This is the official Tumblr presence of the Ace Zine Archive, a collaborative project by ace zinesters to catalogue online all zines that talk about the spectrum of asexuality. This blog will keep you posted on what is happening at the main website, reblog from the ace community, zinester community, and especially the intersection of the two, as well as produce some of our own content on the topic of asexuality in zines. - Olivia M. of oliviaszines Visit the main Ace Zine Archive site
We’re excited to be returning with a call for submissions for the another issue (the third!) of the Toronto Aces and Aros group zine!
The theme of this issue is access and the way in which this intersects with asexual and/or aromantic spectrum experiences, identity, and community. Submissions should be generally based around this theme, but you are welcome to interpret the theme in any way you like.
For example, this may include topics such as:
The importance of accessibility in ace & aro communities.
Access (or lack thereof) to queer and/or ace & aro spaces.
Finding language and terminology for one’s experiences.
The overlap of disability justice and queer justice.
Or anything else you would like to talk about!
The deadline for submission is August 15. We accept both text format (essays, poetry, etc) and visual format (art, comics, etc) submissions!
More info and submission details can be found here: http://tiny.cc/TAA_Zine_Access.
Rotten Zucchinis Zine #3 (re: harm in non-normative relationships)
Last Call for submissions-- December 31, 2024
Email: [email protected]
Zines take time and after a while, there are finally enough submissions to compile this zine. So I'm putting out a last call for submissions, not that I know this is happening soon!
Submissions are welcome from anyone but with several submissions already from anarchist ausitic folx that is turning out to be the focus.
What kinds of content?
personal stories, reflections, poetry, art, etc. (non-fiction; black-and-white)
for prose, approx 300-3,000 words (flexible)
Harm in what kind of relationships?
Any personal or intimate relationship that is NOT a romantic / sexual partnership or “couple” (or triad)
Any personal relationship that is somehow “outside the box”
These might include:
QPRs that are not “couples”
organising & comrade relationships or affinity groups
chosen family
roommates in a collective house
cross-generational relationships between adults that are not typical in the dominant cultural context
co-parenting situations with multiple parents who aren't romantically involved
relationships in the context of accountability or TJ work, etc.
What do you mean “harm”?
Some forms of harm are about power & control and have a perpetrator wielding that power & control over another.
Some forms of harm are not about power/control, and can be mutual (or go in more than 1 direction).
This zine is about any/all of this
Why this zine / topic?
So many of us have been doing our important relationships without any road maps or “how-to” guides, often having to fight for other people to take them as seriously as we do.
But we don’t have the tools to talk about when they're harmful or go wrong. Often we don’t even have the space to admit they sometimes do.
Rotten Zucchinis is a zine about harm and destructiveness in “non-normative” relationships.
This relational territory is messy! (It includes but is not limited to forms of violence and abuse.)
Some optional guiding questions:
What has harm (or violence or abuse) looked like in your non-normative relationships: what are your stories? How did you make sense out of this?
What is “non-normative” about these relationships?
Did society's norms promote that harm or make it harder to recognise or talk about? Did they make it harder for people to believe these harms happened (or were actually harmful)?
How do the harm from our non-normative relationships play out with other parts of our identities and lives?
How do things like power, oppression and social expectations matter?
When it comes to non-normative relationships, what do we still need to keep quiet about… and why?
Contributors will receive a printed copy of the zine but will not be paid.
The zine will be shared online for free. Hard copies may be sold on a pwyc basis (in-person).
An Illustration I drew for the Sayembara Benang Raja zine, a queer zine made by queer Indonesians. Celebrating Keong who is Aromantic Asexual and Baronga who is a lesbian.
Happy #AroWeek everyone! 💚🤍🩶🖤
I finally, FINALLY am ready to share my first zine, Aro-Other; it's a mini zine covering a few aro terms and factors that go beyond the commonly known aroace identity.
Of course this lays close to me as a non-ace aromantic, and there is still a way to go in breaking the assumption that all aros are ace or that aro falls under ace, and I hope this encourages someone else to help in that or even to help someone else like me feel seen.
