*happy face*

[elizabeth_hoot]

I'm an overweight girl with chronic illness, depression 'n anxiety (I want that to be a diner name now), daddy issues, low libido, and occasional fits of depersonalization. I don't fall in love any more than I fall in lust and I am really not a splendid asexual spokesperson.

Except!  With a lot of help from hlbr , I gave the presentation I mentioned

Comments

[elizabeth_hoot]

So do I, usually! It was pretty petrifying, at first, but once I got into the swing of things it shifted over to awesome. Adrenaline, I expect.

No, not rude at all! I'm always glad to help people learn more about it -- and it comes up in my posts fairly regularly, even if only in passing, so if you keep up with me you'll probably find out more!

romanticism!

[elizabeth_hoot]

Aha, no, I did not meant the cultural movement. I was referring to romantic orientation.

The common assumption is that sexual orientation (who you're drawn to sexually) and romantic orientation (who you're drawn to romantically) are always in perfect alignment. The people you want to have sex with and the people you fall in love with are the same people -- a gay man, for instance, is assumed to always fall in love and be attracted to other men. And asexuals are assumed to be as incapable of falling in love as they are of sexual attraction.

But -- it doesn't work like that, because RL is messy. There are heteroromantic gays and homoromantic heterosexuals. The majority of asexuals are driven to fall in love just like most sexuals are, and generally do so, though there are plenty of aromantics too -- I'm one of them. There are aromantic sexuals as well.