Below, you will find a list of articles and resources on various intersectional topics related to asexuality or surviving trauma. Underneath that, you will find a sortable display of all posts here on Resources for Ace Survivors that discuss intersections besides surviving trauma.
This list is a work-in-progress that we plan to continually improve and update, and we welcome submissions! We have an open discussion for filling out this page on our forum.
We have listed general topics to be covered, but it takes a lot of time to compile a list like this, so we may not have gotten to that section yet. As this list grows, we may need to split it up into different pages. We have attempted to organize by theme and author, and have grouped categories with frequent overlap together. We also welcome suggestions for additional categories.
Asexual Men & Male Survivors
- Siggy shared his story in I’ve Been Here Along
- Asexual Men and Rape by Ozy Frantz
- To be filled out more as time allows. Please feel free to send suggestions in! We are under-represented in this category, and can really use any suggestions that you can think of!
Disability, Neurodivergence, & Ableism
- Our Asexuality & Mental Health page has a lot of good links, mainly from the June 2015 Carnival of Aces on mental health.
- Spectral Amoebas: Round-Up Post – a blog carnival from 2011 on asexuality and the autistic spectrum with lots of good posts
- Carnival of Aces October 2013 – Disability and Asexuality Round-Up Post
- (A)Sex and the City has a series on being an asexual person who has had a hysterectomy and being perceived as hypersexual. Part 1 is about not being a Gold-Star Asexual, part 2 is on having had a hysterectomy as a teenager, and part 3 is on being perceived as a “neutered sex kitten.” [tw for sexual harassment by doctors and teachers, medical situations, especially in part 3]
- Ace Muslim: “Why don’t you get your hormones checked?”: Thoughts on hypothyroidism and asexuality by Laura
- The notes which do not fit: Thyroids, Late Bloomers, and Asexuality by Sara K.
- Asexuality, hypothyroidism and PTSD by Elizabeth is about the complicated interactions between hypothyroidism and PTSD, and the influence of asexuality in treating both.
- Jon Garrad: Asexuality and Mental Health is about asexuality, neurodivergence, and bipolar illness. [tw: abuse, suicide ideation, compulsory sexuality]
- Feelings?? What are those by Maris/James is about neurodivergence, anxiety, and doubting their asexuality [tw: mentions of abuse, sexual trauma, homophobia, suicidal implications]
- anotherspoonie on asexuality and hip dysplasia
- nightengalesnkd on the intersection of asexuality and disability
- To be filled out as time allows. Please feel free to send suggestions in! We are very well-represented in this category, and other members of our team will be working on this section.
Diversity & Representation (General)
- The Asexual Agenda: Asexuality in the Media: Towards Diverse Representation by Elizabeth
- The Asexual Agenda: What price visibility? by Laura
- The Asexual Agenda: Structuring asexual groups to be anti-bias and anti-bigotry by Laura
- Next Step Cake: Advice for MAAPLE and other ace political orgs by Sennkestra
- Asexy Beast: A Place of Whiteness by Ily
- Ace Muslim: Asexuality is not just a white identity (but would you know that from looking?) by Laura
- Rethinking Diversity Panels by Stephanie Zvan is a collection of links to articles about tokenizing diversity panels in primarily SFF book circles, all of which are well worth reading
Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, & Queer
- Concept Awesome: Teeny tiny linkspam on asexuality and queerness complied by Queenie
- Concept Awesome’s queer ace tag has a lot of good stuff!
- The Asexual Agenda’s LGBT tag is good to check out too.
- To be filled out as time allows. Please feel free to send suggestions in!
Race, Racism, & International Voices
- Asexuality and Race Resources – a list of resources and articles about asexuality and race; may be more frequently updated than ours, and also includes academic literature
- Asexual People of Color – a Tumblr blog by and for ace-spectrum POC
- Brown and Gray: A Zine for Asexual People of Color
- Latina Magazine: How Latina ‘Spicy & Sexy’ Stereotypes Affect Asexual Latinas
- The Asexual Agenda: The politics of (in)visibility by Queenie is about being a mixed race Latina
- The Asexual Agenda: Musings on appearances by a mixed race ace by Queenie
- Fistfelt: Agender, Asexual Cultura Latina
- Snuffed: on being Latinx, asexual, and a lesbian
- Ace Latinx: On Being Brown and Asexual
- Lemonyandbeatrice: A revolution for the crooked souls by Nakiya is about not being a Model Rape Survivor, asexuality, and blackness.
