borrowedTime Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 Firstly I just want to link in two previous threads on the topic, for completeness. I think these provide further names. http://www.asexuality.org/discussion/viewtopic.php?t=4285 http://www.asexuality.org/discussion/viewtopic.php?t=278 Secondly, this is kind of speculation, but it seems GF Handel (the baroque composer) may have been asexual. (The first link is from 365gay.com, but I haven't seen any evidence for him being gay. The second goes into more detail and includes references.) http://www.365gay.com/lifestylechannel/int...02-february.htm February 23, 1685 - George Frederick Handel is born in Halle, Lower Saxony. After he moved to England a contemporary wrote "His social affectations were not strong; and to this may be imputed that he spent his whole life in a state of celibacy; that he had no female attachments of another kind may be ascribed to a better reason.'' We never learned who that "better reason" was. http://gfhandel.org/frosch.htm Handel never married, and his sexual life was discreet. I referred earlier to the dowager electress' comment on the rumor of his liaison with Victoria. This appears to be a contemporary confirmation of Mainwaring's later statement that the soprano Vittoria [Tarquini] was interested in him.(3) The only other comment regarding Handel's romantic life is a marginal note written into a copy of Mainwaring's 1760 biography. The copy comes from the royal library, and the note is thought to have been added by George III. "G.F. Handel was ever honest, nay excessively polite but like all men of sense would talk all, and hear none, and scorned the advice of any but the Woman he loved, but his amours were rather of short duration, always with[in] the pale of his own profession?" Link to post Share on other sites
borrowedTime Posted January 14, 2005 Share Posted January 14, 2005 ==please ignore== This is a fake 31st reply to sort out linking problems. Link to post Share on other sites
Hexpiral Posted January 20, 2005 Share Posted January 20, 2005 I just remembered Federico Klemm. This guy was an argentine vanguard artist in the 1960/70s, died a few years ago. He was very close to the gay stereotype. However, in one of his last TV interviews, I recall the following coversation: Journalist: Are you gay? Klemm: No. Journalist: Are you straight? Klemm: No. J: What are you, then? K: I am nothing. I cant figure a reason to his answers other than he found his sexuality very difficult to explain, somehing quite likely if he were A. Link to post Share on other sites
gambit_boi Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 as far as fictional, famous asexuals go, what about Sherlock Holmes? we had a rather silly debate in English class as to whether or not Holmes was gay. i don't really see him as anything, sexual-orientation wise. in general, he took little notice of female beauty, and the relationship central to his private and public life was with his long-time friend and business partner, John Watson. Link to post Share on other sites
Hexpiral Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 Sherlock is indeed asexual, as stated in A Scandal in Bohemia, but this thread is for real life Asexuals. There´ve been other threads about fictional characters (one has been recently revived in the General Asexual rantings forum). Link to post Share on other sites
Philip Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Simone Weil ( 1909 - 1943 ), French philsopher, writer, mystic and political activist was asexual. See http://www.newcriterion.com/archive/20/mar02/weil.htm "She did not want to attract sexually or be attracted. She spoke plainly of her 'total sexlessness'." Link to post Share on other sites
Peyton Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 Another good list:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_famou...s_in_their_life 8) Link to post Share on other sites
Damien Day Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Um, Peyton, Sorry, but that list is really for celibacy not asexuality. Even so, I find it odd, that they include people like H G Wells who lost his virginity at 22 - I hardly think that counts as celibacy let alone asexuality. Also too many of the people on that list are saints etc. I realise that it's possible that they were asexual as well - after all in those days religious belief was much more common in those days, and asexuals would have been naturally attracted to religion as a way to avoid marriage and sexual activity enforced by the state. I still think though that we should mainly include only those famous people who are reported to have had an actual, innate lack of interest in sex, rather than those who restrict their sexual activities because of a God. Strontium Dog Link to post Share on other sites
Concealed ID Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Has anyone mentioned Queen Elizabeth I yet? She stayed a virgin her whole life and even had one of her closest friends beheaded for suggesting a relationship with her. Could just be celibate of course, but I think that's unlikely. She wasn't catholic either so it's not religious. Link to post Share on other sites
