Many young people in the UK don’t understand what being asexual means, and hold both ignorance and intolerance towards this community, a new research study suggests.
The research, carried out by the Policy Institute at King’s College London with aromantic-asexual activist Yasmin Benoit, found widely held misunderstandings about the sexuality and romantic orientation.
As many as one in three (31%) of the 400 mostly young respondents who took part in the study wrongly believe asexuality can be “cured” by therapy.
So-called ‘conversion therapy’ aimed at changing people’s gender identity, sexual or romantic identity has been internationally decried as not only a pseudoscience but one that often takes the shape of forms of abuse. Many countries around the world are taking steps to ban it.
The study found many other misconceptions about the asexual community that add to the prejudice this community faces.
It found around one in four (23%) participants wrongly believe asexuality is a mental health problem. A quarter (26%) believe asexual people just haven’t met the right person yet.
Two in five (42%) respondents believe people cannot be asexual if they have sex. This common misconception comes from people not understanding that asexuality is a spectrum, and like all sexual orientations, people experience differences within it.
Asexuality refers to how someone feels about sex and whether they experience sexual attraction – not simply their behaviour.
A further one in ten (11%) went as far as saying they don’t believe asexual people exist.
The research was done with a selection of “slightly younger” and more LGBQA+ respondents. Therefore, they conclude that the findings “likely overstate the public’s understanding of asexual people” and likely “underestimate the intolerance they face.”
This means the intolerance this study has found is likely far below what the true reality is for most asexual people.
Michael Sanders, Professor of Public Policy at Kings College London’s Policy Institute, said: “ The findings are troubling, both in that many people hold misconceptions about asexuality, and that they are happily voicing discriminatory views – at a greater rate than for other groups.”
Yasmin Benoit, an aromantic-asexual activist who is a Visiting Research Fellow at King’s College London’s Policy Institute for the report, believes that this research is a useful step toward understanding the broader needs of asexual communities:
“Acephobia – that is, discrimination, prejudice and negative attitudes towards those who identify as asexual – is not something that most people recognise or take seriously. It’s something the asexual community is not protected from.
“My experiences with this kind of intolerance are well-documented, but there’s a huge lack of research into the phenomenon. It’s essential to raise awareness and collect data to create the change the asexual community needs.”
What discrimination do asexual people face?
Last year, a study by Benoit and Stonewall found only one in ten asexual people feel comfortable being out at work. It also found half don’t come out to anyone,.
The report, Ace In The UK, also found asexual people face vast and “dehumanising” discrimination across society, health and in the workplace.
Just one in ten (9%) of asexual people reported being open with all colleagues at a similar or lower level than them. To put that in context, four in ten (39%) of the rest of the LGBTQ community felt comfortable being out.
Meanwhile, half (49%) of ace respondents weren’t open with any colleagues, compared to two in ten (18%) of all LGBTQ+ respondents. This increased with senior colleagues and even more so with customers and clients. Eight in ten (78%) felt unable to be open with clients, compared to just over half (51%) of all LGBTQ respondents.
Are people afraid of voicing their true feelings about asexual people?
The Policy Institute’s research is understood to be one of the first to consider public attitudes to asexual people. However, it also uses a new “double-list experiment” methodology to detect whether the answers that study participants give are motivated by what the researchers call “social desirability bias”.
This is designed to discover whether they harbour negative sentiments but are reluctant to voice them for fear of disapproval from others.
The researchers concluded, however, that there is no sign of social desirability bias when it comes to attitudes towards asexuality.
Although the researchers say this has some positive elements, namely, people felt able to voice their feelings, it also means people do not view anti-asexual beliefs as socially unacceptable, compared to racism.
It means they are likely to express views which is why Michael Sanders, Professor of Public Policy at the Policy Institute, says asexual people “may experience hostility with greater frequency than other groups in society.”
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