| CARVIEW |
Blue Ice-Tea is hosting the Carnival of Aces, with the theme “Second Glance”. This carnival will be open to submissions for January and February. See the call for submissions.
Although the Carnival of Aces has been inactive as of late, it’s still open for volunteers to host. If you would like to volunteer, please see the masterpost for instructions.
This month, the ace journal club discussed
“The Quoiromantic Manifesto” by Nakamura Kasumi (2021), translated from Japanese into English by Ace Admiral (2025) (https://aceadmiral.wordpress.com/2025/10/25/translation-the-quoiromantic-manifesto-by-nakamura-kasumi/)
The journal club meets once a month on Discord, using text or voice as club members prefer. We discuss a variety of academic works in ace studies, ranging from gender studies to psychology. Don’t worry about journal access, we can provide access. If you’re interested, please e-mail me at asexualagenda@gmail.com for an invite.
Summary
This article discusses the origin and meaning of quoiromantic, and discusses the author’s experience and practice within that framework.
This month, the ace journal club discussed
“If I Only Knew Then: Single Adults’ Perceptions of the Impact of Sex Education on Their Romantic and Sexual Lives” by Hille et al. (2025) (https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19317611.2025.2566816, open access)
The journal club meets once a month on Discord, using text or voice as club members prefer. We discuss a variety of academic works in ace studies, ranging from gender studies to psychology. Don’t worry about journal access, we can provide access. If you’re interested, please e-mail me at asexualagenda@gmail.com for an invite.
Summary
This paper looked at a survey of single adults that asked what they learned from sex ed when they were younger, and whether it would have helped to learn more.
We occasionally share links to news, blogs, and anything else we find interesting. We can’t catch everything, so you are invited to self-promote in the comments!
Writing
Kate released a massive collection of reviews of fictional media with canonical ace characters.
Kate also showed extensive evidence that TERFs and GCs have always been anti-ace, and that JK Rowling’s anti-ace comments should not have been a surprise.
Coyote published a zine discussing community memory and the origin of the term “split attraction model”.
RED replied to my article about moving away from definitions, fitting the discussion into the framework of folk epistemology, building knowledge in absence of expert validation.
Rebecca Humphreys-Lamford discussed their research into asexual media representation and its impact on people. They are also on the B Film Queer Pod podcast.
Community Activity
The Ace Community Survey released its report on the 2024 survey. The 2020 report has also been translated into German.
Calls for Participants/Support
The 2025 Ace Community Survey has been released! https://tinyurl.com/AceSurvey2025
Some years ago, it was fashionable for ace and aro education efforts to put a lot of emphasis on glossaries. I was critical of the approach, arguing that glossaries deprived words of historical context, and frequently promoted words that were hardly in use outside of glossaries. Coyote also voiced criticism, arguing that we needed more personal narratives rather than just glossaries.
So we need more personal narratives. But suppose we’re trying to explain something that isn’t our own story. What component of the personal narrative is most important to extract and communicate to our audience?
I contend that the most important thing is to explain motivation. That is, why do people identify that way?
We occasionally share links to news, blogs, and anything else we find interesting. We can’t catch everything, so you are invited to self-promote in the comments!
Writing
Bonnie Lord shared her story of coming into asexuality.
Confetti discussed asexual representation in RPGs.
Nashrah Tanvir wrote about aromantic frustrations with literature.
Perfect Number reviewed Girls & Sex, which discusses hookup culture and porn.
Debbie Urbanski described traumatic experiences with couples counseling.
Blue Ice-Tea reviewed My Father’s Dresses and shared some thoughts on gender.
Aro Community Activity
AUREA recapped the Aromantics Create Pride art exchange. Also check out their October newsletter.
AUREA also interviewed AroAceBildung about creating a course for therapists.
This month, the ace journal club discussed
Chen, Y. (2024). Toward a global asexual solidarity beyond identity. In K. J. Cerankowski & M. Milks (Eds.), Asexualities: Feminist and queer perspectives, revised and expanded ten-year anniversary edition (pp. 383–395). (https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003178798-31/toward-global-asexual-solidarity-beyond-identity-yo-ling-chen, requires journal access)
The journal club meets once a month on Discord, using text or voice as club members prefer. We discuss a variety of academic works in ace studies, ranging from gender studies to psychology. Don’t worry about journal access, we can provide access. If you’re interested, please e-mail me at asexualagenda@gmail.com for an invite.
Summary
This article argues that global asexuality is a false universal that needs to be provincialized. However, it also argues that critiques of cultural imperialism can be counter-productive.
On Fridays, we will share links to news, blogs, and anything else we find interesting. We can’t catch everything, so you are invited to self-promote in the comments!
Writing
Twoey Gray said the failed sitcom concept All or Nothing reflected their life and inspired them.
Lucy De Haan wrote about dealing with sexualization in anime as an asexual.
Continuing from their discussion on ace nonfiction books, clio2 has further book-club style discussion.
Lara talks about her experience being aroace in university.
Allie Daisy King argues that Wednesday Addams should be aromantic asexual.
MorganH discussed porn games, and a rare example of asexual representation, in Course of Temptation.
Perfect Number reviewed “Give Birth Like a Feminist”.
Blue Ice Tea reviewed The Secret Garden (1987).
Red recapped the International Ace Day 24 Hour Live Stream. Red also reflected on cringe in their old gender posts.
Tyger Songbird talked about how much they disliked the reality TV show Virgins.
Videos/Podcasts
Allie Daisy King talks about most of the extant asexual characters in film.
Community Activity
AZE released Volume 7, Issue 4, themed on Resilience.
News & Outreach
Zikoko (based in Nigeria) interviewed someone about their experience dating while hating sex.
Aro Community Activity
Check out AUREA’s latest newsletter from August.
This month, the ace journal club discussed
“Aromanticism, asexuality, and relationship (non-)formation: How a-spec singles challenge romantic norms and reimagine family life.” by Tessler, H. (2023) (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/13634607231197061, requires journal access)
The journal club meets once a month on Discord, using text or voice as club members prefer. We discuss a variety of academic works in ace studies, ranging from gender studies to psychology. Don’t worry about journal access, we can provide access. If you’re interested, please e-mail me at asexualagenda@gmail.com for an invite.
Summary
This study explores asexual and aromantic people’s approaches to relationships, using a mixed methods approach that looks at pre-existing survey data, and the author’s own interviews with 48 single people.
This month, the ace journal club discussed
“The Demography of Asexuality and Aromanticism” by Megan Carroll. (2025)
(https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-87911-1_18, requires journal access)
The journal club meets once a month on Discord, using text or voice as club members prefer. We discuss a variety of academic works in ace studies, ranging from gender studies to psychology. Don’t worry about journal access, we can provide access. If you’re interested, please e-mail me at asexualagenda@gmail.com for an invite.
Summary
This is a literature review that covers the demographics of ace and aro communities. It also discusses community history, terminology, and recommendations for future research.
The Asexual Agenda