Asexual Desire for the Erotic

• In Event: 30412 - Retheorizing Sex, Desire, and Consent

Abstract

Drawing on survey data from a series of open-ended questions in which members of the asexual/ACE community were asked to address topics related to desire, sexual intercourse, and their personal identification with asexuality/ACE, we explore the junctures between asexuality and Audre Lorde’s conceptualization of the erotic. The erotic serves as an embodied resource for insight, creativity, and affirmation, and based on the insights from our survey respondents, we offer a theoretical framework that sheds light on the mechanisms that help bolster people’s capacities to access the erotic. That framework is informed by Deleuze and Guattari’s conceptualization of desire. Commensurate with Lorde’s concept of the erotic, individuals inherently desire to increase their capacities to create connections—social connections, connections with the obdurate, physical world, and connections with themselves through new experiences and ideas.

Authors

• George Sanders, Oakland University

• Heidi Lyons, Oakland University