Compulsory Sexuality: Evaluating an Emerging Concept

Gupta, Kristina

doi:10.1086/681774

Cited by 76 publications

(52 citation statements)

References 51 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Although definitions vary, many people who identify as asexual describe asexuality as a sexual orientation or identity characterized by a lack of sexual attraction to other people. There is a growing body of scholarship on contemporary asexual identities, and scholars have argued that people who identify as asexual challenge deeply held assumptions about the importance of sexuality to human flourishing (Gupta, 2015; Scherrer, 2008).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendering asexuality and asexualizing gender: A qualitative study exploring the intersections between gender and asexuality

Gupta

2018

Sexualities

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In this article, I explore the intersections between gender and asexuality, drawing on data collected from in-depth interviews with 30 asexually-identified individuals living in the United States. I examine the differential effects that gendered sexual norms have on asexually-identified men and women and begin to explore the relationship between asexuality, gender non-conformity, and trans* identities. Based on these findings, I argue that while white, middle-class asexually-identified men may live in greater conflict with dominant gendered sexual norms than white, middle-class asexually-identified women, the sexual autonomy of these asexually-identified men – specifically their right to refuse sexuality – may be greater than the sexual autonomy of these asexually-identified women.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gendering asexuality and asexualizing gender: A qualitative study exploring the intersections between gender and asexuality

Gupta

2018

Sexualities

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…There is a small but growing body of scholarship investigating the relationship between asexual identities and contemporary Western sexual norms. A number of scholars studying asexuality have argued that although Western society is certainly "sex negative" in some ways, Western society also systematically privileges sexual identifications, desires, and activities while marginalizing different forms of nonsexuality, to the detriment of asexually identified individuals (for example, Chasin, 2013;Emens, 2014;Gupta, 2015a). According to some scholars, asexual community formation poses a challenge to this society-wide system of "compulsory sexuality" or "sex-normativity," calling into question deeply held assumptions about sexuality and relationality (Chasin, 2013).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Some scholars have argued that desexualizing the public sphere may be a good strategy for the asexual movement (Emens, 2014). However, although desexualization may be appropriate for specific contexts (e.g., the workplace), seeking an across-the-board desexualization of the public sphere may have unintended negative consequences, as it may not be desired by the interviewees in this study who identified as sex-positive or found sex interesting, and it may be experienced as oppressive by sexual people, particularly queer sexual people (for a discussion, see Gupta, 2015a). 13.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“And Now I’m Just Different, but There’s Nothing Actually Wrong With Me”: Asexual Marginalization and Resistance

Gupta

2016

Journal of Homosexuality

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article explores the relationship between contemporary asexual lives and compulsory sexuality, or the privileging of sexuality and the marginalizing of nonsexuality. Drawing on 30 in-depth interviews, I identify four ways the asexually identified individuals in this study saw themselves as affected by compulsory sexuality: pathologization, isolation, unwanted sex and relationship conflict, and the denial of epistemic authority. I also identify five ways these asexually identified individuals disrupted compulsory sexuality: adopting a language of difference and a capacity to describe asexuality; deemphasizing the importance of sexuality in human life; developing new types of nonsexual relationships; constituting asexuality as a sexual orientation or identity; and engaging in community building and outreach. I argue that some of these practices offer only a limited disruption of compulsory sexuality, but some of these practices pose a radical challenge to sexual norms by calling into question the widespread assumption that sexuality is a necessary part of human flourishing.

show abstract

“…Thinking about older people's privileged ability to refuse sexual activity without stigma draws attention to the meta-issue of compulsory sexuality (Gupta 2015) and the way that Rubin's charmed circle and notion of the sex hierarchy do not help us problematise the centrality of sex to current understandings of human nature. It would be interesting, but beyond the scope of this article, to compare the refusal of the possibility of sex in later life with arguments used in the asexual community to legitimate low or non-existent interest in sex (e.g.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Later Life Sex and Rubin’s ‘Charmed Circle’

Jones

2020

Sexuality & Culture

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Gayle Rubin's now classic concept of the 'charmed circle' has been much used by scholars of sexuality to discuss the ways in which some types of sex are privileged over others. In this paper, I apply the concept of the charmed circle to a new topiclater life-in order both to add to theory about later life sex and to add an olderage lens to thinking about sex hierarchies. Traditional discursive resources around older people's sexual activities, which treat older people's sex as inherently beyond the charmed circle, now coexist with new imperatives for older people to remain sexually active as part of a wider project of 'successful' or 'active' ageing. Drawing on the now-substantial academic literature about later life sex, I discuss some of the ways in which redrawing the charmed circle to include some older people's sex may paradoxically entail the use of technologies beyond the charmed circle of 'good, normal, natural, blessed' sex. Sex in later life also generates some noteworthy inversions in which types of sex are privileged and which treated as less desirable, in relation to marriage and procreation. Ageing may, furthermore, make available new possibilities to redefine what constitutes 'good' sex and to refuse compulsory sexuality altogether, without encountering stigma.

show abstract

Compulsory Sexuality: Evaluating an Emerging Concept

Cited by 76 publications

References 51 publications

Gendering asexuality and asexualizing gender: A qualitative study exploring the intersections between gender and asexuality

Gendering asexuality and asexualizing gender: A qualitative study exploring the intersections between gender and asexuality

“And Now I’m Just Different, but There’s Nothing Actually Wrong With Me”: Asexual Marginalization and Resistance

Later Life Sex and Rubin’s ‘Charmed Circle’

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About