Platonically Erotic

Platonically Erotic presents an autoethnographic, interdisciplinary exploration of erotic-embodied asexuality. It weaves together narratives from individuals across the asexual and aromantic spectrum, situating their experiences within the contexts of mindful relationships and somatic awareness. The book uniquely combines an autoethnography of embodied, sensory research with an autoethnography of erotic-embodied aromantic asexuality to offer a nuanced understanding of asexuality beyond traditional orientations. By offering sensorial descriptions of nonsexual eros, the book enriches the discourse on the expanded erotic. It emphasizes the importance of the nonsexual libido, arguing that the pervasive sexualization of eros limits human flourishing. It challenges assumptions that eros and intimacy must be contingent on sex and that romance is synonymous with love. Employing dynamic combinations of theoretical and empirical analysis, the book utilizes a layered format that includes poetic prose, poetry, sociological fiction, and dramaturgical texts. This approach aims to provide an experiential and engaging reading experience, encouraging individual interpretation. This engaging and thought-provoking account will appeal to both scholars seeking new theoretical insights and general readers interested in personal narratives of nonsexual intimacy and love. This work furthers the efforts of asexuality scholars to decenter sexuality from its predominant role in modern Western identities from an embodied, interpretive interactionist, post-human, and post-sexual perspective. The book introduces the concept of ‘platonically erotic‘ as a relational identity independent of sexuality and thus addresses the ‘asexual paradox‘ of asexuality being defined as a sexual orientation despite its nonsexual nature. By reframing asexuality not as a lack but as a rich and diverse way of being, the book challenges prevailing narratives and paves the way for a more inclusive understanding of human sexuality and desire. While acknowledging the role of AVEN (Asexuality Visibility and Education Network) in validating asexuality, the book interrogates the assumption that asexuality is an innate orientation. Instead, it proposes a model of asexuality as an emergent orientation that includes experiences of asexuality resulting from celibate practice, the natural sublimation of libido through somatic awareness, and as a valid lifestyle choice for individuals who reject societal norms, including those who have experienced trauma. This book serves as a vital resource of embodied asexual narratives, contributing to asexuality studies and future research in the sociology of desire, libido, and love. It advances reflexive and creative methodologies such as autoethnography, auto/biography, sensory autoethnography, embodied inquiry, sociological fiction, poetry as method, and narrative performative approaches. Ethical considerations are central to this work, emphasizing the care for both researchers and participants within qualitative and embodied research contexts.