rachelnevada's review against another edition
Like many others reviewing this text, I come to Asexual Erotics not as an academic but as a layperson interested in queerness and sexuality. In fact I ordered the book because I found the excerpt in Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex to be fascinating and I was looking for more of that. (In retrospect, because the bulk of that particular excerpt is from Cameron Awkward-Rich's “A Prude’s Manifesto” I probably would have been better off reading one of his poetry collections instead or just really reveling in the YouTube video of him reading it over and over again).
Asexual Erotics is a slim (but theoretically dense) volume of queer theory that attempts to 1) “explore erotic represenations of asexuality” (typically in art, literature, and film) and to 2) “use asexual perspectives to further examine sexuality” especially compulsory sexuality and desexualization. Much of the introduction is spent laying necessary theoretical groundwork for these two goals.
Asexual Erotics is a slim (but theoretically dense) volume of queer theory that attempts to 1) “explore erotic represenations of asexuality” (typically in art, literature, and film) and to 2) “use asexual perspectives to further examine sexuality” especially compulsory sexuality and desexualization. Much of the introduction is spent laying necessary theoretical groundwork for these two goals.
pixxietrixxie's review against another edition
4.0
I read this book as the mother of an asexual daughter to get a better understanding of her world. She is hetero romantic sex repulsed which I believe may be quite challenging for her in future relationships. This book has expressed some of the challenges that my daughter has already experienced such as the non-acceptance by some in the LGBTQ+ community as a member. I thank the author for furthering my insight into my beautiful, wonderful, "not broken" daughter. We are all truly more than who we desire - or not.
baylee_lasiepedimore's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
4.0
Asexual Erotics è forse il libro più interessante che mi è capitato di leggere sull’asessualità: avendo ormai superato la fase che-cos’è-l’asessualità-oddio-ma-parla-di-me! sento il bisogno di letture che vadano oltre le definizioni e si inoltrino lungo i sentieri dello sguardo asessuale sul mondo. Cosa può dirci il punto di vista asessuale sulla nostra società?
Ela Przybyło (che il suo sito mi informa si pronuncia Pshy-by-wo) mi ha dato un assaggio delle potenzialità che l’asessualità ha nel dare una nuova definizione di intimità ed erotismo, togliendo il sesso da quella posizione di centralità e privilegio che ha permesso a una sessualità compulsiva di essere un’arma per ribadire e rafforzare posizioni razziste, sessiste, abiliste e omofobiche.
Przybyło analizza in maniera accademica e rigorosa storture che incontri vivendo una vita da asessuale, ma che non tuttз sono in grado di identificare con certezza e organizzare in un pensiero strutturato (io no di sicuro, sono una frana nel teorizzare gli eventi): per esempio, il fatto che il sesso sia al centro dell’intimità implica che ci sia uno standard al quale adeguarsi affinché la relazione sia sana. Troppo poco, o addirittura niente sesso, è sicuramente indice di qualcosa che non va nella relazione: analizzando la cosiddetta morte del letto lesbico, però, Przybyło dimostra che a non andare era più il fatto di aver preso come standard le dinamiche delle coppie eterosessuali.
Per questo non consiglio questo libro a meno che non abbiate una buona padronanza delle temetiche che girano intorno all’asessualità e alle modalità con le quali il femminismo queer indaga i vari fenomeni sociali. Però, una volta che ci avrete preso confidenza, prendete in considerazione questo libriccino, che è davvero prezioso, spero che sia il primo di tanti altri.
suddenflamingword's review against another edition
3.0
I more or less agree with Aaron Thomas' uncertainty about how Asexual Erotics makes use of its core conceit. The idea of decoupling the erotic from the sexual a la Lorde is savvy, but without a clear historical-material subject being critiqued it becomes bogged down in a semi-vague mush of cultural criticism. Which, to be clear, is valuable in itself for laying a groundwork for the idea.
Which is where I see Przybylo's book settling in as. It formulates a language for seeing certain phenomenon through - given the last chapter's focus on the "desexualization" of aged bodies, one could examine how New York recently facilitated the deaths of thousands of elderly people by hiding the mortality rate of nursing homes - but it doesn't take the extra step to get there. The epilogue's attempt to apply it to incels is like an appetizer that comes just after a dense carby dinner. And it's there that I think Aaron is rightly unsure about how to appraise its value.
I actually think it might be better to engage with the secondary literature as you go through the book, because I found reading Ianna Hawkins' Owens writing, Benjamin Kahan's "The Other Harlem Renaissance," and Beryl Satter's "Marcus Garvey, Father Divine and the Gender Politics of Race Difference and Race Neutrality" gave concrete and fascinating applications of an Asexual Erotics (or "celibate economics" as Satter and Kahan dub Father Divine's program).
Which is where I see Przybylo's book settling in as. It formulates a language for seeing certain phenomenon through - given the last chapter's focus on the "desexualization" of aged bodies, one could examine how New York recently facilitated the deaths of thousands of elderly people by hiding the mortality rate of nursing homes - but it doesn't take the extra step to get there. The epilogue's attempt to apply it to incels is like an appetizer that comes just after a dense carby dinner. And it's there that I think Aaron is rightly unsure about how to appraise its value.
I actually think it might be better to engage with the secondary literature as you go through the book, because I found reading Ianna Hawkins' Owens writing, Benjamin Kahan's "The Other Harlem Renaissance," and Beryl Satter's "Marcus Garvey, Father Divine and the Gender Politics of Race Difference and Race Neutrality" gave concrete and fascinating applications of an Asexual Erotics (or "celibate economics" as Satter and Kahan dub Father Divine's program).
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