From playground chatter to high-street billboards; from magazines,
newspapers and television to the subject of junk emails in our inboxes,
sex is common currency. But a small, often misunderstood, sometimes
disbelieved minority of the population is almost totally overlooked:
they feel absolutely no sexual attraction to other people.
A book published in the UK next month claims such men and women, an
estimated 1 per cent of the population, should be recognised as a fourth
sexual orientation – asexuals.
Professor Anthony Bogaert's book,
Understanding Asexuality, argues that a growing number of people
consider themselves asexual. He believes asexual people are "an
under-studied population" who can feel excluded from our "very
sexualised culture". He said our society, "can place expectations on
both sexual and asexual people, but particularly asexual people".
Joshua
Hatton, 23, a language student from Birmingham, agrees. "Three years
ago, I came across asexuality – it explained everything. I no longer had
to lie to myself. Young men are expected to have some sort of casual
sex; it's all around. Now I feel more comfortable."
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