Vol. 2, Issue 3: Asexuality and Pride

The Asexual Vol. 2, Issue 3

Lead Editor: Michael Paramo
Editorial Board: Ai Baba, Evelyn Elgie, Katie Halinski, Emma Hutson, Joe Jukes, Sydney Khoo, Ashley O' Mara
Layout Editor: Michael Paramo
Cover Artwork: “Interleaf” by Daniela Illing (@zeichenleere)
Article Artwork: “Interleaf” by Daniela Illing, “Ace Pride Shawl” by Katie Frey, and 14 photographs by Michael Paramo (@mxparamo.art)

Original Call: June 13th, 2018
Date of Publication: October 1st, 2018

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Asexuality and Pride

For many of us who identify under the ace umbrella, the concept of feeling pride in ourselves and our identities is often clouded by exclusionary rhetoric and invalidating responses. These may arise out of our peers who assert that we should not be included in the larger LGBTQIA+/queer community or from those who make us feel ashamed of our existences and experiences by suggesting that we are in need of correction. In a society which devalues our experiences with intimacy, attraction, and human connection, how may we as ace people transform or transcend these negative energies? To hold fulfillment in one’s asexuality can function as a counterforce, not only to the pain and emotional hardship of navigating a world that delegitimizes our lives, but also to pervasive societal narratives which tell us we must conform to the sexual and relationship-based expectations of society if we are ever to taste happiness. To feel a sense of pride in one’s asexuality can be a subversive act defying what society assures us is a role only reserved for misery, pity, immaturity, self-righteousness, and further states of being that “normal” humans should never desire.

This perception of the asexual as lessor and undesirable largely exists as a consequence of sex being socially conditioned in contemporary Western society to be especially desirable as an act imbued with critical significance. Depending on where our individual existences at the intersections of identities reside, the expectation that we all inherently possess sexual attraction and desire can often bound, coerce, or encourage us as ace people to perform or submit to its scripted standards with the objective of assimilation into “normalcy.” Because of how deeply sex runs through the corridors of social life, it’s assumed that if we do not desire sex, feel sex, or express ourselves through sex, we are “unnatural” or broken as human beings. We often hear of the need or urge for the sexual, but society rarely if ever seems to send out messages telling us to desire the asexual. Volume 2, Issue 3 of The Asexual journal on Asexuality and Pride features the work of several ace-identified artists and writers who directly confront this theme with inspiring personal narratives, representative symbols portraying ace empowerment, and critiques of the systems and individuals which intend to make us feel shame, among other endeavors. I hope what follows can be a positive light.

Michael Paramo
Founder of The Asexual

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Editorial Board

Ai Baba (she/they) is an aroace agender person, who is currently writing a dissertation on how to include into history those who have been marginalized, excluded, and/or forgotten from history, proposing the inclusion of asexuality in historical analyses. Ai currently volunteers for the Asexual Census Survey Team and also runs “ace to ace” to connect those who identify as ace in Japan (http://ace2ace121.wordpress.com). Twitter: @not_alibaba

Evelyn Elgie is a queer ace poet, artist, and academic. Her work deals with mental illness, asexuality, deconstruction and landscape, and in particular a radical re-imagining of our cultural understanding of sex and romance. She holds a BA in Contemporary Studies and Creative Writing from the University of King’s College, and her poetry has appeared in Open Heart Forgery, Glass Mountain, and Hinge: Journal of the Contemporary. She is about to begin her master’s degree at the Social Justice Institute at the University of British Columbia.

Katie Halinski is a non-binary grey-asexual from London. They are currently doing a PhD in Anglo-Saxon, Norse & Celtic at the University of Cambridge, where they are researching human-bird interactions and bird symbolism in Old Norse culture. In their spare time, they enjoy playing bass guitar and watching films (the stranger the better). They can be found on Twitter as @Liminalitea, where they mostly post about kaiju, cats, the stranger parts of medieval culture, and mental health.

Emma Hutson is currently completing a PhD on trans literature at Sheffield Hallam University. She has work published in C Word: An anthology of writing from Cardiff, Severine Literary and Art Journal, CrabFat Magazine, the Harpoon Review and The Asexual journal. Her short story ‘Footsteps’ came second place in Sheffield Authors’ Off The Shelf short story competition. She is available on Twitter @Emma_S_Hutson

Joe Jukes holds an MA Sexual Dissidence from the University of Sussex, UK. Their primary research interests concern theory, including Queer- and Gender Theory, Critical Theory as well as Cultural Geography and Rural Studies. Joe's MA thesis sought new, creative methodologies for discussing asexuality without recourse to the 'negative'. They have published in The Asexual before, in the Body and Sex issues, and are hoping to pursue a PhD working towards the creation of “asexual theory.” Their Twitter can be found @JoeeJayyy

sydney khoo is a non-binary and queer writer, born in new south wales, australia to malaysian-chinese parents. though typically located crying in starbucks or tweeting in mcdonalds, they can occasionally be found posting creative essays and short stories online. follow them on twitter @sydneykerosene

Ashley O’Mara is a freelance writer, former Jeopardy! contestant, and PhD candidate at Syracuse University, where they are writing a dissertation about celibacy and asexuality in literature after the English Reformation. Their work on sexuality, religion, and politics has appeared in America and Metathesis. They identify as ace, enby, and some kind of andro- or biromantic. They have strong opinions about hummus. Follow them online at ashleyomara.com and @ashleymomara

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Supporters
Vol. 2, Issue 3

The Asexual is an independent journal for ace writers and artists that relies on donations of $1.00 or more per month via Patreon. Without this support from our patrons, this journal would not be possible. Supporters of The Asexual journal currently donating $5.00 or more per month:

• David Allen

• Lindsey Petrucci

• Joe Kort

• David Jay

• Stephanie Keahey

• Damianne Abel

• Madeline Askew

• Geoffrey Payne

• Brian Fehler

• Heidi Samuelson

• Elisheva Averett-Balser

• Katie Frey

• Brittainy Brown

• Florian Freyss

• Anna Short

• Mat Jarosz

• Tawny Case

• M. D. Hooks

• Julia

• Rane Wallin

• Rosemary Derocher

• Chris Pasillas

• Ceili Sauer

• Kyle Lindsey

• Andrea Berman

• Sety

• Kianna Carter

• Robin Taylor

• Karen Cuthbert

• Kate Gilbert

• Bethany King

• Vari Robinson

• Jessica Stapf

• ANNE HAWLEY

• Kaitlyn Mahoney

• Helen Doremus

• Walter Mastelaro Neto

• Sarah Lister

• Annie Robertson

• Courtney Boucher

• Elly Ha

• Jessica Shea

• Jennifer Smart

• Kiya

• Julie Rozen

• Samantha L

• Alexandra Bowers-Mason

• KatieC

• Christian

• Dylan Morris

• Mary Bielenberg

• Alex Stabler

• Akilah Thomas

• Laurel Williams

• Sam Pachico