And I've made it available to get for free on my Kofi page! You can get all three PDFs I've made, the main digital colour zine you see here and two printable A4 versions to share around if desired too;
You will need to follow a zine folding tutorial but there are bounties of resources on how to fold a zine so don't you worry!
My fellow aroallos and non-SAM aros, I see you, I am you.
Aromanticism is often seen only alongside asexuality, but one will find a quick debrief into aromanticism beyond aroace in this mini zine, c
Asexuality - As an ace myself, I strongly HC Silco is an ace. It's odd how difficult it is for the majority of people to understand that asexuality, just like any other form of sexual preference, is a scale. Asexuality doesn't mean one is fully disinterested in anything remotely sexual, it simply means that the drive for physical contact between them and another person/s is limited or somewhat restricted. Asexuals can be flirty teases, they can enjoy smut or pornography, they can enjoy their own body or the bodies of others, they have kinks and desires, their drive is simply different and lowered. Some aces don't want anything at all, some want it all. Asexuality is a scale.
^an informational zine on aromanticism I made for Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week
feel free to share/print!
(pages and image IDs after the break)
Image ID 1: the front and back cover. The front cover reads, “informational zine — Aromantic: What Does That Mean? — by Peter Z.”
there are two simple arrow shapes between lines of the text pointing in opposite directions.
The middle of the page has a long stripe with the colors of the aromantic flag, which extends to the back cover. the back cover side lists what each of the colors represent: green — aromanticism; light green — the aromantic spectrum; white — platonic and aesthetic attraction; gray — gray-romanticism and demi-romanticism; black — the sexuality spectrum.
The back page reads, “more resources!
TAAAP.org
Aro Spec Week.com
gsrc.princeton.edu (SAM)
aromanticism.org (AUREA)
Elizabeth Brake (aromanticism)
Aggressively Aro Spec Tumblr
Aromantic Guide.com”
End text. Two gray silhouettes of lily flowers act as embellishment. End ID 1.
Image ID 2: pages 1 and 2 of the zine.
Page 1: “Aromantic — or just ‘aro’ for short — refers to someone who experiences little to no romantic attraction to anyone — or experiences it in a different way than others. Alloromantic is the opposite — one who does have romantic attraction.” The text is green and dark teal with light green boarders around the sections.
Page 2: small letters says “this might help to understand” and arrow points to the title “Split Attraction Model” — “a way of understanding attraction by separating it into types: sexual, romantic, platonic, alterous, aesthetic, etc.
“Sexual Orientations: bisexual, heterosexual, asexual. Romantic Orientations: biromantic, heteroromantic, aromantic. — sometimes they match, sometimes they don’t! Words like biromantic and heteroromantic commonly refer to both S. O. and R. O.” End ID 2.
Image ID 3: pages 3 and 4.
Page 3: titled “A-spec Community”. Below is a Venn diagram, the left circle labeled “aro”, the right circle “ace”, the overlap space “aro ace”, this is all within a larger circle labeled “a-spec”.
“Aromantic is not the same as Asexual (little to no Sexual Attraction to anyone at all). The identities and communities are related but distinct”
Page 4: titled “Myths” with dark teal flower silhouettes on either side. Myths include “hates all romance, childish “late bloomer”, not LGBTQ+, unemotional, wants to be alone, can’t be in a relationship, afraid of commitment, can’t also be gay/hetero/etc” End ID 3.
Image ID 4: pages 5 and 6.
Page 5: “Are you aro? some common experiences: made up crushes, flirting doesn’t make sense, hard to identify romantic feelings, dating isn’t a priority, don’t like romance heavy media, dating because you’re “supposed to”, rarely if ever “fall in love”, don’t have celebrity crushes. *these are not exclusive to aros though!”
