Attraction, desire and permanency: constructing asexual identities via definition and negotiation

In this paper, I will report on some findings drawn from my ethnographic research project on asexual identity construction within the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) forums. Using data collected from forum posts and an online survey of forum members, this presentation will focus on the contentious issue of how asexuality is defined and will consider the ways in which individuals within the AVEN community negotiate a place for themselves in relation to common definitions. My research has found that AVEN members have defined asexuality in a number of different ways but that some common patterns exist amongst these definitions. I have therefore used discourse analysis and corpus techniques to investigate the linguistic constructions of these definitions, with attention paid to concepts of sexual orientation, attraction and desire; the direction and objects of attraction; and the totality and permanence of a lack of desire. Focusing on such themes has helped to show which elements are most important to the understandings that AVEN members have of asexuality and to ascertaining the extent to which members may be willing or unwilling to adjust their understandings in order to admit others under the asexual umbrella. This paper will give consideration to the issue of defining asexuality and will also look at AVEN as a community of practice in which members educate each other on what it means to be asexual and construct a collective asexual identity via enforcing and conceding their own definitions. This presentation will therefore show that processes of negotiation are key to AVEN functioning as a community of practice and to constructing an asexual identity that is specific to the context of the AVEN forums and its current membership