No, not all INTJs, or even most, are. (That was an embarrassing quantity of commas).

Once again, there is a stereotype going around. A large number of people have latched on to the idea that INTJs are asexual, or at least lacking in sexual motivation. In reality, however, this isn’t true of most INTJs.

As a mental visual, I’ve compiled for you a list of INTJs, organised by their sexual orientation. You might have to pay really close attention to notice, but in this list, the number of straight INTJs far exceeds that of asexual INTJs.

Ace: Nikola Tesla, Susan Sto Helit, Ender Wiggin, Sherlock, 4th Doctor, 12th Doctor…

Gay: Thomas Barrow

Straight: Alec Hardy, Flannery O’Connor, John Nash, Percy Toplis, Stephen Hawking, Arvid (Swing kids), Bruce Wayne, Jane Austen, Cauis Marcius Coriolanus, David Tennant, Wednesday Adams, Steve Jobs, Ralph Waldo Emerson…

Not Sure: Hamlet, Iago (Othello)…

However, I will agree that the proportion of asexuality is much higher in the fictional INTJ community than it is in most other MBTI types. One major reason for this is that the real-life Ace community does happen to be largely dominated by INTJs (need an example? take a look at this poll).

People have taken this fact and incorrectly assumed that it works conversely, thinking that if most asexuals are INTJs, most INTJs must also be asexual. Unfortunately, this doesn’t exactly work out quite as logically as they think it does.

While many asexuals are INTJs, the INTJ community ranges all over the spectrum of sexual orientation.

Asexuality as a marketing device in Media

There are a number of screenwriters (Moffat, for instance) who have figured out that it pays off to design an asexual character and then drop occasional hints for people to believe they’re either straight or gay without ever actually confirming anything.

They understand that the mass market is comprised of allosexual people (non-asexuals) who crave sexuality in media. As a result, they take advantage of asexuality as a means of creating an ambiguous sexual orientation to cater to a wider audience. People latch onto any hint of sexuality they get from ambiguously oriented characters because they want to believe that character is somehow part of their own sexual orientation.

It’s a great way for screenwriters to market their media to a variety of people rather than excluding minorities on the basis of their sexual orientation.

Take Sherlock for instance – any scene where he does anything remotely sexual is not real. It’s either part of a fan theory about how he survived the Reichenbach fall, or it’s Sherlock pretending to be sexually interested in someone as part of a case (he does this with both Irene Adler and Janine). People latch onto these hints, subconsciously exaggerate them and then forget that nothing actually happened.

The media designers often use similar rhetorical strategies with homosexual characters such as Thomas from Downton Abbey. Throughout the entire show, the audience is constantly thinking, “Thomas needs a boyfriend. Somebody new come in so that he can have some happiness.”

Meanwhile, the screenwriter behind the scenes is smirking. “Exactly. You’ll keep watching my show as long as you’re still waiting for that boyfriend to come along. So, no. Thomas doesn’t get a boyfriend. I think I’ll let someone new court Mary.”

Asexuality wouldn’t work as a plot-device if the screenwriters didn’t give their fans something unreal to hold onto. They take advantage of the fact that most people just expect a character to be sexual and then exploit it by withholding sexuality from them for the longest point possible.

INTJs tend to be fetishized alongside asexuality, partially because of this marketing technique. Screenwriters further understand that people are attracted to puzzles and mystery, and because INTJs are by definition, a mystery to most people, they use INTJs as a marketing strategy as well.

Quite frequently, the two (asexuality and INTJs) get meshed together in the media.

P.S. Yes, I will two a couple of example posts (if you have any particular requests from the list above, please send them in by the end of this week. If not, I will pick the ones I’m most familiar with).