Asexuality and advertising
Feb. 16th, 2010 04:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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asexualityInspired by the post on a quiet dreamwidth comm meme, have a post.
Does being asexual make it easier to resist advertising messages?
As an introvert and an asexual, commercials and ads that tell me that their product will make people want to be around me and have sex with me are not overly interesting to me (so if I don't buy your product no one will want ever to have sex with me? Perfect!). I've never had much of a problem distancing myself from the various messages that the media presents about how we are all full of problems, and they will help us fix those problems if we just give them our money. Lately I've been wondering how much of that was the result of good work from my parents, and how much of that was simply that the subtext they were selling me wasn't something I was I cared about. I'm not wired to care about sex and popularity.
On the other hand, advertising also sells belonging, which is something that can be very tempting, especially to a person who hasn't quite figured themselves out yet and is still trying to see how they fit into the wider world ('If I buy into this, maybe I will finally understand what the fuss is about').
note: I'm trying to not present this in a way that sounds of "asexuals are better than those silly sexual people who are all slaves to their base desires" because I certainly know many sexual people who do not base their lives on what the TV tells them to do. However, I'm an introvert; I don't know that many people, period. I'm also the only asexual I know, so I hardly have access to a good sample of either side. It's just that my other discussion idea on asexuality and kink didn't seem like a good first post.
Does being asexual make it easier to resist advertising messages?
As an introvert and an asexual, commercials and ads that tell me that their product will make people want to be around me and have sex with me are not overly interesting to me (so if I don't buy your product no one will want ever to have sex with me? Perfect!). I've never had much of a problem distancing myself from the various messages that the media presents about how we are all full of problems, and they will help us fix those problems if we just give them our money. Lately I've been wondering how much of that was the result of good work from my parents, and how much of that was simply that the subtext they were selling me wasn't something I was I cared about. I'm not wired to care about sex and popularity.
On the other hand, advertising also sells belonging, which is something that can be very tempting, especially to a person who hasn't quite figured themselves out yet and is still trying to see how they fit into the wider world ('If I buy into this, maybe I will finally understand what the fuss is about').
note: I'm trying to not present this in a way that sounds of "asexuals are better than those silly sexual people who are all slaves to their base desires" because I certainly know many sexual people who do not base their lives on what the TV tells them to do. However, I'm an introvert; I don't know that many people, period. I'm also the only asexual I know, so I hardly have access to a good sample of either side. It's just that my other discussion idea on asexuality and kink didn't seem like a good first post.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-16 10:10 pm (UTC)As an(other) introvert and asexual, that's a very good question. Although asexuality most likely does provide a buffer against ads selling sex appeal, I suspect that the tendency towards introversion is probably more at play here: I'm asexual because that's what I am, but I'm a virgin because I've never felt a need to follow the crowd and 'fit in' at the expense of my personal comfort, which are traits I associate with extroversion to some extent. They're certainly not traits I specifically associate with sexuality.
(For reference, I'm a possibly-aromantic probably-polyaffectionate asexual, and in Myers-Briggs parlance I'm midway between INFP and INTP.)
no subject
Date: 2010-02-17 04:08 am (UTC)That is a good point, I wonder what the experience of an extroverted asexual would be like. I'm always between INTP and INFP depending on the test.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-17 10:52 am (UTC)As a response to the same meme, I was working on a post about how to make it clear that an ace character is ace without resorting to three pages of explanatory exposition. But you got there first and I don't want to swamp the comm, so I'll wait a couple of days :)
There's a person on Acebook who spends a lot of time posting about how depressed he is that he's 'broken' and can't 'be normal'. He's an extreme case, but I wouldn't be surprised if extroverts had the same kind of experiences.
no subject
Date: 2010-02-17 03:14 pm (UTC)My reading comprehension is faily
Date: 2010-02-17 03:52 pm (UTC)Since my post belongs over there, I guess I should go ahead and write it up.