Dr. Ruth and asexuality

Apparently, Dr. Ruth isn’t dead. I know, I was surprised too. Not only is she not dead, she’s on twitter. I suppose that’s not as shocking as the fact that she’s not dead. Why am I talking about Dr.Ruth? Because she posted this.

Studies say 1% of pop. is asexual. To me that's 1% too much but sexuality is a spectrum so good that it's so low and not 10%

— Dr. Ruth Westheimer (@AskDrRuth) August 18, 2015

Dr. Ruth has the right to tweet whatever she wants to tweet but for someone who styles herself an educator of “sexual literacy” this is a shockingly ignorant opinion. How about doing a little research before you bash 7.3 million people world wide? Asexual people aren’t a joke. We aren’t a waste of space or a mistake of nature. We exist and we have value.

I never was a fan of Dr. Ruth. The only real memory I have of her was a TV appearance with her giggling and saying the word penis way back in the day when no one said that on TV. To me she seemed to have based her public persona on the shock factor that she was a tiny elderly woman saying sexually explicit things.

Dr. Ruth may very well be an amazing  mother and grandmother and general great all around person, but for someone who grew up in the Nazi era she should know better than to marginalize a group of people and say they shouldn’t exist.

 

 

Interesting video about asexuality, being a gray ace, and fanfiction

In the thirteenth episode of PBS Digital Studios’ First Person, “Asexuality,” host Kristin Russo talks with Kara Kratcha, a student of English literature and writer who identifies as grey ace (asexual).