Asexuality
is not a newly discovered sexual feeling; it is newly identified and considered
to be a part of LGBTQ now under the umbrella of LGBTQIA. It is defined as “lacking
sex or sex organs” in the Webster dictionary. As asexuality is identified
through LGBTQIA circles it is considered to be the absence of sexual desire. Some
people still do become very intimate to please a partner and/or to reproduce. Asexuality
is a condition where a person does not experience sexual attraction. (Cerankowski,
K.J., Milks, M.,2010) “As a result, those involved in the disability sexuality
movement are often opposed to the idea of asexuality in the context of
disability, seeing it as a wrongful label forcibly placed on them by a society
that is ill-informed at best and oppressive at worst.” (Lund, E.M. &
Johnson, B.A.,2015) Lund is explaining that asexuality is not a disorder, like
homosexuality was considered a disorder until the new DSM-5 came out. It is not
because someone is “sick”. Some experts take it further and explain that there
is sexual identity, sexual interest, sexual behavior, and sexual orientation
which will be looked at a little later in this article. (Moser,2015) The
religious only accept heterosexuality, and the general public now acknowledges that
LGBTQ exists. It should include, and finally does, in some literature, is
LGBTQIA. This is the modern version of sexuality that is considered and
acknowledged outside of the range of heterogeneousness.
Looking further into the asexuality
movement, Cerankowski and Milks declare that asexuality is a “new sexuality”.
AVEN declares: “Asexual: a person who does not experience sexual attraction”.
AVEN is Asexual Visibility and Education Network. It can be found on the
internet and it has an interactive website. It does not mention if the site is
anonymous or not. Just because someone is asexual, does not advertise that this
is without all attraction. Some people still participate in all areas of
sexuality. These include: romantic, aromantic, monogamous, polyamorous, gay,
straight, bisexual, and lesbian. Everyone benefits from intimacy.
People who have sexual PTSD might
seek out nerve ending numbing methods to appease unwanted flashbacks, so they
can be intimate without trauma. This can be done with surgery or medicine. It
has been found that “reduced T levels (T = testosterone) are associated with
decreased sexual fantasies, arousal, and motivation”, even though, “low T
levels do not always mean the total loss of sexual function and desire”.
(Selek,2018) Science proclaims the human race as social creatures. Selek et.
al. explains that “human behavior is modulated by cognitive, emotional, social,
and contextual factors”. Humans (most of us) need intimacy. It just happens
that some need it a little bit more harnessed than others.
In the past, women (and men) have
been mutilated because they are mentally ill. They have endured, over time,
many ethical crossings from the medical field’s ethical standards. They have
been rendered sterile, just because they are mentally ill and the society, they
are a part of, want them to be unable to have children, because the general
public is scared. They think of the mentally ill harming children or having
children that harm children.
This does not take away the capacity
for procreation. If someone is of the libido of what would be “normal” then the
surgeries should not render them sexless. This is not to say “sexless” such as
without identity, no. This is to say that the action of having sex is still
within a person’s capabilities if they so desire. What is wrong about “special”
surgeries, is that the patient is usually nonconsensual. Selek admits that this
is being done, under the guise of SO’s (Sexual Offenders). He comes out very
plainly, in the middle of his article, and admits “chemical castration, is
being used as an additional treatment to psychotherapy”. This is done (unknown
percentage) on many psychiatric patients, not just sex offenders that Selek is
writing on. It is such a taboo to talk about non-consensual castration of the
mentally ill, that he hides it in his article. Also, in the article, it
mentions that medical castration has been used since the 1940’s. The treatment
is called Androgen Deprivation Treatment or ADT. It is limiting testosterone
levels, to gain certain behaviors. Sexual behaviors. It is known that society would like sex
offenders to be castrated in order to stop them from offending. Unfortunately,
a person may still molest without the use of a phallic. If they are going to
offend, they will find a way, sexual or by other physical modalities that are
just as sexual in nature.
Through the article, “Defining
Sexual Orientation”, Charles Moser defines sexual identity (how individuals
define themselves sexually), sexual interests (what individuals want to do),
sexual behavior (what one actually does) and focuses mostly on sexual
orientation (this can include fetishes). According to a specific Stanford Law
Review (vol. 66:303), more women than men are self-identified as asexual. Approximately
1% of the population that identify as asexual. Out of that one percent, AVEN
found that 65% identified as female, 31% identified as male, and 4% as
intersexed or transsexual. These numbers are most likely estimates.
Sexual interest
refers to the motivation to engage in sexual activity. Interest is commonly
referred to as “desire,” “sex drive,” and “sexual appetite,” and describes the
sexual feelings motivating a person to seek some type of sexual activity,
whether partnered or alone. Sexual identity has been described as a
component of an individual's identity that reflects their sexual self-concept.
Sexual identity can change throughout an individual's life, and may or may not
align with biological sex, sexual behavior, or actual sexual orientation. Sexual
behavior would encompass the act of performing various vicarious acts to induce
arousal within the individual and/or the partner(s) of interest. Last, but not
least, sexual orientation is a term used to describe within an individual the pattern
of emotional, romantic, or sexual attraction. Sexual orientation may include
attraction to the same gender (homosexuality), a gender different than their
own (heterosexuality), both men and women (bisexuality), all genders
(pansexual), or neither (asexuality). (HealthLinkBC)
“Antipsychotic medication may be the
most prominent cause of sexual problems including reduced sexual desire” in
psychiatric patients, today. (de Boer, et. al.,2015) Describing how things were before chemical
castration, Dolan explains in her article, “it is important to keep in mind
that the decades of involuntary sterilization that followed did not occur in a
state of unquestioning belief or ignorance, but occurred despite the concerns
expressed by some health care professionals and legal representatives”. The
scene was set in Pennsylvania in the late 1890’s during the Progressive Era.
