Abstract
The college experience is often hypersexualized, presenting students as collectively sexually active and interested in sex. Such hypersexualization creates a culture that assumes the presence of sexual attraction, which massively excludes students who identify on the asexual spectrum. This exclusion becomes amplified when asexual students go to their campus LGBTQIA+ centers for support and discover that their “A for asexual” has been stolen by the people who claim to be their allies. As a result of this erasure, asexual college students are unable to make sense of their identity in an environment that does not recognize the ways of being that asexual students exemplify. The American higher education system, as an extension of an already massively undereducated general public, has much to do to give asexual students the feeling of community and inclusion that they so often lack. Here, I use a review of the limited current literature combined with storytelling to explain systemic issues facing asexual collegians and reflect on methods of resilience and coalition building for asexual students.
Recommended Citation
Meyer, C. (2019). A is Not for Ally: Affirming Asexual College Student Narratives. The Vermont Connection, 40(1). https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/tvc/vol40/iss1/8