Many people believe that the innate desire to reproduce is hardwired into certain parts of the human psyche; Reproduction is how organisms spread their genetics, so it might make sense that a creature's primary goal is to reproduce. For this reason, humans are also sexual creatures and having children is the life goal of many. Asexuality, however, challenges this notion. Asexuality is defined as lack of sexual desire or disinterest in sexual relations. It can be assessed through three different means: sexual behavior, sexual attraction, and identity (Brotto, Knudson, Inskip, Rhodes, & Erskine, 2010). Approximately 1% of the world's population identifies as asexual, making it one of the smallest sexual identities (Bogaert, 2004). Due to the belief that humans should naturally have sex, asexuality has been negatively stigmatized, seen as a physical or psychological disorder. This literature review will address the following question: is asexuality a disability? What differentiates the two? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Defining the characteristics of asexuality has both biological and social benefits. Much of the research on asexuality seeks to characterize it as a biological dysfunction or psychological disorder. According to this view, asexuality is considered a disorder that must be treated, for example with hormone therapy or therapy, as in the case of hyposexual desire disorder (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). However, if many asexuals do not experience distress or impaired interpersonal relationships, should we still call it a disorder? If it's not a disorder, does asexuality even need to be treated? A deeper understanding of the origins of asexuality may save valuable resources for those who truly experience distress about their condition. In addition to this, defining asexual characteristics and the science behind them can reduce the negative social stigma associated with not having sexual desires. Much of this discrimination also stems from the queer community's long history of discrimination and institutionalization (Conrad & Schneider, 1994). Having an identity allows you to connect with your community and face daily struggles with a support group behind you. There is very little research on asexuality. This may be due, I believe, to the fact that the concept of asexuality as a sexual orientation has only recently become a topic of discussion. In the past, the fact that some rarely experienced sexual attraction was of little importance; instead, these feelings were associated with a sense of incapacity or “being broken.” Because the asexual label has only recently started to become more common, very few people don't even know that asexuality exists in the first place. Another reason there may be so little research is that self-identified asexuals make up such a small portion of the population, only about 1% (Bogaert, 2004). This provides fewer opportunities for asexual topics and interviews, as they are more difficult to come across. Most of the research I've seen regarding asexuality has had small sample sizes, particularly with samples of self-identified asexuals. Instead, manyStudies used online questionnaires, tapping into well-known asexual communities such as The Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN). Founded in 2001 by David Jay, the website states that its goals are to "create public acceptance and discussion of asexuality and facilitate the growth of an asexual community" ("AVEN"). AVEN seeks to provide information not only to the asexual respondents, but also to their families and communities. Studies have shown that individuals identified as asexual are very open to working with researchers to advance their scientific understanding (Brotto, Knudson, Inskip, Rhodes, & Erskine, 2010). The article “Asexuality: Classification and Characterization” by Prause and Graham (2007) created an online questionnaire completed by 1,146 people (N = 41 self-identified asexuals). This questionnaire asked questions regarding sexual history, sexual arousal and inhibition, sexual desire, and an open-ended section regarding asexuality. Asexuals reported less sexual history with partners, less sexual arousal, and less arousal or desire. Surprisingly, they did not differ significantly from non-asexuals in sexual inhibition or desire to masturbate. This indicates that the main characteristic of asexuality is lack of sexual desire. Although this article focuses on the differences between sexuals and asexuals, it primarily focuses on this concept alone and does not discuss the impact of asexuality on the lives of self-identified asexuals. Asexuality can often be confused with other similar psychological or biological phenomena. troubles. Among these conditions are hypoactive sexual desire disorder and sexual aversion disorder. Hypoactive sexual desire disorder, or inhibited sexual desire, was a sexual dysfunction defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) as a lack of desire for sexual activities for six months or more. In the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), the disorder was deleted and replaced with hypoactive sexual desire disorder in men and sexual interest/arousal disorder in men. the woman. It is important to note that to qualify as a disorder, it must cause the person extreme distress or interpersonal difficulties. There have been many protests over the inclusion of these disorders in the DSM-V, primarily from asexual activists who believe this condition is similar to the inclusion of homosexuality in the DSM until 1973. There have been a handful of studies seeking to research the psychological characteristics of asexuality and what distinguishes it from a psychological disorder. A highly regarded study on asexuality is Bogaert's (2004) “Asexuality: Prevalence and Associated Factors in a National Probability Sample.” In this study the author seeks to explore some of the characteristics shared by a sample of 18,000 British asexuals. Bogaert found that some of the common characteristics include gender (being female), short stature, low economic status, low religiosity, later periods, low education, and poor health. This study suggests that there are in fact a number of psychosocial and biological factors that may contribute to asexuality. However, in his article Bogart (2004) refers exclusively to asexuality as those who have never felt sexual attraction before, excluding important elements such as sexual behavior and identity from his operational definition focused solely on on desire. Two years later,.