Understanding asexual identity as a means to facilitate culturally competent care: A systematic literature review

Abstract

Anecdotal evidence, taken from one of the largest asexual online forums, suggests that a number of self-identified asexuals choose not to disclose their identity to healthcare professionals through fear of their asexual status being pathologised, problematised or judged. Given that asexuality is a poorly understood concept, this may be due to lack of understanding on behalf of healthcare providers. The review provides health professionals and practitioners working in clinical settings with some insights of the features of an asexual identity to facilitate culturally competent care.

Asexuality and Its Implications for LGBTQ-Parent Families

“…The most common definition of asexual-"someone who does not experience sexual attraction"-comes from the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN), an organization and online resource founded by David Jay in 2001. AVEN has played an important role de-stigmatizing asexuality, and their message boards served as the birthplace of the asexual community by creating a hub for online communication between asexual individuals (Jones, Hayter, & Jomeen, 2017). AVEN's definition of asexuality appears in much of the literature and is used by many self-identified asexual individuals (Brotto, Knudson, Inskip, ASEXUALITY IMPLICATIONS 5 Rhodes, & Erskine, 2010;Jones et al, 2017;Van Houdenhove, Gijs, T'Sjoen, & Enzlin, 2015a).…”

“…Attitudes toward romance vary significantly among asexual individuals, and the emerging discourse within asexual communities regularly disaggregates sexual and romantic ASEXUALITY IMPLICATIONS 8 attraction (Carrigan, 2011;Jones et al, 2017). This discourse serves to explain that one can be romantically interested in another person and not desire to have sex with them.…”

“…A common theme within asexualities literature is the validation of asexual identities through community engagement (Jones et al, 2017). AVEN and other online communities have made it possible for anyone with an internet connection to find information about asexuality and communicate with asexual-identified people, creating affirming spaces around asexual identities and raising awareness of asexuality (Jones et al, 2017;MacNeela & McMurphy, 2015). AVEN has been especially instrumental in helping asexual people express themselves and find a sense of belonging given the dearth of representations of asexuality in media (Brotto et al, 2010;Jones et al, 2017).…”

“…AVEN and other online communities have made it possible for anyone with an internet connection to find information about asexuality and communicate with asexual-identified people, creating affirming spaces around asexual identities and raising awareness of asexuality (Jones et al, 2017;MacNeela & McMurphy, 2015). AVEN has been especially instrumental in helping asexual people express themselves and find a sense of belonging given the dearth of representations of asexuality in media (Brotto et al, 2010;Jones et al, 2017). AVEN has also helped social scientists discover and recruit asexual people for research, and some study participants have reported that they only began to identify as asexual once they discovered the language and community surrounding asexuality via the internet and AVEN specifically (Scherrer, 2008).…”

“…Some asexual individuals are disgusted by the idea of sex, whereas others are merely disinterested (Van Houdenhove et al, 2015b). Regardless of their level of interest in having sex with other people, the literature suggests that masturbation is common among self-identified asexual individuals, including those with lower libido levels (Jones et al, 2017). Brotto et al (2010) found that a majority of asexual respondents in their quantitative sample masturbated at least once a month.…”