Karli Cerankowski is Shedding Light On An Under-studied and Misunderstood Facet of Human Sexuality: Asexuality

A reasonably imaginative mind might consider that since the prefix "a means "not," that asexual must mean "not sexual" and that an asexual person is entirely uninterested in sex and love in any capacity.

But as Cerankowski points out, the pluralization of the term in her book's title is no accident, as it aspires to encompass the intricacies involved in the vast spectrum of asexuality, to be compatible with the "more commonly understood model of fluid and multiple sexualities."

Cerankowski cites an independent film, Snow Cake, in which the autistic female protagonist falls somewhere on the complex spectrum of asexuality. The title of the film arises from the intense enjoyment she experiences while eating handfuls of snow. When her friend describes to her the sensation of orgasm, she says something along the lines of, "That sounds like an inferior version of what I feel like when I eat snow!"

As Cerankowski has found, studying and thinking about asexuality brings up broader implications of what pleasure means to the human species.

In one scenario, an asexual person might be married, living with a partner and having regular intercourse. This person might be a romantic asexual, meaning someone who experiences strong, intimate and romantic feelings for another person but engages in sexual behavior only for procreative purposes or as a means of experiencing intimacy.

Another scenario might involve an a-romantic asexual, who is completely uninterested in romantic attachment or sexual encounters altogether, but finds satisfaction in other arenas of life. To debunk a common myth about sexuality, this a-romantic, asexual person is not necessarily any less fulfilled than a person with romantic and sexual drive.

Cerankowski's work raises the question: Why is now the ideal time for recognition of the asexual community and of asexuality as an orientation? Cerankowski points to the recent evolution of asexuality acceptance as the next natural step in equal rights.

In addition to publishing the groundbreaking Asexualities, Cerankowski has been a member of the National Women's Studies Association (NWSA) for four years, and has witnessed growth in the community of scholars working on asexuality. The spike in the topic's visibility within the NWSA is largely due to the emergence of the Asexuality Studies Interest Group, pioneered by Cerankowski and her colleagues.

However, much as homosexuality was once consistently pathologized by the public, the asexual community faces similar contention.

In Cerankowski's words, "There's a whole history we're building upon with feminist movements, with queer movements and LGBT politics that have really established a ground on which people can think about sexuality in different ways. Asexuality seems like the next frontier for that reframing of sexuality."

Cerankowski points to the countless forums, blogs and YouTube channels that provide platforms for open discussion of the topic.

While Cerankowski's research has done much to shed light on asexuality, she says there's still much more to be understood: "What I imagine being the next step for my research would be to look through some of those medical and sexological histories and trace a kind of genealogy."

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Karli Cerankowski is Shedding Light On An Under-studied and Misunderstood Facet of Human Sexuality: Asexuality

Cerankowski's work raises the question: Why is now the ideal time for recognition of the asexual community and of asexuality as an orientation? Cerankowski points to the recent evolution of asexuality acceptance as the next natural step in equal rights.

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