Asexuality, Graysexuality, and Demisexuality: Distinctions in Desire, Behavior, and Identity

ABSTRACT

As identities within the ace spectrum gain greater visibility in describing those who experience limited or no sexual attraction, it is vital to understand points of commonality and distinction among individuals who identify as asexual, graysexual, and demisexual. Among respondents to the Ace Community Survey, a large international sample of individuals who identify on the ace spectrum, we found that those who identified as asexual (n = 9,476, M_age = 22.3, 61.0% female, 12.5% male), graysexual (n = 1,698, M_age = 24.2, 58.8% female, 16.5% male), or demisexual (n = 1,442, M_age = 24.2, 62.8% female, 12.6% male) varied in indicators related to sexual desire, behavior, and identity. Asexual individuals were the least likely to be in a relationship, experience romantic attraction, or identify with orientation labels signifying genders of attraction such as straight, bisexual, heteroromantic, and biromantic. Asexual individuals were the most likely to identify as aromantic, graysexual individuals the most likely to identify as grayromantic, and demisexual individuals the most likely to identify as demiromantic. Asexual individuals also scored the lowest on measures of sex drive, personal disposition toward engaging in sex, and masturbation frequency, with graysexual individuals scoring lower than demisexual individuals on the first two.

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the Asexual Community Survey Team for sharing the data used in this study and several people who provided helpful feedback on this work: Dr. Cynthia Graham and the three anonymous reviewers, Dr. Heather E. Bullock, Dr. Regina Day Langhout, Dr. Douglas G. Bonett, Sam D. Hughes, Logan L. Barsigian, Gloriana Lopez, Valeria Alonso Blanco, Katherine Quinteros, and Miguel A. Lopezzi.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.