#ace memes

[ID: The meme is the old dude from Up, labelled “me,” pinning a badge, labelled “ASPEC HEADCANON,” on the sash of the boy, labelled “every character I like,” and saying “I would like to award you the highest honor I can bestow.” End ID.]

[ID: A 4 panel meme. Kaiba from Yu-Gi-Oh, labelled “aphobes,” holds up a card that says “if you don’t experience romantic or sexual attraction then you must be a robot.” Yuugi, labelled “me,” smirks and holds up a card, then turns it to reveal it says “robots are awesome.”  In the last panel, Kaiba is blown away, screaming. End ID.]

[ID: A three-way-handshake between “ace/aro ppl,” “nonbinary ppl,” and “neurodivergent ppl” over the common shared experience of “wanting to see real human rep in media vs. thinking robots/aliens/etc. are fuckin sweet.” End ID.]

[ID: A hand labelled “Aces, aros, and demis who don’t feel like doing another 20 minute TED Talk that day” slams down on a button that says “‘I’m just not interested in a relationship right now.’ :^)” End ID.]

With prevalent sex negativity and essentialist ideas of orientation & sexuality, aces often face invalidation and stigma for their sex drives and/or sexual behaviour. Check out these ace perspectives on sex and kink: https://taaap.org/2021/10/28/ace-week-21-aces-sex-kink/

[ID: Anakin and Padmé in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones staring at each other. In panel 1, Anakin, labelled “my body,” says “you’re asexual.”  In 2, Padmé, labelled “me,” smiles and says “that means I won’t be horny, right?”  Panel 3 zooms in on Anakin’s staring face (still labelled “my body”). In 4, Padmé’s smile falls and she repeats (still labelled “me”), “that means I won’t be horny, right?” End ID.]

Compulsory sexuality & sex negativity are mutually reinforcing: both insist on a narrow “proper” way of engaging in sexual activity, also considered to be an essential life milestone of “real” adulthood.  Check out An Asexual Perspective on Sex Positivity: https://taaap.org/2022/02/21/sexposcon-poster-asexual-perspective/

[ID: Four panels of a person looking extremely confused, with lots of math symbols overlayed, captioned “Why is it that your parents are okay with you NOT having sex UNTIL you come out as ace.” End ID.]

We at TAAAP envision all orientations and relationship structures equally esteemed, which requires intentional community building not centred around romantic-sexual couple units!

[ID: In all caps, “Fuck relationship hierarchies, All my homies hate relationship hierarchies.” End ID.]