Not Wired That Way

Recently asexuality has been appearing more and more in the media, from the positive documentary made by the BBC a few weeks ago, to the not so well done House episode which portrayed asexuality as a dysfunction caused by an illness that could be cured rather than a legitimate orientation. The latter, provoked a certain uproar in the asexual community which is only understandable. Here we are, trying to get ourselves recognized as the fourth major sexual orientation alongside heterosexuality, homosexuality and bisexuality, when suddenly this TV series pops up portraying asexuality as an illness which can be cured. And with society as it is today, there are more chances of it listening to a fiction's definition of the orientation rather than the real definition portrayed in the news. The producer, after many complaints sent by aces expressed their apologies about having given the wrong impression about asexuality, as it was not their intention.

Asexuality on the BBC

Jenni Goodchild, a 21 year old student in Oxford, was interviewed a few months ago by the BBC about "how it feels to be asexual in an increasingly sexualised society". As well as being a student, Jenni is also an active member of the asexual visibility and education network (AVEN) the biggest community of asexuals online.

Last night, 16 January 2012, the interview was released on an episode of « How sex works » on BBC3. The series aim is to look at the different physiological, neurological and psychological effects of sex.

Jenni talks about some of the most common reactions she’s had when talking about her asexuality - "People say 'well if you've not tried it, then how do you know?'" - and how it is possible to be in a relationship with someone ‘sexual’ by putting forward another important point, romantic attraction - "[Romantic asexuals] don't experience sexual attraction, but they do experience romantic attraction. So they will look at someone and they won't respond sexually to them, but they might want to get closer to them, to find out more about them, to share things with them."
Her boyfriend is also interviewed about their relationship -"The first time that Jenni mentioned in conversation that she was asexual, my initial thought was 'hmm that's kind of odd."
Tim and Jenna spend a lot of time together focusing on the romantic aspects of their relationship, such as baking cake !

It was nice to see someone other than David Jay being interviewed - outside the US - about asexuality.
And a thumbs-up to the BBC who did a very good job, they couldn’t have done much better. We need more visibility like this !
Here is a link to the episode. It's a link that is only available in the UK. For those who only want to watch the part about asexuality, it's around 17 minutes.