Tonight, I have seen the light. You, magi, are obviously a horrible sexual influence on my life, and therefore I should separate myself from your influence and go spend my time doing much more fufilling things--like having sex with anything and everything that moves. And even things that don't. I MUST BE FUFILLED.
that asexuals "are, in a sense, recruiting from a group of people who are in dire need of a genuine education" (people who may be, in her examples, persons with aspergers syndrome or hormonal imbalances)
...wait, what. So Joy Davidson is saying basically that autistic people can't educate themselves about sex, and need her to teach them how to be BABES? That's offensive on several levels, here. o.o
...well, that, and there's a distinct and USUALLY VERY OBVIOUS difference between feeling sexual desire but not having a partner to express it towards, and not feeling sexual desire at all. Is the implication here that the mean recruiting asexuals are going around telling people who've never had a girlfriend/boyfriend that it must be because they're asexual? Or that there are certain groups of people who need to be taught how to feel sexual interest/desire in general?
From what I can tell, her argument is that there are a number of mental and neurological illnesses of which low sexual desire is one symptom, and that by providing a community where people feel that there's nothing wrong with having a low or non-existent sex drive, the asexual community discourages people suffering from those illnesses from seeking help.
And also that sex is a vital part of human experience and those persons who have no interest in it condemn themselves to an incomplete experience of humanity.
I get the impression that she very much does think that people who don't feel sexual attraction need to be taught (or treated or medicated) so that they can.
And also that sex is a vital part of human experience and those persons who have no interest in it condemn themselves to an incomplete experience of humanity....argh, that actually parallels creepily with some other things we've heard people say about autistics living unhappy existences in which they're doomed to an incomplete experience of humanity, particularly those who don't speak or are regarded as "unintelligent." And that apparently if your ways of relating to people don't include speech, or even just eye contact or social rituals, or if you'd rather stare at a spinning object than interact with people, you're missing out on A Vital Part Of The Human Experience and live a sad incomplete life. No one really bothers to imagine it the other way around, that there are rich parts of the potential human experience a person can miss if they're preoccupied with socializing or with sexuality. (Or maybe it's that no one wants to consider that someone who stares at a spinning thing or a blinking light *is* getting something meaningful
( ... )
It... really is. People assume that they're templates for happiness - even people who seem profoundly unhappy, like, say, the Westboro Baptist "Church" - and then just don't get that people might dare to find happiness in, *gasp!* another way.
This person goes on the list of crazy crazies. No one should take advice from her, unless possibly they want to be a porn star. Because teaching people how to be "babes?" Is so not -- I can't even finish my sentence this is so ridiculous. I don't even know which part I want to be outraged at because I am outraged at all of it.
And! I love how she calls it being "sexually neutered!" It's sure great of her to phrase things in such a way that totally implies that anyone not like her is abnormal and mutated.
And okay. Yes, I'm sure it's a symptom of some mental diseases. THAT DOES NOT MEAN EVERYONE THAT IS ASEXUAL HAS A MENTAL DISEASE. Also does not mean that the "mental diseases" are actually diseases and something that needs to be "cured." I'm sorry, I like the world to have a diverse population! Including personality and including sexual proclivity.
In fairness to Dr. Davidson, the position she seems to be advocating in her books (and I can only speculate; I haven't read them) is that open and active sexuality can be approached in a healthy and enjoyable fashion which still works to encourage positive self-esteem rather than the kind of... moral ghettoization sexually-active women are often shoehorned into. What I'm not sure she gets is that people who do not seek or enjoy sex are not automatically defective.
She's done that thing where someone takes a marginalized population and starts to legitimatize it, and then ends up insisting that everyone else is wrong. Which is, um, really fucking annoying.
Yeah, and her rhetoric is pretty far out there. Especially the bit about being blind to possibilities. Coming from a woman who seems to adamantly resist the idea that asexuality might just be normal and healthy for some segment of the population...
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...wait, what. So Joy Davidson is saying basically that autistic people can't educate themselves about sex, and need her to teach them how to be BABES? That's offensive on several levels, here. o.o
...well, that, and there's a distinct and USUALLY VERY OBVIOUS difference between feeling sexual desire but not having a partner to express it towards, and not feeling sexual desire at all. Is the implication here that the mean recruiting asexuals are going around telling people who've never had a girlfriend/boyfriend that it must be because they're asexual? Or that there are certain groups of people who need to be taught how to feel sexual interest/desire in general?
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And also that sex is a vital part of human experience and those persons who have no interest in it condemn themselves to an incomplete experience of humanity.
I get the impression that she very much does think that people who don't feel sexual attraction need to be taught (or treated or medicated) so that they can.
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And hear, hear to that link.
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This person goes on the list of crazy crazies. No one should take advice from her, unless possibly they want to be a porn star. Because teaching people how to be "babes?" Is so not -- I can't even finish my sentence this is so ridiculous. I don't even know which part I want to be outraged at because I am outraged at all of it.
And! I love how she calls it being "sexually neutered!" It's sure great of her to phrase things in such a way that totally implies that anyone not like her is abnormal and mutated.
And okay. Yes, I'm sure it's a symptom of some mental diseases. THAT DOES NOT MEAN EVERYONE THAT IS ASEXUAL HAS A MENTAL DISEASE. Also does not mean that the "mental diseases" are actually diseases and something that needs to be "cured." I'm sorry, I like the world to have a diverse population! Including personality and including sexual proclivity.
*RAGES*
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She's done that thing where someone takes a marginalized population and starts to legitimatize it, and then ends up insisting that everyone else is wrong. Which is, um, really fucking annoying.
Yeah, and her rhetoric is pretty far out there. Especially the bit about being blind to possibilities. Coming from a woman who seems to adamantly resist the idea that asexuality might just be normal and healthy for some segment of the population...
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My go-to response to this is "Okay. Here, lemme break your knees. No? Hypocrite."
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I'm personally in the camp that if you don't want to have sex, you shouldn't be forced or coerced into having it, but, you know, I'm a radical.
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That's CRAZY talk!
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