A woman has shared a humorous comparison to describe her experience of being ‘graysexual’.
Many people are still unfamiliar with this identity, but it is gradually becoming more recognized, and as awareness grows, others are discovering they too identify as graysexual.
This term is gaining acceptance within the larger LGBTQ+ community, especially among those who identify as asexual.
In 2015, the ‘Asexual Census’ revealed that out of 9,161 participants, 1,427 identified as graysexual, which accounts for 15.5 percent.
Although the term originated in the early 2000s, it has recently gained more attention online.
Chanel Williams, a British TikToker with a following of 2.3 million, has shared with her audience what being graysexual feels like for her.
“So I was hanging out with my friend the other day and he asked me if I could explain my sexuality to him so he could understand it a bit better because he knows what asexual is as a broad term but didn’t know specifically what it meant for me,” she shared.
Some might find such a question offensive or view it as ignorant, but Chanel welcomed the opportunity to explain, appreciating the interest shown.
The TikToker elaborated: “Now to help you understand what that is like, imagine the world is obsessed with tennis the way it’s obsessed with sex. Sex doesn’t exist anymore, we just have tennis.”
“Your friend comes around like, ‘oh my god, it’s been eight months since I last played tennis. I know at this point my arms have cobwebs; I don’t even know if I remember how to serve anymore – at this point I’m just gonna have to go into town and find a stranger to play tennis with because, what am I going to do? I’m dying’.
“You’re out with your friends and a guy walks past and everyone under their breath is like, ‘oh my God, look at his arms. I bet he can serve. I bet he covers the court. Yeah, bet he can handle a racket.'”
She went on: “You’re on a dating app and you’re speaking to someone and every conversation that you try to have, they just keep trying to lead it back to tennis and sending you pictures of them in little shorts with a racket, and you’re like, ‘yeah, tennis is great. But anyway, back to what we were talking about before’. And they’re like, ‘yes, but tennis.'”
“Unless somebody turned up and was like, ‘Chanel should we go and play tennis’, and I’m like, ‘oh actually that’s a fun thing, yeah let’s go and do that’. I would never spontaneously think about tennis the same way that I would never spontaneously think about sex.”
Chanel further explained that if someone mentioned it, she might think, ‘oh yeah, that exists – that’s a fun time, why not?’, but she herself has never felt sexual attraction.