Ace Watch

This is a post I conceived of a while back but never got around to making.

Asexuality has existed as a cohesive and community-based identity for about 12 years, largely centered around the Internet to bring together scattered individuals. In those twelve years, aces have gotten a documentary as well as a textbook (which I hope will be good!) and a number of papers. Asexuality has been covered in The Atlantic, The Guardian, and the BBC, as well as on some fairly large feminist blogs. Aces have marched in pride parades and participated at MBLGTACC and the Creating Change Conference. Aces have liaised with the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention hotline, to help them acquire asexuality-related materials. Aces have met up dozens or hundreds of times around the world, including an annual weekend in England. A number of cities, and university campuses, have local asexuality groups.

Not bad for 12 years. Something to think about when you encounter negativity.

background images from articles in Nerve, Marie Claire, and Folha.

There’s been a recent discussion about the cover of a potential asexual romance anthology, The Heart of Aces. Everything has already been said, but it reminded me of something else that I wanted to do. So here’s an analysis of the imagery that the media considers appropriate to accompany articles about asexuality, because they seem to fall into a few camps, and maybe I can learn something from this. I’ll link the articles, but this isn’t a critique of what they wrote; I’m interested in the types of visuals they use. And after each category I’m going to make a comment on what I think I learned about asexuality from the image and (for the asexually-uninformed) why I feel it does or doesn’t work, in the unlikely event that there are people are madly Googling right now to try to find inspiration for the kind of photos to accompany their asexuality media piece.

For those of you who are more visually inclined, I have made an easy to use rating system on how these visual representations make this individual ace feel, because otherwise someone confused is going to come along and miss the bloody point:

Analysis below the cut.

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Julia Prims, of the University Of Colorado Boulder, is conducting research into asexuality for their honors thesis:

“This study is intended to examine the cultural dismissal of asexuality and self-esteem, depression, and self-concept in asexually identified individuals. You are being asked to participate in this study because you either identify as asexual or have ties to the asexual community. You will be one of 500 people to participate in this study.

During the course of this study, you will be asked to fill out a questionnaire which will ask you various questions about your identity and experiences as an asexual. If you do not identify as asexual, you will be asked to skip some questions. You will then complete three psychological surveys measuring depression, self-esteem, and self-concept. This study should take approximately 20-45 minutes.”

 If you identify as asexual, demisexual, grey-a, or as anywhere on the asexual spectrum, please consider taking part in this quick and easy survey.

The plan is to publish the paper in a scientific journal and, potentially, present it at conferences.

Please take the survey here

Please complete and/or reblog to raise awareness of this project.