I was raised by my two lesbian moms, so my perception of love and heterosexuality is admittedly skewed. In my house, coming out as straight is more of an unfortunate realization and is always followed by the same comment, “if sexuality really was a choice, who on earth would choose men?” Apparently my family is not alone in asking this question. Jane Ward felt strongly enough about the issues with being attracted to heterosexual men that she wrote a whole book to check on straight women and see if they’re okay. After her in-depth analysis of primarily black, queer, feminist rhetoric to explore the true tragedies of heterosexuality for straight women, I’m left wondering, am I in fact okay?

The main argument of The Tragedy of Heterosexuality is that heterosexuality is not the “ideal” sexuality, but rather has plenty of its own systemic issues that are deeply engrained in our society. This book not only highlights these issues, but explores the root causes so that we as a whole can better understand how to work toward resolutions. Ward starts to approach this through the common misconception that gay people would be straight if they could choose, and proposes how that narrative itself is evidence of the oppression in our society that makes heterosexuality so tragic. The book consists of five partsCHAPTERS–  “Let’s Call it What It Is: The Tragedy of Heterosexuality,” He’s Just Not That into You: The Misogny Paradox, Pickup Artists: Inside the Seduction Industry, A Sick and Boring Life: Queer People Diagnose the Tragedy, and Deep Heretosexuality: Toward a Future in Which Straight Men Like Women So Much That they Actually Like Women. Each part plays its own role in establishing the issues of heterosexuality throughout history and how fixes in our systems of race and gender can ultimately contribute toward the resolution of the tragedy that is heterosexuality. 

Ward herself is an American author from California where she teaches Feminist Studies at University of California Santa Barbara. Her work both in and out of the classroom focuses on gender and sexuality studies, specifically from her own queer, feminist point of view. The book The Tragedy of Heterosexuality is arguably the most successful of her three works, all of which address the politics of gender and sexuality in our society today, with the other two entitled Not Gay and Respectably Queer. Her extensive studies of the history of sexuality, the self help industry, and even pick up artists, establishes her as a vast source of knowledge on the topics discussed throughout the book. Both this book and her work overall as an author prompt the desire to know more about what we have come to accept as straightness and question if it really is what we display on the surface when you break it down to its roots. This question provokes further research into what other societal issues need to be addressed in order to solve the true tragedies– racial inequality, women’s rights, problems of a patriarchal society– encompassed by the tragedy of heterosexuality. 

The first chapter, Let’s Call It What It Is, Ward hopes to “sufficiently introduce the idea of the tragedy of heterosexuality” (Ward, 30) and lay out her plans for the remaining four chapters. In chapter two, He’s Just Not That Into You, it provides historical context for how heterosexual expectations have changed and developed. For example, Lysol’s douching advertisement saying it “can keep her husband and herself eager, happy married lovers” inspired the subsequent expectation of women to work to appeal to their husbands (Ward, 52). Pickup Artists: Inside the Seduction Industry, the third chapter of the book, explores the idea of women being a “game” to be won (Ward, 78). In this chapter, Ward addresses the idea of women being seen as a “birthright” to straight men, and how society has capitalized on that to make millions of dollars (Ward, 79). Next, Sick and Boring Life: Queer People Diagnose the Tragedy is included to address the role queerness has in the creation of what it means to be straight. The author explores the idea of homophobia being “the outward expression of heterosexual misery” and other subsequent oppression queers face as a result of heterosexuals own distate for the reality of their personal sexualities (Ward, 115). 

The final chapter, Deep Heterosexuality, ties together all the pieces that make up the tragedy of sexuality and highlights the main goal of the book, to unify queer and straight women alike to defy the patriarchy that oppresses them all (Ward, 155). The final page shares the three main takeaways of this book. First is the need for us as a society to address the violence that women, particularly straight women, face at the hands of men, and how addressing this issue will lead to a more loving version of heterosexuality (Ward, 172). Next, self-help movements and other capitalistic ideas influencing sexuality should not be underestimated nor left unaddressed (Ward, 173). The chapter and book conclude with the final argument, listening to outside perspectives, in this case queer viewpoints of heterosexuality, can give insights and guidance we might otherwise lack in our own decision making, leading to overlooked problems and missed opportunities (Ward, 173). 

