What is asexuality? Is it a platonic relationship that cares only about spiritual feelings? According to scholar Bogaert, asexuality is the absence of subjective sexual attraction to people of any gender. In other words, the asexual person does not have sexual desires or declares that he has no sexual orientation, and no sexual desire or impulse is aroused in him, regardless of gender. He is also either afraid of sex or feels that sex is nothing special to them and that it is normal to not have sex. Asexuality is called the fourth sex after homosexuality, heterosexuality, and bisexuality. Unlike the sexually depressed, celibate, or abstinent person, asexuality is a desire to have sex at all, rather than self-restraint or sexual dysfunction that makes it difficult to have sex. Likewise, asexuality is not the same as a platonic relationship, because a platonic relationship does not completely exclude sexual relations. Asexuals do not experience subjective sexual attraction, but may feel romantic attraction and develop love. Asexuals may never feel sexual attraction, but may still feel romantic attraction, i.e., asexuals may develop love and may develop a willingness to have romantic relationships with others, but not sexual attraction. Carrigan and several other scholars have suggested that asexuals can be classified as heterosexual romantic asexuals, homosexual romantic asexuals, bisexual romantic asexuals, and pansexual romantic asexuals, depending on whom they are attracted to. In addition, there are also non-romantic asexuals who do not feel romance and for whom a friend-like emotional relationship is the most desirable relationship model. So, is asexuality a pathology? The academic community basically agrees that “asexuality is not a pathology”, which is related to the diversification of sexual culture and the development of sexual research. Although only 1% of the population is born with asexuality, it does exist. At the same time, some scholars believe that considering asexuality as one of the sexual tendencies can make it easier for asexuals to accept themselves. People who are open to sex tend to view asexuality as a form of sexual conservatism. But sexual conservatism in turn tends to believe that marriage means that sex becomes sensible and reasonable and that sex after marriage is a responsibility. These make asexuals feel pressured to be in a sexual society. They can be pressured to engage in sex or other intimate encounters involuntarily out of the need to maintain the relationship and out of a sense of responsibility. However, such discordant accommodations often result in emotional breakdown, which in turn makes asexuals disgusted with their identity and even re-emerge with a sense of loss and rejection of gender relations. References: [1] Wu Linyue, Yu Huiru. The history and current status of asexuality research–a reanalysis of 28 Chinese and English academic literature from 2004 to 2015[J]. Chinese sex science,2017,26(10):6-6.