The Daily Northwestern 14th July 2005

[Live R Perfect]

http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/vnews/dis...4/42d5ec261a577

Asexuality removes awkwardness of dating
By Gemma Mangione

July 14, 2005

Woody Allen once said love is the answer, but while you're waiting for the answer, sex will raise some pretty interesting questions. And anyone who's ever suffered the hazards and hassles of the Northwestern dating scene will tell you there's always more questions than answers here in Evanston.

So what happens if you take sex out of the equation completely?

According to a recent New York Times article, a growing number of people have done just that. Self-described as asexual, they say they are completely content living their entire lives without ever having sex.

Imagine: total disinterest in and apathy toward all things sexual. We live in a country that almost impeached its president for being unable to say no to an eager intern in a beret, where sexual performance-enhancing drug companies sponsor Major League Baseball games and where everyone knows exactly to whom Britney lost her virginity. And yet, asexuals are unfazed. I am impressed.

It seems Darwinian to me -- an emotional "survival of the fittest." Like asexuality is the latest evolution in the sexual spectrum, designed to sidestep all the drama that comes from being physically intimate with someone else. Consider how asexuals would fare here at NU. The one-night stand, the walk of shame, the warm beers as foreplay and the follow-up phone call that never comes ... these would all be nonentities.

I suspect use of thefacebook.com would escalate dramatically, since at this point it's already replaced direct interpersonal contact with things like "walling" and "poking." Though the poking would probably have to go, since without the sexual subtext, it's really kind of a hostile gesture.

Still. It's pretty naﶥ [naive] to assume relationships would be entirely uncomplicated with the sex part out of the way.

A statement by the Asexuality Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) online says "sexual or nonsexual, all relationships are made up of the same basic stuff." And even without sex at NU, we'd still have our cramped conversations about absolutely nothing at the Deuce (R.I.P. Keg), our overachieving academicians devoted to Plato or Pythagoras and pretty much no one else. Both of which, while endearingly familiar, can be pretty lame.

According to the Times article, some clinicians say denying the "natural drive" for sex can hardly be considered normal. But any NU student will tell you there's certainly no single standard of normal here. That's why we've got so many more questions than answers for dating, sex and everything else.

And let's please keep in mind, as one user put it on the AVEN message boards, that "normal IS just a stereotype."

2013 Mod Edit: New Link.

[Silly Green Monkey]

Ah! My sig is famous! Theirs might be better though.

[VivreEstEsperer]

That's a great article!

[Goonie]

Ah! My sig is famous! Theirs might be better though.

I have used it before at work :D