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Sexually “Broken”: the Rhetorical Production of the Distressed Nonsexual in the Flibanserin Debate & Beyond

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Sexually “Broken”: the Rhetorical Production of the Distressed Nonsexual in the Flibanserin Debate & Beyond Syracuse University SURFACE Theses - ALL May 2019 Sexually “Broken”: The Rhetorical Production of The Distressed Nonsexual in The Flibanserin Debate & Beyond Hannah Helene Thompson Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/thesis Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Thompson, Hannah Helene, "Sexually “Broken”: The Rhetorical Production of The Distressed Nonsexual in The Flibanserin Debate & Beyond" (2019). Theses - ALL. 302. https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/302 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract Using a Foucauldian-influenced approach to discourse and power, this thesis analyzes the production of nonsexualities, such as the lack of sexual desire, in the contemporary United States. In psychiatric discourse, the distressed nonsexual subject is produced as the patient with Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD). This discursive formation was put to use in the debate surrounding pharmaceutical drug flibanserin (Addyi) in order to secure its approval by the FDA in 2015. I posit that, by emphasizing the distress of the HSDD patient experience, the rhetoric of pro-flibanserin advocacy succeeded in producing an ethical exigency, arguing that it would be cruel for the FDA to reject the drug. Centrally, its support for this claim relies upon the construction of an ideal (hetero)sexual marriage and problematizing nonsexuality as a threat to love. Flibanserin’s rhetorical support depended, then, upon casting nonsexuality in the role of a destructive enemy force. As a counter-discourse, the discourse of the asexual community—which produces “asexuality” as a sexual orientation—codifies a point of resistance to these claims. Sexually “Broken”: The Rhetorical Production of The Distressed Nonsexual in The Flibanserin Debate & Beyond by H. Helene Thompson B.A. Southwestern University, 2015 Thesis Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Communication and Rhetorical Studies Syracuse University May 2019 Copyright © H. Helene Thompson, 2019 All Rights Reserved Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 Medical Rhetoric ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Asexuality Studies ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Sexuality & Sexual Norms ......................................................................................................................... 8 Object One: HSDD and the Flibanserin Hearing ....................................................................................... 9 Object Two: Asexuality and the Asexual Community ............................................................................. 11 Onward: A Summary of Purpose ............................................................................................................ 15 Chapter 2: Broken ....................................................................................................................................... 16 A Breaking Point ...................................................................................................................................... 16 The Emergence of HSDD ......................................................................................................................... 18 The Development of Flibanserin ............................................................................................................. 22 Dueling Feminisms in the Flibanserin Debate......................................................................................... 26 Even the Score (Pro-Flibanserin) ......................................................................................................... 26 The New View Campaign (Anti-Flibanserin) ....................................................................................... 29 The 2015 FDA Hearing ............................................................................................................................ 34 Heterosexual, Monogamous, Stable Marriage ................................................................................... 36 The Distressed Woman ....................................................................................................................... 40 She Is Broken ....................................................................................................................................... 44 What a Wife Should Want .................................................................................................................. 46 Duty Sex .............................................................................................................................................. 50 No Other Option for an Unmet Need ................................................................................................. 56 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 60 Epilogue................................................................................................................................................... 62 Chapter 3: Mended ..................................................................................................................................... 65 New Orientations .................................................................................................................................... 65 Emergence of the Asexual Community ................................................................................................... 66 Asexual Community Demographics & Lexicon ....................................................................................... 67 Demographics ..................................................................................................................................... 67 A Sexual Orientation ........................................................................................................................... 69 Some Do, Some Don’t ......................................................................................................................... 71 Aces with Multiple Orientations ......................................................................................................... 72 iv Asexual Narratives of Distress ................................................................................................................ 74 Asexual Narratives of Medicalization ..................................................................................................... 77 Asexual Accounts of HSDD .................................................................................................................. 79 Asexual Accounts of Flibanserin ......................................................................................................... 81 Asexuals in Love ...................................................................................................................................... 83 Narratives of Relationship Tensions ................................................................................................... 84 Positive Narratives of Nonsexual Love ................................................................................................ 87 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................... 88 Chapter 4: To Freely Give Zero Fucks.......................................................................................................... 91 The Distressed Nonsexual Subject(s) ...................................................................................................... 92 Future Directions .................................................................................................................................... 96 The Repressive Hypothesis ..................................................................................................................... 98 References ................................................................................................................................................ 101 Vita ............................................................................................................................................................ 121 v 1 Chapter 1: Introduction “You’re the only one who took the asexual literature,” a man says of the small green parade flyer. “I avoided it like the plague. I thought, that’s scary.” Later, a fellow parade participant says, “You’re polluting my mind,” and hands the flyer back. “You know what, I totally respect you though. Just give us twenty feet, okay?” Another more bluntly proclaims, “I pity your poor soul.” These responses of disgust and pity directed at asexual participants in the San Francisco Pride Parade represent just some of the stigma demonstrated in the 2011 documentary (A)sexual. In the context of the film, these responses, including the pity response, is framed at odds with the
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