Televising Asexuality: Representations, Resonances, and Community Viewership.

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Asexuality - referring to people who experience little-to-no sexual attraction - is an invisible sexuality in Britain. Asexuality is not protected by the Equality Act 2010, nor is it recognised in the plans to ban conversion therapy (Truss, 2021), and asexuals, of all queer identities, are typically the most likely to live unsatisfying and fearful lives (GEO, 2018). Research is beginning to combat this (Stonewall, 2022), but in the meantime, asexuality is unfamiliar to 72% of Britons (Ipsos, 2020).Historically, television has played a vital role in improving societal awareness and attitudes towards other queer identities (Buckle, 2015), and television's influence on understandings of asexuality must be explored. However, research within asexual screen studies has focused on American media (Cerankowski, 2014; Sinwell, 2014), or reading characters as asexual (Przybylo and Cooper, 2014; Botts, 2016; Osterwald, 2017; Lamerichs, 2018). My Master's research, therefore, turned to British TV, theoretically uncovering British television's role in the invisibility and misrepresentation of asexuality in society through retracing a forgotten history of asexuality on British TV. However, during this research, I noticed that asexuals' voices regarding how our lives have been (mis)represented on screen had not been studied. As such, studying this gap is the next step in my research, bringing asexual screen studies in line with other LGBT+ groups (e.g., Lipton, 2008; Cavalcante, 2018). Therefore, I propose the first empirical study of asexual audience perspectives regarding asexual representations through exploratory mixed methods research (a survey and semi-structured interviews). I will answer questions surrounding:- How do asexuals respond to asexual representations on British TV?- To what extent do asexuals feel represented by TV representations?- How do these representations impact asexual communities?My research will comprise of two parts. 'Part One: Representations' will include three chapters, each using an asexual representation as a case study to explore how asexuality has been represented within: fictional television; non-fictional television; and non-traditional broadcast services (e.g., Emmerdale, 2016; 'I Don't Want Sex', 2018; Sex Education, 2019). These chapters will offer an overview of representations of asexuality on screen alongside integrated asexual voices discussing the impacts these representations have had on British asexual communities'Part Two: Alternative Representations' will then have a further three chapters to explore:- 1) asexual community reactions to asexual representations on international screens- 2) how non-confirmed but asexually resonant characters offer meaningful representations (e.g., Good Omens, 2019)- 3) what alternative modes of asexual representation exist (e.g., podcasts, asexual creators on YouTube and fanfiction).These chapters have flexibility based on community responses, as I intend to prioritise voices within asexual communities and not just my own asexual opinion.This research will be the first to explore how asexual representations impact asexuals, and I hope to use this research to create a 'best practice' guide for representing asexuality, alongside my thesis. I hope to not only improve future representations of asexuality but believe this project will positively impact asexual communities by increasing asexual visibility, thereby offering opportunities for greater awareness and acceptance of asexuality in society.