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Aphobia warning: Discrimination of aces


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I know this is an aro forum, but since many of us are also aces or acespec, I decided to share this small bit about asexuality and discrimination I found on the Finnish wikipedia page.

Directly translated:

"According to an article in Psychology Today, asexuals were the most dehumanized (considered less than human) sexual minority.  According to the study, asexuals are dehumanized in two ways: they are considered either machine-like or animal-like."

I find this really, really weird and sad. Do people actually think aces are machines or animals? Any thoughts or experiences?

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I get for the machine one. It's quite common I say it for myself too. But animals ?? That doesn't make any sense. I would consider animals a lot more sexual than other things ! There're like actual expressions to relate animals to sex, so asexuals are just the contrary of that.

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machine one is common and definitely heard of for many acespec folks but animal like? dont animals instinctively reproduce which is nowhere near the bigots shallow interpretation of asexuality [simply not wanting sex or antisexual in general]? it seems a bit contradictory. could you send me the article where you found this info? i would love to see more elaboration regarding the animal like part but tbh i dont want to dwell on stuff abt discriminative acts for that long so ill probably forget to read it lol

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1 hour ago, roboticanary said:

Interesting. Did it give a link to the article? Would be interesting to see it as it sounds like ultimately some form of survey has been done on peoples attitudes

https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/without-prejudice/201209/prejudice-against-group-x-asexuals

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6 hours ago, Atypique said:

But animals ?? That doesn't make any sense. I would consider animals a lot more sexual than other things !

I assume that this one comes from the conflation of aromanticism and asexuality. Since people think only humans feel love (probably false), if they think asexual = aromantic, they think asexual people are like animals. It also may come from people who mostly see domesticated animals in media, and thus do not associate animals with sex.

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But, oddly enough, asexuals were also seen as “animal-like” (i.e., animalistically dehumanized). Yes, asexuals were seen as relatively cold and emotionless and unrestrained, impulsive, and less sophisticated.

Hmm, okay, so the study is using "animal-like" to describe being seen as uncontrolled/unsophisticated (animal-like = unrestrained, impulsive, less sophisticated). Basically saying we're seen specifically as subhuman, of which many people view animals to be lesser due to lack of sapience rather than just different but no less deserving of respect and compassion.

That is interesting. I've definitely heard the robot one before - been subject to these comments and attitudes personally. I agree with Neon that I suspect there has been some overlap/confusion between asexuality and aromanticism here. I'm aroace, but I suspect aroallos might more relate to be considered or treated as "animalistic" with the stereotype that they're sex obsessed players who just want to use people and don't respect anybody they may have sex with. The cited source was in 2012, and the two communities were definitely still more entangled together than they are today.

I would be interested in checking out the study they're referencing to see if they listed any examples, but unfortunately, as I'm no longer at a school, I don't have access to any accounts that would allow me to read the study in full. D:

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