selinker
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and Mike Selinker's journal beholds a wide range of beautiful things, from the most beautiful arcade game to the most beautiful chase scene and even the most beautiful New Year's resolution.

2xcreative
Have a great idea for a collaborative project but need a partner to bring your vision to life? Whether you're into interpretive knitting or photography and writing, check out this community to find the creative partner of your dreams.

azkatraz
Harry Potter fans have a lot going on this week. Not only does The Half-Blood Prince hit movie theaters everywhere, but also the Azaktraz conference takes San Francisco by storm starting July 18. Get all the news and updates at this community.

I have read entries in this community for a long time, so I figured it is about time that I post one.

Hi. My name is Amber. I am a nineteen year old English major. I realised I was asexual at about fifteen, but perhaps we should go a little further back than that.

( Come with us now on a journey through time and space. )

I know that intro posts are generally boring, so I tried not too make it too long. I just feel like I should say a hello before I dive headfirst into the community.

So, hello. :)

Hey guys,

Some of you may have seen my "Letters to an Asexual" video series on YouTube. In three of the four so far, I've featured letters sent through OKCupid, which is primarily a dating site. Due to their failure to offer an "asexual" (or even "none of the above") option, I'm listed as bisexual on the site. In my most recent installment, Letters to an Asexual #4, some moron nailed me for choosing "bisexual" because he insisted heterosexual is the default, and if I'm not gay in any way, I should just put "hetero." (Back when it happened, I complained to you people about it in this post. You might remember.)

Anyway, I'm sure you can imagine I had a problem with that, but that's beside the point (though I invite you to check out the video if you haven't already!). The main point of this post is that if OKCupid (and other social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook) DID acknowledge our existence by letting us have a drop-down box choice, I wouldn't get in this kind of pickle. Furthermore, a big part of being accepted and spreading awareness about our orientation is getting our existence acknowledged by the bigwigs.

Apparently, pansexuals have the same issue we do. Yesterday, someone I didn't know came across my YouTube videos and sent me a message asking me to sign his online petition, and the purpose of the petition was to get social networking sites to add "asexual" and "pansexual" as choices. The original petition link he sent me had a few errors and some muddy language, though, so I helped him rewrite it, and now the new version of it is available. I promised him I'd pass the petition on to my networks, and perhaps it will be one little thing we can do to help in the march toward widespread understanding of our legitimacy. I don't know how well online petitions work, but it's always worth a shot. (This site does not display e-mail addresses, so they can't be harvested.)

Here's the link:

http://www.petitiononline.com/asm55579/petition.html

Please pass it on to non-members who support our cause as well.

ETA: Could someone who is active in the AVEN forums possibly throw this somewhere visible over there too? If you think it's a good idea? Thanks.

I pay for 20 voice posts a month so damn it, I'm going to make them!

That was sort of what was on my mind when I started rambling about asexuality into my phone tonight, and these are the end results: 3 5 podcast-y voice posts, rambling on about asexuality, the definition thereof, my own expansion on that, grey-A's/demisexuals, and why we talk about these things in public.

Episode 1:
( 1.1: In which I define asexuality and discuss the various types thereof. )

( 1.2: In which I defend discussing my orientation with complete strangers. )

( 1.3: In which I discuss the importance of having a group to identify with. )

( 1.4: In which I discuss how sexuals view sex, need-for-sex vs. need-for-no-sex, and 'How do you know if you've never tried it?' )

( 1.5: In which I finish up and offer some advice to sexual partners of asexuals. )
_{Despite it cutting off at the end, I really am done speaking in this one.}

So . . . want me to keep posting these?

Brooke Shields talks about "asexual" Jackson

it's short, but I found it interesting.  I liked her point about how, sexual tension removed, one can act more freely and more childlike around friends.  I had an asexual boyfriend once, and our relationship was a lot like that.

lj_volunteers
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4_eyez
Josh Neufeld has a lot going on. His cartoons played a starring role in Earth 2100, the ABC special about climate change, and his new graphic novel, A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, comes out in August. And he still finds time to update his LJ!

montreal
Residents, visitors, French speakers, English speakers—anyone interested in Montreal is welcome here. Find out everything from where to buy a tart burner to how get around on public transit, but be sure to check the memories and tags before you post.

I'm Kassi, 28, and I feel I need support for my asexuality. I'm surrounded by polyamorous friends whom I love and don't judge for their sexuality, but have been judged most severely for my lack of love life. They are all so casually hypersexual that to them not wanting sex means there's something wrong with me.

Backstory: when I was 19 I had become fed up with dating. I expressed as straight but didn't feel much attraction for any but maybe one or two guys. Guys I dated, once they found out I wouldn't put out, dropped me pretty fast. I suppose I would have been more hurt if I'd actually been attracted to any of them. I did leave that dating scene with the notion that the only thing of worth about me is between my legs.

Later that year I fell in reciprocated love and married. I had no end of love and attraction with my husband and thought that I wasn't asexual after all. When I was 25 he died. Since then it's just as it was before I met him -- I don't want sex, I'm not attracted to any men and when men express interest in me it's clear all they want is sex. Only now it's harder, because most of my friends are poly, almost all are sexually active and I've felt pressured to try to enter into relationships and have sex on general principle when I really, really don't want to. My saying, "I don't want to," isn't enough for them to lay off.

I even gave in a couple of years ago and dated and had sex with someone to whom I was not attracted. I felt dirty and miserable, especially when my friends at the time only treated me with respect when I was dating him. It's heartbreaking. I want to find a way to tell my friends that there isn't something wrong with my love life, that I want my sexuality to be accepted and respected as no less valid than theirs.

I think I've discovered that one of the biggest reasons I can't stand the idea of sex is that I find human genitalia positively disgusting. No offense to bearers of either anatomy (I'm a girl with gross girl parts), but I guess God was going for function and form in the design of those parts. SERIOUSLY...

I was watching a huge cockroach crawl around the bathroom today and suddenly I realized something like I would never want a penis inside of my secret place for the same reason that I'd never want a cockroach crawling around inside of me. Similarly, I'd never want to stick my fingers or my tongue into a vagina for the same reason I wouldn't stick any exposed part of my body into the innards of a dissected fetal pig.

Does anyone else feel like this, or is that kind of shallow...?

I wanted to share an experience that made me feel absolutely baffled by non-asexual people. (I'm not saying I have any problem with someone who's different than me, but I just don't understand them sometimes.)
It's about a story someone related to me about them having sex. Nothing graphic at all-I only put it under a cut because it's a bit rambly.
( baffled )

And the Winner Is . . .

The votes have been tallied, the results are in, and we have a winner (two, actually). Congratulations to the newly elected user representatives to the LJ Advisory Board: from lj_election_en, it's kylecassidy, and from lj_election_ru, it's nekbke! You can see the full breakdown of results for lj_election_en here and for lj_election_ru here. Thanks to everyone for your participation.

Random question - we know that Amelie is an asexy movie, but if you had to pick a book with an entirely asexual storyline... that's appropriate for extremely religious students. Do they exist? At a high school reading level?

Many thanks!

 Pride Parade!!  (<--link to AVEN)

Awws, I didn't go... but if you click on the link there are more wonderful pictures!



Also, cough cough, if you are a member of the facebook group you can see cool pics like this one below!  <3