Linkspam: June 9th, 2017

Every Friday, 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!

Ace Blogging

Siggy reflects on reading gender studies papers about asexuality.

Ace Community Activity

The International Asexuality Conference will take place next month in Madrid.  See here for information and registration.

News & Outreach

Ace & Anxious is a short film about an asexual graphic designer who puts up an ad for sex on Craigslist (cn: corrective rape mention).  It is premiering at the St. Lawrence International Film Festival, and is publicly viewable at least during June.

Inside the Growing Asexual Community is a write-up in Elle Magazine featuring four aces and their relationships.

Calls for Participants/Submissions

Asexual Artists is looking for more interviewees.

 

 

Carnival of Aces: Kissing, Hand Holding, Bed Sharing, etc!

The Carnival of Aces for May has been posted on From Fandom to Family: Sharing my many thoughts.  The theme was “Kissing, Hand Holding, Bed Sharing, etc!“.  Please take a look!

The next Carnival of Aces is being hosted by Writing Ace.  The theme for June is “Asexual Education”.  Get your submissions in before the end of the month!

The Carnival of Aces is hosted by volunteers.  If you would like to volunteer, please see the masterpost for instructions.

Ace Tropes: The Asexual Succubus

Sara K. blogs at The Notes Which Do Not Fit, and has written a number of book reviews of asexual fiction. She is continuing the ace tropes series.

“So what is my assignment, then?”

“Succubus.”

Abbie blinked slowly at her, certain that she must have misheard. “Excuse me?”

“Succubus,” Renata repeated, her voice becoming clinical again as she continued. “A being that draws energy from sexual activity or impulses. Every being here gathers energy in one way or another—well, except for ghosts, they tend to siphon it more than anything, but…” She paused, resting a hand on her shoulder, her expression growing concerned when Abbie shrugged away. “Are you all right?”

“I cannot be a succubus. Would you look at what I died in?”

Renata read her shirt, which had a giant pirate ship on it with the caption Asexual Pirate Doesn’t Want Your Booty. She raised her eyes to Abbie’s face again, looking vaguely confused. “So you’re…”

“I’m ace, yeah.”

– “Welcome to Your Afterlife” by Stephanie Rabig

Earlier, we looked at what happens when “Ace Meets Incubus”. But what about when the succubus/incubus/etc. is ace?

Question of the Week: May 30th, 2017

What do you think of sexual compatibility?  What is it?  Is it important or unimportant?

I think someone who is unfamiliar with asexuality might get the impression that we don’t think sexual compatibility is important.  After all, we’re always talking about ace/allo relationships and how positive they can be.

But just because sexual compatibility isn’t necessary for a relationship doesn’t mean that I think it’s unimportant.  On the contrary, I think it might be especially important for us, because we can’t take it as a given.  While many relationships find a way to work around sexual incompatibility, I think the best way to do so is by treating it as an important issue.

Linkspam: May 26th, 2017

Every Friday, 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!

News & Outreach

The New York Times Modern Love section featured a personal story from a demisexual person.

The UK Green Party mentions asexuality in their LGBTIQA+ manifesto.

Romper featured a personal story about how someone made their relationship work.

Joylyn Secunda is presenting The Moaning Yoni, a solo comedy show, at the Toronto Fringe Festival and Victoria Fringe Festival in July / August.  It’s inspired by her experiences identifying as gray-ace.  You can support her show through a crowd-funding campaign.

Calls for Participants/Submissions

There’s a thesis on the relationship between engagement with academic research and (collective) identity that’s looking for interviewees.

Question of the Week: May 23rd, 2017.

Do you journal or write your thoughts down? Has it helped you work through being ace or any other parts of your life? 

I’ve journalled on and off for years and recently stumbled across Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages activity (write 3 pages in the morning, free hand, about whatever you’re thinking of). While I’ve struggled to do my morning pages every morning, trying to do them reminded me about the joy I feel using private writing and fiction to work through relationships and my feelings. I used to explore what asexuality meant to me in fanfiction and have recently gotten back into writing in general. I have a hard time coming out and saying explicitly what asexuality means to me, in my life, but through characters all my asexual thoughts slip and trickle out. What it means to be asexual comes in drips and drabs and between the margins. It’s there and it’s not. Speaking through someone else is a way to explore saying things I’d never write in a blog post, which always felt reserved for polished and accountable thoughts.

Ace Tropes: Ace Meets Incubus

Sara K. blogs at The Notes Which Do Not Fit, and has written a number of book reviews of asexual fiction. She is continuing the ace tropes series.

From the webcomic Up, Where It’s Warmer

Some cultures have stories about mythical beings which are extremely sexually attractive, and their ability to sexually seduce humans is a source of their magic power, or at least an essential quality of their magic. Examples of such magical creatures include succubi and incubi, but there are other mythological beings which loosely fit this mold (selkies, for example).

Now toss an ace character into this picture…