Prefer masturbation? You might be a 'solosexual'
Read the full article on Body + Soul by Holly Berckelman here.
You may have heard of asexuality, but have you heard of solosexuality? We asked somatic sexologist Georgia Grace to share all the details about this lesser-known sexual preference.
Our understanding of sexuality and gender is constantly evolving. What began as binary genders and heterosexuality has morphed, with time and advocacy, into a full spectrum of identities, with neologisms that serve to help people understand who people are, and make sense of the world around them.
Thanks to championing from the LGBTQIA+ community, the space for queer people in society is widening. A significant portion of Australians now have at least a basic understanding of the lesbian, gay, and bisexual sexualities, and are working towards better understanding queer/questioning, intersex and asexuality, along with transgender and non-binary gender identities. Of course, there is a long way to go.
But beyond the acronym, there are many queer sexualities that aren’t yet well understood – solosexuality being one of them, which is rising in commonality, and relevant to more people than you may think.
We asked somatic sexologist Georgia Grace to help break down exactly what solosexuality means, and why it’s an identity that deserves space in the conversation.
What does it mean to be solosexual?
It’s a term that first showed up in the 1990s, but didn’t gain much mainstream traction until 2015. So what actually is it?
In short, solosexuality means to prefer “to engage in solosexual behaviours like masturbation over sex with others,” says Grace. “It's a term that a lot of people are using to make sense of their desires. It is really normal. It is really common.”
Oftentimes, Grace explains, there’s a proclivity to “pathologize anytime someone is doing something beyond what the mainstream considers the norm” – and try to come up with a reason for why something is the way it is.
Solosexuality comes into the bucket, and while it is a human tendency to find out the reason for something, the cause of a situation, when it comes to sexuality, it usually doesn’t work like that.
Read the full article on Body + Soul by Holly Berckelman here.
