Kaitlyn Ramsey publishes her research paper on asexual representation in the media

[Mycroft is Yourcroft]

This is a well-written, interesting piece that K. Ramsey wrote for her English class and decided to publish online. You can read her short intro here and read the paper itself here.

Kaitlyn A. Ramsey

Ms. Colleen Coughenour

English II Honors

23 April 2014

Asexual Representation in the Media

“If you’re not having sex, what’s there to talk about?” asked Star Jones of The View (Cerankowski 1). In the United States, approximately 1% of the population identifies as “asexual,” meaning that they don’t feel sexual attraction to any gender. This may seem like an insignificant amount of people, until it is taken into consideration that there are about 316 million people in the United States, meaning that approximately 3.2 million Americans are asexual (“USA QuickFacts” 1). Asexuality is greatly underrepresented in the media, and portrayed negatively even when shown. This lack of visibility contributes to harmful views expressed by the average citizen (Torner 1).

Asexuality is a sexual orientation characterized by the lack of sexual attraction. However, like all sexualities, it exists on a fluid spectrum. It ranges from completely asexual (no sexual attraction at all) to gray-asexual (rarely experiencing sexual attraction) or demisexuality (experiencing sexual attraction only when one has a strong emotional bond with the person in question). These identities, often shortened to “ace,” “gray-a,” and “demi,” are all simply different places on that range. The converse of asexual is allosexual, or someone who experiences sexual attraction to one or more genders, or regardless of gender. Within the identity of allosexual, there are many more specific orientations, such as homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual.

Existing separately from the sexuality but connected to the issue are romantic orientations, such as heteroromanticism, homoromanticism, or even gray, demi, or aromanticism. Though these line up more often than not, leaving people that are homoromantic homosexual or biromantic bisexual, it can be harmful to asexual people to assume that they must be aromantic as well, or to assume that aromantic people must also be asexual. A very small portion of the asexual community is made up of aromantic people, though this is the facet of asexuality most often portrayed in fictional accounts.

When one watches television or reads books from an asexual perspective, characters and even real celebrities’ obsession with sex can be astounding. It seems as though the desire for sex is all that matters (Huston 2). Food is advertised with sex. Entire characters have no real traits other than relentlessly looking for someone with whom they can have sex. If a celebrity identifies as something other than heterosexual, they are almost certainly going to get asked about sex. Even when asexual people appear to speak about their sexuality they get asked whether they’ve had sex, if they enjoy having sex, or even blatantly rude and intrusive questions such as asking how they can deprive themselves or their partner something so important and essential in a relationship (Cerankowski 2). This focus on sexuality is all-encompassing, and though it does catch and hold the attention of many viewers, it can truly harm the perception that people hold of asexual people.

Films usually pander to their predominantly allosexual audience, and it can be difficult to see a character as asexual if one isn’t looking closely and objectively. “[Asexuality can be] hard to distinguish from representations of sexual repressions or celibacy” in film, as these often explain something important about the character’s situation or mental state (Torner 3). It can be seen in “chains of erotic events deliberately avoided - rather than from its system of gazes and montage,” (Torner 5). Often, when asexual characters are portrayed they can come across as having a holier-than-thou attitude, shown to believe that they are above people who they perceive as dirty or in some way wrong. This lack of portrayal paired with infrequent negativity in the media are large contributors to a negative perception of asexual people and the issues they face (Torner 8).

It is a shame that the media does not often include asexuality as an interesting topic to debut, as it is a very diverse community. Asexual people can prefer to be on their own, to form romantic relationships, or to simply surround themselves with a group of close friends (“Overview” 1). The lack of sex “necessary” for interpersonal relationships between asexual people allows a whole new view of relationships themselves, allowing partnerships to discover novel ways of interacting and defining their relationship (Huston 2). Asexual people are revolutionizing the way that intimacy is seen through its inclusion of “non-sexual partnerships, networks of emotionally-intimate relationships, and passionate friendships,” as equally important to romantic partnerships (Cerankowski 2).

“The idea of someone being asexual can be unfathomable to those who believe that sex is a normal, healthy, and necessary part of human life,” (Cerankowski 1). As true as this may be, this view is dangerous to people that identify as asexual. Allosexual people often say things similar to “You’ll grow out of it,” in response to a coming-out from an asexual person, not really considering that they are minimizing the identity of that person (Stetler 2). Other forms of disbelief take the shape of calling asexual people repressed, traumatized, or in need of hormonal therapy. These responses disregard the experiences of asexual people and allow others to define what they believe is “normal” and “appropriate” sexuality (Cerankowski 1). The inclusion of people and characters on the asexual spectrum would help to widen the views and beliefs of people less tolerant or informed.

Evan Torner remarked on the “sheer novelty” of one percent of Americans identifying as asexual due to the way that our culture’s obsession with sex has grown in the last century, and many people share his opinion of this nigh-invisible orientation (Torner 1). He believes that with the increase of representation in the media and through the use of social networking, visibility will increase and that will assist in adding asexuality to the mainstream (Torner 10). Maybe this inclusion will even improve the feeling of otherness that is often experienced by asexual people due the media as it currently stands.

Works Cited

Cerankowski, Karli. “Life Without Sex: Imagining Asexuality in Popular Culture.”

Gender.Stanford.edu. The Clayman Institute for Gender Research, Stanford

University. 10 July 2012. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.

<http://gender.stanford.edu/news/2012/life-without-sex-imagining-asexuality-popular-culture>

Huston, Matt. “The no-libido credo: asexuals are complicating the traditional narrative of

romantic love.” Psychology Today. Sept-Oct. 2013: 40+. General Onefile. Web. 09

Apr. 2014.

<http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DA-SORT&inPS=true&prodId=GPS&userGroupName=lakewood1&tabID=T003&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=BasicSearchForm&currentPosition=1&contentSet=GALE|A341367068&&docId=GALE|A341367068&docType=GALE&role=ITOF>

“Overview” Asexuality.org. The Asexual Visibility & Education Network. 2001. Web. 16 Apr.

2014.

<http://www.asexuality.org/home/overview.html>

Stetler, Carrie. “Asexuality Comes Out of the Closet.” Rutgers Today. Rutgers University, 27

July 2012. Wb. 09 Apr. 2014.

<http://news.rutgers.edu/news-releases/2012/07/asexuality-comes-out-20120725-1#.U13wLVc4TVg>

Torner, Evan. “The Poles of Wantonnes: Male Asexuality in Alan Moore Film Adaptations.”

Academia.edu. 2010 Film and History Conference, Milwaukee, WI, 2010. Web. 09 Apr. 2014.

<http://www.academia.edu/410028/The_Poles_of_Wantonness_Male_Asexuality_in_Alan_Moore_Film_Adaptations>

“USA QuickFacts from the US Census Bureau.” US Census Bureau. US Department of

Commerce. 27 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.

<http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html>

Edited February 13, 2015 by ithaca

[Sockstealingnome]

Did she get an A?

[Phaetion]

Did she get an A?

It's got to be an A. I don't see anything wrong with it, from a academic writing point of view. I'm willing to bet that she *ahem* ace-d it.

About the essay (I hate the term 'paper.' It just seems and feels so cold), The media has been more negative towards asexuals than I guessed. I wonder if authors would get serious threats just for the sake of expressing their creativity and exploring new grounds.

[Frigid Pink]

I really dislike the term "allosexual" and much prefer "non-asexual" (less confusing), however, I thought the paper was well-written and think it's great that this person chose to write about asexuality. Thanks for posting this!