The strongest aspect of this book was Ward’s vast research, knowledge, and utilization of marginalized perspectives. Immediately in the second chapter, Ward develops the history of heterosexuality from eighteenth century colonial America to modern day, with the inclusion of global perspectives such as nineteenth century Iranian accounts of the misogyny paradox (Ward, 35-37). Ward addresses the root causes of sexist associations to heterosexuality and travels through the history of men’s feelings for women as actual people. She succeeds in her goal of presenting a new relationship between queers and straights, a new meaning to the word “ally”. Overall, the “dyke’s-eye view” (Ward, 31) may have its own biases, and to some may make it seem like Jane Ward is unqualified to talk about being straight, but after reading, I’d argue it’s the opposite. The combination of  queer, feminist, black, and marginalized voices produces a powerful critique that left me second guessing everything I knew about myself as a straight woman, and truly reassessing my role in my own sexuality. 

While I ate up every last word of this captivating book, I was left a little hungry for more information on how we really go about addressing the issues of heterosexuality. The author does an incredible job laying out what the issues are throughout the chapters and dives into solutions for straight women, but I was left wondering, how would this work? Yes, straight women can demand more from their heterosexual relationships and refuse abuse (Ward, 172). Yes, queer women can work to better support women as a whole so that we can conquer the issues of patriarchy that we face regardless of sexuality (Ward, 173). Yes, queer men and women alike can change the narrative that being straight is the preferred sexuality if given the choice (Ward, 160), but how? Many, if not all, of the things Ward suggests in the book require widespread change amongst individuals. The book thoroughly explains how each of these solutions works to address the problem at hand, but I desired a more clear bridge between where we are now and how we start. For example, how do we get the majority of women to stop accepting the bare minimum from men?  The issue I see is that yes, we could influence women one by one to expect more, but what do you do about the women who are then willing to step in their spots and accept less? If “Men who say they love women need to show women the receipts”(Ward, 173), how do they do this? I think if Ward had spent a little more time discussing how we encourage so many individuals to change their ideas and behaviors, there would be a much better connection to how these solutions are feasible and less questions left unanswered. 

I have told my three roommates that The Tragedy of Heterosexuality will be living on the coffee table in our apartment, and my reasoning is twofold. The primary reason is I think anyone who enters the apartment stands to benefit in one way or another from the information included. Regardless of who the audience is, this book provides new ideas of sexuality through the utilization of frequently skipped over perspectives and experiences, those of marginalized groups. So whether it is a straight woman who might need a reality check of what she is putting up with from men or a homosexual man who stands to learn the role that he plays in oppression of women, Jane Ward does an amazing job of getting just about anyone to stop and question why our norms are what they are and what we can do to change them. My second reason for the book’s new home in a predominant spot of the apartment is the reactions. This book is not an attack, but instead an attempt to bridge the gap between what we advertise as happy heterosexuality and the reality of straightness today. Initial reactions of men in my apartment, especially those who identify as straight, might be defensive. However, my personal agenda is to see whether or not these men are willing to push past their uncomfortability to actually educate themselves through Jane Ward’s mission to obtain a society of love and respect regardless of race, sexuality or gender identity. So, while I risk causing arguments or losing friends, I consider those who deprive themselves of joining Ward’s journey through the reality of heterosexuality tol be at the real loss. After this book of empowerment you will not be asking straight women if they are okay, but rather asking men if their privilege and masculinity are okay. 

Works Cited

Ward, Jane. “Jane Ward: Scholarship for the Feminist Future.” Jane Ward, https://www.janewardphd.com/. 

Ward, Jane. The Tragedy of Heterosexuality. New York University Press, 2020.

