Understanding Asexuality

CHAPTER 11 Art and Food on Planet Sex

In chapter 8, I introduced an old man who said that, nowadays, the bathing beauties in the famous Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue “did nothing” for him. I suggested that his newfound sexless world had something in common with a lifelong asexual person’s world. I also suggested that average sexual people may also have glimpses of this world when their normally sexed brains are turned off for brief periods.

Though sexual people may have temporary glimpses of what asexual people experience, this is not to say that sexual people’s brushes with sexual disinterest capture perfectly the true “phenomenology” of the asexuality. Recall that asexual people are likely a diverse bunch, so one type of lens on the world of sexuality (or asexuality) does not fit all. In addition, for many asexual people, an even deeper level of disconnection to the sexual world occurs than what is suggested by, for example, the old man’s current take on sex, or other sexual people’s bouts of sexual disinterest. This is because many asexual people have a complete (or nearly complete) lack of sexual attraction, not just a lack of current sexual interest. Thus, returning to our example of the old man, he did recognize that these swimsuit models were sexually attractive. Perhaps he could have mustered some level of sexual interest if one of these bathing beauties magically appeared in his apartment, ready for some action. Or perhaps he would have been titillated by these images if he were given a booster shot of testosterone, as there is evidence that this hormone is linked to sex drive and declines with age (Lamberts, van den Beld, & van der Lely, 1997).

For many asexual people, such inducements (e.g., swimsuit models appearing fantasy-like in one’s bedroom; a shot of testosterone) would likely have little effect. For many asexual people, there is likely no underlying sexual attraction at all; that is, there is no sexual connection that can be pulled to the surface, and perhaps even no real recognition that these models are “sexually attractive,” except perhaps on an abstract level, having taken in our culture’s norms and standards of sexual beauty. Thus, asexual people probably experience the sexual world, inducements notwithstanding, differently than the rest of the planet.

In this chapter, I explore the phenomenology (or lived experience) of asexuality; more specifically, this chapter is an exploration of a hypothetical lived experience, as I ask what life would be like if all people were asexual. I do this to give insight into the lives of asexual people, but also to see how embedded sex is within many human cultures, both past and present. So, what would a sexless planet (or, more specifically, a sexless culture) truly be like? To answer this question, let us speed by the glaringly and often numbingly obvious aspects of our oversexed pop culture—including pornography, TV shows’ titillation, or, yes, the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated—and head into the subtle and deeper recesses of our sex-infused culture. Thus, let’s touch on those areas of our culture that seem immune to its influence, yet may not be. To begin, let’s venture into one of the more refined areas of our culture on Planet Sex: art.

I have no talent for it, but I have a fondness for fine art, especially painting. My interest derives partly from exposure to painting through some of my family and friends, some of whom do in fact have a talent for it. While wandering through galleries, eyeing renderings from various classical and modern eras, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that sexual interest and attraction has always driven, at least partly, aesthetic sensibilities. The nude in particular—especially the female nude—has been standard content for years, and it is difficult not to conclude that the sexuality of the primarily male, heterosexual artists who created these images, in both Western and non-Western societies, has had a major impact on these works.

Indeed, I sometimes wonder as I stroll around galleries what the history of art would be like without sex—broadly defined—as a subject matter. This extends into subject matters and content in art beyond the depictions of (female) nudes, although I am using this example to illustrate my point. I’ve even imagined, with tongue in cheek, whether curators might close down their galleries if for some reason a woman’s body was not allowed to be shown, as there would be no be art left to display! I’ve imagined big, flashing neon signs outside of galleries announcing, Gallery closed due to shortage of nudes…. Gallery closed due to shortage of nudes…. Gallery closed due to shortage of nudes….