The Sexual Burnout Society: Compulsory Allosexual Performativity, Erotic Exhaustion, and the Post-Sexual Horizon

This article develops a critical genealogy of contemporary sexuality through the concepts of compulsory allosexual performativity, the sexual burnout society, and the post-sexual horizon. Drawing upon Michel Foucault's theory of the dispositif of sexuality, Byung-Chul Han's critique of the achievement society, Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of the lived body, Freud's theory of narcissism, Jung's concept of projection, and Nietzsche's critique of nihilism, it argues that contemporary sexuality has evolved beyond a regime of prohibition into a regime of performative optimization. Sexuality no longer functions merely as one dimension of human existence but increasingly operates as a normative criterion of identity, value, and ontological legitimacy. This transformation generates new forms of erotic exhaustion, narcissistic fragility, bodily self-optimization, and compulsive visibility. In response, the article proposes the concept of post-sexuality as a philosophical horizon in which sexuality loses its ontological centrality without implying its disappearance. Rather than advocating the rejection of sexuality, the post-sexual horizon points toward the ontological decentralization of sexuality, allowing intimacy, care, friendship, spirituality, and other forms of relationality to emerge independently of compulsory allosexual norms. The article contributes to contemporary debates in phenomenology, critical theory, sexuality studies, queer theory, and asexuality studies by offering a conceptual framework for understanding the historical transformation of sexuality beyond both repression and liberation paradigms.