Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Min
I have heard asexuality used as the term used for those persons that feel neither really 'male' or 'female'...they don't feel neuter but a good smattering of both. I've also heared 'intersexed' and a few others. There doesn't seem to be a word that quite fits the personality type that I am aware of at the moment.
|
Asexuality is lack or physical attraction to either sex. It's orientation, not really related to gender identity, which is one's internal sense of being male or female.
What you describe would be androgyny when used to describe outward physical apperance. Those who feel they have a mixture of male and female personality traits have in recent years taken to referring themselves as bigender, to distinguish the inner person from the outer expression, which do not always coincide.
As to why people are asexual, it may be due to brain chemistry, it may be just a normal variant along the libido continuum--some have a very high libido, some a much lower one. It can also be a matter of hormone levels. Men and woman with high sex drives and dominant sexual tendancies tend to have a higher than normal level of free androgens in their system compared to others of their sex, and those with low sex drives and/or submissive sexual characteristics tend to have lower free androgen levels compared to others of their sex. Estrogens play a part, but it's much less important. Both sexes need a minimal level of estrogen to function normally both in terms of certain brain functions and sexual function, as well as other physiological processes, but increases beyond that minimal level do not result in a linear increase in libido.
Some post op MTF transsexuals take small testosterone supplements to maintain their libidos and increase intensity of sexual response.
It's most likely a combination of genetic, hormonal, and socialization factors, a little different for each person.
Gilda