In recent years, historians have looked to the diverse perspectives of Indian and Anglo-Indian women to understand the female experience under the British Raj. While the period of the British Raj is defined as 1858-1947, British, and European, influence in India began long before, starting with the establishment of the Dutch East India Company. Particularly, British educational and medical programs were essential to shaping conceptions of femininity in colonial India. Tim Allender’s book Learning Femininity in Colonial India: 1820-1932 examines “the changing influences and networks that operated around the female education dynamic in India, including those that applied to medical training” to understand the interaction of education, gender, and empire in colonial India (Allender 2-3). Methodologically, Allender traces continuity and change over time in these approaches to education, both in academics and medical education. The book is divided into nine chapters, tracing the evolution of these systems from 1820 to 1932. Allender asserts that throughout this 112-year period, under the “strong race and class agenda” of the British raj, “official gender articulation became a complex but powerful conduit for attempted enculturation from the West” (297). Ultimately, Allender argues that “the interaction between state and schoolgirl created a powerful and distinctive symbiosis that evolved over time” (3). Particularly, by conducting this temporal analysis, Allender seeks to “demonstrate that the colonial project remained capable of evolution, producing broader outcomes that both accentuated and reconfigured race and class and gender boundaries as they related to women and girls in India” (3).

Dr. Tim Allender is a professor at the University of Sydney specializing in the study of history, gender, and empire. For the past twenty years, Allender’s research has focused on education in India specifically, and Learning Femininity in Colonial India is one of several monographs on female education he has recently published. Allender is an acclaimed scholar, and Learning Feminity is the recipient of the “Anne Bloomfield book prize awarded by the HES (UK) for best history of education book published between 2014 and 2017.” More broadly, his research falls at the intersection of the disciplines of history, gender and sexuality studies, education, and postcolonialism. For this reason, Allender’s work is valuable in understanding the reciprocal relationship between education and conceptions of race and gender. 19th-century colonial India is an excellent setting for this type of study, because it witnessed tremendous cross-cultural exchange between the colonizers and colonized, and these interactions were also informed by global social movements, like first-wave feminism. 

The book is organized chronologically and thematically, with each chapter covering a different period from the early 19th to early 20th centuries. Allender incorporates existing secondary scholarship on each topic with primary source material, like letters from government officials or Anglo-Indian women’s personal writings. He describes the intention behind this methodology, writing, “the book’s illustrative approach gives voice to the rich experiences of many of these women, and to groups of women living in colonial India through the strong documentary record that remains”(34). By using a variety of primary sources, located “in the dispersed depositories still available to scholars of gender in India and Pakistan, and at the old metropole, and in depositories located in other former colonies of empire,” Allender shows the diverse perspectives of women, both from the imperialist and Indian female point of view (34). This produces a more well-rounded and nuanced narrative of state-sponsored education in India, unlike previous scholarship, especially in the twentieth century, which focused on the British perspective without acknowledging the personal experiences of Indian women in their own words.

Chapter one, titled “Finding Feminine Scholars, 1820-65” starts with a brief overview of Indian female education prior to British occupation. Allender then goes on to describe the British authorization of evangelical education missions in 1813, and how these programs developed until 1865 (48). The chapter describes “how fledgling Western education endeavours began to take hold” in India, with Allender concluding that this “sporadic evangelical mission engagement” established a “Christian stereotype about the emotional deficits of Indian women, requiring remedy by the metropole” (27).Chapter two, “Shaping a New Eurasian Moral Body 1840-67,” expands upon the first chapter, stating that between 1840 and 1867, education moved away from the missionary model established in the 1820s, and reflected British anxieties about Indian female morality (71). He states that in this period, the purpose of female education in India shifted to become a “mediator of English middle-class moral norms”(88). As a result, education sought to separate the Indian student from the “cultural benefits of her own traditional Indian education,” in favor of an education that taught middle-class, British values (88). This shift encouraged more European women to enter into the Indian education system, which Allender elaborates on in chapter three.

Chapter 3, “Mary Carpenter and Feminine ‘Rescue’ from Europe 1866-77,” focuses on the influx of European women to India, and their impact on educational efforts for Indian women and girls (91). Allender uses the work and life of Mary Carpenter, a prominent British educational reformist, to frame this chapter. He concludes that the European, female intervention in education during this period “was made possible” when “the newly established relationship between statecraft and female education was taken over by a novel narrative concerning the teacher ‘training’ of women” (28-9). Chapter four,  “Both sides of the Mission Wall 1875-84,” describes the work of female missionaries beyond the walls of the missionary compound, especially education within the zenana, a space in some Indian homes reserved exclusively for women. However, he also recognizes that despite moving outside of the physical mission “the actions of women missionaries…remained bounded by the co-imperatives of piety and conversion,” which framed their motivations in conducting these missionary efforts (154). Allender transitions to the next section of the book, stating that “such female missionary work also set up new avenues of female learning for Indian females…this time concerning Indian female medical care” (154).

