Reviews with content warning for Racism - Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex

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Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen

45 reviews

malachinelson's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

5.0

Gives an incredibly broad overview of asexuality from the perspectives of various genders, race, race, ability, political movements, and age. Incredibly ambitious book which delivers. A good balance of memoir and reporting.

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cozyscones's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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myk_yeah's review against another edition

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informative inspiring slow-paced

4.75

This is an incredible read! Its very captivating and a welcome opportunity to question why we believe what we do about dating, sex, love, and relationships. It not only educates about asexual people's experiences but charts a future where everyone is truly free to say yes or no to sex, without it meaning anything about us.
The book's style is an easily-digestable nonfiction: interwoven with personal narrative, research, and people's stories from interviews. I think it's very approachable for someone new to the topic of human sexuality and did a great job of exploring intersectional identities. The audiobook is also great, but I liked having the physical copy to make underlines.
The piece on queerplatonic relationships almost made me tear up. I'm in a QPP and I basically never hear it talked about unless I'm explaining it to someone. Coming across it in a book was very moving to me.

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thebookpaiges's review against another edition

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challenging informative

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luananki's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

so validating, chen’s book contained chapters which resonated with me on a high level and a few i didn’t enjoy as much but all in all it gave some good insights and definitely more than enough aspects to think about and reflect on

also “a prude’s manifesto” by cameron awkward-rich? loved it

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lilybear3's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

I was super excited to pick this book up, it had been recommended by a co-worker and the topic interested me as I hadn't had a lot of prior knowledge about asexuality before. I knew asexuality and a few related terms, like aromantic and demisexual, but not beyond a surface level understanding. I felt that I learned a lot from this book and the stories people shared in it. Again, one of the reasons why I read this book was to learn about perspectives outside of my own.

This book has a lot to offer, even for people who don't identify as ace, like me. There were parts of this book where I found "a-ha" moments in my own journey in understanding my sexuality. There's a sense of relief in discovering that you're not alone and that there's a word or definition for what you are feeling, Chen writes, "the specificity of language can force us to look more closely at what we want and what leaves us cold" (29). There was a time in my life where sex was difficult and it has caused me to have a complicated relationship with sex. My interpretation of the following paragraph was super validating and I got emotional just reading it (it's long so I'll put it in spoiler brackets)

"you don't have to be a part of the ace community forever, but the lesson that a happy life for aces is possible, regardless of origin, is one that is important and one that includes you too. It's for you even if you don't identify as ace. If asexuality is fine, so is every other form of low sexual desire or so-called sexual dysfunction. Anyone who has any form of desire or attraction lower or higher than 'normal' can still be okay. Better than okay." (102)

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peachani's review against another edition

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challenging informative medium-paced

3.5

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zombiezami's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

This book was very well done. The author masterfully explains basic concepts while avoiding getting stuck in the 101 area. She raises some great questions that don't all get answered but that are important for a wide range of people to ponder. I learned so much from this.

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mandkips's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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dryadsreadingnook's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.0

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