Damien Day Posted January 26, 2005 Share Posted January 26, 2005 Actually we've had gone over this before. Elizabeth I had numerous affairs with various lovers. I think rumour has it she was infertile(from some disease) so she could get away with it.The only reason why she never married was that if she had done so, ALL her power would go over to her husband. That's why the kings of Spain and France were desperate for her to marry them or their relatives(in this case the king of Spain, and the Duke of Anjou respectively).If that had happened, England would have become part of Spain or France. She also pretended to be a virgin, because her unavailability encouraged her men at court to idolise her, Strontium Dog Link to post Share on other sites
The_L Posted April 27, 2005 Share Posted April 27, 2005 The short fiction author, H.P. Lovecraft was believed by some to be asexual, although no one can be sure. To quote wikipedia: "...he attended an amateur journalist convention where he met Sonia Greene. She was Ukrainian, a Jew, and, having been born in 1883, several years older than Lovecraft. They married, though Lovecraft's aunts were unhappy with the arrangement. The couple moved to the Borough of Brooklyn in New York City. He hated it. A few years later he and Greene agreed to an amicable divorce, and he returned to Providence to live with his aunts during their remaining years. Due to the unhappiness of their marriage, some biographers have speculated that Lovecraft could have been asexual." Link to post Share on other sites
shotinthedark Posted April 27, 2005 Share Posted April 27, 2005 After reading several of his works I wouldn't be shocked. Link to post Share on other sites
vikingo Posted April 27, 2005 Share Posted April 27, 2005 Hans Christian Andersen Try some of his tales: http://www.fortaellinger.frac.dk Link to post Share on other sites
Hexpiral Posted April 28, 2005 Share Posted April 28, 2005 I mailed a local paper about Andersen after they ran a story about him, and specifically mentioned he died a virgin. No reply. Bastards. Link to post Share on other sites
wysteria Posted April 29, 2005 Share Posted April 29, 2005 A couple of people here have mentioned George Bernard Shaw. Here's a Shaw quote from a 1923 letter to Robert Thomson: “[M]y intellectual interests, in science, in history, in philosophy, in design and evolution, have been so much more lasting and dignified than the more primitive and fleshy interests that I can conceive of no better paradise [to present in his utopian cycle of plays, Back to Methuselah] than one in which they have developed into passions and become ecstatic” (Bernard Shaw 813). Shaw's wife, Charlotte, was even more unambiguously asexual than he was. If he wasn't that interested in sex, she apparently had a positive aversion to it. This distaste for sex was one of things Charlotte Shaw had in common with another famous asexual candidate, T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia) (1888-1935), who had a long-standing epistulary friendship with both Shaws, but most notably Mrs. Shaw. Lawrence has often been labeled as gay and even more often as just psychosexually damaged. Personally, I think "asexual" fits him better than any other label, though he could easily be the poster child for why it would be nice not to have/need orientation labels. I've studied Lawrence quite a bit and can report a fair amount of evidence that he had traces of attraction to women and to men, but after he was raped during World War I (if not before), he developed an aversion to sex that would last for the rest of his life. In his letters, he stated that he had never sex and did not think he could bring himself to touch another human being sexually. Like many of the folks on this forum, he was also an introvert and enjoyed solitude. Many of his closest friendships were conducted more via letters than face-to-face encounters. (His letters are an awesome read, by the by.) Link to post Share on other sites
Camelot Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 Well, since I'm a classic movie buff, I'd definitely say the terrific actor Clifton Webb (Sitting Pretty, Mr. Belvedere-movies, etc.)! He never married, adored his mother, and I've never heard even a whisper of the slightest romance in his life........... Link to post Share on other sites
Fermatprime Posted June 12, 2005 Share Posted June 12, 2005 The Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdos was, in all likelihood, asexual. (See "The Man who Loved Only Numbers" by Paul Hoffman, I can't remember specific details, but he died a virgin). The English mathematician G.H. Hardy was most likely either gay or asexual, but as far as anyone knows, he never had a sexual relationship. He referred to his collaboration with Ramanujan as "the one romantic incident in my life." From Wikipedia: "He was an atheist, and, according to those who knew him best a non-practising homosexual (Littlewood's phrase)." Which could easily have been used to refer to an asexual 80 years ago. Link to post Share on other sites
Camelot Posted June 13, 2005 Share Posted June 13, 2005 I just thought about another actor that might be considered for this list: The wonderful British actor, comedian, writer and all-around wit, Stephen Fry! Admittedly, he's gay, but he's also stated that he's completely celibate (by choice), so I would say he's a prime candidate for our list! He just doesn't seem to be terribly interested in you-know-what.......... Link to post Share on other sites
