Anthony Bogaert - Understanding Asexuality

There is also ambiguity when we refer to male and female hormones. The so-called female hormones, the estrogens that are produced by the ovaries in women (e.g., estradiol), also exist in men; in fact, testosterone, a so-called male hormone, is converted to estradiol in men under the influence of the enzyme aromatase. Women also produce testosterone, so this hormone is also not fully sex specific—that is, it is not limited to men.

There is another level of ambiguity, or at least complexity, associated with both sex and gender. Some people are born with all of their biological variables consistent with traditional maleness or femaleness (XX, ovaries, uterus, vagina, or XY, testicles, prostate, penis), but have an internal sense of themselves or their gender identity that is inconsistent with their biological sex. These individuals are often so dissatisfied with their biological sex that they may want to alter it so that it will be consistent with their internal sense of themselves as male or female. Traditionally, these individuals have been referred to as transsexual in order to describe the change in biological sex that many of these individuals wanted and often accomplished through medical intervention (i.e., sex re-assignment surgery) to make their bodies, particularly their genitalia, consistent with their internal sense of themselves (Benjamin, 1966). More recently, a related word, transgender , has emerged. Originally, this word was used to describe people who were dissatisfied with their biological sex but who did not want to alter aspects of their bodies (e.g., via sex re-assignment surgery) (Kotula, 2002). The meaning of the term transgender has recently expanded, and is now a kind of “umbrella” term. This term often describes both traditional transsexuals (i.e., those who want to change biological sex and perhaps have done so) and anyone who violates traditional “gender” boundaries but does not necessarily want to alter aspects of their biological sex. Put another way, transgender can refer to those whose identity does not conform to their biological sex or those whose identity does not match their “gender” assigned at birth (Ekins & King, 2004). So, aside from transsexual people, the transgendered category may include those who cross-dress (e.g., drag queens or transvestites) and those who identify as, for example, “bi-gendered” or “non-gendered.” It may also include the intersexual people mentioned above. Notably, there is often a “political” dimension to the term transgender , or a transgendered identity (Feinberg, 1992). As we describe in chapter 7, (public) identities frequently emerge out of and serve political ends.

Here is yet another ambiguity. If we find, on average, a behavioral difference between men and women, is it a gender difference or a sex difference? Well, given that this difference has to do with behavior, and presumably changes across cultures, it should be referred to as a gender difference, correct? But what if we find that this difference is influenced not just by culture but also by sex hormones—for example, high levels of testosterone in men may partially underlie their greater sex drive (Baumeister, Catanese, & Vohs, 2001). Should we then call it a sex difference, because it is largely (or at least partially) biologically based? The answer is obviously complex, and you may notice that researchers, for this reason, often use the phrase sex differences and gender differences seemingly inconsistently and interchangeably.

In summary, the constructs of sex and gender are quite complex, so keep this in mind as you read this chapter and ponder the differences between men and women, and consider how it all relates to asexuality. Also note that for the sake of simplicity, I use the phrase gender differences to refer to any behavioral differences that exist between men and women.

Not all men are alike and not all women are alike—indeed, there is a lot of variability within each—and so using people’s biological sex as the only piece of information to predict their sexuality can be misleading and cause numerous errors. Yet, as the black box pictures mentioned above suggest, there are fascinating gender differences in sexuality.

One of the main differences is that men have, on average, a higher sex drive than women (Baumeister et al., 2001). In other words, men are more “sexualized” than women. Examples include the fact that men masturbate and fantasize more than women do. In one national British survey, 73 percent of men and 37 percent of women reported masturbating in the previous month (Gerressu, Mercer, Graham, Wellings, & Johnson, 2008). Relatedly, there is evidence that men (particularly young men) think about sex on a more frequent basis than women. According to one national study of the United States, more than half of men (i.e., 54 percent) think about sex several times during the day, whereas about 20 percent of women do so at about the same frequency (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994).

Another difference is that women’s sexuality is more fluid or flexible, being more responsive to a variety of cultural and psychological factors, than men’s (Baumeister, 2000). One example is that women may have a period of several months of intense sexual activity (masturbation, intercourse) and then several months of no sexual activity. This pattern is less common in men, who maintain a more constant level of sexual activity (e.g., through masturbation, one-night stands) despite, say, the ending of a romantic/sexual relationship. As psychologist Roy Baumeister notes, Kinsey himself made this observation: “Discontinuities in total [sexual] outlet are practically unknown in the histories of males” (Baumeister, 2000, pp. 681–82; Kinsey, Pomeroy, Martin, & Gebhard, 1953).

Gender differences in asexuality often seem to mirror gender differences in sexuality. In other words, the gender differences mentioned above also occur in some way between asexual men and asexual women. First, if a main gender difference is that women are less sexualized (i.e., they have lower sex drive and less sexual attraction) than men, one would expect women to be overrepresented on the extremely low end of the sexuality distribution—that is, one would expect to find more asexuality among women.

Is there evidence that women are more likely to be asexual than men? Yes, there is (Bogaert, 2004; Bogaert, in press-a; Brotto, Knudson, Inskip, Rhodes, & Erskine, 2010). For example, in my first study of asexuality, about 70 percent of the asexual people in NATSAL-I, a British national sample, were women (Bogaert, 2004). Interestingly, some indirect evidence that women are more likely than men to be asexual is that “asexual” partnerships (i.e., “Boston marriages”) have been identified as a relatively common pattern among women forming relationships with women (Rothblum & Brehony, 1993), but, to my knowledge, such partnerships have never been identified as a relatively common pattern among men forming relationships with men.

What is it from a psychological or developmental perspective that makes women less likely than men to form strong sexual attractions to others? One possibility relates to masturbation differences between men and women. As suggested in chapter 5, masturbation, particularly linked with fantasy, may afford “learning/conditioning” experiences leading to more permanent sexual attractions. For example, if partners of a specific gender routinely show up in the fantasies (or pornography) to which one masturbates, then those partners may become part of one’s permanent sexual attractions. If so, women who do not masturbate, or do so rarely, may not develop strong sexual attractions to others.

A biological explanation compatible with the masturbation explanation is hormones. Lower testosterone in women relative to men may create in women a less intense urge to masturbate, leading to fewer conditioning experiences and, ultimately, to fewer permanent sexual attractions to others. [25] Note that biological and environmental/social explanations are not necessarily incompatible. As suggested in chapter 13, these two kinds of explanations can coexist because they offer different levels of analysis: micro (biological) versus macro (environment/social). Thus, they may represent different points along a causal stream or pathway. For example, a specific biological predisposition may make someone particularly sensitive to a certain environment, which ultimately has a large impact on this person, whereas a different biological predisposition may make another person especially sensitive to a completely different environment, which may also have a large (but different) impact on him or her.