Media Misrepresentation

As documented here a recent episode of the popular medical drama House M.D. caused a stir amoung the asexual community. The premise of the episode involved an asexual couple who seek medical attention for a minor issue. House, hearing of their asexual relationship, seeks to discover a medical condition which could be affecting their sex drive. However, he does not just suspect them to have a medical issue; this stance is evident in his statement that "lots of people don't have sex. The only people who don't want it are either sick, dead, or lying." The episode concludes with the husaband being diagnosed with a tumor which impairs his libido and the wife with a confession that she had been lying about her asexuality in order to continue the relationship.

The amount of media attention asexuals have had is growing at a relatively slow pace. Although media attention is welcome, seeing it portrayed as a symptom rather than a sexual orientation is what the asexual community is against. True, some instances of asexuality are related to physical ailments but the majority of "sufferers" are not truly suffering. Instead they are healthy individuals who happen to have been born without or have come to lack a drive to have sex with another. While media attention is important, such instances of misrepresentation are all too common when on the topic of asexuality.

-Ashley