He's Just Not That Into You (And Here's Why)

While the ignorant believe that all human beings are interested in sex, the world is slowly waking up to the fact that asexuals and aromantics exist, thanks to the Internet.

- Mayukh Majumdar

First things first, to paraphrase the works of scholar Robert L. Crooks, academician Karla Baur, Dr. Katherine M. Helm, and author Gary F Kelly, all of whom have been on the forefront of sexual research, asexuality is identified as a lack of sexual attraction in others and zero to little interest in indulging in sexual activity. While some wrongly believe it to be a lack of sexual identity, others argue that it is a sexual orientation in itself, which has birthed multiple asexual sub-identities.

“Can you imagine that? There are people out there who don’t feel like having sex,” a colleague tells me when I pitch asexuality as an article during an edit meeting. I don’t see what’s so surprising about it, considering there are people out there who still can’t believe that a man might want to fuck another man. Multiple people interviewed for this feature felt that this article was pointless because “we all have Google”, as one individual very succinctly put it. They unanimously agreed that the Internet has helped them become more comfortable with their sexual orientation simply because they were able to figure out that they weren’t alone in feeling this way. However, many also feel unseen.

“Asexuality doesn’t get the kind of coverage that other sexualities do. Maybe it’s because people don’t understand it yet. However, I can’t say that I’ve faced hate or trolling because of my sexuality, apart from being called a ‘frigid bitch’ now and then,” says Priyanka Chakraborty, an English major from Kolkata.