Page 6: the top of the page has the shape of an umbrella, the text inside reads “the Aromantic umbrella”. The body has four microlabel examples;
“Gray-romantic — romantic attraction rarely or weakly.” Next to it is a small rectangular flag with 5 horizontal stripes: green, gray, white, gray, green.
“Demi-romantic — romantic attraction only after a bond has formed.” Rectangular flag with a wide white stripe, narrow green, and wide gray stripe, and a black triangle on the left side.
“Allo-aro — allosexual and aromantic, no romantic attraction, has sexual attraction.” Rectangular flag with even horizontal stripes: green, light green, white, yellow, dark yellow.
“Aro-ace — aromantic and asexual, no romantic or sexual attraction.” Rectangular flag with even stripes: orange, yellow, white, light blue, dark blue. End ID.
• Ace Up My Sleeve serves as an online community to discuss asexuality and the asexual experience. Tumblr "asks" can be used to submit questions, opinions, or stories. This can be done anonymously or otherwise.
• Furthermore, a PDF zine is in the work following the same theme. In this zine will be personal stories and opinions of the writer (that's me!), and coverage of general asexual power and history. As this hopefully gains more following, I am excited to collect others stories.
• Important to know: While our subject matter is asexuality, we are generally pro queer and will not accept any homophobia or transphobia. We also do not tolerate racism, zionism, sexism, or hate of any sorts. Finally, we are strongly in support of Palestine. Any hateful opposition to these stances will be blocked.
• To contribute to this zine rather than the tumblr blog, specify in your ask that you would like it to be used as zine material rather than posted on the blog. If you would like, you may also send these in direct messages. I also ask you specify if you would like to remain anonymous and if not, what name you would like accredited.
More information on submissions, way to contribute, and creator below:
• Anyone on the asexual spectrum is free to submit anything they please as long as it is loosely associated with asexuality. Anyone who is not asexual may submit respectful questions related to the topic. Of course, individuals questioning if they are of asexual identity are free to send in questions. If you submit a request I deem to be against qualifications I will let you know immediately, and allow you to alter your submission if applicable.
• If you would like to contribute beyond this, sharing and promoting is a major help. Furthermore, I myself lack artistic ability and would appreciate help designing logos or any simple designs that can be featured in the zine. Please direct message if you would like to collaborate on this project!
• For a basic introduction of me, I'm a femme asexual lesbian. She or They pronouns work just fine. I've been aware of my queerness for about 8 years, but certain about my asexual identity for about a year and a half. The complexities of recognizing your own asexuality and the experiences that correlate with this identity are what led me to start this project.
Thank you for reading. If interested in any of this, please stick around and share. You are loved and appreciated in this world. Have a lovely day.
Typed and cleaned up a mini-zine I made a while ago for an ace week zine making event. Made in reaction to my continued frustration what is often seen as "acceptance" and the DSM.
For folks not familiar with mini-zines here are instructions on how to fold them: https://docpop.org/2018/01/how-to-make-mini-comics-my-guide-to-cutting-and-folding-an-8-page-zine/
[Zine text:
Cover: Asterisk Acceptance. What does asexual acceptance actually mean?
Page 2: Asterisk acceptance: accepting something by adding exceptions to existing assumptions rather than challenging the assumptions.
This shows up all the time when people try to include asexuality. While often well meaning, it falls short of actual acceptance.
Page 3: Examples include:
We are all sexual beings*
*except for some asexuals
A strong romantic relationship needs sex to thrive*
*except for some asexual relationships
Sexual attraction is a core part of being human*
*except for asexual people
Page 4: This even shows up in medical spaces.
The DSM, the text used for defining and diagnosing mental disorders in Canada and the USA, has two diagnosis that can often apply to asexual people.
In the most recent version of the DSM, DSM-V, these are Female Sexual Interest/Arousal Disorder (FSIAD) and Male Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder (MHSDD).
Page 5: Both of these diagnoses have exceptions for people who identify as asexual.
But is that enough? What about the person who’s never heard “asexual” before? What about the doctor that doesn’t believe them? What about those whose asexuality isn’t lifelong? Does this exception help them?
