John H. Richardson compared asexuality to celibacy in an essay he wrote for Esquire Magazine in January. The essay, "The Martyrs of Sex," is a rambling treatise regarding the social mores of sex and extra marital affairs. Halfway through the article, Richardson penned the following line.
“Do you think it's an accident that so many great men are relentless horndogs, or that so many prominent women seem to be completely asexual — asexuality being, of course, as every priest knows, an especially ferocious form of sexuality so intense that it has masked itself in the chador of its opposite in order to sublimate itself into pure will to power? The sexual vitality of the great is essential to their greatness, not an accident to be suppressed or excused.”
Although many people will find his wording hard to follow, asexuals object to one part that is clearly written. He compares asexuality to celibacy. Sara Brooks, founder of Asexual Awareness Week, said the following in her response:
Sara Brooks, the found of Asexual Awareness Week, wrote this in response, “This conflation of asexuality and celibacy is detrimental to the asexual community because it perpetuates the assumption that asexuals are frigid, cold, and indeed, without any power. However, this is not consistent with scientific research or self-identity within the asexual community.”
Richardson's column came out a few weeks before a Metroland article that made the same mistake. The column in the Albany, New York alternative newspaper attracted less attention.
Comments