Dr. Anna Kurowicka
Reimagining Asexuality: Theories of Asexuality Beyond Western Paradigms
Funded by the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange
September 1, 2024 - February 28, 2025 at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
The most commonly used definitions of asexuality fit the concept of sexual orientation developed in Western science and culture, where it is understood to be inborn and sex is a central facet of social and individual identity (Foucault 1990). Since most messaging about asexuality presents it as yet another sexual orientation, certain assumptions are made: asexuality is not a result, or a symptom, of disability or illness (because it occurs naturally, like other sexual orientations), it is not the same as celibacy, nor can it include an element of choice (because attraction is wholly involuntary). In contrast to these mainstream approaches, whose goal is to legitimize asexuality in the Western regime of sexuality, this project focuses on alternative formulations of asexuality, ones that represent asexuality as entangled with other phenomena, such as celibacy (motivated religiously or politically or individually), or disability or illness (which can affect one’s experience of sexual attraction or lack thereof), as well as those developed by asexual people of color. The primary sources are personal writings in English published online: on blogs, forums, social media profiles, in zines and magazine articles. To analyze these texts, I draw on queer theory and Indigenous and postcolonial theories of sexuality to consider how asexuality may be understood if it is not reduced to an inherent sexual orientation. As a result, I will develop formulations of asexuality that are based on and contribute to understandings of sexuality developed in opposition to the contemporary Western model of sexuality.