NYU student consoles people not getting laid on Valentine's Day

Details: Category: News; Published on Tuesday, 15 February 2011 14:13; Written by Lara Landis; Hits: 623

Newspaper articles that run on Valentine's Day overlook the existence of Asexuals. NYU Local reporter Liz Una Kim did not. Kim decided to go undercover investigating Asexuals in New York for her recent “Not getting laid tonight? You're not alone” piece that ran in the campus's newspaper.

“'It’s also worth noting that a survey conducted in 2008 within the Asexual Community, known as AVEN, reported that about 29% identified as male and 71% as female. No surprise there,” said Kim. Here deep investigation of the AVEN site found a bizarre fascination with cake and new adjectives such as demisexual, cisgendered, and aromantic. Cisgendered, a term used by the transgender community. simply means a person who presents as their birth gender.

Kim, attempting to give the article legitimacy, contacted Virginia Seadock, a medical doctor working for NYU's human sexuality laboratory. Although Seadock correctly understood the definition of Asexuality, she quote an often challenged notion about Asexuals and self-pleasure.

“No, self-stimulation is a sexual drive, so they cannot be deﬁned as Asexual. If it can be used as a way of releasing their anxieties and attributed to stimulating a good feeling, they are capable of being sexual,” Seadock told the reporter when she Kim broached the subject of Asexuals and self-stimulation

Kim's attempt to go undercover as an Asexual lasted for only a few hours, although the commenters have continued the debate.