In chapters five and six, Allender shifts his focus to medical education. Chapter five, “Female Medical Care: A New Professional Learning Space” examines the evolution of women’s medicine in India between 1865 and 1890 (30). Sanitation was a major concern for medical professionals in this time period, and Allender relates ideas of cleanliness with the British moral purity mission, writing how, for example, “the white starched uniforms of its practitioners suggested a fierce conformity to European propriety and procedure” (159). Chapter six, “Feminine Missionary Medical Professionalism and Secular Medical Feminists 1880-1927,” explores similar themes, but focuses on the consolidation and formalization of medical practices by the end of the nineteenth century. He writes that this effort “was at the hands of Indian, Eurasian and European women working both inside and outside these race and class divides and also with the broader Indian population in view” (178). In particular, he focuses on the Lady Dufferin medical fund as an example of the streamlining and operation of hospitals in India.

In chapter seven, “Code School Accomplishments and Froebel: Race and Pedagogy 1888-1903,” Allender returns to the issue of education, this time in the late nineteenth century. He writes that, the “ earlier endeavour of female missionaries concerning medicine had inconveniently blurred raj race and class agendas,” so it was determined that the “teacher training of women: could be used to “stem this racial and class shifting in policy application” (31). This emphasized the importance of bringing white, female teachers to India to teach the native population, solidifying differences across racial lines. However, this was difficult for British, female teachers, who were expected to “satisfy market demand in India for British middle-class credentials in a way that was also sensitive to India’s socio-cultural realities concerning females” (32). Chapter eight, “‘Better Mothers’: Feminine and Feminist Educators and Thresholds of Indian Female Interaction, 1870-1932,” examines the ways European teachers engaged with Indian culture to effectively engage their students. Specifically, Allender speaks about “the emerging receptiveness of leading European females to the increasingly recognisable, to them, veracity of Indian cultural and intellectual educational spaces” (233) It was difficult to reconcile these cultural differences, because this period witnessed greater Indian opposition to British rule, intensifying tensions between the two groups. Finally, chapter nine “Loreto and the Paradigm of Piety 1890-1932,” describes education reform in India at the turn of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century. The educational effort in India was impacted by Britain’s involvement in WWI, during which Catholic nuns dominated the Indian education system (271). Allender finishes the chapter by describing the longevity of some of these Catholic missionaries, like Loreto schooling for girls, which has changed over time but remains active in India today (294).

Overall,  Learning Femininity in Colonial India: 1820-1932 provides a thorough and well-rounded analysis of medical and educational systems in colonial India, and how they shaped ideas of womanhood. Allender uses a copious amount of primary sources to back up his claims, and effectively demonstrates the continuity and changes within these systems over time, using a narrative thread to connect each chapter to the previous one. However, India is a huge and diverse country, and a 112 year span is a large amount of time to cover in a single monograph. Allender’s focus was to show the evolution of education in India over time, but it limited the extent he could dive into each time period. Each chapter of the book could be made into a monograph, so Allender’s study is limited by the span and scope of his project.

In the conclusion, Allender summarizes his longitudinal study. He then speaks about the legacy of the educational programs of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Indian schools today. Finally, Allender briefly puts his research in conversation with scholarship on education in post-colonial India. In doing so, he proposes new avenues for historical inquiry building off of his established work.

Rape has been a phenomenon experienced throughout history and redefined through centuries (Webster). Rape is currently defined as “unlawful sexual activity and usually, sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against a person’s will or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental deficiency, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception” .The work of rape, written by Rana M. Jaleel in October 2021, shows a great representation of the process of “understanding rape and sexualized violence- as well as their primary components, namely consent, force and coercion” that have been a product of history. The Work of Rape examines “how rape has historically functioned as a technology of racial terror enabled by law and the state, women of color feminism and queer scholarship have only sporadically engaged the role of the US race making and empire”. In other words, Dr. Jaleel writes about the redefinition of sexual violence through international law by examining mass rape in areas such as Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Guatemala, and Peru.

