Not Queer Enough: The Representation of Asexuality in Sex Education

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a significant increase in asexual representation in television. Despite this increased visibility, asexuality remains one of the least represented queer identities on television, causing the limited existing depictions to be positioned as a foundational base upon which broader cultural understandings are constructed. Therefore, the examination of asexual representation in television becomes imperative to understand the (re)construction of asexuality within Western society. The British Netflix series Sex Education (2014) introduces an asexual character, Sarah Owen, in its fourth and final season. This season undergoes a notable change in its setting, taking place in Cavendish College, a new school, which is portrayed as a utopia where queer students are sexually liberated. Despite this, the series struggles to fully integrate asexuality into its narrative, resembling broader issues in contemporary queer politics, thus making it an interesting case study for the representation of asexuality. Therefore, the series Sex Education was examined, using a textual analysis, to answer the following research question: How does Sex Education (2014) represent asexuality within a queer utopia? The analysis utilized concepts from José Esteban Muñoz’s queer utopia and Kristina Gupta’s compulsory sexuality, incorporating asexual stereotypes mapped out by various scholars as a framework to examine how Sex Education represents asexuality within a queer utopia. A textual analysis was conducted following Richard Dyer’s three-step method of description, contextualisation, and interpretation. The analysis revealed Cavendish as a queer utopia through the features of queer failure, collectivity, and challenging heteronormativity, depicted through the formal elements of mise-en-scene. By examining Sarah’s characterisation in relation to asexual stereotypes and the features of the queer utopia, the series represents asexuality as not queer enough due to her divergence from these utopian features. Sex Education inadvertently resembles the conflict between asexuality and sex- positive queer communities, reproducing the marginalisation and exclusion of asexuality within these queer spaces.