Embracing “Queer Possibility” extends to asexuality. When discovering primary accounts like Marilyn Monroe’s, it is important to validate the account and contextualize it with other evidence to provide a nuanced view of her sexuality, rather than prescribing firm labels.

It is important that researcher have an expansive view of asexuality as a fluid identity, which is true of all queer identities, that may change over a person’s lifetime and manifest differently for each individual.

Expectations of gender and sexuality have evolved over time and are influenced by cultural context. People who do not conform to those expectations are often scrutinized by their contemporaries and, often, pathologized by historians. Asexuality is an often misunderstood identity in today’s world and even more so in historical research.