everybody else. They are not frigid, or sexually repressed, or even unable to get sex. They simply have no desire to have it.

David Jay said, “Some want romantic intimate relationships, some don’t. Some become arroused, some don’t. Some masterbate, some don’t.”

One asexual, Pete (name has been changed) who is in a non-sexual relationship said, “I get the arousal but when it happens it gets annoying because to me there is really no purpose to it, there is nothing I can do about it.”

So then, how can you identify asexuals? Well, you can’t! I mean, it’s almost impossible to decifer who’s straight and who’s gay just by looking at them, isn’t it? However, one way of making asexuality visible to the general public is special clothing! On AVEN, you can shop in their online store where there are items such as t-shirts which read, “Asexual: not just for amoebas anymore”, “ineffable”, “No Sex, please”and “This is what an asexual looks like. There is even a thong, which says, “It’s only underwear. Get over it.”

But unless you see someone wearing one such shirt, you won’t know their asexualy unless they tell you, or until you attempt to get them in bed. But just because asexuals don’t want to make love doesn’t mean they can’t love. David Jay said, “Anything that can be done through sexuality (emotional expression, fun, physical closeness, etc) can be done nonsexually.” Flirting was once example he used. “I flirt all the time, just in ways that will never result in us being in bed together.”

Geri Levi stated, “You see, even though asexuals do not feel sexual attraction, they DO feel another form of attraction and do fall in love.”

One question asked by MCCC studen Sarah Queen is, “Do [asexuals] date?”

To steal David Jay’s earlier words, some do and some don’t. Many are dating and in non-sexual relationships. Others have no desire to form bonds that go beyond friendship. There are however meet-ups. There are even meet-up groups around here! There are meet-up groups in Toledo, Ann Arbor, Detroit and Jackson.

Asexuality exists, and in large numbers. We just don’t hear about it, because there’s not much information about it outside of online asexual communities. For this reason, many people who might be asexual aren’t likely to come across the information or even term. They may go on being sexual (straight, gay or bi) because they don’t know there’s another alternative.

Perhaps soon, they will. New Scientist magazine made the statement, “If asexuality is indeed a form of sexual orientation, perhaps it will not be long before the issue of ‘A’ pride starts attracting more attention.”

For most asexuals, this is the plan! “But I don’t think we need a parade,” stated David Jay.

[LuvHuggS]

Hmm .....what to trim , what to trim...

This bit in David's short bio:-

He began referring to himself as asexual years before that, when he was only a high school student.

The Asexuality in Sheep comparison could be cut back to the bare essentials eg:-

Clinical trials(experiments) concluded that the results were 3% asexual. Alright, so we proved asexual behavior in sheep. Big deal! What about humans?

Hmm the whole bakery analogy i think i'd lose as well. I think the subject is covered just as well further on in the article:-

Basically, other than the fact that asexuals feel no need or use for sex, they’re just like everybody else. They are not frigid, or sexually repressed, or even unable to get sex. They simply have no desire to have it. David Jay said, “Some want romantic intimate relationships, some don’t. Some become arroused, some don’t. Some masterbate, some don’t.”

Hmm and if that was enough gone... possibly the section on the clothing could be cut back as well.

eg:-

So then, how can you identify asexuals? Well, you can’t! I mean, it’s almost impossible to decifer who’s straight and who’s gay just by looking at them, isn’t it? But unless you see someone wearing an "Asexual: not just for amoebas anymore” t-shirt, you won’t know their asexually unless they tell you, or until you attempt to get them in bed.

Well that's my 2 cents worth at least.

Great Article.

G.

[Qwerty]

Well done! I like the way that you have included so many specific examples. Unfortunately to trim for length you would have to drop entire examples. Have you asked what the limit is? Perhaps it can be extended as a special case. You certainly can't split it into two instalments, becaues it would leave so many questions hanging in the middle.

< pedant mode on>

Is that supposed to be "on" = "one" in the first line?

A spell-check would catch "renownce" = "renounce" and I'm sure there's others I didn't see.

[A-Ole]

This won't actually shorten the essay, but there shouldn't be any exclamation points in there; it's a journalism piece, right, not a blog entry.

Also, I hate to tell you this after you invested so much effort, but being asexual does NOT mean not wanting, liking or having sex, or having no sex drive, it ONLY means not feeling sexual attraction. On the + side, that means that you could cut out any parts of the essay that refer to that incorrect information without losing anything. :-)

[Davey]

Other things that won't help shorten your piece include cross-posting.

[emmarainbow]

That's really good... I wish there was a way for me to spread the message, in a secondary (high) school there is nothing run for us, and nobody ever does anything news-spreading.

I'm trying to do my best just by telling people I am... it's slow, but more people are getting the idea...

[Alya]

Great article!

Ummm not what you were looking for but-typo on line 14

and in fact do not even anyone sexually attractive!

Comma? is, are

However, the question at hand is are these people with no sex drives diseased?

I'm going to stop now... :oops:

OK one more then I promise I'll shut up...

but it has been a known about occurance in mammals

How about:

a well known occurance in mammals...

[SuperSinger]

I re-wrote the entire article after my editors all read it and had their say. There are still a few things my copy editor wants changed (small gramatical things), but other than that, they LOVE the new copy (one of the editors referred to this new version as "fabulous")

Jessica Bull is an 18-year-old high school student from Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia. Like most teens, she hears about sex… a lot!

