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Abstract

Millions of people find themselves situated somewhere on the asexual and aromantic spectrum. The academic world has largely ignored and misunderstood the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ all of these people have found themselves drawn to these identities. This affects how we think about asexual and aromantic people and the relationship they have to their identities. Existing research outputs have tended to view asexual people in isolation to aromantic people. They have predominantly focused on asexual people in two specific areas; their experiences of discrimination, and how their identities may be formed. My research combines the two topic areas into one, as I contend that analysis is missed by ignoring that the two are intrinsically

linked. This research tackles how the journeys people take to formulate their identities can usually reveal the experiences of discrimination that asexual and aromantic people go through. I Interviewed six asexual and aromantic participants, aged 18-36, to answer two main research questions. My first research aim is to understand what my participants say and narrate about their identity formation. My second research question is, ‘Do my participants' narratives reveal any experiences with epistemic injustices to do within identity formation?’. Using narrative analysis gave me the ability to capture the stories of identity formation and discrimination exactly the way my participants intended for them to be received. It also provided a unique way to examine the lived experiences of my participants by viewing them through a historical account lens. This narrative study found that identity formation can be influenced by both internal and external processes, which partially challenges scientific understandings of asexuality and aromanticism. In addition, this study found that epistemic injustices, or structural barriers, were present in all of my participants throughout their identity formation. They each experienced these barriers that either lengthened their journeys or made it harder for my participants to search for their current identities. This research improves understanding of asexual and aromantic people as it explains some shortcomings with current literature from psychological and scientific research and suggests ways on how we could implement changes to this line of thinking. It also presents some of the ways institutions such as medical and educational facilities have enforced discrimination and misinformation, showing how deep anti-asexual and aromantic biases are present within society and my participants' narratives.

Course: Sociology - BSc (Hons) - C0315

Date Deposited: 2024-11-07

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis14481.html