FIGHTING THE ‘CURE’
not being fully human because
sexual attraction and sexual relationships are seen as something
alive, healthy people do. They
think that you really want sex
but just don’t know it yet. For
people who perform corrective
rape, they believe that they’re
just waking us up and that we’ll
thank them for it later.”
In April, a heated debate
sparked online when an asexual
Tumblr blogger wrote about corrective rape.
“There is a real fear even among
the asexual community that people who identify as anything other
than heterosexual will be harassed
and assaulted,” wrote “Angela,”
a self-identified aromantic ace.
“They have a reason to be upset
and a reason to be afraid, it has
happened to many people before.”
In response to the post, an
anonymous user wrote, “[A]sexuality is not a thing. You are just
ugly and no one wanted to date
you, so you made up a thing to
cuddle your lonely self as you cry
into your pillow. Also, I hope you
get raped. It has a dual benefit,
you’ll get laid finally AND put you
into your place as well.”
The comment triggered a firestorm, with some asexuals speaking
HUFFINGTON
08.25.13
out and sharing their own experiences involving sexual violence.
Asexuals and ace activists say
the conversation about sexual assault in the asexual community is
part of the wider societal discussion about rape culture generally
and about corrective rape in the
queer community specifically.
They also say it speaks to a bias
and an invisibility that asexuals
face in everyday life.
“For people who perform
corrective rape, they believe that
they’re just waking us up and
that we’ll thank them for it later.”
Indeed, aces have in the past
been characterized by members
of the mainstream and religious
media as abnormal, unhappy
and repressed.
In a 2012 Fox News segment
about sexologist Anthony Bogaert’s book Understanding Asexuality, host Greg Gutfeld and a
panel of guests mocked the asexual identity, treating it as something invalid or exaggerated.
“[T]hey have a lack of ... sexuality, so they’ll be kind of treated
as lepers — asexual lepers, if you
will,” Gutfeld said in the segment.