Asexual Awarenessweek (Ace  Week)!

It is the annual Aceweek (25^th – 31^st  Oct.), thus the Anarchist Bookstore Opstand also will take part in educating and creating awareness  about all ace topics!

Do you want to ask questions about asexuality that you couldn’t get answered? Do you want to have some personal story sharing about ace experiences? Would you like to brainstorm about how to make asexuality more visible and acknowledged? You think you’re ace yourself but just wanna talk about it with an ace person? You know someone who’s close to you and just came out and need some resources?

We invite you to come along from 17-21 on the next Thursday (29^th), and from 15-19 on the Friday (30^th). M. from the Opstand will be there and ready with some topics to chat/talk/discuss about.
Not necess

ary, but recommended: write us an email or an Instagram direct message and tell us when you’ll be coming. We shouldn’t be more than 4 people in the space ( -if you just wanna talk face to face quietly, also possible).

some more things:
– We won’t tolerate shitty behaviour and discrimination, and want to make it a space to learn.
– bring your own facemask please
–  background of the person doing the event: themselves are non-binary and ace, white, non-academic background, slow reader. They prefer talking English, but german and dutch would also work.
– it’s free and there is no need to consume anything, but it would be nice to have some tea with you!
– accessibility: wheelchair accessible it is, but the entrance is a bit tricky. Knock in the window and we’ll make it possible (accessible toilet is there also) ! Next tramstop is Anna Bijnslaan.

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ACE Week 2020 Resources:

• Interested in / questioning

Most of the communication takes place in online communites, such as the AVEN forum or on socialmedia.
– Tumblr: fuckyeahasexual.tumblr.com (accessible without being signed up))
– facebookgroups are very helpful like ArosAndEnbies
– Instagram accounts to follow:
@aceawareness
@justaroacethings
@teachingoutsidethebinary [amazing teacher, nonbinary ace/aceflux]

@nonbinary.space.ace
@_aceingrace_  an channel especially to power and uplift black and POC folxs
dutch: @theacemind

• General: AZE journal (aze.com)
• youtube:
  – QueerAsCat (very cool person with very content content)
  –  asexual and aromantic tiktoks youtube compilation)
• Ally sided
  – book The Invisible Orientation – An introduction to Asexuality (2014), Julia Sondra Decker
  – ace/aro zine

• More detailed info for ace
  – aze.com (journal)
  – sounds fake but okay podcast ->  https://soundsfakepod.buzzsprout.com/218346
  – Relationship Anarchy from a queer feminist perspective + infused by ace theory: links to pdfs on https://qsu070.noblogs.org/ra/
  – ACE – What Asexuality reveals about Desire, Society and the Meaning of Sex, (2020) Angela Chen
  – split attraction model & ‘asexual attraction definition debate’ (https://www.asexuality.org/en/topic/78575-sexual-attraction-debate-101/)

AZE JOURNAL:
most interesting articles  from aro/ace writers
literally SO good: here some links:

– https://azejournal.com/article/2020/3/23/the-words-you-didnt-have-yet

[aro/ace explanation based on personal story]

– https://azejournal.com/article/2020/9/22/well-okay

[very intense poem about current times, recommended!]

– https://azejournal.com/article/2020/9/22/platonic-state-of-mind
[poem about the notion of platonic love]

– https://azejournal.com/article/2020/3/23/grey [grey ace peronal story, very poetic]

– https://azejournal.com/article/2020/3/22/significant-others-aspec-polyamory-and-relationship-anarchy [some terms clarified + super good example of how to introduce RA and Asexuality to new ‘dates’]

– https://azejournal.com/article/2020/8/19/an-aromantic-love-letter [poem to ace people]

– https://azejournal.com/article/2020/8/19/when-the-absence-of-tangibility-makes-love-like-that-unattainable [poem]

– https://azejournal.com/article/2020/9/22/untouchable

– https://azejournal.com/article/2020/9/22/alice-oseman-and-the-revolutionary-power-of-the-platonic-love-story [review of a book that sounds goodd but the review is also top notch!]

“But you know what I realised on my walk?” she said. “I realised that I love you, Georgia.”
My mouth dropped open.
“Obviously I’m not romantically in love with you. But I realised that whatever these feelings are for you, I…” She grinned wildly. “I feel like I am in love. Me and you—this is a fucking love story! I feel like I’ve found something most people just don’t get. I feel at home around you in a way I have never felt in my fucking life. And maybe most people would look at us and think that we’re just friends, or whatever, but I know that it’s just… so much more than that.” She gestured dramatically at me with both hands. “You changed me. You… you fucking saved me, I swear to God. I know I still do a lot of dumb stuff and I say the wrong things and I still have days where I just feel like shit but… I’ve felt happier over the past few weeks than I have in years.” (p.413)

• german recommendation: http://asexyqueer.blogsport.de Zine: „wer A sagt muss icht B sagen“

• https://greatace.club/
  a bookclub with free lgbtqia+ ebooks, online. The selected book each month will either have an asexual spectrum author, canon asexual character, or an otherwise LGBTQ author who has shown support to the ace community.

definitions: understanding them with cake analogies by xen haas:

If you come across a cake and find it aesthetically attractive it means you think it’s pretty. It was very well put together and it’s nice to look at.

Sexual attraction is seeing the cake and the visual sparking thought about smelling it or eating it. Maybe the thought of licking the frosting off pops into your head, or maybe your eye is just drawn to that frosting and you can envision the taste. You might wonder how soft and moist it is. But, you might not actually want to, you just imagine it. Maybe it initiates hunger and maybe it doesn’t.

(Asexuality, then, is seeing cake all the time but it never even entering one’s mind that it’s potential food.)

Sex drive is how big your appetite is. You may just not be hungry almost ever. If you eat, it’s for some other reason. If you have a large appetite you want to eat, but you may not necessary care what you eat. Eating itself is what is satisfying, not necessarily what was eaten.

Sexual arousal is your physical reaction, sometimes to being hungry, sometimes to actually getting ready to or eating. It’s when the stimulus of the looks or smells or thoughts of the food laid out make your stomach growl or your mouth water. Sometimes this may happen without stimulus or actual hunger, sometimes your stomach just rumbles even if you don’t feel particularly hungry.

Sexual desire is being hungry for cake specifically. You want to eat that cake. Or maybe you just want to eat a cake and go looking for one. Just because you want the cake doesn’t necessarily mean you go after the cake.

Sexual activity is actually eating the cake. This could be because you really wanted the cake, but also because you just wanted to try the cake, or maybe everyone else was having cake and there was social pressure, etc.

Sexual orientation is what flavor(s) you like.