Her friends talk about their sexual encounters, and what boys they think are hot, and she has to endure catcalls from the guys. Jessica, however does not partake in these conversations.

“For two to three months I was exploring my sexuality and trying to find where I fitted in the world,” she recalls. “But nothing I came up with felt right. I realized why the different sexualities didn’t quite fit. I wasn’t interested in sex.”

It was then that, while on the Internet, Jessica came across The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) at www.asexuality.org.

AVEN was created in 2001 by a man named David Jay (now 22 years old). He went through much the same thing as Jessica. According to him, “Everyone was discussing sex and sexuality, and I just couldn’t relate.”

Jay began looking for information on his unique situation – one where he simply did not find anyone sexually attractive, and he had no desire to be with anyone sexually. All he could find was information about plants, amoebas and worms reproducing without the use of sexual intercourse; a term called asexual reproduction.

Jay, however, was not reproducing asexually. However, the term asexual seemed to fit right. He was not sexual, after all, and since “a” can be used as a pre-fix meaning not, the term asexual stuck.

The only information on humans having no sex drive was found in a medical journal of mental disorders. The term used was “Hypoactive Sexual Desire,” in which a person had little or no sex drive and hence doesn’t find people of either gender to be sexually attractive.

Nicole Prause, a graduate student at Indiana University says that it is not, however a disease. “People are using it as a sexual orientation,” she says.

David Jay decided that there must be others like him, and he went to work in founding AVEN. The homepage announces, “Asexual: A person who does not experience sexual attraction.”

Jay’s idea was to get information about asexuality out to the public. “While sexual people are shown a multitude of ways to live a life which involves sex, most asexual people find very little information on how to live life without it. We (AVEN) provide a safe space for asexual people to discuss our experiences in our online forum, and actively organize for the recognition and acceptance of asexuality.”

Thanks to AVEN, Jessica was able to discover that there was not only a term for her lack of sexual desire or sexual attraction to others (since she could now identify herself as being asexual), she found that she’s not alone!

“There are millions of asexuals scattered about the planet,” says Geraldin Levi, co-founder of The Asexual Society (www.theofficialasexualsociety.com).

In fact, a sex study performed by Anthony Bogaert, a psychologist and human sexuality expert, shows that as much as 1% of the population is asexual. That’s 70,000,000 asexuals! This number is almost as high as the 3% that are homosexual.

Many people think asexuality is merely celibacy. This is, however, a misconception. The difference is that celibate people choose to refrain from sex, asexuals have no desire for it what so ever.

And don’t think that all asexuals are young people since it is a relatively new form of sexual orientation. Nancy is a 51 year old asexual, and she says she began identifying herself as such as early as 1970.

So, do asexuals date? David Jay says, “Some form romantic intimate relationships, some do not.” Many do, however, and some even marry. Nancy, for instance has been married for the past 6 years. She and her husband do not engage in sexual activity, and she says he’s fine with it. The same can be said of 23-year old Esther Dail who informed her husband of her asexuality when they were still dating. She says, “He doesn’t push me to have sex.”

So, yes, there are people out there who have no interest in sex, even in this vastly sexual world in which we live. They are there in great numbers. So why haven’t we heard of them until now? There’s not much information about it outside of online asexual communities. For this reason, many people who might be asexual aren’t likely to come across the information or even the term. They may go on being sexual (straight, gay or bi) because they don’t know there’s another alternative.

Perhaps soon, they will. New Scientist magazine made the statement, “If asexuality is indeed a form of sexual orientation, perhaps it will not be long before the issue of ‘A’ pride starts attracting more attention.”

For most asexuals, this is the plan! “But I don’t think we need a parade,” stated David Jay.

[A-Ole]

I'm VERY impressed at how you were able to totally redo the article, and make it so much tighter and cleaner, so FAST-bravo!! :-)

[Qwerty]

That is really much better. What an improvement!

Somehow I get the feeling that you didn't introduce Nancy properly. It's like you just jumped right in to using her first name. The sentence before that is a real tangle of double-negatives. And it begins with "and". I would un-wrap the negatives by making it a question: "Since asexuality is a relatively new form of sexual orientation, are all asexuals young people?" However your next paragraph also opens with a question, so you probably don't want to do that.

[The_Echidna]

WOW..............

I thought the first article was impressive, But the re write is awesome. Keep up the good work.

[VivreEstEsperer]

Good work! and thanks for all of your effort. that's gonna be awesome.

[C21H22O2N2]

Great article! The re-write is beautiful.

All I request is you post any responses you get here. I am just curious to see how people will receive your article. Are the "sheeple" ready for intelligence and fine prose describing a non-mainstream lifestyle? We shall see.

Take care,

Jenn

:twisted:

[SuperSinger]

Grrr.....

The paper with my asexuality article was published today... but the copy editor did such a terrible job with it. The thing is laced with horrendous gramatical errors, and half of a sentence is lost when the story gets continued on a seperate page. And since Editor's names aren't put, it looks like I'm the one who made all the writing mistakes! :evil:

[winter]

sorry to hear that...that really sucks. is there anyway the errors can be noted in future issues?

i don't know how much comfort it is, but we all know what a great job you did.