‘“Asexual” Isn’t Who I Am’: The Politics of Asexuality

Abstract

Some literature on asexuality has claimed that it is inherently radical and contains the potential for resistance. Unfortunately this literature has tended to be unempirical, has imagined asexuality as a disembodied entity and marginalised the multiple identities held by asexual people. This paper, inspired by Plummer's critical humanist approach, seeks to explore how individuals understand their asexuality to encourage forms of political action in the areas of: identity, activism, online spaces and LGBT politics. What we found was a plurality of experiences and attitudes with most adopting a pragmatic position in response to their social situation which saw large scale political action as irrelevant. We conclude by reflecting on what these results mean for those who see asexuality as potentially radical.Keywords: Asexuality, critical humanism, identity, LGBT, sexualityThe emergence of asexuality has led scholars to make strong political claims. These writers have suggested that asexuality has the potential to: redefine the nature of intimate relationships; overcome the dominance of 'sexusociety'; resist neoliberal conceptions of citizenship; and aid anarchist politics. Unfortunately, the strength of these claims has run inverse to the evidence used to substantiate them. Instead they have largely concerned what asexuality ought to be and, ipso facto, how asexual people ought to behave rather than exploring the beliefs and actions of asexual people. This has been part of a wider trend where 'asexuality' comes to be treated as a disembodied entity which 'challenges' contemporary society. Unfortunately, this overlooks how asexuality exists as a sexual orientation held by a diverse set of people, resulting in differing forms of action. 2To counter this trend, this paper outlines the political views held by asexual people. We will discuss: the salience of asexual identity; our participants' activism; and their interaction withLGBTQ groups/politics 1 . In doing so, we are in agreement with two arguments concerning the nature of sociological research. Firstly, we share Plummer's advocacy of a 'critical humanist' perspective which, with its use of 'documents of life' seeks to pay special attention to the 'concrete human experiences' of social life in which individuals 'respond to social constraints and actively assemble social worlds' (Plummer 2001:14). This does not, as indicated, involve marginalising forms of oppression and injustice, but rather, in understanding how these are experienced and interpreted, abides by 'the humanistic commitment of the qualitative researcher to study the world always from the perspective of the interacting individual' (Lincoln and Denzin 1994:575). It is this commitment which often has been lacking in the literature to date. Secondly, we echo Duncan's (2011) claim that when discussing processes of social change, in his case individualization, sociologists have tended to place individuals either into a 'vanguard' or 'traditionalist' camps. Instead, asDuncan demonstrates, these g...

Asexual and Non-Asexual Respondents from a U.S. Population-Based Study of Sexual Minorities

“…In the AVEN Community Census, only 11.5% of participants felt unconditionally welcomed by the "Queer/LGBTQ + Community." Dawson et al (2018) also found asexual participants to express ambivalent feelings about LGBT organizations.…”

“…For example, this finding is different from the AVEN Community Survey in which only 11.5% of asexuals felt they were unconditionally welcomed by the Queer/LGBTQ + Community (Ginoza et al, 2014). Dawson et al (2018) described that some of their asexual participants joined…”

“…Qualitative research on the experiences of asexual-identified individuals has most often recruited participants from the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) or similar online communities. This has included research on the process of coming out as asexual (McDonnell, Scott, & Dawson, 2017;Mitchell & Hunnicutt, 2018;Robbins, Low, & Query, 2016;Scott, McDonnell, & Dawson, 2016) and managing an identity that is inconsistent with societal assumptions about sex and relationships (Dawson, Scott, & McDonnell, 2018;Gupta, 2017;MacNeela & Murphy, 2015;Scherrer, 2008;Van Houdenhove, Gijs, T'Sjoen, & Enzlin, 2015). Quantitative studies on asexual identity have used non-probability samples and reported on sexual history (Brotto, Knudson, Inskip, Rhodes, & Erskine, 2010;Prause & Graham, 2007) and asexual community (Carrigan, 2011).…”

Asexuals negotiate the ‘onslaught of the heteronormative’

“…'Marginalization and resistance' (Gupta, 2017), 'freedom or foreclosure' (Dawson et al, 2019), reproduction and/or disruption (Vares, 2018), are some ways of conceptualizing how asexual persons manage/negotiate sexusociety and sexual normativity. For Dawson et al, (2016Dawson et al, ( , 2018 the findings from such empirical studies complicate the theoretical claims made by the 'political literature' that asexuality is 'radically transformative'. Kristina Gupta also suggests caution with making claims about the extent to which the practices of asexuals 'have the potential to fundamentally challenge the system of "compulsory sexuality"' (2017: 1000).…”

Asexuality and Its Implications for LGBTQ-Parent Families

“…But integrating asexuality with the broader LGBTQ community has been challenging (Mollet & Lackman, 2018). 2018found that not all self-identified asexual individuals consider themselves to be part of the LGBTQ umbrella, and many have encountered rejection and isolation from within the LGBTQ community (Dawson, Scott, & McDonnell, 2018;Mollet & Lackman, 2018). While asexual individuals and LGBTQ individuals share the experience of marginalization within a heterosexist society, some asexual individuals have reported that their ability to "pass" as heterosexual and having an identity defined by a "lack" of something depressed their motivation to participate in collective action (Dawson et al, 2018, p. 387).…”