Abstract
What precisely does it mean to be asexual? Though recent years have seen the emergence of a multiplicity of non-normative identities that take form along planes of gender and sexuality, topics on asexuality and asexual experience have minimal academic literature or representation in popular western media. The most widely accepted definition of asexuality is a lack of sexual attraction, however through conducting a series of long-form semi-structured interviews and an online survey of 2,000 self-identifying asexuals, this study reveals a more complex and comprehensive composition of asexual identities. This study explores asexuality through a variety of lenses and settings: the first chapter posits asexuality as a flexible identity that determines itself along scales of romantic and aromantic orientation, levels of libido, and forms of attraction. The second chapter explores the anarchic formation of asexual relationships and identities in the context of normative and compulsory sexualities. The third chapter explores the history of asexuality as construed as medical disorder, dysfunction, and disability, and the fourth chapter then positions asexuality within scopes of queer, feminist, and gendered politics. Through these varied themes and anthology of experiences, asexuality is proposed to be a transitory identity, a form of meta-category that is phenomenologically anti-binary. Asexuality can be understood as a means of deconstructing and reimagining the possibilities for relationships, care ethics, and the integrated social and sexual scripts that determine value in Western contemporary society.