LOVE, RELATIONSHIPS AND MASTURBATION
them to get to sleep, etc., as reasons behind masturbation.”
Several male asexuals told us
they masturbate frequently, some
every day, and most used the
phrase “cleaning the plumbing” to
explain why they do it. One female
asexual said that while she masturbates about once a month, she
has no idea why she does it; it just
feels like something she’s biologically compelled to do.
“It’s like an itch that you
have to scratch,” Luke Bovard, a
23-year-old graduate student at
Canada’s University of Waterloo,
explained matter-of-factly, leaning back on a Brooklyn park bench
during a recent visit to New York
City. “There’s nothing more to it.”
Though asexuals (or “aces”) are
often seen as individuals who are
devoid of sexual desire, incapable
of sexual arousal and averse to
interpersonal intimacy, both researchers and asexuals alike say
these are largely misconceptions.
In a 2010 study, Brotto says she
found evidence that asexual women have a similar genital response
to stimuli as sexual women — in
other words, a comparable sexual
arousal response.
Still, despite evidence that
sexual desire and arousal are not
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usually absent in asexuals, current research indicates that aces
do have significantly lower sexual
desire and arousal than sexual individuals. Orgasmic function also
tends to be lower. Several aces
even said that while they can experience orgasm (a reflexive response), it is almost always — and
this is a direct quote — “meh.”
“[Asexuals cite] boredom,
stress reduction, helping them
to get to sleep, etc., as reasons
behind masturbation.”
Brotto’s study indicates, however, that these lower levels are not
caused by an “impaired psychophysiological sexual arousal response.” As one asexual put it, “everything works, we just don’t want
to get somebody else involved.”
Tellingly, most asexuals who
masturbate say they rarely think
about another person during the
act, and even when they do, it’s in
a non-sexual context. Many aces
say they think of nothing when
they masturbate, while a handful indicated that certain fetishes,
like BDSM, come to mind.
Brotto estimates that about 10
percent of masturbating asexuals