they define asexuality in an ambiguous way
How is “not feeling sexual attraction” an ambiguous definition when compared to the definition of any other orientation?
Heterosexual - being sexually attracted to people of the other sex
Homosexual - being sexually attracted to people of one’s own sex
Bisexual - being sexually attracted to both men and women, or to more than one sex or gender
Pansexual - being sexually attracted to people regardless of their sex or gender
Asexual - a lack of sexual attraction to people of any gender
The word can be used as an umbrella term, but that generally agreed-upon definition is pretty straightforward, completely regardless of conversation about social identity.
which is reflected within their results
It seems reductive to assume that asexuals need to have completely different masturbation habits in order to validate the study’s definition of the term.
I’m also not sure why you’d mention fetishes that ace men often have in common with non-ace men. Do you simply not think there can be any overlap between the preferences of asexual men and sexual men whatsoever?
Maybe there needs to be a new term that means 'attracted solely to things and people outside of myself.
“Allosexuality: any kind of sexual attraction for another person”, as opposed to asexuality. Allosexuals include people who are straight, gay, bi, and pan. (Allosexuality: What Does It Mean?)
It suggests maybe some problems with self-image to want to completely remove yourself from the scene
There’s no “want” to remove yourself from the scene… there’s often just not much of a scene at all. This is a feature of asexuality that probably has to do with neurodivergence (as many aces are ND). For example, when I think about the subject of my fetish, I’m mostly hyperfixating upon the subject itself — that’s the source of the arousal, why would I not? I’m not imagining myself in the middle of some story. It’s just a different way of experiencing things. You’re simply not playing the role of a “protagonist” in a sexual fantasy, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
All of these are valid things to research, but why categorise a bunch of sexual interests under a word that means ‘without sexuality’?
“Asexual”, just like “heterosexual”, “homosexual” and the like are not scientific terms. They’re all words that exist to describe experiences and feelings, and thus they’re going to mean different things to different people. Definitions change and more labels emerge, because yes, it gets convoluted at times. But so long as there are people who aren’t straight/gay/bi/pan, there are going to be people who don’t fit under any term besides “asexual”. It’s honestly just the way it is.
