Interesting question(s) and follow-up exchanges with anonymous.
I think you two got to the right point about sensual ≠ sexual, but at some point it may cross the line. As you've said, you're nearly asexual, so it rarely if ever crosses that line, whereas the other person might feel differently, which as the potential to create conflict.
I was thinking about erotic in different terms, such as an erotic image. I think of, for example, 1940's pin-up girls, which images I find erotic without being sexual. A blatantly pornographic picture in the modern decade would likely be sexual without necessarily being erotic. I'm not sure I can pin down the difference more articulately. Perhaps I'd say erotic is sexual without necessarily being arousing? Or perhaps something like you describe as being arousing, without feeling the need to act on it.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2021-02-12 02:21 am (UTC)I think you two got to the right point about sensual ≠ sexual, but at some point it may cross the line. As you've said, you're nearly asexual, so it rarely if ever crosses that line, whereas the other person might feel differently, which as the potential to create conflict.
I was thinking about erotic in different terms, such as an erotic image. I think of, for example, 1940's pin-up girls, which images I find erotic without being sexual. A blatantly pornographic picture in the modern decade would likely be sexual without necessarily being erotic. I'm not sure I can pin down the difference more articulately. Perhaps I'd say erotic is sexual without necessarily being arousing? Or perhaps something like you describe as being arousing, without feeling the need to act on it.