Asexuality is hot. Compulsory sexuality is not. Here’s why.

Yesterday, the San Francisco Chronicle ran a front-page article on asexuality titled “Asexuals leave closet, find community”. In complete shock, I nearly choked on my Cheerios when I saw this—As I immediately began reading, my women’s studies days came echoing back into my head…the voice of Adrienne Rich’s classic article “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” in particular. …Could it really be that (the desire for) sexuality itself has become so compulsory now that an asexual existence is largely denied as a possible variance within our sexual spectrum…even (or especially?) in our own field of sexuality education, policy and research?

All of this got me wondering….with the many conferences I attend and journals I subscribe to….when was the last time I saw sex research or education being inclusive of asexuality rather than downplaying/denying it altogether or writing it off as a sexual dysfunction...