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Asexuality Week – Day One
Oct. 26th, 2014 10:08 amIt's that time of year again, Asexual Awareness Week. I'm hoping to put together a few posts during this week.
If you're completely new to the concept of asexuality there's a brief overview here a fantastic comic here or a poster with some key points here.
I've written plenty of posts, have rec'd and linked to articles, and written fic with the theme of asexuality and they're usually tagged theme: asexuality spectrum.
Also I have a tag for theme: non-sexual intimacy because sex is not the only, nor the most important, way to show intimacy and affection.
I maintain a Pinterest Board on asexuality here. On Tumblr I follow Everyday Igonorance which is run by asexual author Julie Sondra Decker, and House of Ace which are good starting points to find resources and other blogs. I always mention verbs not nouns; while the journal is infrequently updated these days, the past posts give great insight into the life of a kinky asexual.
It's always a bit of risk to make these posts. I had someone unfriend me after the first time I posted about asexuality (could have been coincidental but who knows).
Last year I had someone take the wonderful term "zucchini" as a slang term for a platonic life partner and twist into "so, like an emotional vegetable?" (because clearly the thing to do when you don't understand something is turn a positive term developed by a marginalised community into a slur, with the bonus of propagating the stereotype of the Puritan Genius Inhuman Unemotional Asexual).
This year I'm writing a post about masturbation because I just had a major falling out over a couple of issues with someone including their privileging of "real sex" and insistence of the importance of it in any relationship, along with their dismissal of masturbation as a valid and life-affirming expression of sexuality (I'm asexual, this is probably the only sex I'm ever going to have, and if I want to have an orgasm, it's not for you to tell me it's somehow lesser because I don't have a partner).
Why bother, then? Because I'm angry about being sidelined and seeing asexuals insulted and reading about masturbation as more sinful then unmarried sex. More angry than sad. And when you have that much anger it's best to channel it productively. And if LJ Idol has taught me anything it's that there's more satisfaction to be had when you don't censor yourself but write from your soul and trust that you will find an audience. So I'm going to post and damn the consequences.
If you're completely new to the concept of asexuality there's a brief overview here a fantastic comic here or a poster with some key points here.
I've written plenty of posts, have rec'd and linked to articles, and written fic with the theme of asexuality and they're usually tagged theme: asexuality spectrum.
Also I have a tag for theme: non-sexual intimacy because sex is not the only, nor the most important, way to show intimacy and affection.
I maintain a Pinterest Board on asexuality here. On Tumblr I follow Everyday Igonorance which is run by asexual author Julie Sondra Decker, and House of Ace which are good starting points to find resources and other blogs. I always mention verbs not nouns; while the journal is infrequently updated these days, the past posts give great insight into the life of a kinky asexual.
It's always a bit of risk to make these posts. I had someone unfriend me after the first time I posted about asexuality (could have been coincidental but who knows).
Last year I had someone take the wonderful term "zucchini" as a slang term for a platonic life partner and twist into "so, like an emotional vegetable?" (because clearly the thing to do when you don't understand something is turn a positive term developed by a marginalised community into a slur, with the bonus of propagating the stereotype of the Puritan Genius Inhuman Unemotional Asexual).
This year I'm writing a post about masturbation because I just had a major falling out over a couple of issues with someone including their privileging of "real sex" and insistence of the importance of it in any relationship, along with their dismissal of masturbation as a valid and life-affirming expression of sexuality (I'm asexual, this is probably the only sex I'm ever going to have, and if I want to have an orgasm, it's not for you to tell me it's somehow lesser because I don't have a partner).
Why bother, then? Because I'm angry about being sidelined and seeing asexuals insulted and reading about masturbation as more sinful then unmarried sex. More angry than sad. And when you have that much anger it's best to channel it productively. And if LJ Idol has taught me anything it's that there's more satisfaction to be had when you don't censor yourself but write from your soul and trust that you will find an audience. So I'm going to post and damn the consequences.
