Michael Paramo

Profile

Michael Paramo is a Mexican American writer and artist born and raised on the unceded territories of the Tongva. As a child, he expressed an early interest in wanting to become an artist and spreading love in the world. As an adolescent, he grew up being gay and also found himself questioning his lack of sexual attraction. This led him to discover the term asexual online, which inspired him to create a platform for the asexual community.

Paramo authored several essays on the platform that went on to be cited in the Archives of Sexual Behavior (in 2021), Communication Education (in 2022), the Journal of Folklore Research (in 2023), and in the book Human Sexuality Counseling: A Sex Positive Approach (2023, American Counseling Association). He was then approached to write a book, which was published as Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity in 2024.

Paramo was referred to as “one of the globe's leading aro academics” by British network ITV’s Planet Woo and his book was listed as a university course-recommended text by Ingram Academic in Political Sociology. Concepts from the book were also cited in articles for Sexualities (in 2025) and Southern Cultures (in 2025). Paramo’s current research focus is on the role of artmaking practices in creating positive transformation in the world.

─ Email: mdparamo@gmail.com
• Art Portfolio
• Music Portfolio

Book:

─ Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity. 2024, Unbound. ISBN: 9781800182868.
• Book Review by Foreword
• Recommendation by Ingram Academic
• “Queer Book of the Month” by The English Bookshop‍
• Cited in Sexualities (2025)
• Cited in Southern Cultures(2025)

Dissertation:

─ “Mutant Methodologies: Intuitive Mixed-Media Autoethnographic Approaches Toward Transformative Education. ” University of British Columbia, Social Justice Institute. Upcoming 2026.

Journal Articles:

─ “Portals in the Nightmare: The Affect of ‘Transpop.’” Upcoming.
─ “Loosening the Romantic Grip: The Aromantic Turn to Decolonial Love.” Upcoming.
─ “(Un)Making the Dominator: Does Earth Consent?” Feral Feminisms. Issue 15. Fall 2025.
─ “Virtual Intimacy and Queer Confrontations in The Last of Us: Left Behind.” (1st Pub: VGAR Journal, Issue 2, 2019) + (2nd Pub. 2022: Book by Amherst College Press, pg. 75-83).

Online Writing:

─ “Aromanticism.” AZE. 2019.
• Cited in Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives (2024, Routledge)
• Cited in Social Text (2022)
─ “Beyond Sex: The Multi-Layered Model of Attraction.” AZE. 2018.
• Cited in Human Sexuality Counseling: A Sex Positive Approach (2023, American Counseling Association)
─ “Transphobia is a White Supremacist Legacy of Colonialism.” AZE. 2018.
• Cited in Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography (2021, Amsterdam University Press + 2025, Routledge)
• Cited in Queer Ecofeminism: From Binary Environmental Endeavours to Postgender Pursuits (2023, Bloomsbury Publishing)
• Cited in SN Social Sciences (2021)
• Cited in Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary (2020, University of Texas Press)
─ “Considering Intersectionality and (De)Sexualizing Asexual Bodies.” AZE. 2017.
• Cited in Archives of Sexual Behavior (2021)
─ “Interrogating the Whiteness of the Asexual Community.” AZE. 2017.
• Cited in Communication Education (2023)
• Cited in Journal of Folklore Research (2023)

Art:

─ “no shame,” “not so hot anymore,” “BRAVE,” “Rainsong,” “Blooming Sun.”Feral Feminisms, no. 15 (Fall 2025), 10, 12, 14, 16, 18.
─ “Meltdown.” Blue Mesa Review [University of New Mexico] no. 43‍ (2021), 35.
─ “This Ain’t Your Kind of Rodeo,” High Shelf Press, Issue XIX (2020).

Presentations and Workshops:

─ Rutgers University, Invited panelist for “Aro and Ace A-piphanies” presentation. Hosted by The Honors College of Rutgers' LGBTQ+ Affinity Group and The Rutgers Ace and Aro Alliance. April 15th, 2024.
─ University of British Columbia, Invited class speaker by Isabel Machado on Ending the Pursuit and asexuality, aromanticism, and agenderness. November 30, 2023.
─ Williams College, Invited class speaker by Ianna Hawkins Owen on aromanticism, my visual practice/philosophy, and Aze journal. March 11th, 2020.
─ University of British Columbia, “Second annual Art + Memory + Justice Symposium.” Art presenter of self-portrait series “Metamorphosis,” January 30th, 2020.
─ California State University, Northridge, “Navigating Asexual and Aromantic Identity in a Sexual/Romantic World.” Invited Workshop Facilitator, March 7th, 2019.
─ UC Davis, “Navigating Asexual and Aromantic Identities in a Sexual and Romantic World.” Invited Workshop Facilitator, February 22nd, 2019.
─ Princeton University, “Understanding Our Ace and Aromantic Identities Workshop.” Invited Workshop Facilitator, October 16th, 2018.
─ National Women’s Studies Association, "Tracing Desirelessness: An Historical Analysis of 'Asexual' Existence." Hilton Baltimore, November 16-19th, 2017.
─ Ethnic Studies Summit, "Gender, Performance, and Drag Culture." Invited Panelist, Wilshire Theater, Fullerton College, October 14th, 2017.
─ Popular Culture Association, "LGBT Inclusive Public-School Curriculum: A Gradual Process, Support vs. Opposition, and Effects on LGBT Youth." Marriot Marina, San Diego, April 17-20th, 2017.
─ International Association for the Study of Popular Music, “'God Makes No Mistakes': Analyzing the LGBT Empowerment Anthem and Lady Gaga’s 'Born This Way.'" Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, February 23-26th, 2017.

