Litsy

A couple of weeks ago, on the anniversary of Foucault's death, the garden of his family home was open to the public, as was his office, & 2 short plays, including the premiere of the 1 based on the tagged book, were given for free. I was there, but as photos were not allowed, there's no proof 😊. I enjoyed the play, and am now reading the book. It contains Herculine's own account of her life as an intersex person in the 19th century.

Dilara ⬇She was brought up as a girl, was outed & forced to live as a man after puberty, and committed suicide very young. Also contains an introduction by Foucault, various medical and legal documents related to the case, a scabrous short story by Oscar Panizza inspired by their life, and a postface by Eric Fassin, an academic specialising in gender & sexual orientation. 1mo

sarahbarnes Wow, very cool. 1mo

29 likes1 stack add2 comments

TieDyeDude

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture | Sherronda J. Brown

pick

This is a book that will stick with me for a while. I was introduced to several new-to-me concepts that are interesting to consider:
Terms like chrononormativity and frigidity
That asexuals are often assumed homosexual (if you're not in a hetero relationship, you must be hiding a same-sex one), because lack of desire is not valid. This thinking has been applied posthumously to both Langston Hughes and Octavia E. Butler, among others. ⤵️

TieDyeDude (I've experienced this myself). That left-handers are 2.5 more likely to identify as asexual; this chapter made some interesting correlations between left-handed demonization and LGBT persecution (I'm also left-handed). The ways that a (white) cisheteronormative society is threatened by asexual acknowledgement. It is not a book for beginners, but it is a powerful examination of the struggles of ace individuals through a black woman's lens. 1mo

CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian This is on my TBR! Thanks for the thorough review. I also enjoyed

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Identity, and the Meaning of Sex

1mo

TieDyeDude @caseythecanadianlesbrarian I am interested in that and tagged below. I started this book over a year ago, and for various reasons, didn\'t pick it up in earnest until last month, so I set aside other ace reads until I finished.

Ace and Aro Journeys: A Guide to Embracing Your Asexual or Aromantic Identity

1mo

CaseyTheCanadianLesbrarian @TieDyeDude it's exciting that there are more and more ace nonfiction books out now! 1mo

56 likes3 stack adds4 comments

TieDyeDude

Refusing Compulsory Sexuality: A Black Asexual Lens on Our Sex-Obsessed Culture | Sherronda J. Brown

"According to one study, 69.4 percent of the asexual participants report having their identity challenged, and the vast majority of those challenges came in the form of infantilization, with phrases like 'you are a late bloomer' or 'you just haven't met the right person.' The denial of self-governance... is informed by the perceived adult superiority and the dehumanization of children already present and normalized in our society."

TieDyeDude "Compulsory heterosexuality works to frame heterosexual sex as a necessary fixture of adulthood. Infantilized asexuals are provided endless assurance that the 'right person' will come along to pluck us from our lonely, immature existence." 2mo

Jari-chan True... 2mo

44 likes2 comments

Megabooks

Candida Royalle and the Sexual Revolution: A History from Below | Jane Kamensky

pick

I‘m vaguely surprised that I stuck with this very long audiobook about a 70s porn star/90s director that I had never heard of.

After leaving home for Berkeley and the summer of love, Candida gets caught up in drugs and the 70s golden era of porn production as a star. Later, she pivots to directing movies for women and couples but runs into financial trouble. I liked how Kamensky looked at the larger forces in play during Candida‘s life.

64 likes

TieDyeDude

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Identity, and the Meaning of Sex | Angela Chen

Such a fun pride march/festival today! The weather was beautiful, and the crowd was beautiful 🏳️‍🌈 The picture is maybe a quarter of the total marchers. Puppy Cady was very popular 😁

slategreyskies I love this! 🌈✨ 4mo

Cupcake12 🌈❤️ 4mo

IndoorDame 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️ 4mo

See All 10 Comments

Clare-Dragonfly Happy Pride! 🖤🩶🤍💜 4mo

dabbe #pridewithoutprejudice #cuddlycady 🖤🌈🐾🌈🖤 4mo

PaperbackPirate Happy Pride! 🏳️‍🌈 4mo

Kerrbearlib Happy Pride! 4mo

Gissy Happy Pride Month🌈❤️🧡💛💚💜💙 4mo

Kenyazero Looks like an excellent celebration! Happy Pride! 4mo

peanutnine So fun! Happy Pride!! 🏳️‍🌈 4mo

62 likes1 stack add10 comments

Robotswithpersonality

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Identity, and the Meaning of Sex | Angela Chen

pick

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. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? 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 5mo

Robotswithpersonality 3/? 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. 5mo

Robotswithpersonality 4/? 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. 5mo

See All 7 Comments

Robotswithpersonality 5/? 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! 5mo

Robotswithpersonality 6/? 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. 5mo

Robotswithpersonality 7/7 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 5mo

Singout Tagged! Thank you for the rec and the thoughtful analysis. Bonus: available in audio in my library system. 5mo

11 likes7 comments

Robotswithpersonality

Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Identity, and the Meaning of Sex | Angela Chen