Dr. Jaleel is an associate professor of Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s studies at the University of California Davis. She has a Ph.D. in American studies from New York University, a JD from Yale Law school, and an MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan. The Work of rape received the Author of Color’s first book award from Duke University Press. Dr. Jaleel is “Chair of the Cultural Studies Graduate Group, Chair of the Designated Emphasis in Feminist theory and research, Faculty Advisor for the Sexuality studies Minor, and the co-director of HATCH: the feminist Arts & sciences initiative”(Snow).

REVISE The work of Rape starts of in the introduction, where this book asks” what is uplifted, occluded or viciously suppressed within the very definition of rape so that sexualized violence might be recognized”(4). ADD SIGNPOSTS THROUGHOUT THIS PARAGRPHDr. Jaleel explains how The work of Rape “demonstrates the wide ranging importance of rape within contemporary sociolegal understandings of power transnational”(4). Dr. Jaleel goes more in depth about the several meanings to what rape is, and has been defined by global feminists. This brings awarness to bigger questions “How do we enter into our imaginaries of sex-how we determine, how we know, what sex is and what bad or violent sex might be? How do we approach the long, diverse histories of indigenous women, women of color, Third World feminisms and queer/trans responses to rape and other forms of sexualized violence”(6). While these questions aren’t answered in the introduction, Dr. Jaleel makes sure to restate them later on in her book.

In chapter one Dr. Jaleel discusses the rape epidemic seen in Africa, emphasizing the impacts happening during the Cold war era in Yugoslavia and Rwanda.HOW ARE THE CONTINENTS AND COUNTRIES MENTIONED ABOVE RELATED ACCORDING TO THE AUTHOR? HOW DOES SHE APPROACH THE DIFFERENT SITES? She introduces the history of Yugoslavia and explores “how The divisive, transnationally mobile feminist theorizations and dialogues surroiding mass rape,war rape and genocidal rape enabled conflict in the former Yugoslavia and, later, Rwanda”; NEW SENTENCE. ALSO GIVE THE ANSWER AUTHOR GIVES TO THE HOW ABOVE while doing this Jaleel highlights some elite?POWERFUL feminist WRITING? inFROM? the 1990s. In chapter two Dr. Jaleel explores mass rape in Guatemala, peru and Argentina during the civil wars . Jaleel explains how “legal feministS? portrayed sexualized violence in Latin America either as proof of the general pervasiveness of wartime sexualized violence, or a domestic violence or intimate terror which they subsequently named torture”(89).

Dr. Jaleel presents a view on rape that I have yet seen before. She includes various examples from several countries in order to present a further argument. For example, Dr.Jaleel explores rape in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, where “racialization is an ongoing process that produces the war-raped as a population internationally managed and governed”(51). This chapter suggests different approaches on what is now the global mandate to end rape and sexualized violence. FOR EXAMPLE.. Moreover, Jaleel introducesCONNECTS? the radical feminists seen during the forged antiwar movement seen by Chicanos, Asian American, Native Americans and Black liberations.AND DRAWS WHAT CONCLUSION? Dr. Jaleel establishes several terms such as “settler sexual contract” to describe how racialized sexualized violence comes to bear on state sovereignty through human rights guarantees of international law (106).

In chapter three, the MCA is introduced EXPLAIN ACRONYM, as it repurposed international law to codified definitions of torture, rape, and sexual violence. Jaleel argues how the theorization of rape and other sexualized violence creates a different between the individual and teh population. The last chapter, four, explains in campus “entanglement of animality and sexuality” through a series of scenes(142). Jaleel explains how the stories mentioned are in order to underlie lines of force that animate different subjective sexual claims. Through this chapter Jaleel considers the relationship between campus sexual securitization initiatives and tribal nations jurisdictional struggles with the federal government. Dr. Jaleel concludes the book by promoting activism and protest that can ultimately bring everyone together. GIVE EXAMPLE

Although Dr. Jaleel’s work well presents the ongoing issues with mass rape, and the representation through history, i found that the text was very hard to read. This text uses a lot of big words or complex vocabulary, very similar to that of Michel Foucault’s books. Although this can be seen throughout the whole text, I found it the most prominent in the introduction of the book. This can discourage readers from analyzing the text, as the words can make it hard to understand, or even keep up with the book. In addition, the text does not well introduce books/articles that are presented to support Dr. Jaleel’s argument. The lack of introducing information about mentioned articles can negatively affect readers who get lost during the reading, just like I did.
Finally, The Work of Rape has evolved into a book that questions and redefines rape. Dr. Jaleel “argues that the redefinition of sexual violence within international law as war crime, crime against humanity, and genocide owes a disturbing and unacknowledged debt to power and knowledge achieved from racial, imperial, and settler colonial domination,” as demonstrated by a number of examples across the countries. It is critical that people read this book at least once because it explains mass rape in a way that no one else has.

