The Desexualization of Society. A Digital Ethnography on the Asexual Community

Abstract: the paper focuses on asexuality and its implication for society and identity. Asexuality poses particular challenges due to the huge array of terms, concepts through which asexuals articulate their differences and affirm their commonalities. Defined as a lack or low level of sexual attraction, asexuality challenges sexual normativity which imposes sexuality and sexual attraction as an imperative. This paper analyses the experience of self-identification of members of one of the most important online asexual communities through digital ethnography. The online community represents a coping response used to manage and overcome social threats deriving from their confront with a sexuality affirmative social context. It represents a tool to disrupt compulsory sexuality, to introduce new language and forms of discourse, to deemphasize the importance of sexual relationships, introducing new types of non-sexual relationships. What we found is a plurality of experiences, attitudes and identifications united in their call for sexual freedom in a desexualized society without hierarchical assumptions supporting existing oppressive institutions.