By Hilary White
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July 25, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The Scotsman reports that a Chinese matchmaking website is specializing in pairing up “asexuals.”
The phenomenon of “asexualism” has been getting press recently as the latest development in the sexual revolution.
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The 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s brought us open marriage in which spouses have no intention of remaining faithful; widespread cohabitation in which couples have no intention of becoming spouses; andÂmost recentlyÂhomosexual “marriage” in which governments are lobbied to abolish marriage as a legal entity entirely.
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In the midst of this sexual and legal chaos, according to news reports, increasing numbers of people experience no sexual attraction to either sex, but still seek the emotional intimacy and social stability of marriage. This has provided one Chinese company with an exploitable market niche.
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“Marriage for Asexuals” (www.wx920.com – in Chinese) is run by a man, a Communist party member and social worker in the southern province of Guangxi, who is only identified by his online pseudonym Lin Hai.
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Since its launch a year ago the site has attracted, according to its own count, 7,000 members, about sixty per cent of whom are people who cannot have sexual relations. The rest are homosexuals seeking an opposite-sex spouse.
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In 2004, Anthony Bogaert, a psychologist and human sexuality expert at Brock University in St. Catherines, Ontario published a study that showed about 1 per cent of adults showed no interest in sex. The study, published in the Journal of Sex Research, interviewed about 18,000 people about their sexual preferences.
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The psychiatric jury is still out as to whether asexuality is a psychological or socio-cultural phenomenon, a “sexual orientation,” or merely a manifestation of exasperation among people emotionally exhausted by modern hyper-sexualized culture. While the experts deliberate, however, the world of support organizations has formed around asexuality and declared it a sexual orientation in need of a community.
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The Asexual Visibility and Education Network, offers items for sale including a T-shirt with the slogan, “Asexuality: it’s not just for amoebas anymore.”