“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
It’s 50 years this month since the first version of the Asexual Manifesto was written. Aces have been writing about our experiences under this name for at least half a century. We are not an internet fad.
I feel like we really lost something when we started looking at writing as a reader-centric product meant to appeal to the desires of a specific audience rather than a writer-centric approach of someone writes whatever particular thing particular compels them/whatever weird thing the demons in their head want to talk about, and people out there who are also compelled, and/or relate, find that writing. A lot of discussions of writing really center around what readers want rather than a writer's exploration. Sometimes as a reader I don't know what I want. I click on a fic or pick up a book I'm not sure about but that looks interesting, and I love it. Reading what I expect to get is it's own joy, but we always need to expand our horizons and not get mad at creators for not always writing what we want/expect.
The older i get the more i understand why some people become obsessed with privacy, not because they’re hiding something, but because being constantly perceived starts to feel spiritually exhausting.
Did you know that soda machines at restaurants and movie theaters spy on you? That most common new cars now record your sexual preferences and send it to the manufacturer (and also data about anyone who also gets in your car, walks by your car, and maybe happens to be within visual range of your car)? That grocery stores are trying to force customers to download an app to scan barcodes on shelves instead of putting up prices, so the app can scan the phone, decide how much that customer should be squeezed for, and adjust the price? That more and more innocent people are being sent to jail for crimes committed hundreds of miles away because an AI facial recognition algorithm spit their faces out and the cops didn't bother to do the most basic of checks?
I am not uptight about privacy because I'm hiding something. I'm uptight about it because the people who dismiss my right to privacy are dangerous to you and me and our families, personally, all the time.
Sorry that I haven’t had much to offer art wise recently, my mental health is awful right now so I’m just trying to focus on getting better atm, but I don’t really feel like doing anything🫠✌️
Watching the evolution of this was absolutely fascinating. What beautiful technique. And his face is so deeply Snape (I appreciate the absence of Rickman). The weariness, the bitterness, and the touch of sorrow - a face of perfect shadows.
It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.
[ID: Digital painting, a recreation of one of Leyendecker's Interwoven Socks ads, of a gentleman sitting in a wooden chair before a wooden desk, clutching some envelopes in hand. Instead, it's Dr Watson as played by David Burke, and there's an assortment of chemistry vials on the desk as well as a microscope.
Watson's in a light suit and has a yellow flower pinned to his lapel. The chair he sits in is a swivel one. He sits before a solid coral background. /end ID]
(details and some rambling under the cut!)
While I mostly find that quote up there like a big backhanded compliment, there's a part of me that finds it really endearing.
I think, the question is, can pure sunshine be a conductor of light? Because that's what Watson, especially David Burke's, is to me.
I started this study on the day Mr Burke's passing was shared publicly without knowing if I'd finish it, but I ended up chipping away at it light by little these past few days. I hope I have managed to do him even the slightest bit of justice 💛
Anyway, deets!
[ID: An assortment of details of the above illustration, each focusing on a different part of the image. In order:
turnnoffyourmind
amandla
origamiaround
andulkaphoto
discoholicmusic
theartofmadeline
kianamaiart
germansingergirl
