The music producer Mark Ronson has revealed that he identifies as sapiosexual.
The 44-year-old revealed that his sexual identity during an appearance on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Thursday morning, with anchors Ben Shephard and Kate Garraway. He appeared on the morning show to talk about the release of his fifth studio album, Last Night Feelings.
During the interview, Garraway recalled the discussion in the previous segment of the show during which they talked about sapiosexuality. Ronson had taken an interest in the discussion. And while debating the subject with some of the show’s producers backstage, he declared that he identified as sapiosexual.
“We were all arguing backstage in the dressing room with a couple of your producers,” Ronson said during the interview. “And yes, I feel like I identify as sapiosexual.”
What is sapiosexual?
According to Collins Dictionary, sapiosexuals find “intelligence the most sexually attractive feature” of a potential sexual partner. It is the “behavior of becoming attracted to or aroused by intelligence and its use.”
Collins Dictionary also explains that the word is a neologism, that is, a recently coined word that is entering into common use. The word is derived from the root of the Latin words “sapien,” meaning wise or intelligent, and “sexualis.”
During the segment before Ronson’s, a sociologist, Dr. Catherine Hakim, argued that traits such as physical appearance, age, sex, and ethnicity, are the first things we notice and respond to.
“It’s not that intelligence doesn’t matter, but we all react instantly to men and women, young and old, by how attractive they are,” Hakim said.
But author Nichi Hodgson, who identified as sapiosexual, explained that “sapiosexuality” doesn’t mean not feeling attracted to physical traits, it only “means intelligence first.”
Hodgson went on to claim there is research that validates the concept of sapiosexuality and that a percentage of the population is sapiosexual although they might not know it because they’ve never heard the term before.
Ronson’s appearance on ITV’s Good Morning Britain comes after finalizing his divorce from the French model Joséphine De La Baume in 2018, following seven years (2011-2018) of marriage.