However, there is no direct evidence that sexual abuse causes asexuality. We must also be cautious about overstating the role of sexual abuse in the etiology of atypical sexual attractions, as many people exposed to such abuse—traumatic as it may be at the time—will not develop an unusual sexuality or other long-term consequences (Rellini & Meston, 2007; Rind, Tromovitch, & Bauserman, 1998).
Recall that one of the themes of this book is that asexuality is a diverse phenomenon. The diverse patterns of asexuality are often gender related, with men likely to show one pattern, and women to show another. Masturbation experience is a good example of how the diversity in asexuality people is often gender related: Only some asexual people masturbate, and they tend to be men. Women may thus be more likely than men to be asexual, because the former are less likely to masturbate (see chapter 6). Masturbation may act as “conditioning” trials leading to the development of strong, enduring attractions to others, particularly if the masturbation is paired with images of others. Thus, another environmental influence affecting the development of asexuality may be a lack of early sexual experimentation (i.e., childhood/adolescent masturbation with fantasy). Consistent with this view, some theorists have argued that sexual attraction to others results from arousal experiences—including masturbation—directed at or with others (Storms, 1981).
Sexual attraction may also emerge from exposure to and familiarity with same-sex or opposite-sex peers (Bem, 1996). If, for example, a boy’s gender identity and role are traditional—for instance, engaging in traditional “masculine” behaviors, such as rough-and-tumble play and sports with other boys—girls may become “exotic” and hence, ultimately, sexually arousing. Thus, the boy may develop permanent attractions to the erotically charged opposite sex.
But what if this boy has little contact with and no identification with peers? Would this boy’s dis-identification with both sexes create, at least in some, an ambivalence to both and, hence, a sexual disinterest in all people later on life—that is, asexuality?
At this point, the role of the environment in asexual development, including childhood events (e.g., trauma), masturbation, and peers—remain a mystery. Research on asexual people has collected only basic information on their social environments: education, ethnicity, and social class (Bogaert, 2004; Bogaert, in press-a). Yet this information, limited as it may be, suggests that some asexual people have been exposed to an atypical environment relative to a standard, white, middle- or upper-class environment occurring in most Western societies. Asexual people are, on average, more likely to come from lower-class homes than sexual people. They are also somewhat lower in education, relative to sexual people. Finally, asexual people are, on average, more likely to have a nonwhite ethnicity than sexual people. Are these circumstances a proxy for unusual social circumstances during childhood and adolescence? Could they have an impact on sexual development through, say, increased exposure to some traumatic events that occur disproportionately in some lower-class homes, or perhaps through fewer peer interactions as a result of less school-based education? Could ethnic differences between asexual and sexual people indicate that some asexual people have been not been “acculturated” to a sexualized Western society (Brotto, Chik, Ryder, Gorzalka, & Seal, 2005)? These questions are intriguing but remain unanswered and await further research.
Summary
One of the themes of this book is that the study of asexuality informs our understanding of sexuality. This is also true in the case of etiology. Prenatal mechanisms (e.g., genes, hormones, maternal immune response) potentially underlying asexuality may be the same ones that underlie traditional sexual orientations (gay, straight, and bisexual), and sexual variability generally. Thus, to have some understanding of one is to have some understanding of the other. This also holds true for nonbiological influences on sexuality. For example, peers and masturbation (and the role of conditioning) may play some role in sexualizing or de-sexualizing a person, depending on how these influences play themselves out in the individual.
You could say that I am an expert on sexual orientation development, as my research work in this area is well published and some of it is well known (e.g., on the older brother effect in men’s sexual orientation). So, as an expert (ahem!), I guess I am permitted some bold, concluding statements about the causes of sexual attractions, including the origins of asexuality. But I won’t make such a bold statement about causes, because, as mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, I know that causes are tricky and complex things. For example, the etiology of asexuality may reflect multiple and interactive influences, both biological and environmental in origin. This etiology may also be best understood by resorting to both distal and proximal causes and both macro and micro influences. In addition, I hesitate to be bold because I know that the research on asexuality is just beginning. Thus, although there is tantalizing research (mostly of a proximate, micro nature), along with some intriguing speculations, regarding the origins of asexuality, we do not know what causes someone to develop as an asexual person. So, if you are asked why asexuality exists, and you reply, “Well, just because,” I suppose I would not blame you.
CHAPTER 14
The Beginning
We have reached the end of this book. Have I converted you from a sexual person to an asexual one, or from an asexual person to a sexual one? You may be laughing at this point, as I expect you know that I asked this question tongue-in-cheek. After all, our sexual attractions, or lack of them, are not easily swayed. Thus, whatever mysteries give rise to them (see chapter 13), once they are laid down, they don’t change easily.
This book was intended for a broad audience: anyone interested in understanding asexuality, and anyone interested in taking a view of human sexuality through a new lens. Toward that end, in chapter 2 I explored the constructs underlying the psychology of sexuality, which allowed us to define asexuality as a lack of sexual attraction. Exploring these constructs also provided insight into the nature of sexuality by defining its borders and revealing how related constructs such as romance and love can be decoupled from it. I also explored the biological and cultural history of asexuality in chapter 3. What do an amoeba, a famous mathematician, and Jughead Jones have in common? In chapter 4, I presented information on the prevalence of asexuality. The concern about the number of humans in various sexual groups reveals the fascination with our place on the sexual spectrum. In chapter 5, I discussed the rather delicate subject of masturbation and how it is important to understanding variation in asexuality. Later, in chapter 10, I presented evidence that some forms of asexuality in which masturbation co-occurs with persistent fantasy may constitute a paraphilia, or an unusual form of sexual attraction. I even named a new paraphilia! In chapter 6, I probed that mystery of mysteries, female sexual desire, and explored how men and women differ in their expression of sexuality, including asexuality. The forging of an asexual identity, and how it relates to the development of all identities (sexual and otherwise), was presented in chapter 7. In chapters 8 and 9, I asked the question “Is there one right way to live a human life?” My answer, after surveying the scene and trundling out a few arguments, was “no”; thus, if one is content as an asexual person, then one is probably better off than many people (if not the majority) who live in the sexualized modern Western world. Asexuality is a complex phenomenon and not easily framed as a mental problem; indeed, the case could be made that sexuality, not asexuality, is a form of madness! In chapters 11 and 12, I explored our sexual planet, and how sex is a pervasive, even insidious, influence on our lives. The examples I chose to illustrate this point were art, food, and humor, but other domains of human life are equally open to sexual analysis.