A friend and I were having a talk concerning the reason why most people want to form romantic relationships. I argued that most people pursue romantic relationships solely for sex, whether they know it or not. My friend disagrees and believes that sex is only one of the many factors that encourage people to form romantic relationships. He says that even without sex, most people would still want to form relationships more intimate than standard friendships. I on the hand believe that most people would not be interested in forming relationships with the knowledge that there would be no sex. I know I would not. 

What about you? If you had no sex drive, would you want to form an intimate relationship? If so, why? Aside from sex, I don’t see any benefits that romantic relationships have over regular friendships. Perhaps, if you get lonely at nights and want someone to talk to, I guess I could see the benefit it it.

Why would you ever talk to a woman in the first place if you had no sex surge? XD

Companionship can be separated from sex.

I agree with the guy above.

It's comforting. You still can love the person. They can love you back.

As I see it:

romantic relationship - sex = friendship

So I can't really answer the question unless it's rephrased (that's just me though). Yes, I would probably like to live with a very close friend and share experiences with it. Question though is whether I would get bored of the person after a while or not, which I believe is more likely without the sex.

For instance, an old friend of mine had not visited me for years but decided to do so last spring. We both had a good time, and he later told me that he would stay for about half the summer. I did enjoy his whole stay overall, but after a while there was a sense of becoming bored of his whole personality. That's probably why we usually don't stick to one friend at a time, but has several connections. Something that seems way less likely when sex is involved.


Anyway, that's my experiences.

Just look at Gandhi. He was married and still practiced abstinence in later years.

I think that without sex there would still be "romantic" relationships, but they would be on a totally different level than before and be much less dramatic.

It's called being Asexual, they can have relationships with people but have no desire to sleep with them.

All you have to do is get married. You'll find out what a sexless relationship is like real quick ;)

I don't really have an opinion on the matter but recently I discovered a comic book which I think is related to the topic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paying_for_It
It's a biographical comic from Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown who some day decided to pay for sex in order to satisfy his desires instead of getting into new romantic relationships which always failed miserably. I haven't read it yet but will buy it soon. Sounds interesting and according to reviews it's a very good comic book.