#acewriting

AKA How Things Change

Welcome to July 2018′s Carnival of Aces! I’ll briefly get this out here, then I’ll explain what this is, then I’ll come back and reiterate the topic, but this month’s topic is: Then and Now.

So, never heard of a blog carnival? A blog carnival is a blogging event where bloggers all write about a similar topic and the host collects all these posts for everyone’s reading consumption. This particular carnival is a recurring monthly asexual carnival originally started by Sciatrix and now overseen by The Asexual Agenda. Each month, a new blogger hosts and comes up with a new theme. You can find asexualagenda’s masterpost of what this carnival is and all the past events here: https://asexualagenda.wordpress.com/a-carnival-of-aces-masterpost/ If you’re interested in this Carnival, you should think about signing up to host! It’s easier than it seems and a whole lot of fun and connection to the community.

But let’s get onto this month.

I just realized the other month that around a decade ago when I came out as a panro ace. A decade ago and yet I was subject to so much gatekeeping and harassment that since then I’ve never personally identified with the LGBT community (instead finding a home with my fellow queer folk). We didn’t have the terms exclusionist and inclusionist back then. For a while, I wasn’t really part of any wider circles of social media, so the incident felt isolated. Maybe just something I went through. Then exclusionism suddenly became this big, named Thing(TM) on tumblr. Years later, and it’s still the same thing, the same recycled rhetoric.

So I’m interested in some nostalgia from other aces! Absolutely anything that you think of comparing Then and Now is welcome! What’s changed? Has it gotten worse or better or just different? What’s stayed the same? Why do you think that is? If you need some inspiration, here’s some things to think about (please note that when I say asexual, it means asexual and asexual spectrum):

How have things changed since you realized you were asexual/that asexual was an identity? This can be personally, in the community, visibility, representation, recognition, etc.

How have things changed since you first identified as asexual and now? For you or from a wider perspective.

Do you feel differently about your identity now than you used to?

Do you relate to asexuality in a different way now than you used to?

Do you feel there’s a larger community to connect with? Do you feel the community grew but is now smaller?

Is the community addressing real issues or being held back by gatekeeping rhetoric and infighting? Is the community making any broader outreach now?

Where do you hope to see the community go in the future?

Do people respond to you coming out differently? Do you come out in a different manner?

How do people react to asexuality versus how did they?

Do more people know asexuality is an option to identify with now than when you were figuring things out?

Is there more asexuality in media? Has coverage and understanding of it gotten better?

What are your hopes and dreams for asexuality and its visibility/recognition in the future?

Then and Now can be any amount of time that matters to you! A week, a month, a year, a couple years, a decade or more!

Participating is simple! Whatever your blogging platform, simply make a post for your response to the topic Then and Now and then submit your post link to me by July 31st (or let me know that you have a post idea or in the works but will need some extra time to finish it)! You do not have to have a tumblr account to submit to me! If you are not on any blogging platform, you can also write up your response in my submit box. Just make sure you put in whatever name you want to be referred to by in the Name box, and I will post it for you here on my blog with credits to you!

If you have any questions, feel free to send me an ask (anon is turned on). At the end of the month, I will release a post with links to everyone’s responses so you can all read each other’s thoughts and experiences. I hope that this will allow some of us to find some common ground, air some grievances, heal a bit, and even find some positivity and hope. <3

Looking forward to hearing from you, ~Sock