Rhetorics of Allonormativity: The Case of Asexual Latter-day Saints

Abstract

ABSTRACT Asexuality describes a range of identities characterized by a lack of attraction toward sexual relationships or activities, and its opposite is allosexuality. In this essay, we offer a rhetorical theorization of allonormativity. For us, allonormativity describes the constitutive practices whereby social structures expect and privilege sexual and romantic attraction and relationships —to the exclusion and erasure of asexual and aromantic people. We then apply the concept to the case of asexual Latter-day Saints. Using a close reading of data from interviews and online posts, we reveal how allonormativity constrains the lives of asexual Latter-day Saints from three sources: religious leadership, families, and asexual Latter-day Saints themselves. We briefly consider asexuals’ rhetorical strategies in response to allonormativity before concluding with a call to denaturalize presumptions of allosexuality in queer and trans communication research, within and beyond contexts of religious communication.