To start out, I’d like to know how this book came into being.ĪC: The short answer is that I have always been a professional journalist, and at one point in my twenties I discovered that I was ace. The canon is being written right now, and you’re a part of that. I’m ace myself and the literature on asexuality is remarkably limited.

The interview has been edited for length and flow.ĮB: I was really excited when your book came out.

The Common’s editorial assistant Eliza Brewer spoke by phone with Chen about the role of place in developing one’s relationship to sexuality, writing for a diverse audience, and being ace in spaces dominated by narratives of compulsory sexuality. For Chen, “true sexual liberation means having many choices-no sex forever, sex three times a day, and everything in between-that all feel equally available and accepted, and that all can lead to happiness if they are right for you.” By centering ace stories, Chen allows asexuality to speak for itself, to make its own case, telling the story of a group who has historically had to carve out places for themselves and their unique joys in a world which more often than not views them as lacking, lying, or nonexistent. With this book, Chen creates a platform to discuss how compulsory sexuality harms not only the ace community, but anyone wanting to engage seriously with the idea of sexual liberation. Chen is particularly interested in the phenomenon of compulsory sexuality, which, in her own words, describes, “a set of assumptions and behaviors that support the idea that every normal person is sexual, that not wanting (socially approved) sex is unnatural and wrong, and that people who don’t care about sexuality are missing out on an utterly necessary experience.” But the book also challenges everyone, regardless of sexual identity, to interrogate their own relationship to romance, sex, desire, and culture. This is a book about asexuality, the often overlooked ‘A’ in LGBTQIA, and the ace community. Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex is Angela Chen’s first book: an incredible feat considering the breadth of topics that Chen covers with the adroitness that only an experienced journalist could bring.

Ace what asexuality reveals