Privately Awkward @mjtrademark - Tumblr Blog

yahenni

When your kid comes out as a dude

yahenni

When he asks you where hats go

yahenni

When he asks you what those knights in Monty Python said

yahenni

When he tells you a funny joke

sonicheritageposts

sonic heritage post

leereblogsstuffsometimes

Aled Last appreciation post cos he’s not in the show and all the new Heartstopper fans don’t know who he is

athenasdragon

professors who have only interacted with other academics for years: “what do you MEAN you don’t know multi-variable calculus yet??”

professors with small kids: “thank you for not putting the lab equipment in your mouths when I turn my back”

athenasdragon

Bringing this back to share that one time I slept through part of a zoom meeting with my PhD advisor (who has a toddler) and he told me it was fine, that just meant I was a good sleeper

eilooxara

Professors who work with graduate students: if you finish the multivariate calculus work this week you can put one (1) piece of lab equipment in your mouth

that-lesbian-writer-deactivated

Once had a professor whose previous career was giving educational zoo tours to children, so he’d say stuff like, “now let’s meet our friend, acidic keratin!”

hard-times-paramore

In light of the MCU & fandom erasing a character's canonical asexuality and aromantism, does anyone remember Daud from Dishonored, who got confirmed as ace on a piece of lore from the game and then later on by the devs? And how everyone ignored that bc they were thirsty for him?

Or Jughead from Riverdale who's supposed to be aroace as well but the show changed it. Like, why is it that we can get erased by media and fandom left and right and nobody else cares? Why isn't there a bigger response, why do we always have to just take it?

Hey, if you give a damn about asexual and aromantic representation, put our struggles above your shipping and smut. Please.

tenitchyfingers

“We chose the term “asexual” to describe ourselves because both “celibate” and “anti-sexual” have connotations we wished to avoid: the first implies that one has sacrificed sexuality for some higher good, the second that sexuality is degrading or somehow inherently bad. “Asexual”, as we use it, does not mean “without sex” but “relating sexually to no one”. This does not, of course, exclude masturbation but implies that if one has sexual feelings they do not require another person for their expression. Asexuality is, simply, self-contained sexuality.”

— The Asexual Manifesto, Lisa Orlando and Barbara Getz, 1972

capricorn-0mnikorn

Note the date, people:

That’s 1972

29 years before AVEN was started online,

and 47 years before the present.

And that’s only the date that Manifesto was written, so asexuals as members of a community must have existed at least some time before that.

So, no: we are not just Tumblr trenders. Get out of here with that.

queerhumanbeing

supporting my asexual friends and foes by rebbloging this

stormleviosa

prepare for a ramble my friends because I just spent a week researching ace history for an essay and this isn’t the first use of the term.

The first use of the term ‘asexual’ that I can find is from 1907. Charles Schlegel, a german preacher in new orleans, was put on trial(?) by his church for advocating for gay rights (again, in 1907. this guy was badass) and this was his response in court:

“Let the same laws for all the intermediate stages of sexual life: the homosexuals, heterosexuals, bisexuals, asexuals, be legal as they are now in existence for the heterosexuals.” (quote taken from ‘Minutes of the Presbytery of New Orleans’, spring meeting 1907)

He resigned, and was deposed from the ministry, but still. The guts on this man.

the first use of the definition of asexuality (which is contested so this is my opinion only) was Emma Trosse’s pamphlet ‘Ein Weib? Der Konträrsexualismus in Bezug auf Ehe und Frauenfrage’ which was written in 1895.

The whole thing is written in german (and in frakturschrift) which I don’t speak very well at all so if there are any germans out there who want to take a crack at it, you are welcome to it (and also pls send me your translations), but my approximate translation is as follows (emphasis added):

there is another kind of connection in Hymen’s realm. I’m talking about people without sensuality, it is only possible with them. A general laugh and head shaking. “Something like that does not exist. This is twisted, overstrained stuff. Human remains human. Nobody can go against nature.” […] When he’s gone, she longs for him, for his presence, his conversation, not for his embrace, his kisses, at least not kisses like the ones he usually gives. She loves his spirit, his soul, not his body.

What she’s talking about here is, as far as I’m concerned, romantic asexuals, or even QPRs, relationships between someone who doesn’t feel sexual attraction or desire, but still loves their partner. “this “apparently without sensuality” is perhaps the most intense degree of sensuality that lies over the body” says Emma Trosse and I’m inclined to agree.

1895.

First mention of asexuality (bc that’s what it is really) was from only 3 years after the first use of ‘homosexual’ in english and well before ‘gay’ was used to describe same-sex attraction.

And yet, people still say we’re a tumblr invention. WE HAVE A FUCKING CATEGORY ON THE KINSEY SCALE AND HAVE SINCE THE 1940S

distinguishedbaloney

quasi-normalcy

According to a study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, there are approximately 9 million LGBT Americans. In 1860, the Confederate States had a total non-enslaved population of 5.6 million.

By any reasonable metric, the rainbow flag more authentically represents the American experience that the Confederate one.