The reason I think of 2011 is because that’s when the ace tumblr community exploded. The trolls were a result of lots of tumblr people learning about asexuality for the first time. - Siggy
I'm seeing a lot of discussion about 2011 recently, probably due to the recent "allosexual" debacle. Epocryphal put up a good list with some of the stuff that went on then (although it is missing the attacks on repulsed people, the appeals to "science" as invalidation, and the homophobic nazi conspiracy theory of asexuality), and thank you to everyone who has been pointing out this history. I think it's important we know where this stuff came from, even if we ultimately abandon or reject it. I also think it's important to realize just what it did to us as a community (if you have the stomach, you could get a taste of it here; read the notes too).
There is something really important missing here, though, which is: 2011 wasn't about tumblr. Yes, tumblr's reblog feature and social justice climate contributed, but it did not start on tumblr. Epocryphal is incorrect to my recollection as to what "started" 2011; the first eruption was on a blog, maybe wordpress or blogger, and it was about the author's wildly inaccurate pseudo-scientific theory of how only non-libidinous, non-traumatized aromantic asexuals were true asexuals, and those people were so broken anyway basically asexuality is lies and robots. The responses were most vivacious on tumblr. The second was a gay vlogger and a terrible video of his on YouTube, which is what the first post on this tumblog is about. There biggest one, with loads of anon-hate pouring in, came from ontd_feminism on livejournal. If you look at the blogs of the core anti-ace brigade (don't), they were exclusively ace-hate. They came here from other sites to get at us, but I cannot believe that they did nothing else on the internet but harass aces.
I put that quote from Siggy up there because I think it's getting at the truth, but it doesn't think quite big enough. 2011 was the year that some aces decided to come out of the ace-exclusive spaces of AVEN and the ace blogosphere and make themselves heard. 2011 was the year that people everywhere started hearing about us. 2011 was the year that we were finally taking up space, and it was enough that we started to be noticed.
2011 was a crucial year for us, like 2006 before it and 2014 after, but it's not because we endured some big siege or survived some big tragedy; there were haters before and there are haters still. It's because we were finally seen, large-as-life and in technicolor. If you want to remember 2011, remember it for the triumphant chorus of asexual voices, because that's what was different then and what's important now.
