Graduation Year

2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies

Reader 1

Jih-Fei Cheng

Reader 2

Todd Honma

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© 2025 Zola B Hefta-Gaub

Abstract

In the 2020s, asexuality has become increasingly well known, particularly within online spaces. However, while asexual scholarship has existed within academia and been steadily growing for at least the last decade, many queer and feminist spaces still lack an in-depth understanding of asexual theory, and how it can relate to many intersectional topics within feminist scholarship. This thesis aims to analyze asexual identity and the arguments asexual theorists explore, while positing that asexual theory necessarily complicates and deepens existing queer scholarship and theories. The first chapter analyzes the popular asexual community website, The Asexual Visibility & Education Network (AVEN) and how its existence for over 20 years has shaped asexual identity. Then, the second chapter discusses the key term of amatonormativity and how it is harmful to everyone. Amatonormativity, coined by theorist Elizabeth Brake is the assumption that each of us are pursuing a romantic and sexual dyadic marriage and the understanding that this relationship is what should be prioritized above all else. Asexual theorists push back against amatonormativity and point out how this system of relationship hierarchies promotes a compulsory sexuality. Lastly, the third and final chapter looks at alternate ways to foster relationships with each other by questioning the use of romance within queer spaces, and bringing in polyamorous care ethics.

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