Are birthdays important to you?
It’s my birthday tomorrow! I usually try and celebrate by going to the zoo, but this year instead I am going on a week long work trip!
Do you have any birthday traditions? Would you like to start any? Has being ace changed how you feel about celebrations like this?
Chrysocolla Town volunteered to host the Carnival of Aces this month on her tumblr. This month’s theme is “Asexuality in Fandom”. See the call for submissions for an explanation of the theme and further instructions!
The Carnival of Aces for September has been posted on Valprehension. The theme was “Message to Ace Exclusionists“. Please take a look!
The Carnival of Aces is hosted by volunteers. If you would like to volunteer, please see the masterpost for instructions. We do not have any volunteers for this month yet.
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
aceadmiral wrote about loss of libido from medication.
News & Outreach
BBC Radio 4 had an episode on asexuality.
Moses Sumney’s album Aromanticism has been released. You can listen to it all on YouTube.
Calls for Participants/Submissions
A survey on sex and intimacy on the asexual spectrum is looking for participants.
What do you wish more people would ask you about being ace?
What do you wish friends would ask you? Strangers? Maybe people on The Asexual Agenda?
cw: for invalidating ace identity
I’d like if people asked what asexuality meant to me instead of just assuming they know what it is (they usually don’t).
It would also be nice if they asked if there was anything they could do to be more accepting. It sucks to put minority people on the spot to speak on behalf of all people of a certain group, but you can also do this tactfully to ask what can I do to make you, as an individual, feel more comfortable? I would have loved if one of my last potential-dates did this when I said I don’t experience sexual attraction instead of telling me he wanted to test my hypothesis. Seriously?!
This is part of a series on tropes in fiction with ace characters. To link or follow this series, please use the “ace tropes” tag on this blog.
It’s a valid sexual orientation.
-Dr. Wilson
In 2012, the popular TV show House, M.D. debuted a trailer for a new episode featuring asexual characters. The trailer included a scene with Dr. Wilson delivering the quote above. This got a lot of people on AVEN excited, and many people who didn’t watch the show said they wanted to tune in. I even found an old post by yours truly expressing excitement.
The House episode, called “Better Half”, went down in history as the absolute worst ace representation to have ever existed. If you can stomach the highlight reel, you’ll find that Dr. Wilson is not stating his own opinion but quoting an article he read, which he may or may not believe. Dr. House then goes on to prove that the two asexual patients are just sick and lying respectively, and has a smoke over his success.
Here, I will not analyze all the things wrong with the episode, I will just talk about the marketing. The trailer promised a positive representation of asexuality. The episode spectacularly failed to deliver. The difference between the promise and the delivery is what I’m terming “acebaiting”.
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
Michael Paramo considers the question of who is oppressed enough to be “queer enough”.
Asexuality Archive has posted the first parts of his new series, Maybe I’m Not Really Asexual, Because…: An Exploration of Doubts.
Ace Community Activity
fuckyeahasexual released their fourth annual Asexuals in Fiction list.
Ela Przybylo has shared the syllabus for their class on Asexualities and Critical Nonsexualities, and Starchythoughts is organizing a discussion group for those interested in following along and discussing the listed readings.
fuckyeahasexual is compiling an ace-friendly therapists master list.
News & Outreach
Ace Los Angeles has revealed that they have been officially consulting for “Bojack Horsemen” season 4, where the character Todd officially comes out as asexual and later attends an ace meetup group.
Madison Ace Space is fundraising to support their group activities with some neat ace and aro button deals.
Calls for Participants/Submissions
An interviewee is wanted for a short documentary on asexuality.
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