Asexuality: A Brief Introduction is now available for purchase in paperback form or as a free PDF download!
Amazon (US) | Amazon (UK) | Kindle | PDF Download
About Asexuality: A Brief Introduction:
This 125 page book is one of the first books dedicated exclusively to talking about asexuality as a sexual orientation. It’s composed primarily of articles from this site all organized into a handy-dandy block of bound paper for your reading convenience.
Sometimes called “A Fourth Orientation”, asexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by a persistent lack of sexual attraction toward any gender. This book explores love, sex, and life, from an asexual point of view. This book is for anyone, regardless of orientation. Whether you’re asexual, think you might be, know someone who is, or just want to learn more about what asexuality is (and isn’t), there’s something inside for you. Written by an asexual, it discusses the topic from the inside.
Table of Contents:
- I Am Asexual
- What is Asexuality? (Introductory notes)
- Common Questions About Asexuality (Common newbie questions)
- Possible Signs of Asexuality (A three-part rundown of some type of somewhat common experiences among aces)
- Personality and Identity
- Sex and Sexual Activities
- Interactions and Relationships
- Asexuality: Myths, Misconceptions and Other Things That Are Just Plain Wrong (Debunking ignorant statements)
- Things That Are Not Asexuality (A list of things that are often confused or conflated with asexuality)
- Symbols of Asexuality
- The Asexuality Flag (About the flag and its origin)
- Black Rings (About the black rings)
- Cake (About cake and its clear superiority over pie)
- A Bit of Attraction (Discussion of the many types of attraction, including sexual, romantic, and aesthetic)
- Under the Ace Umbrella: Demisexuality and Gray-asexuality (Talking about graces and demis)
- Celibacy, Abstinence, Asexuality (And how they’re not all the same)
- An Asexual on Sex (Talking about sex)
- “Don’t you all hate sex?” (More about sex)
- “But asexuals can’t masturbate!” (About masturbation)
- Personal Perspectives (More personal views and stories about various topics)
- What Asexuality Is To Me
- Option D: None of the Above (My “Coming Out” note)
- Q & Ace (My “Coming Out” followup)
- Sex
- Attraction
- Porn
- Love
- Forward Advances
- Glossary
- References
If you have any questions, comments, corrections, suggestions, or other feedback, then please contact me at a c e @ a s e x u a l i t y a r c h i v e . c o m
(Also, if you’re going to link to this, please link to this page and not to the file itself.)
Hi. I just wanted to say “Thank you!” for this great book and website. I had a lot of questions about the way I feel and found most of my answers here. You put great efforts in all this and I appreciate it! So, thank you, again! Keep up the wonderful work!
This truly helped my parents when I came out.
Thank you so much!
I guess my email ran afoul of your spam filter, so here’s again: I’d like your permission to translate this fantastic 101 resource into German.
This is so cool. Now, I know what the differences are. I’m a teenager btw. But I can deal with all this. I’m still a virgin. And I’m not a slut. :)
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Well writen book. Thank you.
THANK GOD!!!!!! I have researched, I have prayed for divine insight, I have tried to get even my THERAPIST to understand while she labeled my sex drive as unhealthy and due to PTSD over being molested. I’ve plead many times for people not to put me in the “you were sexually abused, that’s why you have no desire for sex” heap. I’ve stressed, been heartbroken and left questioning my mental health for YEARS, trying to defend my position.Yes, I was abused, that’s a fact and simple for someone else to label. I’ve put that all in perspective, done, dealt with, over. Because of that I’ve gone literally and absolutely mental because I’ve had to defend my asexuality which I thought only referred to slugs and ground worms not humans. I promise you the tears of absolute joy flooding my cheeks are priceless and beyond cathartic. I obviously used the wrong search strings for what others have labeled my “problem” or “issue”. I’m ASEXUAL, I’M ASEXUAL, I AM NORMAL, I’M NOT WRONG, I’M NOT THE SUM OF ALL MY PERSONAL TRAGEDY! I am just plain (and yes for me it’s so happily plain) old ASEXUAL, I AM I AM SAM I AM! Thank you for being real, for making me feel so irreverently normal. I don’t have to fit into anyone else’s mold. I feel free, justified, validated and so glad I’m not out here on my own, being a “case study” for those who have refuted my claims, made me feel like something was wrong with me, and I have to say again, wrong with me because I was abused thereby creating this abnormality and aversion to sex. Profound, implicitly profound. My gratitude, H
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I took vows of celibacy in 1970 but I was aware that it was a difficult vow for some of the sisters. I am no longer in the convent. I have repeatedly told friends that if homosexuality is at one end and heterosexuality at the other I was dead in the middle. I saw something in New York Magazine and was delighted. I want to know move. And yes, I must have been born this way so now I realize all the others were born with their orientations too 1
Finally someone talks about this, with no religious pourposes! Thanks
hi… i am studying asexuality… I choose this as my topic in my research..
in this regard, i would like to ask if who is the author the book: ASEXUALITY: A BRIEF INTRODUCTION. I hope of your positive response… Thank you!!!
Hey! I am, interestingly enough doing the same thing as you. I’m doing my Dissertation paper on asexuality and using this as a reference. I’d love to maybe talk more, since that might be helpful, but I didn’t write this to freak you out.
I just wanted to mention that in the case that you don’t find out the author’s name, using Asexuality Archive instead of the author should still get your point across quite well. At the very least that’s my own take, not sure if you have a different way of writing references
I’m glad to learn about it, asexuality. In the past, I thought that I could share the bed with you, but I didn’t want to have sex with you. If I had this idea, I would be lonely for a lifetime. My body will be wet, but I don’t have any pleasure or interest. What about doing or not? But now I can finally find someone who understands me. I don’t have to do things that hurt my heart because I feel “abnormal”, and I can also find people like me. We can accompany each other for a lifetime.