Page 6:
Asterisk acceptance fails because it doesn’t question the underlying assumptions. It only adds exceptions to the rule. It continues to alienate, obscure and other those that it places in the list of exceptions.
Page 7:
Not only does asterisk acceptance hurt asexual people, it closes the possibilities asexuality brings to non-asexual people.
How much stronger could consent be if “no” was always an option?
What types of connection and pleasure exist beyond sex?
What do we want sex to mean for us and our relationships? Are there more ways of accessing that meaning?
Last Page: Real acceptance must happen at the root. ]
Enjoy the first 4 pages of my comic about friendship and the depth of platonic love, which I’ll be selling at the first edition of Pride In Panels this month (aspecs are you listening?)!
Find me at the San Francisco Main Library on Sunday, Feb 18th, from 12-5PM.
Fanzine Friday #3: Adventures of A-Girl by Elizabeth Watasin, published in Burbank, CA, in the 1990s. As Elizabeth writes in the first issue, "A-Girl stands for 'Asexual Girl'," and the stories detail A-Girl's adventures, such as a trip to Japan and working as an animator.
The Browne Popular Culture Library (BPCL), founded in 1969, is the most comprehensive archive of its kind in the United States. Our focus and mission is to acquire and preserve research materials on American Popular Culture (post 1876) for curricular and research use. Visit our website at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/pcl.html.
Check out the Toronto Aces & Aros Zine: Issue 1– Asexuality: Coming to Terms (October, 2014) published under the previous name Ace Toronto I
The Toronto Aces & Aros Zine Issue 2: Absence Of is officially here! A very big thank you to everyone who contributed to this issue of the zine!
In this zine issue we wanted to both explore and challenge the framing of asexuality and aromanticism as things primarily defined by what is "absent" (aka lack of attraction, lack of desire). This issue contains art, essays, comics, and poetry!
We'll have physical copies of the zine at the Maker's Market event coming up at the 519 on Sunday, November 10. You can also print a copy for yourself if you prefer - there are two versions on the site, one that is ordered for viewing on a screen, and one that is ordered for printing. (Once printed, the entire stack of pages can simply be folded in half together widthwise so the cover is on the outside).
A very very big thank you again to all of our contributors!
The Diversity of A-spectrum Experiences Zine Submissions!!
Hiya, I'm Fawn (FaeryVoid) Something to know about me is that I'm AroAce and I'm making a zine about the diversity amongst a-spec experiences. I've already made a post about this on my main blog The DazedPuppyDiaries, but I wanna make an updated post here. Before I discovered that I'm aro, I already really wanted to make a zine about the diversity amongst ace-spec experiences and that kind of evolved into making a zine about the diversity amongst a-spec experiences. I'm inspired to make this zine because I feel it's often forgotten that the a-spectrum is just that, a spectrum. I feel that a-spec experiences are often treated as a monolith which I find really frustrating. If you're a-spec and interested in participating feel free to reach out whether that be through commenting, reblogging this, or direct messaging me. I wanna make it clear this zine is for all a-spec not just aces and aros, so if you're aplatonic or asensual for example I'd like to hear from you as well. I do ask that anyone submitting something is 18+. You can be accredited however you like whether that be, your username, your name, your system name, an alias, or anonymous. I'm open to many mediums for this project so if you'd prefer to share your experience through illustration rather than writing that's also fine. I also have a prompt list available so if you'd like that reach out and I'll send you the document, but the prompt list is completely optional. If you're writing a submission try to be conscious about the length of the submission, but it's not too big of a deal. I should note that I might not be able to use all the submissions I get or I might not be able to use a whole submission if it's very long. Also If you don't want to write a submission, but would like to give me feedback about your experience for me to take into account while writing the zine I'd appreciate that as well, please just differentiate if it's feedback or a submission. This project is going to take me quite a while and I'm going to be taking submissions for quite a while too, so submissions are open unless I edit this saying otherwise.
[submissions and feedback are currently open]
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