Linkspam: September 23rd, 2022

On Fridays, we will share links to news, blogs, and anything else we find interesting.  We can’t catch everything, so you are invited to self-promote in the comments!

Writing

Coyote shared results from the Gray-Ace & Gray-Aro Survey.

Valerie Anne praised an asexual character in the TV show “The Imperfects”.

Coyote highlighted 6 common mistakes in academic asexuality studies.

Aro Community Activity

The Carnival of Aros had its roundup on the theme “Throwback“.  The September call for submissions is on the theme “Back to School“.

Scholarly Work

The Asexuality and Aromanticism Bibliography is a searchable database and resource currently in beta.

Journal Club: Introducing Asexuality

This month, the ace journal club discussed

“Unthinking Compulsory Sexuality: Introducing Asexuality” by Ela Przybylo, from Introducing the New Sexuality Studies: Original Essays 4th Edition, edited by Nancy L. Fischer, Laurel Westbrook, and Steven Seidman (2022). https://www.academia.edu/84497141/Introducing_Asexuality_Unthinking_Compulsory_Sexuality (accessible with account)

The journal club meets once a month on Discord, using text or voice as club members prefer. We discuss a variety of academic works in ace studies, ranging from gender studies to psychology. Don’t worry about journal access, we can provide access. If you’re interested, please e-mail me at asexualagenda@gmail.com for an invite.

Our discussion notes are below the fold.

How to tell if you’re allosexual, if you’re a journalist

Are you a journalist looking to write an article explaining how you can tell if you’re allosexual? Or perhaps you’re researching to write about arosexuals, cupiosexuals, frayromantics, dreamsexuals, abrosexuals, hyposexuals, lithsexuals, or beyond?

Please reconsider.

Carnival of Aces: Labels and Microlabels

The Carnival of Aces for August has been posted by sildarmillion.  The theme was “Labels and Microlabels“.  Please take a look!

There currently isn’t any host for the next Carnival of Aces.  If you would like to volunteer, please see the masterpost for instructions.

Linkspam: September 2nd, 2022

On Fridays, we will share links to news, blogs, and anything else we find interesting.  We can’t catch everything, so you are invited to self-promote in the comments!

Writing

Cyril wrote a letter to TAAAP about non-queer aspec people.  There was also some additional discussion on pillowfort.

Yasmin Benoit talked about the masturbation question.

Casey Clark wrote about having a twin as a companion.

Diane Darcy highlights that aromantic relationships in Bloom Into You.

Journal Club: A brief history of asexuality

This month, the ace journal club discussed

“A brief history of asexuality”, Chapter 4 from “The Evolution of Online Asexual Discourse” by Andrew Hinderliter (2016). https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/items/98549 (publicly accessible)

The journal club meets once a month on Discord, using text or voice as club members prefer. We discuss a variety of academic works in ace studies, ranging from gender studies to psychology. Don’t worry about journal access, we can provide access. If you’re interested, please e-mail me at asexualagenda@gmail.com for an invite.

Our discussion notes are below the fold.

Linkspam: August 19th, 2022

On Fridays, we will share links to news, blogs, and anything else we find interesting.  We can’t catch everything, so you are invited to self-promote in the comments!

Writing

Ariana A. wrote about coming out as asexual after eight years of marriage.

Cara Giovanetti shared experiences on an ace dating discord.

Ace Admiral wrote about ambiguity, multidirectional memory, family, and loss.

Coyote put the term “microlabel” under a microscope.

AZE Vol 5 Issue 2 is out, on the theme of Disability.

Calls for Participants/Support

The Carnival of Aros is looking for submissions on the theme “throwback”.

AZE is open for submissions on the themes Family and Gay Asexuality and Gay Aromanticism.

Asexuality 101, annotated

This article is being cross-posted to my personal blog, A Trivial Knot.

Some people may have seen the Asexuality 101 page linked on the side bar of A Trivial Knot. I originally wrote that article in 2011, and transported it from blog to blog, occasionally making updates.

Since the beginning, the purpose of the article was to “get it over with”. I had a lot of non-ace readers, but didn’t want to explain the basics over and over again. So the idea was to silently educate readers before they left ignorant comments, saving me energy and saving them embarrassment. These days, awareness of asexuality is so much higher, which leaves me wondering whether the page is necessary, but it sure doesn’t hurt to leave it there.

You can still see older versions preserved on my previous blogs and in the wayback machine if you’re really interested. The article reflects shifting conventional wisdom in how we do asexuality 101, as well as some idiosyncratic choices on my part. Here’s a point by point discussion of why I wrote it that way.

A whirlwind history of asexual communities

I’ve seen plenty of people lament the lack of ace history. But in theory, “we” know plenty about ace history, it’s just that that knowledge doesn’t seem to propagate widely. There are some ace history buffs, especially sennkestra, coyote, Ace Owl, and to a lesser degree myself, but not everyone pays attention to us nerds, nor should they have to. It’s also far too easy to get lost, because a good history requires more detail and care than the average person has time for.

So this here is an informal whirlwind tour of (primarily) online English-speaking ace community history since 1997. I hope the informality of this history makes it more accessible, while also enabling me to discuss the subjective and yet important political aspects.

Carnival of Aces call for submissions: Labels and Microlabels

The August Carnival of Aces is being hosted by sildarmillion, and the theme is “Labels and Microlabels”  Get your submissions in before the end of the month!

The Carnival of Aces is hosted by volunteers each month.  If you would like to volunteer, please see the masterpost for instructions.  We currently do not have a volunteer next month.