The timeline of treatments in the mental health fields have discernable
patterns. Many evolved due to legal concerns of individuals’ rights against the
swayed concerns of the general public. These patterns are seen as such barbarity,
that if someone from that era were to view the dilemmas of today’s mentally
ill, they would certainly cry foul for their treatment was absolutely more
barbarous than that of today’s patients. (Now titled clients).
McWhorter proclaims, “To be effectual,
asexualization should be enforced against rapists of whatever color. Unjust
discrimination against the blacks merely serves to defeat the purpose of the
method. The double color standard of virtue has already worked great harm.” Going
further, McWhorter briefly explains that “People didn’t think of themselves as
fundamentally sexual beings, as beings with a sexual orientation and a sexual
identity that established them in their very selfhood.”
The mentally ill suffer from many
instances of predation throughout their lives. For one to think that mentally
ill clients are sex offenders is one of the worst rumors in society. The
mentally ill are more likely victims of sex offenders, than being sex offenders
themselves. This has been proven again and again. But, as society remains
ignorant for what it is exactly to be proclaimed mentally ill, they will
continue to think that the mentally ill are child molesters or murderers.
What does it take to be labeled
mentally ill? It takes one person, two doctors and a court hearing to declare a
person mentally ill. That is all it takes, to directly affect the future of an
individual. It is ruined from all the rumors (called stigma) and bias of public
misunderstandings. It is determined that if a person has no idea how to obtain
housing, clothing, and/or food. That is, it. Just knowing how to find one
thing, keeps a person from being hospitalized. The experts say that many
homeless people are mentally ill. But, as long as they know where to get food,
they remain on the street. Homeless.
Here the spill over of the Supreme Court
rulings as forthcoming are: “The threads that link Jacobson, Buck, Skinner, and
Harper include a right of human biological integrity, an ideal of human (biological)
equality, and the threat that biological alteration poses to both. Alteration
constitutes a unique breach of the right of biological integrity. The
government does not merely invade a body but reconstitutes a person's physical
constitution to suit its purposes. The government also supposes that biological
differences among human beings not only exist but have significance for
political action-a profound breach, if sometimes a warranted one, in ordinary
principles of equality.” (William and Mary Law Review)
To be mentally ill, is to be
socially relegated to the gallows of societal castes. To become part of the
outcasts of society. Back, in American history, the mentally ill suffered from
numerous ill-informed procedures against their rights to reproduce and have
intimate relations. This included the removal of ovaries and hysterectomies of
mentally ill women and the removal of testes in men. Following this period,
there were lobotomies and then there was shock treatment. Now, there is
pharmacological treatment, where a chemical is prescribed that has a sexual
dampener and is prescribed without the client knowing that it will interfere
with their sexual capacities and feelings. Medical treatments for keeping psychiatric
patients from having and wanting sex, is still done today, just in a different
manner and is generally hush hush. They still have ECT done (electro-convulsive
therapy). But it is a little bit more humane, where the client is given a
sedative and the power of the shock has been adjusted so that it is not severe.
Lobotomies are now against the law. Pharmacological treatment continues to this
day and is still evolving.
In conclusion, one does not know
what the future holds. One can only be true to the self as it is. The big
question is, “Who made you procurer of someone’s destiny?” and “How can you be
so sure that what you are doing is the right thing to do, because you
misunderstand and are afraid of the truth?” As McWhorter explains, “Once a
child was labeled mentally defective, it did not matter what he or she might
accomplish; the abnormality was still present.” Once labeled, one is forever
so. This is the stigma. This is the label. This is the now.
References
Cerankowski,
K. J., & Milks, M. (2010). New Orientations: Asexuality and Its
Implications for Theory
and Practice. Feminist Studies, 36(3), 650–664
De
Boer, M., Castelein, S., Wiersma, D., Schoevers, R., & Knegtering, H.
(2015). The Facts About Sexual (Dys)function in Schizophrenia: An Overview of
Clinically Relevant Findings. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 41(3), 674-686.
Dolan,
D. V. (2007). Psychiatry, psychology, and human sterilization then and now:
"therapeutic" or in the social interest? Ethical Human Psychology
and Psychiatry, 9(2), 99-108. Retrieved from
http://libproxy.sdsu.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.libproxy.sdsu.edu/docview/205082115?accountid=13758
Lund,
E., & Johnson, B. (2015). Asexuality and Disability: Strange but Compatible
Bedfellows. Sexuality & Disability, 33(1), 123–132. https://doi-org.libproxy.sdsu.edu/10.1007/s11195-014-9378-0
McWhorter,
L. (2009). Racism and Sexual Oppression in Anglo-America : A Genealogy.
Indiana University Press.
Moser,
C. (2016). Defining sexual orientation. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 45(3),
505-508. doi:http://dx.doi.org.libproxy.sdsu.edu/10.1007/s10508-015-0625-y