Sociologists have documented sex talk as a crucial mechanism in the reproduction of heteronormativity in schools. In this highly sexualized context, how did asexual people make sense of sex talk? Drawing upon 21 retrospective interviews with asexual adults (between 18 and 31 years of age), I examined their accounts of sex talk in high school. Contrary to expectation, most of my respondents did not link sex talk to issues of masculinity/femininity, but instead framed it as about discovery of asexual identity, friendship, immaturity and inappropriate conduct, and/or simply meaningless noise. I suggest that the diverse range of gender ideologies and abundance of gender-coded symbols in our society enabled many respondents to assert asexuality-compatible femininities/masculinities, foreclose potential gender dilemmas, and retain a sense of security in their gender subjectivity. While the diverse narratives of sex talk encounters remind sociologists to appreciate asexual people’s heterogenous experiences, the possibility of subjectively degendering sex talk and desexualizing gender challenges sociologists to adopt a multidimensional approach to understand gendered sexuality.

社会学家将性谈话记录为学校异性恋再生的关键机制。在这种高度性化的背景下，无性恋者如何理解性谈话？通过对无性恋成年人（18 至 31 岁）的 21 次回顾性采访，我检查了他们在高中时对性谈话的描述。与预期相反，我的大多数受访者并未将性谈话与男性气质/女性气质问题联系起来，而是将其定义为发现无性身份、友谊、不成熟和不当行为，和/或只是无意义的噪音。我认为，我们社会中多种多样的性别意识形态和丰富的性别编码符号使许多受访者能够断言与无性恋相容的女性气质/男性气质，排除潜在的性别困境，并在他们的性别主体性中保持安全感。虽然性谈话遭遇的多样化叙述提醒社会学家欣赏无性恋者的异质经历，但主观上贬低性谈话和去性化性别的可能性挑战社会学家采用多维方法来理解性别化的性行为。