Asexual

Artifacts involving Asexual people

Often defined as someone who does not experience sexual attraction.

Off Our Backs, vol. 3, no. 5

An issue of a feminist news journal that mentions asexuality

1973

“Choose Your Label” Barnard College

A photo of activists at Barnard College inviting people to choose their own label

1973

“All God’s Children Need Love” Gay Freedom Day Parade

A photo featuring a sign for equal rights for queer people, including asexuals

1973

Woroni, vol. 24, no. 8

An article from an Australian student magazine discussing bisexuality and whether it could be better understood as a form of asexuality.

1972

The Asexual Manifesto

A paper by the Asexual Caucus of the New York Radical Feminists

“World of Women; Speeches from the Lesbian Feminist Dialogue Conference”

A speaker talks about solidarity between groups of women, including celibates, asexuals, and virgins

1972

“Sexual Roles Historically Stressed To Serve Society”

A newspaper article in which the author suggests that every person is, at their core, asexual

1972

“Transvestite and Transsexual Liberation”

An article on trans liberation which mentions asexuality

1971

“Asexuals have problems too”

A satirical article about the prevalence of sex in society from the perspective of a fictionalized asexual

1971

“*Afraid to Ask”

A satirical reader submission criticizing sex in the media, responding to an article on asexuality

1971

Ain’t I a Woman?, vol. 1, no. 8

A reader mentions asexual women in a submission about oppression in queer relationships

1970

The Satanic Bible

A book describing asexuals as being “sexually subliminated” by non-sexual interests

Transvestia, vol. 9, no. 52

A newsournal about crossdressing (“transvestism”) that classifies different kinds of crossdressers, including aseuxals

1968

The SCUM Manifesto

A misandrist manifesto that mentions asexuality by name

1968

“Between Mental Health and Mental Disease”

A medical case study that describes a woman who does not want to have sex with her husband as asexual

1939

The Female Impersonators

A book which describes “anaphrodites,” who never desire or pursue marriage, courtship, or sex

1922

Sexualpathologie

An early example of pathologization of asexual people in medical literature and use of the term “asexual”

“Says Sex Hatred Still Spreading”

Novelist Compton Mackenzie expresses concern about an “asexual class” of people

Ist “freie Liebe” Sittenlosigkeit?

A book by Emma Trosse, translated as Is “free love” immoral?, in which she self-identifies as being “without sensuality”.

1897

Ein Weib?

An early academic paper on queer identities where the author self-identities as asexual

1897