Works Cited

Jaleel, Rana M. The Work of Rape. Duke University Press, 2021. 

Snow, Hunter Kyle. “Rana Jaleel.” Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies, Ucdavis, 19 Sept. 2022, https://gsws.ucdavis.edu/people/rana-jaleel. 

“Rape Definition & Meaning.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rape. 

Even in the era of fourth wave feminism, most American children still grow up in a rigid gender binary. They learn to practice gender roles that shape their personalities and their lives. Then, those with a certain amount of privilege find themselves thrown onto American college campuses with unprecedented freedom in their gender identity and expression. How do they navigate this freedom? Do they play into the gender roles they have been taught or learn new ways of existing as a human? A place where these questions are especially relevant is in American Greek life. Fraternities and sororities are the epitome of gendered social organizations and they have been the subject of much controversy over the past 200 years. How does gender manifest itself inside these privileged organizations, and what are the solutions to the woes of Greek life?

In his book “Inside Greek U,” Alan DeSantis (he/him) breaks down gender within America’s fraternities and sororities. His deep dive into Greek life through being a professor and Greek advisor at University of Kentucky (nicknamed GU for Greek University), led to five conclusions about the state of modern fraternities and sororities with a specific focus on gender. After his five specific conclusions, DeSantis summarizes what he has come to believe through his extensive research:

Asexual Erotics: Intimate Readings of Compulsory Sexuality, was written by Ela Przybylo and published in 2019 by the Ohio State University Press. In the monograph, Przybylo focuses on the topics of asexuality and erotics. She looks at both terms from a unique perspective and works to redefine them in a new light instead of one based on ideas influenced by heteronormativity and compulsory sexuality. She hopes that in writing Asexual Erotics she can combat the centralization of sex as a central factor in the experience of sexuality and erotics. Przybylo uses the term “asexual erotics” to show that these two ideas that seem like polar opposites when viewed in the typical way of thinking, can in fact go hand in hand. She wants readers to understand that erotics do not always have to be in reference to sex and sexuality doesn’t always mean sexual.

Ela Przybylo (she/her/ona) received her B.F.A. in Visual Communication Design, B.A. in Women’s and Gender Studies, and M.A. in English and Film Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Alberta. She also received her Ph.D. in Gender, Feminist, and Women’s Studies from York University in 2016. Asexual Erotics is her only mongraph but she has published many articles and chapters in peer-reviewed journals during her career. She is currently working as Assistant Professor in the Department of English and is also a core faculty member in the Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies Program at Illinois State University. Przybylo is also one of the founders and managing editor of Feral Feminisms, a peer-reviewed journal. The Ohio State University Press was founded in 1957 and publishes an average of fifty to sixty books every year. They are a member of the Association of University Presses and specialize in literary and cultural studies. In addition to publishing new books, they also publish a number of distinguished journals.

In order to write her monograph, Przybylo had to gather the data she used to support her arguments. She used a derived and compiled method for generating this data. Rather than conducting studies to generate brand new information, she sorted through the data that had already been collected by other researchers and compiled their findings to back up what she discussed in her monograph. She used a wide variety of sources which were referenced throughout her monograph.

Przybylo’s main argument that showed up many times throughout the book, was the idea of redefining asexuality and erotics. She uses the monograph to build her argument for why these concepts need to be redefined, focusing on multiple subjects within the wider umbrella of these two topics. She begins her monograph by providing readers with a clear view of where her work falls within the field of knowledge about asexuality, as well as sexuality in general. She references the work of many other authors – including Audre Lorde and Cameron Awkward-Rich – as well as past studies that have been conducted on topics ranging from health and medical research to feminist and queer theories in order to establish what is known about the subject. She uses the information from these other authors and researchers to establish a frame for how she wants readers to think about asexuality and erotics as they read the monograph. Then Przybylo goes on to discuss the gaps in knowledge and uses what follows after the introduction to fill those. Other works have talked about the idea that sexuality and the erotics don’t need to be linked to sex, but Przybylo’s monograph is the first to provide readers with a language they can use to discuss intimacy without needing to talk about it in terms of sex.

