naderegen:[image transcript: -Hallo!- It’s Asexual Awareness Week, so I’m here to bring some awaren
naderegen:[image transcript: -Hallo!- It’s Asexual Awareness Week, so I’m here to bring some awareness. Wooh!- This is not going to be one of those comics with facts and figures about asexuality. - Other people have explained this much clearer than I ever will, so I’m gonna post some links in the description for you to check. - What I do want to discuss is how just sharing that type of information isn’t enough. - You can know the theory and still not realize you’re asexual. (And thus, struggle with your identity)- “Asexuality means you don’t experience sexual attraction”- “…” - How is that supposed to mean anything to people who don’t experience it in the first place?- We literally no frame of reference here- Something that can* happen becuse of this lack of reference, is assigning the wrong feeling to the concept of sexual attraction. * and I do mean can, in no way does this happen to all of us.- To explain that, imagine you equate ‘smiling’ with ‘happines’.- But instead of wondering why, unlike others, you aren’t happen when you smile…- … You assume that the other emotion you feel when smiling is happiness.-The same thing can happen for sexual attraction. And once you have that mindset, ‘people who don’t experience sexual attraction’ will no longer resonate.- Because you think you do, even though you don’t. (and the world isn’t gonna disagree)- Personally I mistook ‘thinking someone is pretty’ for ‘sexual attraction’ for a long, long time.- And although that can be part of it, it’s not the full range of that feeling.- It’s really easy to be wrong in a situation where you only have dry info and no stories about people.- So, please.- If you participate in raising awareness for Asexuality,- Don’t stop at sharing definitions and orientations.- Share people’s experiences too.]Reading about Asexuality didn’t make me identify as such, because it didn’t make me aware of a mistake in my thought pattern. Watching The Big Bang Theory connected the dots for me. I have to live with the fact that over ten years of soul searching was resolved by watching The Big Bang Theory, and I don’t necessarily wish that fate upon others. OTL So share people’s experiences! Share media featuring asexual characters! Share anything that makes us as human and diverse as we are. I mean, share the facts too, but don’t just leave it at that. We have faces, we have lives and we have stories. And often, they’ll overlap with yours. And when I say we need to share people’s experiences, I don’t just mean the ones of Very Specific People, share diverse experiences. Share the experiences of asexual POC, of asexuals with a disability, of asexuals of any gender, and of asexuals of any romantic orientations.…Also I feel like I’m a little clumsy in my explanation but again, this is why I said I wouldn’t make a regular infographic, ahah.Links to a few resources as promised!adriofthedead’s great and informative comic: hereasexual awareness week website: hereAVEN: hereand theasexualityblog -- source link