Interviews:

─ Key Informant Interview with the Institute for Sexual and Gender Minority Health and Wellbeing (ISGMH) at Northwestern University for Project Recognize. June 17th, 2024.
─ Interview with Michael Paramo: Author of Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity. Michele Kirichanskaya for Geeks OUT International. April 1, 2024.
─ The new aromantics flying the flag for the misunderstood identity. Kyle MacNeill for Woo (ITV). February 14, 2024.
─ Exploring Asexuality: The “A” in LGBTQIA+. Kristin Currin-Sheehan for PsychCentral. October 26, 2021.
─ Lunar Notes: An Interview with Featured Writer Michael Paramo (M.AZE). Night Music Journal. May 14, 2021.
─ Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity. Sex Out Loud with Tristan Taormino on October 11, 2019. IMDb.
─ “What It's Like To Date When You're Asexual: Asexual people still date, even if they're not that into sex.” Brittany Wong for The Huffington Post published on November 12th, 2018.
─ “‘Centering Ace Perspectives and Narratives’” Noah Fields for Anomalous Press on October 23, 2017. Drunken Boat.
─ “CSUF student explores how RuPaul slays ‘monsters’ in humanizing drag queens” by Wendy Fawthrop for The Orange County Register. April 24, 2017.

Citations:

─ Jukes, J., and Bayer, R. “New directions for asexual geographies.” Sexualities (2025). https://doi.org/10.1177/13634607251326375. “Brown and Paramo link their turns away from compulsory sexuality, conceived as asexual activism, to wider critiques of white supremacy, heteronormativity and neoliberalism, situating ‘asexual’ in a broader coalition of refusal.”
─ Campbell, Ellie. "Seeing the Invisible: Asexuality in the South." Southern Cultures 31, no. 1 (2025): 108-115. https://dx.doi.org/10.1353/scu.2025.a954048. “In Ending the Pursuit, artist and writer Michael Paramo uses the term azeness to describe ‘the experiences of ‘absence’ that are shared by asexual, aromantic, and agender people amidst the norms and expectations of cisheteropatriarchy.’”
─ Gilman, Lisa. “Cake is Better than Sex: Pride and Prejudice in the Folklore of and about Asexuality.” Journal of Folklore Research 60, no. 2/3 (2023): 196-228. https://doi.org/10.2979/jfolkrese.60.2_3.09. “Paramo asks, “Whiteness is dominating the ace community, but the question is: Why?” [...] The term “asexuality” remains “elusive and esoteric” and “maintains a strong positionality within highly selective and highly white online spaces.”
─ Ben Brandley and Angela Labrador. "Towards an asexual-affirming communication pedagogy." Communication Education 48, 101466 (2022): 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1080/03634523.2022.2151638. “Furthermore, when we presume that aceness is a feature of whiteness, by and for white folks, it creates a ‘cyclical perception’ that can influence white aces ‘to feel more accepted in ace spaces in comparison with people of color” which concomitantly excludes and invisibilizes ace people of color’ (Paramo, 2017, para. 3).”
─ Litam, Stacey Diane A. and Speciale, Megan. “The Multidimensional Nature of Attraction.” In A. M. Schubert & M. Pope (Eds.), Human Sexuality Counseling: A Sex Positive Approach (2023): 131-144. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2023-08272-008. “Michael Paramo provided a comprehensive framework of attraction that expands and critiques the historical definition of attraction. In this model, sexual attraction is deprioritized and viewed as simply one type of attraction.”
─ Marquez, Janeth Montenegro. “Asexual Latina/o/x Representation in AZE.” Feral Feminisms 10, no. 2 (2022): 13-15. https://feralfeminisms.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/02-FF-ISSUE10.2-Montenegro-Marquez.pdf. “Paramo created this journal to give other queer individuals, queer BIPOC individuals especially, a space of community to explore their identities.”
─ McInroy, Lauren B., Brieanne Beaujolais, Shelley L. Craig, and Andrew D. Eaton. “The Self-Identification, LGBTQ+ Identity Development, and Attraction and Behavior of Asexual Youth: Potential Implications for Sexual Health and Internet-Based Service Provision.” Archives of Sexual Behavior 50, no. 8 (2021): 3853-3863. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-021-02064-y. “This complex self-identifcation by young people could suggest a dissonance where participants may feel and/or be perceived as both sexual and non-sexual beings (Paramo, 2017).”