Journal Club: A Sociological Review

Posted on July 26, 2024 by Siggy

Ace Journal Club banner

This month, the ace journal club discussed

“Understanding asexuality: A sociological review” by C. Winer (2024). https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/soc4.13240 (requires journal access)

The journal club meets once a month on Discord, using text or voice as club members prefer. We discuss a variety of academic works in ace studies, ranging from gender studies to psychology. Don’t worry about journal access, we can provide access. If you’re interested, please e-mail me at asexualagenda@gmail.com for an invite.

Our discussion notes are below the fold.

Summary

This review summarizes the sociological literature on asexuality, and identifies future directions for research.

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HSDD was not the beginning nor the end

Posted on July 18, 2024 by Siggy

HSDD as symbol

Did you know? Asexuality used to fall under the diagnosis of Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (HSDD), in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). This was corrected by the DSM 5, released in 2013 (see these screenshots). The historic removal of asexuality from the HSDD diagnosis forms the seed of a narrative: asexuality was once a medicalized condition, and how psychologists eventually recognized our legitimacy.

I wish to complicate this narrative. HSDD may be a symbol of the medicalization of asexuality, but its importance has been overemphasized. Prior to the DSM 5, HSDD was a problem, but not necessarily the biggest concern among ace activists. It was an obscure diagnosis, and in all my years I have not heard even a single anecdote of an ace getting diagnosed. And that’s not to say that aces didn’t have issues with psychologists. Ace-competent mental health care is a broader issue that extends beyond a single diagnosis, and continues to be a problem long after DSM 5.

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Posted in activism, Articles, asexual politics, History | Tagged | 1 Comment

Restored Carnival of Aces: “Names”

Posted on July 11, 2024 by Siggy

The Carnival of Aces has been around for many years, and some of the blogs that have hosted carnivals go defunct.  In this case, the host asked me to mirror the carnival so they could take the original down and go incognito.

April 2020: “Names”.

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Linkspam: July 5th, 2024

Posted on July 5, 2024 by Siggy

On Fridays, we will share links to news, blogs, and anything else we find interesting.  We can’t catch everything, so you are invited to self-promote in the comments!

Writing

There was a late submission to the Carnival of Aros, about aromanticism in Cantonese.

Perfect Number continued her series on The Great Sex Rescue, talking about vulnerability. We also missed an earlier section where the authors say “you just can’t not consent forever“.

Ace Admiral reviewed Koisenu Futari.

Blue Ice-Tea discussed the concepts of gender detachment, cis-genderless, and cis by default.

sildarmillion wrote about pelvic floor therapy, and constructions of virginity.

Mia has a guide on writing asexual and aromantic characters.

The Ace Community Survey published analysis of living conditions, communities, and coming out.

Zoë J. Osik shared her thoughts on playing dating and farming sim games.

Lin Yang sees aromanticism in the TV series “Dead Boy Detectives”.

Caelyn Ellis praises the ace representation in Outer Worlds.

Videos

Rowan Ellis discussed ace “discourse”, using interviews with several activists and scholars.

Anthony Padilla featured a panel of asexual people, and then another panel of asexual men.

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Restored Carnival of Aces: “Inside the Frame, Outside the Frame”

Posted on July 4, 2024 by Siggy

The Carnival of Aces has been around for many years, and some of the blogs that have hosted carnivals go defunct.  In this case, the host asked me to mirror the carnival so they could take the original down and go incognito.

November 2021: “Inside the Frame, Outside the Frame”.

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Acausally Asexual

Posted on July 2, 2024 by Siggy

People who have newly discovered asexuality perpetually ask: Am I really asexual, or is there just something wrong with me? Is it because of my trauma? Am I just too shy? Do I need to check my hormones? Did I just have a bad breakup? Is it because I’m taking SSRIs? So on and so forth.

These questions are founded in the intuition that asexuality (and other sexual orientations) are acausal. Sexual orientation isn’t caused by anything, it simply is. Or perhaps, the only allowable cause is that you’re born with it. Implicitly: if you ever identify another cause, then you’ve delegitimized your orientation, and discovered that it was never a sexual orientation to begin with.

I have some issues with this, to put it mildly.

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Posted in Articles, asexual identity | 2 Comments

Journal Club: Mental health bias on asexuality, non-monogamy, and BDSM

Posted on June 20, 2024 by Siggy

Ace Journal Club banner

This month, the ace journal club discussed

“Mental health provider bias and clinical competence in addressing asexuality, consensual non-monogamy, and BDSM: a narrative review” by Herbitter et al. (2021) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/14681994.2021.1969547 (requires journal access)

The journal club meets once a month on Discord, using text or voice as club members prefer. We discuss a variety of academic works in ace studies, ranging from gender studies to psychology. Don’t worry about journal access, we can provide access. If you’re interested, please e-mail me at asexualagenda@gmail.com for an invite.

Our discussion notes are below the fold.

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Linkspam: June 14th, 2024

Posted on June 14, 2024 by Siggy

On Fridays, we will share links to news, blogs, and anything else we find interesting.  We can’t catch everything, so you are invited to self-promote in the comments!

Writing

Writers at Muppet fansite ToughPigs discussed the ace resonances in Fraggle Rock.

AUREA interviewed the lead author of the Teens & Screen report, which found that younger viewers wanted to see less romance, and more asexual and aromantic characters.

Perfect Number continued the discussion of The Great Sex Rescue, with a chapter about “being like Jesus”.

Coyote discussed an ace reading of vampires in the Mercy Thompson series.

Videos

DarkTeaTime discussed romance paths in games such as Baldur’s Gate 3.

News & Outreach

Empathize This published a short asexual account, illustrated as a comic.

Calls for Participants/Support

Signups are open for AUREA’s Aromantics Create Pride event.

AUREA is raising funds to become a non-profit.

Posted in Linkspam | 2 Comments

The 2024 Ace Community Survey is now open

Posted on June 3, 2024 by Siggy

The Ace Community Survey is run by the Ace Community Survey Team in collaboration with Northwestern University.  It collects valuable information on the demographics and experiences of members in the ace community, including asexual, demisexual, gray-asexual, and related identities.

Click here to take the 2024 Ace Community Survey:
https://redcap.nubic.northwestern.edu/redcap/surveys/?s=8HDXK4337TPJ8JHP or https://tinyurl.com/AceSurvey2024

The survey is open to anyone: ace, non-ace, or still questioning. As long as you are 15 years of age or older, we want to hear from you!

You will be able to view any published results from the survey at https://acecommunitysurvey.org. If you would like to receive an automatic email update when new results or announcements are posted, you can subscribe here.

[Disclosure: I am promoting this as a principal investigator in this survey]

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Journal Club: Emma and Queer Austen

Posted on May 22, 2024 by Siggy

Ace Journal Club banner

This month, the ace journal club discussed

“‘A Hundred Different Ways of Being in Love’: Emma, Queer Austen, and Asexuality Studies” by George & Lu. (2024) https://utpjournals.press/doi/abs/10.3138/ecf.36.1.149 (requires journal access)

The journal club meets once a month on Discord, using text or voice as club members prefer. We discuss a variety of academic works in ace studies, ranging from gender studies to psychology. Don’t worry about journal access, we can provide access. If you’re interested, please e-mail me at asexualagenda@gmail.com for an invite.

Our discussion notes are below the fold.

Continue reading →

Posted in Articles, Research | Tagged | 2 Comments