A Word Association Study of Asexual People of Color’s Minority Stress

This study explores how asexual people of color experience minority stress due to encounters with allonormativity. Drawing on word association interviews with 33 asexual Black, Asian, Latine, Indigenous, and multiracial North Americans, ages 18-45 and varied genders, this study explores the unconscious and affective dimensions of racialized rhetorics of allonormativity as they are internalized and reproduced through communication. Word association was employed to access spontaneous and embodied meanings that other interview prompts may overlook, illuminating the power of words in reifying and resisting allonormativity. These responses map onto both distal and proximal stressors, impacting wellness and identity. This article contributes to health communication by using word association as a methodological approach and analyzing how allonormative rhetorics shape minority stress outcomes for asexual people of color.