What is less known is that there is a deep history of dismissing platonic love that actually goes back centuries.
The definition of Gender Expression vs. Gender Identity: Gender expression is based on a person’s appearance (or how they express their gender through their appearance), while gender identity is how a person defines or labels their gender.
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.
Through these realizations, understanding aesthetic attraction may transform how a person understands their identity in relation to others.
I omitted the explanation that I am asexual and aromantic, but I didn’t want to enter into a discussion with a professional that could pathologize me further, especially with the queerphobic atmosphere I perceived, so I let it be.
Looking back, I understand it better now. I was being taught how to be “attractive.” And I was being taught how to be alloromantic and straight.
Masculinity™ is a prescriptive software platform that allows the user to socially establish, both internally and externally, their identity as “male” in their private and personal lives.
School was great in some ways, but it wasn’t easy being ace there.
And, let’s be honest, if you think about queerness in pop culture, you probably mostly think about queer romantic subplots, as if that is all that there is to being queer.
Georgia does not experience romantic or sexual attraction, but she is not loveless
How can one unlearn ideals that they don’t even know they have?
This heteronormative overly sexualized subconsciousness is damaging even for cisgender people.
You may hear that us sirens eat the bodies of the shipwrecked. Many do. I've simply never found it appealing.
I wish attraction and wanting to have a significant relationship weren't so inextricably linked together, and the latter wasn’t assumed to fail without the presence of the former.
When we desire an emotional bond with someone we admire, it can be hard to accept that they don’t feel the same. But desire isn’t a license to guilt or push someone.
These larger problems are on their way to being healed, but the amount of work that still needs to be done is astronomical.
Normally, the Virgin Sacrifice does this with Dr. Frankenfurter. Tonight, I’ll be doing it with the other winner. On stage. In front of a packed theater.
It is the ace coming-of-age story we need, and the one we deserve, and hopefully it will help pave the way for many more novels like it.
Yes, sometimes people really do "just want to cuddle." And sometimes, that is all some of us would like to do.
For the aces who are playing the dating game and are dealing with your fair share of frustrations, here are some simple affirmations:
But holding representation to a high standard matters, too. I want media that helps questioning aces find themselves, and does not reinforce harmful attitudes to the general public.
In The Stumbling Dead, there appear to be no romantic or sexual relationships within the Horde, but the friendships every zombie forms are incredibly strong and devoted.
For the first time in my life I had an answer other than "broken" for the way I experienced the world.
But in retrospect, I can see why this game spoke to me: it validated a part of me that I did not yet know existed.
I want to tell this story because people, especially in Peru, believe that the spectrum of sexuality is only about straights, gays and lesbians, when it really goes beyond that.
You never knew how important it was to see yourself reflected on a TV screen. You've never felt so heard, seen, validated, and loved. You weren't imagining your pain; it's real to others too.