Asexual Erotics: Intimate Readings of Compulsory Sexuality

During my time as a graduate student getting my master's in creative writing, I attended a great deal of workshops. The piece I was working on was a novella where the main character begins to question their sexuality and the plot deliberately does not provide a satisfactory resolution to that question. Throughout the workshops, my peers would insist that I needed to write a sex scene; they believed the story was so steeped in eroticism that to not have a sex scene would both alienate my readers and be a disservice to the novella. In the end, I conceded; yet, because the eroticism was fundamentally nonsexual in nature, the result was a scene that did not satisfy my classmates’ lust or really feel like it belonged in the book. Unable to articulate the distinction between erotics and sexuality at the time, I could not explain why the scene did not feel right. Years later, after reading Ela Przybylo's Asexual Erotics, I can better understand the kind of forces that pressured those of us in the workshop to insert sexual activity where it was not wanted.Asexual Erotics: Intimate Readings of Compulsory Sexuality argues that the notion that the erotic is fundamentally a component of the sexual is a fallacious construction forced upon Queer individuals by post-Freudian heteronormative societal forces. Przybylo, by applying Adrienne Rich's iconic theory of compulsory heterosexuality to the asexual spectrum, exposes the Freudian notion that all things erotic and desirous are inherently sexual is a fallacy derived from Freud's work prior to the exploration of the Death Drive. The application of Audre Lorde's concept of the “superficially erotic” as means of destabilizing the “regime of sexuality” defines the orientation of asexuality as a queer and revolutionary force (22). Asexuality becomes, itself, a disruption to any status quo, normative ideologies and forces, including sublimation. Sex then becomes a component of the erotic, instead of the erotic acting as a component of sex. Rather than sublimating unfulfilled or unfulfillable sexual desires into more socially acceptable life activities, asexual erotics “involves transference of the erotic into various activities, sex included” (22). Anticipating her critics, Przybylo makes a significant rhetorical effort to distinguish between desexualization, nonsexuality, and asexuality. The purpose of putting in this effort illustrates to the reader that it is not, as many assume, a distinction without a difference and there is real value in performing these analyses without assuming sex is inherently bound to them.Pryzbylo's theory has a wide array of applications, as she displays throughout the book. In her first chapter, she explores the politically celibate as a means of resisting the patriarchal notion of compulsory sexuality. She provides a historical reading of these proto-social justice warriors as weaponizing nonsexuality to enact positive change. Her in-depth analysis of lesbian death bed scenes in chapter two utilizes Jack Halberstam's The Queer Art of Failure to connect asexuality as a replacement for failed lesbianism in conventional media productions. The third chapter explores the complex relationship between sexuality and childhood. Przybylo argues that asexuality is not something a child matures out of, but rather something they grow into. This point further illustrates that participation in normalized sexual culture is not a mark of maturation but of socialization. An examination of the spinster reveals a marginalization of asexuality by relying on ageist stereotypes in chapter four. Finally, in the epilogue, she explores an incident that occurred in Canada where a self-described “incel” committed vehicular homicide. A compelling argument is made that the ideology of the incel is dependent upon white privilege that erases agency and enforces a culture of anti-erotics quite distinct from the liberating empowerment that occurs when embracing asexual erotics. The impact of this final analysis highlights the differences Przybylo earlier emphasized between desexualization, nonsexuality, and asexuality. Much like Lee Edelman's No Future, it is difficult to simply dismiss Przybylo's work out of hand. To do so would not only ignore the robust argument she makes but also act as an affirmation of societal sexual bias that assumes sexual attraction is inherent to the human experience.The targeted reader for this text is as wide as the application. Although the language employed is academic, it is not overly so to the point that a linguistic barrier prevents those without PhDs from gaining anything from it. This follows in the tradition of several of the queer theorists she cites in the book in that disrupting the normative linguistic barriers arbitrarily put in place by academic culture is a fundamentally queer endeavor. Although some of the Freudian terms (e.g., sublimation, transference) would certainly require someone without an understanding of them to perhaps seek out additional information. But even without that knowledge, there is a wealth of material in the text that can easily be read and understood. Przybylo makes it a point to use both historical examples and contemporary ones. This has the effect of emphasizing to the reader that while her approach is novel, asexual erotics is not. Because of that emphasis, there is relevance within each chapter for people from all manner of backgrounds.Having read Asexual Erotics several times, I wonder how I might have handled that creative writing workshop differently along with many of the other events in my life where my asexuality, whether I was aware of it or not, was being marginalized. This self-reflective quality is perhaps one of the most important reasons to engage with this text as its theory not only empowers asexuals but is quite liberating for everyone. Asexual Erotics takes a monumental first step in reinforcing Asexual Studies’ practical application within a variety of disciplines.

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