English edit

Etymology edit

From para- +‎ sexual.

Adjective edit

parasexual (not comparable)

  1. (biology) Exhibiting or relating to parasexuality.
  2. Both parasocial and sexual; being or relating to a one-sided sexual relationship.
    Coordinate term: parasocial
    • 2007, Christine Scodari, “Yoko in Cyberspace with Beatles Fans: Gender and the Re-Creation of Popular Mythology”, in Jonathan Gray, C. Lee Harrington, Cornel Sandvoss, editors, Fandom: Identities and Communities in a Mediated World, New York, NY: New York University Press, →ISBN, page 55:
      Cognizant of but careful not to lend credence to other fans' eroticization of John and Paul's collaboration, this poster echoes the first in valuing the feminine bond between male personae, thereby conceiving them as one unit and implicitly placing others outside this parasocial (or parasexual) relationship, and the relationship between fan and idols, as interlopers.
  3. Related indirectly to sex; pertaining to sexuality but not sex itself.
    • 1982 April 17, Michael Bronsky, “What Are These Men Really Selling and Whom Are They Trying to Fool”, in Gay Community News, page 6:
      These were not the "real" gay ads - the ones that appear in The Advocate, Blue Boy, and Mandate. These markets had already been targeted y the ad agencies: disco records, see-through underwear, body building equipment and a host of para-sexual paraphernalia were being manufactured and sold to the smart consumer queen.
    • 2004, P. J. P. Goldberg, Felicity Riddy, Youth in the Middle Ages, Boydell & Brewer, →ISBN, page 53:
      The parasexual object is more likely to appeal than the pornographic, especially in a culture with highly ambivalent attitudes to female sexuality.