Przybylo places a lot of focus on how sex has historically played a huge role in determining people’s sexual identities even though it only allows for a generalized understanding of these identities. Sex is not the only form of intimacy and basing one’s sexual identity solely on who they feel inclined to engage in sexual behaviors with does not allow for investigation of the intricacies of relationships with others. Asexuality is a sexual identity that allows for a new perspective on how people relate to each other. Asexual identifying poeple are still able to determine how they feel about others without depending on sex as a way to define their feelings.

The idea that sexuality and the erotic are not inherently linked to sex or other sexual things is crucial to Przybylo’s reinvention of these concepts. She goes into a lot of detail about how compulsory sexuality – the assumption that heterosexuality is standard – has been ingrained in society for centuries. In the past, asexuality has been labeled as someone having a low sex drive and viewed as a health issue. Asexual Erotics says while many asexual identifying people have low sex drives is true, it is not unnatural or unusual despite the fact that compulsory sexuality makes this seem as though this is the case. This compulsory sexuality originated from a heteronormative system that labels sexuality and calls anyone who doesn’t follow the standards of those in power – usually white, straight, cis men – unnatural. This system is grounded in its assumption that sex is a natural and necessary thing and those who don’t want it must be sick or lying. Przybylo says the creation of the term “allosexual,” currently defined as someone who does experience sexual attraction, is one way to challenge this system because it refutes the heteronormative notion of compulsory sexuality. 

Focusing on asexuality, another important part of the redefining of asexuality that’s highlighted by Przybylo’s writing is the understanding that there is not only one kind of asexuality. The current official definition of this sexual orientation says that an asexual person is someone who does not experience any sexual attraction. Przybylo writes that this definition is very limiting and does not allow for the nuances that come with each individual’s experience of asexuality. She believes that asexuality can’t be reduced to a lack of sexual attraction and this is another one of the many reasons why it needs to be redefined in a way that allows people to talk about it without needing to relate it to sex. 

There is still a lot of work to be done but Przybylo’s creation of new definitions for the concepts of asexuality and erotics is the first step toward addressing the problems faced by asexual identifying people. These are discussed in the monograph and they come from many sources both external and internal. Some of the external problems include standards for sexuality established by systems based on heteronormative ideals, lack of representation in the media, asexphobia, and incels that make it difficult for some people to distinguish between incels and asexual identifying people. Many of the problems within the asexual community stem from it being a predominantly white space. Minorities within the community often feel isolated and are subject to racism. Przybylo writes that even in the media, asexual characters are almost always white, cis men. Przybylo achieved her goal of using Asexual Erotics to provide a new way to view asexuality and other sexual identities and setting the groundwork for decentralizing sex within society. Even though there is still much to do before this decentralization becomes a reality, her monograph has opened up conversations about how this can be attained. This matters not only because it will allow society to shift away from a system grounded in heteronormativity and compulsory sexuality, but also because it encourages people to recognize that anything that deviates from what is considered the societal norm is not necessarily unnatural. Once people begin to realize this the world can become a much more accepting place where people are free to be themselves and express themselves. There will be less pressure put on people to live up to society’s standards because the standard will allow for so many nuanced experiences of life and identities. Przybylo’s Asexual Erotics is one of the first steps towards helping people open their minds to different experiences and learning to be more accepting of things they don’t currently view as normal.

Works Cited

“Dr. Ela Przybylo.” College of Arts and Sciences, June 8, 2017. https://cas.illinoisstate.edu/faculty_staff/profile.php?ulid=emprzy1#fs-tabs-accord1.

Przybylo, Ela. Asexual Erotics: Intimate Readings of Compulsory Sexuality. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2019.

“The Ohio State University Press.” The Ohio State University Press. Accessed November 12, 2022. https://ohiostatepress.org/.