Are there any ppl here besides me that want nothing to do w/ romance nor sex?  I am tired of being the only one & put down for it.

It's not that unusual - however, that's not to say it's the rule, far from it in fact.

I know it is not the rule, I just wanted to see if there are others that can relate.

Well, I'm not that way inclined - almost the exact opposite, actually - but there are asexuals here.

Well, those that are can feel free to post.

I have sexual desires, but can only imagine being in that sort of relationship as someone else-as one of the characters in my many imaginary worlds. I can't picture the "real me" in that situation.

Me. I've never wanted to have sex... it just feels too... well, I know what third-graders mean when they're talking about cooties!

I would much prefer friendships. The annoying part of that is that I have more in common (in terms of interests) with guys than girls; and since the assumption is that I'm a straight girl because I don't say anything different, my desire for friendship gets tangled with their desire for romance; and what's worse, when they find a girl, I have to back off from the friendship because otherwise the girl sees me as a threat, when in fact I'm no more a threat than another (straight) guy would be...

Of course the solution is to explain that I'm asexual, but so many people have no idea that a fourth sexual orientation even exists, and assume I'm being very strange and claiming I'm intersexed, or worse, somehow identifying with amoebas (neither is actually the case... I mean, amoebas?!). So I have to explain all that, and even then, some seem to think that I am either repressed gay, or just haven't found the "right person" yet (and some of them think they are that "right person")...

Is it any wonder I'm considering buying a large cubic-zirconia "engagement" ring and wearing it to scare off the inevitable "OMG geeky girl I must have her"-ness of my fellow engineers?

Me too!!!!  Ppl  make fun of me because they don't hear that I am attracted to neither sex, they just hear I don't want men, so they automatically think I am a "lesbo"!  Or boys used to deliberately make vulgar passes at me 'cause they knew I didn't like it.  I even had a crazy @@!$ed up social worker who insisted that my late father had "touched me inappropriately" & adamantly refused to believe me when my brother & I told her no!  >

I forgot to say this in my last post, & editing is not enabled, but ppl would also judge me & say, I'm too "rigid", or that I'm "just afraid to try anything new" and question how I'd know how I feel when I totally know how I feel about this!  I too, get the "You haven't found the right person yet"!

Yep..I get the same.

That or they think I am lying about it and I am attracted to someone. It is really frustrating.

Society is pretty much sex-crazy. I mean, they use it to sell cars! They put it in shows for pre-teens, who can't possibly have much of a sex drive yet anyway; they even define adulthood by whetehr or not you've had sex, and success by how pretty the person you're having sex with happens to be... You can violently kill a character on the movie screen and show his guts hanging out all over the place and it'll be only an R rating with twelve-year-olds seeing it, but show a couple of consenting adults in love making a baby, and suddenly it's NC-17. The "worst" profanities all have to do with sex. People practically worship it and they're ashamed of it at the same time. So it's no wonder they're confused and go into total denial when somebody says, "Actually, I'm not really all that interested in sex."

Yeah, & some idiot girl at my old job even went so far as to spread a rumor that I had a boyfriend & had everyone coming up to me to "congratulate" me & the girl was teasing me saying, "Having a boyfriend is nothing to be ashamed of!"

*rolls eyes* Why do people butt into things that are not their business? Very "junior high."

EXACTLY!  This girl WAS like a Jr. High bully!!! (Meanwhile, if I made an innocent comment, it was perceived as me being nosy & everyone always stopped talking when I entered a room.) One time she wanted to beat me up because she started w/ me & I said something back to her!

Definitely aromantic, and probably asexual too, but not completely. Maybe just a low sex-drive.