“We have a name for something I’ve felt all my life” - Discovering and explaining asexuality

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate three aspects of asexuality. This was achieved through conducting six interviews with self identified asexuals, an observation on a meeting for asexuals, an analysis of what functions the two organisations for asexuals, Nätverket Asexuell and AVEN have, and a content analysis concerning how people talk about a lack of sexual lust on the internet. The conclusions are that asexuality for my interviewees is about not wanting to have sex and not experience sexual lust. They had a number of medical explanations for their asexuality, even if they added that they were not sure why they were asexual. They had always, or for a very long time, known that they were different from others when it came to sexual lust, but when they found the term asexuality they found an explicit identity. The organisations Nätverket Asexuell and AVEN, Asexuality Visibility and Education Network, two main functions is to be a political organ for making asexuality more known, and a place were asexuals can meet and exchange experiences and knowledge. This seem to have similarities with for instance lesbian and gay movements.