Asexuality and the Potential of Young Adult Literature for Disrupting Allonormativity

Patricia Kennon

doi:10.24877/ijyal.41

Abstract

This article examines the representation of asexuality and norms around sex and sexual orientation in contemporary English-language UK and US YA literature. In its multiplicity and radical potential for transforming regimes of compulsory sexuality, asexuality challenges the pervasive allosexual regime of allonormativity (the assumption that all human beings ‘naturally’ experience sexual attraction to other people). In light of the pervasive histories of erasure of asexuality and the still relative scarcity of explicit representations of asexuals in entertainment media and literature, inclusive representation and the explicit naming and recognition of asexuality as a legitimate sexual orientation worthy of respect and recognition are crucial. While sexual attraction is pervasively assumed to be inherent to all humans, sex and sexual attraction have especially been regarded as inherent and necessary to adolescence. Allonormative traditions and conventions have predominantly underpinned Western YA literature, although this has been increasingly changing with the growing recognition and representation of ace (asexual) and acespec (people on the asexual spectrum) characters in recent YA fiction, especially in independent publishing and e-publishing. This article aims to contribute to the recognition and analysis of the representation and mediation of asexuality in contemporary YA literature, and to explore the liberatory and inclusive potential of YA fiction to expose, problematise, and disrupt allonormative norms and hegemonies around sex and sexual orientations.

Highlights

I explore the representation of asexuality in recent YA novels to establish the potential of YA fiction to interrogate, problematise, and disrupt norms around sexuality, sexual orientation, and allonormativity
In “Reconsidering Asexuality and Its Radical Potential”, CJ DeLuzio Chasin posed a provocative premise for a re-imagined and asexual-inclusive world: “where being sexual is no longer mandated as a prerequisite of normalcy or intimacy and where nonsexual relationships are recognized and valued, [...] where no level of sexual desire is pathological and where the social emphasis is on sexuality being self-affirming in whatever unique form it takes” (416)
While contemporary YA literature has made welcome strides in recognising the existence and validity of asexuality and the asexual spectrum, it still does have a significant way to go in enacting its full potential and in confronting and disrupting allonormativity, compulsory sexuality, and the association of adolescence with sexual attraction and sex

Summary

INTRODUCTION

I explore the representation of asexuality in recent YA novels to establish the potential of YA fiction to interrogate, problematise, and disrupt norms around sexuality, sexual orientation, and allonormativity (the assumption that all human beings experience sexual attraction to other people). Ace (asexual) and acespec (asexual spectrum) people experience little, no, weak, or infrequent sexual attraction, or only under specific circumstances. In its fluidity and multiplicity, asexuality challenges the allonormative regime of “compulsory sexuality”, which infuses both heteronormative and queer spaces and which assumes that “to participate fully in social life, a person must perform both sex and a desire for sex” (Przybylo 188) Though asexuality disrupts both heteronormativity and homonormativity, it is “almost entirely absent in queer, feminist, and critical sexuality studies” (Przybylo and Cooper 298). I observe that, while some allonormative ideas and discourses do still persist, YA fiction offers a powerful and empowering potential for interrogating allosexual regimes and for affirming asexuality as a legitimate and respected orientation

ADOLESCENCE AND ALLONORMATIVITY

THE IMPORTANCE OF ASEXUALITY REPRESENTATION

CONCLUSION