https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7719-3221
![Sample our Communication Studies journals, sign in here to start your access, 2013 & 2014 volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5927/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Information-Science2.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Asexuality describes a range of identities characterized by a lack of attraction toward sexual relationships or activities, and its opposite is allosexuality. In this essay, we offer a rhetorical theorization of allonormativity. For us, allonormativity describes the constitutive practices whereby social structures expect and privilege sexual and romantic attraction and relationships —to the exclusion and erasure of asexual and aromantic people. We then apply the concept to the case of asexual Latter-day Saints. Using a close reading of data from interviews and online posts, we reveal how allonormativity constrains the lives of asexual Latter-day Saints from three sources: religious leadership, families, and asexual Latter-day Saints themselves. We briefly consider asexuals’ rhetorical strategies in response to allonormativity before concluding with a call to denaturalize presumptions of allosexuality in queer and trans communication research, within and beyond contexts of religious communication.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. The LDS Church has, in recent years, moved away from the moniker “Mormon” and its variants (e.g., Mormonism) in favor of using its full name. Thus, we primarily use both the spelled out and initialism versions of this nomenclature throughout this essay. Colloquially, particularly outside LDS communities and among those who left the Church before the rebranding, “Mormon” and “Mormonism” remain in common usage. We have retained our participants’ language in quotations, and our search terms and recruitment materials included “Mormon” and its variants as well as the official nomenclature.
2. Throughout this piece, we refer to anonymous online posts by site and number, e.g., AVEN, 1 or Yahoo, 2; we refer to interview participants by pseudonyms to protect confidentiality.