metaparadox | List of Words and Phrases that May Have Been Used to Discuss Asexuality (Reply)

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metaparadox

NOTE: This is a repost of a piece I originally posted on Pillowfort, here.

Most of my research into asexual history is focused on the years 1950 to the mid 2000s right now, but I have found a few things that are older and decided to compile the following list of words/search terms, some of which led me to interesting finds, like these:

TW: medicalization of asexuality, outdated language, aphobia

Natural Celibates - Most men, and a good many women, simply disbelieve in the existence of these natural celibates among women. 'It's only that you haven't met the right man yet,' they will tell the girl who expresses her preference for a bachelor life. It may be that they are right, but it isn't necessarily so. The natural celibate does genuinely exist among women to-day. She

probably always did exist, though the practical impossibility in days gone by of an unmarried woman having any life of her own worth calling a life, must have driven many a natural celibate into matrimony. Now that conditions are so different, tens of thousands of them are deliberately deciding that, for them personally, the drawbacks of marriage outweigh its gains.

From Volume 56 (1921) of the magazine Quiver: https://archive.org/details/sim_quiver_1921-02_56/page/n35/mode/2up?q=%22natural+celibate%22

The natural congenital celibate must be differentiated from the voluntary celibate, inasmuch as he is out of the norm. He or she may be virtuous, exemplary and useful, or otherwise. Such types merit no commendation for a restraint which they have no need to cultivate. Congenital sex-anasthesia is not a virtue, neither is it a vice. It may arise from physical or psychic sources, or from both. Nature has marked the cold man or the woman as undesirable for the reproduction of the species. As working units of the community, natural celibates may be exceedingly valuable.

From The Great Unmarried by Walter M. Gallichan (1916): https://archive.org/details/b29814959/page/16/mode/2up?q=%22congenital+celibate%22

Two Kinds of Bachelors - (By January Mortimer, in The London Daily Mail) - There are two classes of celibate men, the voluntary and the involuntary. The bachelor by compulsion is not true type of bachelor. Circumstance, not will, stands in the way of his marriage. The real bachelor, or natural celibate, la a somewhat scarce variety. He is an abnormal being. This does not mean that he is a morbid' specimen of the human family. He is merely a 'deviate type' from the normal. Like a color-blind person or a giant. Generally speaking, the man who is incapable of falling in love is unemotional, or cold-natured and self-centred. The bachelor who has been disappointed in love is often overflowing with affection and sympathy. He ls a typical born uncle, with a number of nephews and nieces some related by birth and other adopted. The altruistic bachelor is frequently a philanthropist, an ardent social reformer, and a loyal friend. Deprived of conjugal and parental love, he discovers a compensation in deeds of kindness and generosity.

From the August 6, 1920 edition of The Daily Colonist newspaper: https://archive.org/details/dailycolonist62y200uvic/page/n13/mode/2up?q=%22natural+celibate%22

Anyway, to the list!

These words may have been used to talk about asexual people or asexuality-adjacent topics before the solidification of the concept of asexuality as a sexual orientation. Many of these were likely used incorrectly, due to the lack of specific words for asexual traits. They were approximations using the vocabulary of the time.

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Olivia Montoya

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