Feminist Studies

ReconsideringAsexuality and Its Radical Potential CJ DeLuzio Chasm For the asexual community, asexuality is a matter of self-identifi cation: it is defined as a lack of sexual attraction combined with one's identification as asexual. Such a definition is certainly circular, but it functions as a way for the asexual community to explain asexual ity to non-asexuals—that asexuals are people who do not experience sexual attraction—while simultaneously allowing people to decide for themselves their membership in the asexual community.1 When I firstdiscovered the asexual community years ago, it was not a defini tion of asexuality per se that struck me or led me to call myself asex ual: it was the incredible sense that these people — members of the asexual community—sounded like me. Academic research, in con trast, has largely defined asexuality as a lifelong lack of sexual attrac tion and in doing so has positioned asexuality in line with essentialist discourses of sexual orientation. This has had the impact of allowing people to argue that asexuality should be seen as nonpathological, by distinguishing it from the psychiatric diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) of Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD) — defined as low sexual desire accompanied by marked distress or interpersonal difficulties—without challeng ing either the diagnosis or the psychiatric institution governing it.2 However, as I discuss below, this politically safe essentialist definition of asexuality is problematic because it establishes a binary opposition FeministStudies39, no. 2. © 2013 by CJ DeLuzio Chasin 405 406 CJ DeLuzio Chasin between people who should be accepted as asexual and people who are "legitimate" subjects of psychiatric intervention for low sexual desire. Mindful that the diagnosis and treatment of HSDD routinely acts as a medicalizing, regulatory force governing (primarily hetero sexual) women's sexuality, it is crucial to unpack the "safe" definition of asexuality and the binary it supports. In this article I offera critique of the (typically) invisible sexual ideology that is ultimately harmful both to asexuals (of any gender) and to women (of any sexuality). Asexuality is generally understood to coincide with a lack of desire for partnered sexual contact. While asexual communities and resources are burgeoning in the online world and, asexual voices are proliferating through networks of blogs and microblogs such as Twit ter and Tumblr, the single largest and most well-known element of the large asexual community is the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN). Founded in 2001 in the context of other fledgling asexual online spaces, AVEN adopted an attraction-based definition of asexuality in order to be inclusive of all self-identified asexuals.3 Attraction-based asexuality definitions are now widely used through out the asexual community wherever explicit definitions are visible, whether on websites promoting activist/visibility asexuality organiz ing, peer-based asexual advice/support microblogs, or single-author asexual blogs. Most of these asexual spaces, whether blogs, informa tional websites promoting academic study of asexuality, or asexual dating sites, do not define asexuality explicitly but instead simply direct people to the content on AVEN's website.4 Despite a clear and widely accepted definition of asexuality as a lack of sexual attraction, it is evident from writing and other forms of self-expression by asexu als— on forums, in zines, in blogs, or in other formats — that diverse asexuals derive different meaning from being asexual and that there is considerable nuance of variation in how to be part of the asexual community. For example, self-identified gray-asexuals and demisex uals typically experience some sexual attraction in certain situations and may not consider themselves strictly asexual, but they are never theless important members of asexual communities.5 Some people prefer the term ace (a phonetic abbreviation of asexual) as a more inclusive alternative to the term asexual; however, others do not feel represented by this colloquialism.6 For this reason, I will henceforth refer to the diverse community of people on the asexual spectrum as CJ DeLuzio Chasin 407 the asexual/ace community. Most people on the asexual spectrum do experience romantic attraction that is usually directed toward people of specific genders and identify as straight, lesbian, gay, and biroman tic asexuals...