…it is an odyssey of self-affirmation for an aromantic woman under siege by a society that does not yet understand her.

Acespec development infers growing without a qualifier: not growing sideways or growing into anything in particular, but just growing—directionless and aimless by societal standards perhaps, but growing still, in unexpected ways.

This shows that amatonormativity is not only a concern of theorists, or of modern-day asexual and aromantic activists; instead, it has been a thread through gay liberation from the roots of the movement.

Effeminate gays and masculine lesbians struggle through societal expectations onto them. They are unable to even satisfy internal desires of being nurturing versus providing, being homemakers versus breadwinners, in a constant conflict with their inner being.

The associations between sexual trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among asexual individuals are not well-studied.

It is through this resistance that I may identify my ‘dis-abledness’ as interconnected with ‘who I am’: as an embodiment of decolonial resistance.

Here, “trans” is the verb my Madness takes as I refuse to engage in the project of cisheteronormative social life.

Let our revolution be intersectional so as not to crumble as a house divided against itself.

From this vantage point, we might ask if asexuality is problematic for men not simply because it isn’t masculine but because it is feminine.

I exist in the liminal space between masculinity and something else, an inertial nothing that frees me from the orbit of rephallicization…

Let’s talk about love.

…kink can be the space where they finally feel at home, or even more marginalized than before.

Locating Laurence’s asexuality is an important act of reclamation for asexual history, as it demonstrates that asexuality is a necessary aspect of understanding the historical record of human attraction and desire.

What the endurance of this phrase over decades of time can tell us about societal perceptions of asexuality should not be minimized, especially given the phrase’s deeper assumptions.

Elizabeth’s androgynous language supports her status as a virgin married to her kingdom — simultaneously both and neither woman and man, wife and husband.

After finding this language to finally describe how I felt, I immediately started looking online for more people like me.

People live in the cities because it’s convenient. Their stuff is there, moving is a hassle, and socio-economic reasons pressure people who hate the city to stay.

But, to talk about identity is to talk about “the other”: when the critics of the ace pride assume themselves as rightful gatekeepers of the LGBTTTIQ+ community…

“Preference” may perpetuate a violent cycle of the subjugation, murder, and neglect of lives and bodies outside of those who have been privileged to be coded as “normal” due to capitalism.

When one assumes cisgender and heterosexual existence to be ‘normal,’ their actions and words based on this belief directly serve the agendas of European colonizers.

We should not be bombarded with messaging that tells us that we are missing a prerequisite to fulfillment and life satisfaction, and that there is something defunct within us.

All this and more occurs in the very moment I negotiate with the culture and structure that defines my absence-identity – in sex.

Brian Fink, PhD examines asexual community participation and identifies the reasons why asexuals do or do not participate in communities, both online and offline.

Asexual is one such label which has met with misrepresentations — perpetuated in medicine, the law, and popular media — due to both the lack of a strict definition and a pervasive “sexual assumption.”

Coming of age, I knew I was gay. But, something always felt... different.

Understand that an asexual movement must address the nuances of racialized sexuality before being able to argue for an identity-based asexuality.

…as ace people we may not possess the ability to simply label ourselves as queer, because of the erasure of asexuality within queer spaces…

For the asexual whose body is inherently sexualized, they may be deemed to be too inherently sexual to be asexual, directly conflicting with their ability to claim and have access to the identity of asexuality on a societal level.

Gay and queer asexual masculinities could challenge erotic bodily regimes but at the same time exist precariously within them.