Asexuality and advertising

[neekabe]

Inspired 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.

Comments

[nike]

Hmm... Interesting question. I'm an introvert asexual as well and selling me sex doesn't work. Selling me other things can if you can reach me, but I don't watch TV anymore except online or on DVD and tend to switch the channel when ads air on the radio. As such, advertisers aren't really reaching me anyway. If anything, the few that do reach me often piss me off more than anything because I've been trained in how to see how they're selling me something and how objectifying they can be in that effort (advertising aimed at women versus advertising by women fascinates me).

I'm also gonna agree with charamei: I think the introversion plays a large part as well. When I was in my late teens, my response (mostly internalized and acted out) to being told I could be beautiful if I did this, this, and that was "Hell with that, I want to be comfortable and sleep in and who cares what anyone else thinks as long as I'm happy?" And I was happy like that because I didn't care what people thought because I had come to the conclusion that if they didn't like me for who I was, then they weren't worth my time. I still stick to that, although I do make some effort with what people think now because my job requires it to a degree, more's the pity. ;D

[neekabe]

I agree 100% with the "if they don't like me, why would I want them as a friend" mindset. The introversion/asexual combination is the good combination for feeling comfortably different from the rest of the world.

As an aside, I've read other places that a significant number of asexuals are introverted. I wonder if being asexual would be harder if one was extroverted.