maco Posted October 13, 2005 Share Posted October 13, 2005 There is speculation that Davey Havok of AFI is asexual. Okay, usually people say he's either bi or gay because he and Jade (guitarist) are very close, but he denies being gay and that they have any more-than-friendly relationship. In a group of AFI fans someone said they think Davey doesn't like either because he wrote a song where he says "Twenty-six years and it seems like I've just begun to understand my intimate is no one" which the person is interpretating as him not being able to fall in love with anyone really. I always took that as him being overly-picky, but the asexual thing would make sense too as he's described a kiss in an interview as.... Geoff Kresge : So Davey puckers up and the girl takes her hand, puts it behind Davey's head, and this 80 foot tongue shoots out of her mouth and goes down Davey's throat! Davey Havok : I was shocked, I was crying, I couldn't breathe. Ohhh - it was horrible. Geoff Kresge : My eyes popped out of my head about three feet. Davey Havok : It was traumatizing. Mark : And later on when she saw you what did she say? Oh, "I'll see YOU later." Davey Havok : I'm a fucking idiot. :lol: I love reading their interview quotes Uh anyway, he was supposedly engaged at one point (in promo pics from 1999 and 2000 he has a wedding band or engagement ring, not sure which) but he doesn't where a ring anymore and is single. So, he says he doesn't like guys, he described kissing a girl as "traumatizing" and he's just as androgynous as Morrissey. Link to post Share on other sites
A_Piece_of_Pie Posted October 13, 2005 Share Posted October 13, 2005 Holy crap! I never knew Dali was asexual! :shock: That's so cool! =D He's my favorite artist! (I went to tha Dali museum in Tampa this past summer.) Wow... that's pretty spiffy :) Link to post Share on other sites
McBuh Posted October 13, 2005 Share Posted October 13, 2005 Harriet Miers Link to post Share on other sites
Verin Posted October 13, 2005 Share Posted October 13, 2005 Just out of generally curiousity, since this topic has come up many times, why do we not have a 'sticky' list somewhere of them? I dunno if this has been suggested before but like i said it's only a thought.... :? Link to post Share on other sites
Vicious Trollop Posted October 13, 2005 Share Posted October 13, 2005 The only reason I'd be hesitant to sticky a thread like this is that it would make it look like a master list of confirmed asexuals, when we're really just speculating and assigning labels in the vast majority of cases. Link to post Share on other sites
borrowedTime Posted October 13, 2005 Share Posted October 13, 2005 Why not make a new page for such a list in the AVEN wiki, rather than making this sticky? Link to post Share on other sites
winter Posted October 13, 2005 Share Posted October 13, 2005 i like that idea, bt. go forth, my friends, and add your heros to the aven wiki! *organ music!* Link to post Share on other sites
Djet Posted October 13, 2005 Share Posted October 13, 2005 Didn't know any of that...interesting. Thanks for posting. Link to post Share on other sites
Verin Posted October 14, 2005 Share Posted October 14, 2005 The only reason I'd be hesitant to sticky a thread like this is that it would make it look like a master list of confirmed asexuals, when we're really just speculating and assigning labels in the vast majority of cases. Oops... :oops: Didn' think of it like that but i do like borrowed times idea. :D Link to post Share on other sites
theblackwatch Posted October 15, 2005 Share Posted October 15, 2005 Why is everyone agreeing on Dali? The man might well have been a bit on the edge whilst a youngster, but in his 'good days' as an artist he was renowned for his sexual escapades, orgies if you will... If you consider someone 'asexual' just because he was a bit shy in the early days, why not considering everyone under 12 asexual? Dali is the typology of hornydom. Now, to add a couple of names to the list: Thomas Hobbes English political philosopher, son of a priest, difficult family situation, famous for his Leviathan and his Behemoth, tutor of Charles II in exile, founder of the hobbesian model of the State. Hans Christian Andersen Danish writer and poet, son of a poor man, favorite of the King, famous for his tales (the Little Mermaid, Tin Soldier, ...), cosmopolite. That's all for now... :lol: Link to post Share on other sites
borrowedTime Posted October 22, 2005 Share Posted October 22, 2005 So I added two pages to the wiki. There's a List of asexual people with a list of confirmed asexuals and one of possible asexuals. And there's a List of fictional asexuals. Which is currently a very short list... I've collected most (but I think not all) people mentioned in this thread... but not the other threads on this topic. The lists need checking, expansion, etc. etc. So go work on them! Link to post Share on other sites
theblackwatch Posted October 22, 2005 Share Posted October 22, 2005 I'm telling ya, HC Andersen was asexual! Link to post Share on other sites
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.