Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2014
Abstract
Asexuality is an emerging identity category that challenges the assumption that everyone is defined by some type of sexual attraction. Asexuals – those who report feeling no sexual attraction to others – constitute one percent of the population, according to one prominent study. In recent years, some individuals have begun to identify as asexual and to connect around their experiences interacting with a sexual society. Asexuality has also become a protected classification under the antidiscrimination law of one state and several localities, but legal scholarship has thus far neglected the subject.
This Article introduces asexuality to the legal literature as a category of analysis, an object of empirical study, and a phenomenon of medical science. It then offers a close examination of the growing community of self-identified asexuals. Asexual identity has revealing intersections with the more familiar categories of gender, sexual orientation, and disability, and inspires new models for understanding sexuality.
Disciplines
Gender and Sexuality | Law | Sexuality and the Law
Recommended Citation
Elizabeth F. Emens,
Compulsory Sexuality,
66
Stan. L. Rev.
303
(2014).
Available at:
https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/faculty_scholarship/718