Happy Ace Week 2021

Being Ace:

• Ace Week is an annual campaign to raise awareness, build community, and create change globally. It is said that Aces make up about 1% of the population but that is likely to be an undercount since there is still a real lack of ace awareness plus there are many cultural norms/cultural expectations that can mislabel and dismiss asexuality.

Historical Context For Asexuality:

• Aces have left fewer marks on the historical record. For historical figures it often comes down to a lack of evidence that they had sex. But since asexuality is based on sexual attraction we will never know if individuals were ace or simply did not have sex for other reasons. Plus it is possible that figures were asexual/did not experience sexual attraction but lived in times where social norms such as reproducing forced them into sexual relationships.

• On the Kinsey Scale there was an X grade used to mean "no socio-sexual contacts or reactions" that is often thought of a a proto-asexuality classification. This X has many of the same issues as trying to identify asexuality in historical figures because it was not really set up to capture sexual attraction like we think about it today but it is evidence that while the term asexuality might be one of the newer ones it does not mean the identity itself is new. 

Asexuality:

• Asexual – A term used to describe someone who does not experience sexual attraction toward individuals of any gender.
• Gray-A, gray-asexual, gray-sexual are terms used to describe individuals who feel as though their sexuality falls somewhere on the spectrum of sexuality between asexuality and sexuality.
• Demisexual individuals are those who do not experience primary sexual attraction but may experience secondary sexual attraction after a close emotional connection has already formed.

Types of Attraction:

• Sexual attraction: attraction that makes people desire sexual contact or shows sexual interest in another person(s).
• Romantic attraction: attraction that makes people desire romantic contact or interaction with another person or persons.
• Aesthetic attraction: occurs when someone appreciates the appearance or beauty of another person(s), disconnected from sexual or romantic attraction.
• Sensual attraction: the desire to interact with others in a tactile, non-sexual way, such as through hugging or cuddling.
• Emotional attraction: the desire to get to know someone, often as a result of their personality instead of their physicality. This type of attraction is present in most relationships from platonic friendships to romantic and sexual relationships.
• Intellectual attraction: the desire to engage with another in an intellectual manner, such as engaging in conversation with them, “picking their brain,” and it has more to do with what or how a person thinks instead of the person themselves.

Romantic Orientations:

• Romantic Orientation – Describes an individual’s pattern of romantic attraction based on a person’s gender(s) regardless of one’s sexual orientation. 
• Aromantic: individuals who do not experience romantic attraction toward individuals of any gender(s)
• Biromantic: romantic attraction toward males and females
• Heteroromantic: romantic attraction toward person(s) of a different gender
• Homoromantic: romantic attraction towards person(s) of the same gender
• Panromantic: romantic attraction towards persons of every gender(s)
• Polyromantic: romantic attraction toward multiple, but not all genders
• Gray-romantic: individuals who do not often experience romantic attraction
• Demiromantic: an individual who does not experience romantic attraction until after a close emotional bond has been formed. People who refer to themselves as demiromantic may choose to further specify the gender(s) of those they are attracted to (e.g. demi-homoromantic).
• Queerplatonic Relationships (QPRs) are those relationships that are not romantic in nature but they involve very close emotional connections that are often deeper or more intense than what is traditionally considered a friendship. Since there is not adequate language to describe queerplatonic partners, some people refer to these partners as zucchini.
• Squish is a term used to identify aromantic crushes; the desire for a non-romantic/platonic relationship with another person.

Asexuality In Media:

• There are historical characters who are often read as being asexual such as Sherlock Holmes. Since Sherlock Holmes was written long before Asexuality was a term being used we can never know if Sherlock really was Ace but many of his interpretations portray him in a manner that could mean he is Ace. 

• Now more than ever before there a books and story lines that include ace characters. Like stories that involve other members of the LGBTQ+ community some of these are in name only, some are harmful (spreading the negative idea that if someone who is ace finds the right person they will no longer be ace), and some are positive explorations of the complexities of being asexual.

• A great example of asexuality being handled in a positive fashion is this clip from season two of the show Sex Education. (Of course this is a representation of one experience of being Ace and others who are ace might describe it completely differently)