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Here is a link to a recent article in the New Zealand newspaper The Press. Not the best journalism but it's all raising awareness...

http://www.stuff.co.nz/3966521a7144.html




2014 Mod Edit: The above link doesn't work anymore, but thanks to members onceonly and Sootmouth I could retrieve a copy:


Stuff.co.nz

Monday, 19 Feb 2007


Asexual support group finds following

A New Zealand support group has been set up for people who are asexual, as people without interest in sex become more open about themselves.


With about 60 members nationwide, the support group defines being asexual as either having no experience of sexual attraction, or not caring about sex.

Reclusive Kiwi writer Keri Hulme yesterday told The Press she preferred the term "natural neuter" to asexual, and had never made a secret of identifying herself as such.

Despite a growing number of people describing themselves as asexual, there is debate among sexual health professionals as to whether asexuality is a naturally occurring condition or a way people react to things such as difficult sexual experiences.

One Christchurch woman who classifies herself as an asexual spoke to The Press about her lack of sexual experience and her joy in finding out there were others like her.

The woman, aged in her 30s, did not want to be named, but said she had never had sex nor been in a relationship.
She described herself as an "aromantic asexual", which meant she had no desire for either sex or the intimacy of a relationship.

Those who wrote on the Asexuality New Zealand website said they had romantic – but not sexual – relationships. "My libido (is) non-existent, not low, and (I'm not) averse to sex. I just (can't) imagine why people did it," the Christchurch woman said.

As a teenager, she said she felt different because of a lack of sexual desires.

"I'd had the biology lessons. My body looked as it should. Why didn't I relate to the feelings everyone else was talking about?"

She said after fully developing, she expected to experience some sexual feeling, but this never happened.

The woman said she felt pleasure from aesthetic things such as a beautiful sunset or exhilaration from exercise.

She said she had few friends because sexuality or relationships were a common topic of conversation.

She did not feel she was missing out, just that she was different. "I agonised over whether I should see a doctor but that didn't seem right. I didn't feel I needed a cure; I just wanted to understand why I was different."

The woman said her prayers were answered when she found the Asexuality Aotearoa website.

"I am not a freak. There are other people who don't know what it means to fancy someone, for whom calling someone attractive is no different to describing a beautiful landscape or flower."

Sex Therapy New Zealand director Robyn Salisbury said there was a range of perceptions about asexuality in her profession, but it was not a recognised medical condition.

Salisbury said that, in her opinion, the term was useful if it helped people feel they were not alone, but did not explain why they had no sexual desires.

She had never come across a client who continued to have no or low sexual urges after sessions with herself or one of her sexual therapists.

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It's a shame they didn't also mention AVEN - 12,000 members worldwide sounds a little cooler than 60 people in New Zealand. But other than that (and the obligatory unbelieving sex therapist, which was probably necessary for journalistic neutrality) it's a pretty good article.

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Sounds like the therapist is trying to advertise her services.

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She had never come across a client who continued to have no or low sexual urges after sessions with herself or one of her sexual therapists.

Doesn't this make her and her therapist the best sex therapists in the world by quite a large margin?

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She had never come across a client who continued to have no or low sexual urges after sessions with herself or one of her sexual therapists.

Doesn't this make her and her therapist the best sex therapists in the world by quite a large margin?

Well, you can't fault their fear of us; we're pretty much the only people on the planet who will probably never have any interest at all in giving them our money. :D

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Don't knock the therapist! I have been in touch with her and she seems perfectly reasonable. She said she was not fairly quoted and, from what I know of the rest of the article, I believe her.

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