Compulsory Sexuality: Evaluating an Emerging Concept

Partially in response to the recent articulation of asexual identities and communities, scholars have begun to use the term compulsory sexuality to describe the assumption that all people are sexual and to describe the social norms and practices that both marginalize various forms of nonsexuality and compel people to experience themselves as desiring subjects, take up sexual identities, and engage in sexual activity. This article examines the development of the concept of compulsory sexuality and evaluates its usefulness for understanding certain aspects of contemporary Western sexual norms. I argue that when used judiciously, the concept of compulsory sexuality can connect existing areas of research and inspire new scholarship, can highlight how norms of sexual interest and disinterest regulate the behavior of all people, and can encourage scholars to avoid an easy equation of sexual activity with liberation.