So weâre seeing a resurgence of exclusionary rhetoric- and most of this is on Twitter, but I think itâs time to unpack what happened during the âace discourseâ as well- because this stuff will happen again.
These are just the examples I can remember off the top of my head- but theyâre good things to watch out for.
Echo chambers: Over the course of the first year especially, exclusionists would form tight-knit groups and private chats (especially over Discord). They would invite people into these groups and suck them in pretty intensely, creating environments where only one way of thinking was allowed. People who disagreed would often be mocked and harassed back into conformity.
Avoiding Criticism: Any comparison of exclusionist rhetoric to some more âlegitimateâ form of bigotry was usually met with the claim âwhy are so many of us [targeted group] then?â Oftentimes they would point to exclusionists claiming to be trans women or people of color, later found out to be fabricated by cis and white people. Exclusionists also tended to put âTERFs do not interactâ and similar statements in blog descriptions or on TERFy posts in order to avoid comparisons to TERF rhetoric.
Targeting Allyship: Communities would be pit against each other in order to discourage allyship with the ace community. The most successful example is the way lesbians were encouraged to see aces as âa lesbophobic communityâ, the effects of which linger today. They also attempted to pit the bi community against us, and the autistic community.
Targeting Language: Exclusionists often targeted the language the A-spec community used; âalloâ came under fire for being âhomophobicâ and âlumping people in with their oppressorsâ, âa-specâ was said to have originated as a term for the autism spectrum (a blatant lie), and even pointing out similarities to TERFs came under fire- again for âlumping people in with their oppressorsâ.
Targeting Community History: Asexual history (which is by nature also aromatic history) came under intense scrutiny; any prominent figures or spaces were now considered âtoo problematicâ (like David Jay and AVEN), and longstanding history was actively erased; while folks claimed that asexual history had begun with the inception of AVEN in the early 2000â˛s, ignoring documented history as far back as the 70â˛s at least.
Erasing Community Definitions: A popular tactic was to claim that a word âhad no real definitionâ and thus couldnât be legitimate. Exclusionists often compiled seemingly conflicting definitions of core words like âasexualityâ, always given by unofficial sources and either allos, or baby aces. Official definitions and sources were erased entirely.
âA Danger to the Communityâ: A core tenant of all exclusionist movements is that the group theyâre excluding is âa danger to the communityâ. Theyâre âstealing resourcesâ which usually cannot be described or quantified, nor are they actually limited- theyâre âinvadingâ, they âthink itâs just a clubâ, theyâll âmake us harder to acceptâ, etc.
Character Assassination: Anyone who spoke up about asexuality had their every action put under unreasonably scrutiny, and accusations were often slapped on with minimal prompting. Most often used were âlesbophobeâ and âpedophileâ; ever disagree with a lesbian? Now youâre a lesbophobe. Ever interact with someone under the age of 18? Now youâre a pedophile.
âThink of the Children!â: The ace communtiy was said to be âsexualizing childrenâ, citing the fact that some young people identified as ace, and the belief that nobody should be thinking about sex or sexual orientation until legal adulthood. This often lead to people claiming aces were âpedophilesâ just because of their identity.
Belittling Trauma: Aces were often asked to lay out the oppression theyâd faced and trauma theyâd experienced for exclusionists to pick over and âvalidateâ- pretty much always, the end result was that exclusionists tried to convince the person in question that their trauma wasnât real, or was âmisdirectedâ and thus didnât actually hurt them.
Harassment Campaigns: Exclusionists would often find one person to target as a community, with the end goal being that they leave the site, shut down their blog, or far worse. A wave of harassment would come over one person at a time, in asks and mentions and all over everything theyâd posted recently. Weâd see dogpiling, basic insults and bullying, mocking, targeted bigotry (like ableism) etc.- and well asâŚ
Suicide Baiting: Exclusionists would often âjokinglyâ suicide bait people they disagreed with, aces in particular, and I remember one ace blogger citing this harassment as a reason they eventually did take their own life.
Sexual Harassment: Aces were often targeted with sexual harassment as if it might âfixâ their orientations, or just as a malicious way to hurt them. Sexual jokes, sexual insults, etc. were thrown at aces, many of them children or teens.
Grooming of Minors: Within their own communities, exclusionists often took advantage of their status, their weaponization of the term âpedophileâ against others to make themselves appear safe, and the normalization of sexual jokes and comments within their communities to single out and groom minors. Minors were often roped into sexual spaces or conversations with predatory adults.
What eventually started to shut âthe discourseâ down and dissolve this movement was diligent de-platforming. People were encouraged to blog exclusionists on site, blocklists were circulated, we were discouraged from reblogging any post with an exclusionist on it, etc.- Instead we would make our own posts in response to their points, and screenshot theirs if needed.
Over time, this genuinely did work- and while weâre still recovering from âthe discourseâ to this day, we are at least in the process of recovering now.
