Ace Media Analysis & Meta-commentary

A compilation of links to ace readings, analysis, and discussion of fiction and fan communities, including essays about interpreting individual characters as ace, evaluating canon portrayals of asexuality, and identifying ace-related themes. If you have suggestions on what to add, please link them in the comments!

[Crossposted to Pillowfort. Rebloggable on Tumblr. Preview image created from a photo by Teslariu Mihai.]

Academics sure are bad at talking about abstinence, huh

lol nothing like a little academic reading on “purity culture” to reopen some old baggage

[cn: conservative Christian talk, anti-ace stuff, discussion of rape (fictional and political)]

ftr: on certain popular ace character interpretations

Still can’t brain enough for any of the full posts I want to do but I hope everybody realizes that the “people interpreting a character like BBC Sherlock as ace” phenomenon and the “people responding to asexual identity with ‘what, you think you’re better than us?'” phenomenon have something to do with each other.

Normalizing the Punishment Kiss

a post talking about the normalization of kissing as sexual assault as seen on shows like The Flash and Brooklyn Nine Nine, especially when such actions are used as comedic punchlines with villains.

Prompt taken from this post by lemonyandbeatrice.

This post doesn’t entirely stick to the topic, but still — cn: attitudes about/media depictions of violence, including sexual violence, including details from a specific scene.

“I’m not here for you.”

Probably the best meta I’ve seen on Hamilton is this, to which I have nothing of value to add.  But I do want to talk about the relationship between Angelica and Eliza just for a bit.

The Virgin Queen

[tw: transmisogyny, incest]

But when we’re fictionalizing someone who was famously the “Virgin Queen,” most of that fictionalizing will center around one thing: “Come on.  We know she’s f***ing someone.  Who is she reeeeaaally schtupping?  Because it had to be someone, right?”

I’m not the only one who noticed this, I see.  Glad to hear it acknowledged.  Not glad that this thread carries through more depictions than I was even aware of, though.

see, this is what I meant

Another short asexuality & racism post.

[cw: masturbation mentions in the video]

Like.  Okay.  There are good things in this video but come on.

• every single one of the aces presented is (ostensibly) White
• narration “So when everything around us is sexualized” overlays quick shots of dark-skinned women dancing, some of whom appear to have natural Black hair (it’s hard to get a good look at them because the lighting is so dim and the shots are cut so short — but the presence of one man standing still among the dancers makes this look like a clip from a rap video)

Hello?  Hello ?????  Are you trying to play into racist tropes?

Other things in this video:

1. continuing the “asexual people have it harder than sga people” thing
2. citing the 1% statistic, at least more appropriate in location this time
3. mentioning the “oh you’re Christian too though? It’s just repression then” thing! which is actually good to mention!

Anyway, one of the aces in this claims that “the biggest problem” is that most people don’t even realize that they’re asexual or can identify as asexual, which I wouldn’t say is the biggest problem, but whether or not it is, videos like this are helpful to some people more than others.

AI, sex bots, and revolution

I want to get this one thought out of my head real quick before bed.

[cn for sexual harassment, just vague talk of fictional stuff]

A long time back, I was talking to the copilot about the “evil AI (artificial intelligence)” and “robot apocalypse” tropes, and how I’ve just never understood the fear, and I started going into my theory about how those Malevolent Robots Try To Take Over The World narratives are actually a stand-in for bourgeoisie anxieties and class conflict (these are the kinds of conversations we have, yes).

I’m not really sure how that idea fermented in my head or how I wound up there — but looking back, I recently realized where it might have originated.

I vaguely remember seeing part of the movie Westworld when I was young (read: maybe eleven at the oldest, possibly as young as seven).  It’s a movie about, you guessed it, rebellious robots.  More specifically, it’s about some theme park androids who start to develop wills of their own and start becoming disobedient.  For the gunslinger robot, this means shooting and killing people, but it starts out smaller-scale than that.  Some of the other theme park robots are “seduction” robots, and one of the first instances the viewers are shown of a robot expressing free will involves a “female” designed-for-sex bot refusing to have sex with a human man.  Multiple times in a row, he tried to hit on her, and she rebuffed him each time (I’m only half-remembering this, but I recall some kind of escalation).  The man was left looking confused and dismayed because she was refusing to bend to his will and operate according to her “purpose.”

It’s. Creepy.

And so I have to figure that influenced me, too, because even as a young kid, I sided with her.

The scariest part of Jurassic World was the heterosexuality.

Alright, well.  You know what they say about if you want something done.

This is a post about the movie Jurassic World and how its heterosexual timeline intersects with its thematic dichotomy of Wilderness vs. Order to frame sex-indifference as a personality flaw.

Hm.  That was a mouthful, wasn’t it?  How about: this is a post about how the sexual harassment scene fits into the thematic elements of the overall story and locates sex-indifference as one of the facets of contrast with an embrace of the Natural.  Or even: how the narrative framing of Jurassic World screams, “Owen Grady is always right and Aunt Claire needs to get laid.”

“You gotta be able to relate to at least one of those things.”

I hope somebody has something to say about the sex indifference joke Owen made about Aunt Claire in Jurassic World because I got nothing coherent over here.