#Ace History

[queerasfact]

These two women are Liang Jieyun and Huang Li-e. Photographed in 2014, they were both zìshū nǚ ('self-combed women'), participants in a traditional practice in Guangdong, southern China, where women would declare their independence through a solo marriage ceremony. The term zìshū nǚ refers the way that these women would assert their independence by dressing their own hair before the ceremony, rather than having it combed by a married female relative.

Zìshū nǚ were often part of Golden Orchid Societies, communities of women who chose not to marry, or not to live with their husbands, and instead supported each other socially and financially. Many Golden Orchid groups lived together for their whole lives, and saved up to retire as a community.

We had were joined by Lazou from Nuances: Our Asian Stories to chat about all things queer Asian history, including Golden Orchid Societies, on our podcast this week. Check it out! Or you can listen to our whole episode on Golden Orchid Societies here.

[Image source: Tania Branigan for the Guardian]

[rjalker]

actually if we want to be more specific, the alloaros and alloaces who sided with exclusionists during the aspec harassment campaign didn't call the rest of us "non-Queers", they called us "non-SGAs" and "cishet aces and aros" or just straight up "cishets".

Applied to literally every ace and aro and aroace person who wasn't either homosexual aromantic or homoromantix asexual.

Because at that time the exclusionists were trying to beat the word "Queer" to death because they didn't like how inherently open-ended and accepting it is compared to "LGBT".

And yes. They called all aces and aros and aroace people who weren't allogay in one way or another cishet, including the people who were aroace and ~SGA~ (same gender attracted/attraction), and the ones who were openly trans and nonbinary.

They didn't care that not being attracted to the opposite gender inherently means you cannot be "het", because they were pretending that the only way to really be not straight was to feel attration to the opposite gender. Literally erasing aromanticism and asexuality as orientations and turning them only into modifiers for your ""real"" orientation, which was either straight, or gay, and you didn't get to decide it for yourself, either.

They literally did not care how many people they had to misgender and erase to pretend that any aspec person who wasn't acceptably allogay wasn't Queer and had no right to call themselves such.

And let's not forget they all went around claiming that every single aspec person was white and a white supremacist, erasing and speaking over all of the openly Black and brown aspec people, while there was literally one big exclusionist who got found out for literally racefaking to help spread the racist rhetoric and claim that any criticism of it was "just more racism".

Like. Do we gotta just go over the whole history lesson for people who weren't there? Because I'm getting really tired of people within the aspec community constantly vomiting up the exact same rhetoric as exclusionists but pretending it's okay because they're aspec too. Like same-gender-attracted alloaros and alloaces weren't some of the biggest accomplices and sellouts of the whole thing. Which went on for years.

[heyilike]

Our next pride month treat for you is Jess rambling on about the untold history of the ace folks! Joined by our good old friend JJ, we talk all things ace - from 1890s Germany to the invention of AVEN - so pop on over to hear something you've never heard before!

Find us on all major hosting sites! (spotify, google, apple, iHeartRadio, and pocketcasts)

[fourohfourlifenotfound]

How long have you identified as asexual (or on the asexual specrrum)?

Hi all! I'm doing a poll just to get an idea of the breakdown of how long most of us have been here

If you also want to rb and comment how you found out about asexuality, that would be cool! If you're one of the rare ones who has been around since before AVEN, I'd love to hear your story

[infiniteglitterfall]

I finally caved in to my deep desire to call this video "Julia Morgan and the Lesbian Doctors."

But the Lesbian Doctors are really also gonna get a deep dive of their own, because their lives were fascinating.

That one ends up at a socialist commune in Siberia almost immediately. Because of course it does.

This one stays in California. But boy does it ever make an impact there.

Also it's unfair, really, to call it "A Tower of Asexual History," because she was clearly aro as well. But I had thought I'd be putting it out for Ace Week. Ha ha ha. I tried.

Gimme more video ideas please! I need to do deep dives all OVER queer history!

And you can get lots of extra bonus content here:

[it-is-only-a-novel]

[ID: image of the ace flag. Each stripe has the meaning of the color written on it.

Black: Asexuality

Gray: Gray-asexuals & Demisexuals

White: allosexuals

Purple: community

End]

Here's an article about the history of the ace flag:

[onlyasimp4-2dbitches]

"You aren't aromantic if you like cuddling! Cuddling is romantic!"