- Gradient Lair: Black Womanhood, Asexuality, and Agency by Trudy
- Gradient Lair: Asexuality Gray-A Heteroromantic
- Gradient Lair: The Large Space that White Supremacy Occupies in Conversations about Sexuality
- Gradient Lair: Compulsory Heterosexuality, The Myth of Uniform Heterosexuality and Black Women
- Asexual POCs Unite: On Being Black and Asexual in a White Society by Fiish
- Asexual POCs Unite: My Experiences as an Ace and a Mixed POC by Fiish
- Apollyptica: More Black Ace Thoughts by Fiish
- Apollyptica: Blackness and Asexuality
- Queer as Cat: Intersections of a Black Non-Binary Ace by Vesper
- The Asexual Agenda: Interview with Ianna Hawkins Owens (a doctoral student in African Diaspora Studies)
- Return the Gayze: What’s R(ace) Got To Do With It? White Privilege and (A)sexuality by Alok Vaid-Menon
- Obsidian Magazine: r(ace): a-response (to Alok Vaid-Menon’s “What’s R(ace) Got To Do With It?) by Justice Gaines
- The Asexual Agenda: The Colonized Asexual – A response to racial trauma by Katie (also in response to Alok Vaid-Menon)
- More Intersectionality: Being Asexual and Asian by Psyche2332
- Skeptic’s Play: Forecasting Issues of Race by Siggy
- Skeptic’s Play: Dilemma on Asexuality and Race
- The Asexual Agenda: Why I don’t talk about race anymore by Siggy
- Next Step Cake: Boosting Representation for Ace POC by Sennkestra
- The Asexuality Blog: Aces of Color Stories – ongoing here’s the call for submissions
- The Asexual Agenda International Voices series – ongoing, here’s the call for submissions
- Prismatic Entanglements (guest post): A South Korean perspective on asexuality and mental health by anonymous
- Ace Muslim: Asexuality is not just a white identity (but would you know that from looking?) by Laura
- Carnival of Aces (June 2011): Intersection between Race/Ethnicity/Culture/Nationality and Asexuality
- Asexy Beast: A Place of Whiteness by Ily
Religious, Spiritual, & Cultural Diversity
- The Asexual Agenda: Carnival of Aces: Religion (or atheism) and Asexuality – October 2014
- The Ace Theist: Religion and Asexuality Overview by Coyote
- Ace Muslim: Asexuality, Islam, and Marriage Masterpost by Laura
- Ace Muslim: Laura’s asexuality and islam tag
- To be filled out later as time allows. Please feel free to send suggestions in!
Sex Workers’ Perspectives
- To be filled out later as time allows. Please feel free to send suggestions in!
Transgender, Non-Binary, & Intersex
- Epochryphal: Grey and NB and in Therapy: On CBT and the sneakiness of therapeutic abuse by Cor
- Alice’s Rainbow: mental health, asexuality and gender identity by Alice
- Queer as Cat: Intersections of a Black Non-Binary Ace by Vesper
- To be filled out later as time allows. Please feel free to send suggestions in! We are very well-represented in this category, and other members of our team will be working on this section.
the trauma i never knew i had: navigating childhood trauma 29 years after the fact
This post is by Vesper, reposted here with the permission of the author. You can read the original post here. content warning: explicit talk of childhood sexual abuse & religous trauma without going into detail; explicit mentions of acephobia, biphobia, homophobia this is one of two posts that i’m going to [...]
Bi/pan, trans, mental illness, and autism intersections in my abuse.
This is a guest post for our intersectional ace survivor story series by someone who wishes to remain anonymous. Please respect their privacy and do not speculate about their identity. Trigger warnings: intimate partner abuse, gaslighting, invalidation of ace identity, mentions of CoCSA and parental abuse, personality disorders […]
Intersections: Being a Disabled, Non-Binary, Autistic, & Ace Survivor
Being non-binary makes things really hard. Almost all of the help for victims of sexual assault are gendered. The general mental health care professionals are fine with my asexuality at first — but as soon as I bring up what happened it becomes something to be cured.
Hyper-kink-mode
It’s a weird feeling, to suddenly need certain kink things, to have a sudden craving so strong it suggests sometimes dangerous lengths and abandonment of boundaries and safety practices. I never know how long these things’ll last. Sometimes it’s just a day, sometimes it’s months. And it sure doesn’t feel like it will ever stop. (It’s everywhere and everywhen, how could it stop?) And it can be years in-between, and I can forget how to handle them, get out of practice, lose all my contacts and coping strategies. I don’t expect it to happen again.
a revolution for the crooked souls.
I’m a “bad” rape victim. A Model Rape Survivor doesn’t know her attacker. My rapist is essentially a stranger to me, but that night was not the first time I had met him. She is dressed modestly and cannot be held responsible due to those clothing choices. I wore one of my shortest dresses and no bra when I walked into his apartment. She’s virginal and chaste, only doing the appropriate sexual things with appropriate people. I considered myself a virgin at the time, though I’m sure other people might disagree, but I’d gone to his place to mess around in the first place.
Asexuality, hypothyroidism, and PTSD
The only reason they found out that I have hypothyroidism at all is because I decided to try some medication for PTSD, so they screened me for it. PTSD shares some of the same symptoms—poor memory and concentration, depression, and fatigue (from PTSD affecting the quality of sleep). Some of my other symptoms could have been explained by other factors, too. So I think it went undiagnosed for a long time.
Here goes everything
I discovered the Wikipedia page for asexuality in January of 2008. By September of the same year, I had PTSD. These two facts are not unrelated. The story is sickeningly cliche, to be honest. Young Queenie discovers asexuality a month and a half into her first romantic relationship. When she comes out to her boyfriend, he tells her, “You’re not asexual; we just haven’t tried the right things yet.” Young Queenie doesn’t have enough knowledge or self-confidence to stand her ground. Boyfriend pushes at her boundaries, seeing how far he can overstep them before Queenie freaks out and throws him off her or…
An Ace Survivor’s Manifesto
I am allowed to occupy space in the universe, regardless of how “difficult” or “complicated” or “messy” I may be. I am allowed to identify as a survivor or a victim or something else entirely. I am allowed to identify as asexual, even if I don’t know whether past experiences “caused” or “contributed to” my asexuality. I am allowed to use the words that work best for me. I am not required to defend my sexual orientation because of my status as a survivor. I am not required to defend my status as a survivor because of my sexual orientation.