Asexuality is a spectrum

Dear Readers,

Puhhh this is a complicated one. And even though I’m on the spectrum myself it’s hard to break down the information you can find and the information I could gather in conversations with other aces. The types of asexuality that I’ll mention below are just examples. There are a vast variety of types I have to discover myself. But that’s why I’m writing this blog.

To help you figure out if you are on the ACE spectrum, you can ask yourself 4 questions

1. What’s my romantic/sexual orientation?

A common misconception is that aces don’t have a romantic or sexual orientation/preference because they don’t experience sexual attraction.

But guess what, they do!

As an ACE you can have any romantic/sexual orientation there is (e.g. panromantic, biromantic, homoromantic, heteroromantic, aromantic)

2. What does my romantic/sexual attraction to others feel like?

Generally speaking: Asexuality is the general term for not experiencing any sexual attraction to or physical interest in others and at the same time it’s one end of the spectrum. Whereas you would have Demi-Aces as well as Grey-Aces on the other end.

In the middle would be the Flux-Aces and Aego-Aces.

A Flux-Aces orientation shifts between no attraction, less attraction, and a lot of attraction, but always within the asexual spectrum (so going from Demi-Ace to Asexual and then to grey and everything in between is possible). Whereas Aego-Aces may have sexual fantasies, read or watch sexual content, but feel no desire to engage in sexual content in real life

As mentioned before. Demi-Aces and Grey-Aces are on the other side of the spectrum.

Demi- Aces experience sexual attraction if they have deep feelings for another person. They can have a normal sex- life within a relationship. So the sexual/romantic attraction is connected to their feelings.

Gray- Aces don’t need feelings to experience sexual attraction. But they feel it very rarely, or just under specific circumstances. 

There are a lot more types of asexuality. These are just examples so you get a rough idea of how big the spectrum is.

3. Am I sex-favorable, indifferent or sex-repulsed?

This question is closely related to the question before. However, there are a lot of possible combinations.

Sex-repulsed would mean that you can´t stand any form of intimate physical contact. This also can include reading very explicit content, as well as sexual content in movies or series.

Indifferent would mean you don’t have any good or bad feelings regarding physical content or explicit content.

Sex-favorable would mean that you enjoy physical touch and you like and enjoy sex under specific circumstances. Sexual content is generally no problem for you.

4. Is it constant?

Celibacy and chosen abstinence is not part of the asexual spectrum. One doesn’t choose to be asexual.

Asexuality can be caused by trauma, then you know the exact moment it started. It also can come gradually throughout your life or you can feel like you have been feeling like this ever since you can remember. 

If you can relate to this, it might be a good idea to have a deeper look into the ACE – spectrum.

If this is not the case, then you most likely are in a situation in life that just makes you less attracted to others. It is a normal part of life and can be caused by a bunch of different reasons.

Wow… that’s a lot!

And if you are overwhelmed right now – believe me, I get it. But with these four questions in mind, you might be able to figure out if you are on the ACE spectrum.

So now I’m curious: Do you think (or already know) you are on the ACE spectrum? Let me know in the comments

Yours,

Ace

(My sources are: Wikipedia.org lgbtqia.fandom.com, talkspace.com)