Straight people making up new definitions for Aromantic/Asexual cause they don't like the actual pre-existing definition.. Anyway whats new!

[demigoddessqueens]

Happy 2,068th to when we should totally just stab Caesar!! Grab a knife with your bestie!

[doctorsiren]

that Steven Universe meme

[sunny-rants]

Queerness is not just about sex and romance. Since the concept of queer has been around, so have asexual and aromantic people. Lavender marriages, voluntary spinsters, vows of chastity used to cover a disinterest in sex. “Monosexuals”, “anesthesia sexual”, “anaphrodites”, category "X". Queer-platonic relationships, asexuality and aromanticism are an undeniable part of lgbtq+ history. Before there were any terms, any flags or acronyms, choosing to not conform to society’s romantic and sexual guidelines has been the very essence of queerness. The inherent queer experience of feeling alienated because you don’t love the “right” way or feel the right feelings for the right people, of trying to meet the expectations set for you while trying to build a life that doesn’t feel like a lie. These are all part of the aspec experience. We aren’t “invading” a space we don’t belong because it’s a trend, or an internet identity. We’re not “spicy straight”. We’re making ourselves known in a community we have always been a part of.

[queerasfact]

(Pauli Murray's dog name and list of achievements are too long for a poll option, but he was an American civil rights activist, lawyer, priest, and author)

You can learn more about these queer historical figures (and their dogs) on our queer history podcast, Queer as Fact!

[rjalker]

For those who weren't there, or had no actual understanding,

Yes, aros were also persecuted during the Ace Discourse time. They were also being targeted, and just as viciously.

It's just that the fucking exclusionists did not know and did not care that "aro" did not inherently mean "ace" or vice versa. They attacked aro people the same exact way they attacked ace people, literally just lumping them in with aces and calling them aces.

Because they were bigots. All they wanted to do was shit on people, and they did not give enough fucks to learn about the people they were shitting on.

Aro people were mocked as being "asexies" the same fucking way people who were ace were.

The bigots just could not be fucking bothered to learn that ace and aro were not inherently synonyms.

The ace exclusionists were no fucking different from any random bigot on the street who doesn't know or care about the differences between being mspec and gay, they just know you're not straight, and that's more than enough, in their minds, to justify everything they're about to throw at you.

Aro people were just as persecuted during the "ace discourse" as ace people were. It's just that the bigots refused to even aknowledge their existance as something other than "cringey asexies not knowing what friends are"

[aspecrepcatalog]

The Greek godesses Athena, Hestia, and Artemis remained virgins and it was described that Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, love, and sex had “no power over them.”

It’s widely accepted that they had other reasons for their celibacy and lack of dating, but many aspecs still resonate with them.

Nike, the goddess of victory, was a virgin as well, never having any sexual or romantic relationships. Although, she is less widely considered to be aroace than the other three.

[fourohfourlifenotfound]

I wonder how many allos will never understand the specific way that ace discourse affected the people in my community

Allo LGBT people can look at an LGBT comic or post or whatnot and see community, instantly. Sometimes I see those posts and just one piece of wording that sounds a bit off will have me searching the word "asexual" in someone's blog, waiting with bated breath to see the kinds of posts they've been reblogging about my identity.

When you shut us out of your community, you took an axe to our relationship. Sure, the rift has healed a lot since then, but the tree will always remember what the axe did.

Maybe this new generation of aces will be lucky enough to never know the horrors that were happening online just a few short years ago. But the echos of that atrocity will remain for years to come, in the places where our history has been washed away under a sea of hatred pouring from a group of people who were supposed to accept us

[infiniteglitterfall]

I've started creating deep dives into queer history on YouTube.

But they take sooo long to make. And ADHD means I often get derailed into wild side stories.

Which are perfect for TikTok!

Like Maria Pool, who was putting lesbian puns in her book titles all the way back in the 1880s.

Or the two dudes who got married IN 1840s BOSTON, and ended up running a beloved gay B&B.

Or the aro teen who sought guidance from the lesbian community 50 years ago.

I think I need to do one about William Cather next. Yes: the American novelist that most of us never knew was trans and intersex.

Any requests?