Huffington Magazine Issue 63 | Page 61

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.