{"title":"From crushes to squishes","authors":"J. Fine","doi":"10.1075/jls.22004.fin","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n Previous research on language, sexuality, and affect has focused primarily on the presence rather than the absence\n of desire. This analysis investigates the linguistic manifestations of non-desire on two subreddits: r/AskReddit and r/Asexual.\n Contrasting asexual redditors’ responses to threads such as When and how did you realize you were asexual? with\n straight, allosexual redditors’ responses to a thread titled Straight redditors, when did you realize you were\n straight?, I find that allosexual and asexual redditors’ responses differ in agency and emotionality. While straight\n allosexual redditors attribute their lack of homosexual desire to factors other than themselves, asexual redditors attribute their\n lack of allosexual desire to their own identity. Additionally, asexual redditors frame their realizations of their asexuality as\n processual and emotional, using feel and felt more often than straight allosexual redditors’\n responses. These results expose the importance of emotionality – including lack of desire – as a resource for asexual identity\n construction.","PeriodicalId":36680,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Language and Sexuality","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.6000,"publicationDate":"2023-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Language and Sexuality","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1075/jls.22004.fin","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"COMMUNICATION","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Previous research on language, sexuality, and affect has focused primarily on the presence rather than the absence
of desire. This analysis investigates the linguistic manifestations of non-desire on two subreddits: r/AskReddit and r/Asexual.
Contrasting asexual redditors’ responses to threads such as When and how did you realize you were asexual? with
straight, allosexual redditors’ responses to a thread titled Straight redditors, when did you realize you were
straight?, I find that allosexual and asexual redditors’ responses differ in agency and emotionality. While straight
allosexual redditors attribute their lack of homosexual desire to factors other than themselves, asexual redditors attribute their
lack of allosexual desire to their own identity. Additionally, asexual redditors frame their realizations of their asexuality as
processual and emotional, using feel and felt more often than straight allosexual redditors’
responses. These results expose the importance of emotionality – including lack of desire – as a resource for asexual identity
construction.