#ace:general

Today I was in my government class and we were talking about common negative character types that people of

color in the media are typically given. My professor (who is a woman of color) described several of the trope type characters as asexual, meaning they are never depicted as having any sexual interest in another person.

What I am struggling with is whether Asexual is the right word to describe these character types. Maybe desexualized is more appropriate? Or simply saying these characters never express sexual desire?

But I don’t feel like it’s my place to say whether Asexual is the right term or not since I’m not a person of color and those tropes don’t get applied to me. That’s why I’d like feedback from some ace poc.

I’m also wondering if there might be a risk to use Asexual in that context. Could the term Asexual get tied up to those negative tropes and reduced to one? I really don’t know.

Lets get a conversation going.

Some general ace/ace-spec pride!

- mod Riah

Ace-spec pride!

[Image descriptions: pictures with ace flag colors and verious text: "my sexual preferance is eeeh, maybe?", "my sexual preferance is potentially eventually?", " mmm, (gray-/fray-/demi-/wtf-)sexualiTea tastes delicious", "amazing grayce", "Grayceful", and "demi diety". End description.]

Ace-spec pride!

[Image descriptions: pictures with ace flag colors and verious text: "my sexual preferance is eeeh, maybe?", "my sexual preferance is potentially eventually?", " mmm, (gray-/fray-/demi-/wtf-)sexualiTea tastes delicious", "amazing grayce", "Grayceful", and "demi diety". End description.]

Hi anon!

I am by no means a relationship expert, but I'd say it could work and depends more on how you work together. If you like listening to each other talk about stuff that you're not that personally interested in but the other one is, then that's something you can so together. If you find just one or two activities that you have common interest in, then you can do that together. Also, I think how you feel about eachother and your communication about your wants and needs are more important and that if you are able to spend time together and be comfortable together, then it should be fine.

Hope this helps!

Hi anon!

Appreciating dancing or the aesthetic of some women does not mean you are sexually attracted to them, which means yes you can still be ace! And making sexual jokes doesn't mean you're into sex, it's just fun and joking and lots of of aces are comfortable joking about it without experiencing sexual attraction, me included!

So basically, Yes, you're valid and still ace!

Nice!

Hi anon!

Feeling embarrassed or tingly from looking at someone can be other types of attraction as well, such as romantic, so it doesn't necessarily mean you experience sexual attraction. I'd recommend feeling for what types of things you'd actually want with the person you're looking at/near by when you get this feeling and considering if its sexual, romantic, platonic or something else. If it is sexual atttraction though then you sound quite like aceflux could fit. Aceflux is when it varies whether you experience sexual attraction or not, though mostly not or to a lesser degree than most.

Hope this helps!