Artifacts
All artifacts
Asexual Protagonists: What Their Patterns Reveal About the Representation of Asexuality
An essay discussing the need for a more BIPOC and gender-inclusive representation of asexuality in fiction literature
“Asexuality BC (Before Cake)”
A personal recounting of early asexual history by an early AVEN member
“The Evolution of Online Asexual Discourse”
An academic dissertation on asexual history and online asexual discourse from the late 1990s to the early 2010s
Nat Titman’s talk at WorldPride Asexual Conference
A talk at WorldPride Asexual Conference 2012 on early asexual history
“A history of asexuality”
A timeline of asexual history, with a major focus on early online asexual communities
“Word of the Day: Queerplatonic”
The term “queerplatonic” is first introduced on Tumblr by its coiner
“Writhing in the Throes of Unrequited Like”
The term “WTFromantic” is coined in a blog post
“A/romanticism”
The terms “queerplatonic” and “zucchini” are coined in the comments of a blog post on aromanticism
Introduction of the asexual pride flag
The asexual pride flag is proposed, designed, voted on, and decided on across a series of AVEN forum threads.
The short instructional manifesto for relationship anarchy
A pamphlet which first introduced the concept of relationship anarchy
“Black rings and other ways to show asexual pride”
The tradition of asexuals wearing a black ring is introduced in an AVEN forum thread
“For Them, Just Saying No Is Easy”
An article in the New York Times about asexuality
“Asexuality: Prevalence and Associated Factors in a National Probability Sample”
An early study on the prevalence of asexuality
“Glad to be asexual”
An in-depth article on asexuality published in New Scientist where the author meets David Jay.
“No sex please, we’re asexual”
An article in The Guardian about asexuality which mentions AVEN and quotes asexual people
“Study: One in 100 adults asexual”
An article by CNN about asexuality which mentions Anthony Bogaert’s study
“Questions Asked by Asexual and Questioning People”
An early version of the AVEN FAQ, written by Nat Titman
“Semisexuality”
An early discussion about aspec identities between allosexual and asexual
“Nonsexuality Rant”
A blog post from the eaarly web where the author complains about people invalidating their asexuality
“The Fourth Sexuality”
A blog post where the author identifies as nonsexual and talks about the invalidation they face
Asexuality LiveJournal
An asexual LiveJournal community, which was one of the first sex-positive asexual discussion forums
Coining of the term “aromantic”
The term “aromantic” is used for the first time in an asexual message board
“I Am Not a Freak!!!!”
A nonsexual person dispels some myths about their nonsexuality
Haven for the Human Amoeba
The first major online community for asexuals
Leather Spinsters: Asexuality
A page on the website for the Leather Spinsters dedicated to their asexual members
RU.Antisex
A website from the early web which takes a moral and ethical stance against sexuality
The Asexual Coalition
A site that defines asexuality as abstaining from romantic and sexual relationships
Asexuality on Dear Abby
The term “asexual” is used in a response to a Dear Abby letter
Jim Sinclair’s Articles About Intersexuality
A page on Jim Sinclair’s personal blog dedicated to intersexuality
“Happy Celibates Want No Change”
An asexual Dear Abby letter writer responds to a statement Abby made about abstinence
“Sexual Orientation and Self-Perception”
A study that reimagines the Kinsey Scale as a two-dimensional spectrum that accounts for asexuality
“Asexual and Autoerotic Women: Two Invisible Groups”
One of the first academic papers on asexuality
Asexual Research Bibliography
A comprehensive bibliography of academic research on asexuality
William Burroughs interviews David Bowie
An interview with David Bowie in which he talks about asexuality
“Choose Your Label” Barnard College
A photo of activists at Barnard College inviting people to choose their own label
Off Our Backs, vol. 3, no. 5
An issue of a feminist news journal that mentions asexuality
The Asexual Manifesto
A paper by the Asexual Caucus of the New York Radical Feminists
Sexualpathologie
An early example of pathologization of asexual people in medical literature and use of the term “asexual”
Ein Weib?
An early academic paper on queer identities where the author self-identities as asexual
Sappho und Sokrates
A formative academic work in legitimizing queer identities which recognizes asexual people
Psychopathia Sexualis
The first use of the term “anesthesia sexual” to refer to asexual people
Kertbeny’s pamphlets protesting Prussian sodomy laws
Pamphlets protesting Prussian sodomy laws which coined the terms “homosexual” and “heterosexual”