ABSTRACT
Asexuality as a distinct form of sexual subjectivity has emerged over the past couple of decades, and plenty of disabled people self-identify in this way (much as they might do as straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, pansexual or queer). However, this is an intersection with its own unique challenges, given the historical (and ongoing) ascription of asexuality onto disabled people and their bodies, and their subsequent resistance to this. It is complicated further by attempts by asexuality activists to depathologise asexuality via a strategic distancing from anything other than the “healthy” and “normal” body. This chapter explores the contours of this intersection—what some have termed “mutual negation”—by drawing on qualitative research with disabled asexual people. Given that this is a volume centred around disability, the chapter concludes with some recommendations as to how disability researchers and activists can make space for asexuality within their work.
(asexuality, disability, intersectionality, activism)
