What You Can’t See
The Lack of Asexual & Aromantic Representation
My asexual awakening occurred during the early days of COVID-19. In between watching episodes of Tiger King and endlessly doom-scrolling through TikTok, I had a lot of time to sit with myself and ponder why I felt like a sexual outcast. For years, I sat and listened to my friends describe their sexual encounters with a mix of nausea, discomfort, and isolation. I had no real desire to engage in such activities. I had harbored these feelings for a long time, but the older I got, the more I felt alone in my thinking. And the never-ending sexualization in every TV show, movie, book, and advertisement didn’t help.
However, after a few Google searches, I stumbled upon the online asexual and aromantic community. I scoured over the multiple stories and affirmations from people who shared the same thoughts I did. I couldn’t see any of these people face-to-face, but just knowing there were others out there gave me comfort. I no longer felt alone, and for the first time in my life, I felt like my identity mattered. My exploration of Instagram pages and Tumblr posts soon led me to wonder: “In a world where sex and romance sells, are there any books out there that feature asexual/aromantic characters and storylines?” The answer is yes, but the selection is extremely limited.
For the remainder of this post, I will be grouping the aromantic and asexual communities together with a backslash (asexual/aromantic) not because they are the same or connected, but for the sake of brevity. However, these communities have distinct differences. Someone who identifies with the term “asexual,” would be described as someone who experiences little to no sexual attraction to others. This term can is often used to define individual’s identity, but is also commonly used as an umbrella term. An individual who identifies as aromantic would be described as someone who experiences little to no romantic attraction. Before I continue, I find it extremely important to note that though asexuality and aromanticism are often paired together (i.e., aroace), an asexual individual is not automatically aromantic or vice versa. For example, I identify as asexual but not aromantic. I also know of several individuals who are aromantic but would never consider themselves asexual. The two sexualities can stand independent of one another. The reason why I am looking at asexual and aromantic literature together is not to say that one cannot exist without the other, but rather to give a voice to both small communities.
According to a 2019 Williams Institute poll, the percentage of asexual people in the United States is 1.7%, or about 5.6 million people. The total percentage of aromantics in the US is hard to calculate, seeing that no formal studies have been conducted, but a 2015 asexual community census found that “almost 25% of asexual respondents identify as aromantic.” Though both communities are small in comparison to other LGBTQ+ identifying sexualities, the amount of representation they see in literature is even smaller. Using data from the International Publishers Association annual reports, thebooksmugglers.com calculated that in a nineteen-year span, the percentage of books with asexual representation was 0.00007%. Unfortunately, they did not figure out the percentage of aromantic representation, but I suspect that it would be even lower.
All of this is to say that if asexual and aromantic individuals want to see themselves in the stories they read, the numbers are not on their side. These percentages also show that, unless someone is specifically looking for a book with asexual/aromantic characters, the chances of them stumbling upon one are slim to none. When the book world ignores the existence of asexual/aromantic identifying individuals, how can the general public be expected to recognize and be aware of these identities?
As grim as these numbers seem, searching for asexual/aromantic book lists will turn up a handful of results. These book lists will give readers twenty to thirty books that claim to have representation. And many of these books do. British author Alice Oseman, best known for her comic series Heartstopper, is renowned in the literary world for the asexual/aromantic characters included in their novels Radio Silence and Loveless. Claire Kann’s novel Let’s Talk About Love features a black, asexual woman as the protagonist. There are a growing number of fantasy and science fiction stories with asexual/aromantic representation.
These lists feature a lot of great asexual/aromantic stories, but they also tend to pad their choices with books that might not be what curious readers are searching for. Upon further reading of the book descriptions, you come to find that a handful of “representative” books never mention asexuality/aromanticism directly and/or never confirm a character is asexual/aromantic. Michelle Kan’s fantasy novel, No More Heroes, features a character sheet where characters are listed as asexual and aromantic, but their identities don’t come up in conversation in the story. Additionally, there are books included where the author announces, usually after the book’s release, that a character was written to be aromantic/asexual, even if there is little to no evidence of this in the book. These announcements do, technically, create representation, but authors normally make them to appeal to readers or to placate backlash about a lack of representation (think of the Harry Potter author who shall not be named). In these instances, representation becomes a selling point or a marketing strategy rather than an attempt to give a voice to a community.
The majority of these book lists are made up of Young Adult (YA) novels as well. Now to be completely clear, I in no way want to look down on YA. I believe the genre does a fantastic job featuring representation and paving the way for other genres. However, asexuality and aromanticism are not identities that belong solely to young adults. There are people who identify as asexual/aromantic in all generations who want to see themselves in the literature they read. And like we’ve seen in multiple news stories and online articles, people may not figure out their sexualities until much later in life than their adolescence. They deserve to have representative literature, too.
Asexual/aromantic literature also lacks diversity of identities and genders. As YALSA Hub’s book list explicitly states, almost all of the novels mentioned feature a cisgender woman as the protagonist. Though women and non-binary individuals do make up a significant portion of the asexual/aromantic community, asexual/aromantic men still exist and their stories deserve to be told.
Obviously, asexual/aromantic literature still has a long way to go, but there has been steady progress over the last few years. As these sexual orientations make their way into the mainstream media, there’s a bigger demand for representation. Unfortunately, many publishers won’t even consider books that do not feature a romantic or sexual storyline. This means there’s all the more reason to celebrate the books that do get published. When these books with asexual/aromantic representation come out, cheerlead for them. Buy them, give them good reviews (should they deserve them), shout them out on social media, and recommend them to friends and family. Show publishers that, though these communities are small, their representation in the book world matters because as the great Marian Wright Edelman says: “You can’t be what you can’t see.”
Morgan Magdalinski (’23) is a recent graduated of Susquehanna University. She received a Bachelor’s degree in English: Publishing & Editing and Theatre Performance. She loves to watch movies, read, sing with her acapella group, go for long drives, and try to befriend animals. She wants to remind everyone reading this post that you are valid and so incredibly loved.