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A review by robotswithpersonality
Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen
An important read, but not a comfortable one.
There's an unfair comparison going on in my mind, because I read In Transit last month and that felt like both an acknowledgement of where people struggled, but also really welcoming and encouraging. This work felt like there was a lot more focus on fighting against misconceptions, for respect and recognition. It is possible that asexuality is at an earlier stage of fighting for acknowledgement than non-binary identity is, or maybe the two respective authors are at different points in their personal journey, which coloured the narrative, which explains the tone here, and made for a more difficult read. There are some great discussions to be had, and you can see the inspiring groundwork laid to a better path forward, but I finished it feeling stressed!
Speaking of great discussions, highlights for me include:
Just Let Me Liberate You: Fascinating chapter discussing history of feminist movement in relation to sexual liberation and where we are now in society, how that affected ace identity of those who wanted to be understood politically as feminist.
Whitewashed and In Sickness and In Health chapters: Intersection, harmful racist stereotypes about people of colour and sexuality, something else to fight when figuring out asexuality, likewise being male v female v trans and how sexuality is assumed for those genders. How being disabled physically or mentally factors into stigmas around asexuality as a disorder, and vice versa. How disabled aces have to fight for acceptance from both sides, those who don't want disabled automatically meaning without interest in sex and those who doesn't want asexuality automatically meaning ill - and the ableism inherent in the movement when it made that distinction.
Inclusivity needed!
Romance, Reconsidered:
Appreciate that ace is a perspective that leads to questioning the status quo, the need for a sexual relationship, the lens on who is sexualized, on romance and whether it needs a sexual component, on friendship and how it shouldn't be considered lesser.
Important expansion in the discussion surrounding consent, the issues with compulsory sexuality being woven into culture.
Nit-picky final detail: The text could have benefitted from one more edit for clarity, about every 5-10 pages there's a word missing or inverted in order in a sentence, at least where I'd normally expect it. I know language is fluid, especially in the internet age, but it did mess with my comprehension/reading flow.
⚠️Discussions of racism, ableism, SA,
There's an unfair comparison going on in my mind, because I read In Transit last month and that felt like both an acknowledgement of where people struggled, but also really welcoming and encouraging. This work felt like there was a lot more focus on fighting against misconceptions, for respect and recognition. It is possible that asexuality is at an earlier stage of fighting for acknowledgement than non-binary identity is, or maybe the two respective authors are at different points in their personal journey, which coloured the narrative, which explains the tone here, and made for a more difficult read. There are some great discussions to be had, and you can see the inspiring groundwork laid to a better path forward, but I finished it feeling stressed!
Speaking of great discussions, highlights for me include:
Just Let Me Liberate You: Fascinating chapter discussing history of feminist movement in relation to sexual liberation and where we are now in society, how that affected ace identity of those who wanted to be understood politically as feminist.
Whitewashed and In Sickness and In Health chapters: Intersection, harmful racist stereotypes about people of colour and sexuality, something else to fight when figuring out asexuality, likewise being male v female v trans and how sexuality is assumed for those genders. How being disabled physically or mentally factors into stigmas around asexuality as a disorder, and vice versa. How disabled aces have to fight for acceptance from both sides, those who don't want disabled automatically meaning without interest in sex and those who doesn't want asexuality automatically meaning ill - and the ableism inherent in the movement when it made that distinction.
Inclusivity needed!
Romance, Reconsidered:
Appreciate that ace is a perspective that leads to questioning the status quo, the need for a sexual relationship, the lens on who is sexualized, on romance and whether it needs a sexual component, on friendship and how it shouldn't be considered lesser.
Important expansion in the discussion surrounding consent, the issues with compulsory sexuality being woven into culture.
Nit-picky final detail: The text could have benefitted from one more edit for clarity, about every 5-10 pages there's a word missing or inverted in order in a sentence, at least where I'd normally expect it. I know language is fluid, especially in the internet age, but it did mess with my comprehension/reading flow.
⚠️Discussions of racism, ableism, SA,