Producing facts

Empirical asexuality and the scientific study of sex

Bibliographic Data

ID12260164
AuthorsEla Przybylo (0000-0002-1502-2953, York University, corresponding author)
Year2012
Volume23
Issue2
Pages224-242
Publication date2012-04-20
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueFeminism & Psychology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0959-3535 • E-ISSN: 1461-7161
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0959353512443668
OpenAlexW2061325065
LanguageEN
Citations received26
References cited27

Asexuality, quickly becoming a burgeoning sexual identity category and subject of academic inquiry, relies at this budding moment of identity demarcation on a series of scientific studies that seek to ‘discover’ the truth of asexuality in and on the body. This article considers the existing scientific research on asexuality, including both older and more obscure mentions of asexuality as well as contemporary studies, through two twin claims: (1) that asexuality, as a sexual identity, is entirely specific to our current cultural moment – that it is in this sense culturally contingent, and (2) that scientific research on asexuality, while providing asexuality with a sense of credibility, is also shaping the possibilities and impossibilities of what counts as asexuality and how it operates. In the first section, I consider how older scientific research on asexuality, spanning from the late 1970s to the early 1990s, is characterized by a disinterest in asexuality. Next, turning to recent work on asexuality, the beginning of which is marked by Anthony Bogaert’s 2004 study, I demonstrate how asexuality becomes ‘discovered’, mapped, and pursued by science, making it culturally intelligible even while often naturalizing, in the process, what I argue are harmful sexual differences

Asexuality · Human sexuality · Sexual minority · Sexual orientation · Sociology · Gender Studies · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Marriage and Sexual Relationships · Psychology · Sexuality, Behavior, and Technology · Social Psychology