This section contains writeups about more specific moments in asexual history, from a semi-historical perspective – either personal memoirs and recollections (the majority of the links), or secondary reviews and attempts to gather evidence. It does not, however, include all potentially relevant contemporary primary sources (like specific newspaper articles or research papers, for example) – for examples of those, please see my writeup on Primary Source Archives for Asexual History.
Please note that because many of these writeups who were closely involved with the events described, these should not be considered unbiased sources, and may contain mistakes or misleading representations (these are still more in line with what historians would consider “primary sources” rather than proper historical analyses). Whenever possible, try to fact-check by looking at multiple sources, including contemporary archives (see again the primary source archives list).
Please note that this is a list in progress that is still very incomplete – if you have any additional recommendations, let me know at sennkestra@gmail.com.
Also, because so much more writing has been done on the history of when terms were coined and when concepts evolved than anything else, I’ve moved them to their own section here (link coming soon!)
The lists below are currently divided into three sections: pre-community history, community history, and then some bonus journalistic links.
Pre-Community History
Asexuality in the Classical and Medieval Periods
Potentially Asexual Women in Early Muslim History (Laura, Ace-Muslim)
Begijnhof in Middle Ages Holland (Demiandproud)
Asexuality in the Early Modern Period (~1500 – 1800)
Early Modern Asexuality and Performance Roundtable (ACMRS)
A Bibliography of Early Modern Asexuality Studies (Liza Blake, Simone Chess, Catherine Clifford, and Ashley “Aley” O’Mara)
Asexuality in Early Sexology (~1890s)
(indirect) mentions of asexuality in Magnus Hirschfeld’s books (AVEN thread)
Asexuality and Radical Feminism in (~1970s)
Asexuality in Early Radical Feminism, Part 1 (Siggy, the Asexual Agenda)
Asexuality in Early Radical Feminism, Part 2 (Siggy, the Asexual Agenda)
Interview with Lisa Orlando, Author of the Asexual Manifesto (Siggy, the Asexual Agenda)
The Erotics of Feminist Revolution: Political Celibacies/Asexualities in the Women’s Movement (Chapter 1 of Asexual Erotics by Ela Przybylo)*
Post-Community History
Early Ace Web Communities (~1997 – 2008ish?)
Haven for the Human Amoeba 20th Anniversary Livestream
Asexuality BC (Before Cake) – Nat Titman
A Brief History of Asexuality – Andrew Hinderliter (chapter 4 of his PhD thesis)
Blog Rants: Personal History in Community Context (Elizabeth, the Asexual Agenda)
Antisexuality and Early Ace Communities (~2001 – 2004ish?)
A Brief History of Antisexuality
Ace Blogging (~2007 onwards)
Blog Rants: The Early Ace Blogosphere (Elizabeth, The Asexual Agenda)
A Brief History of the Carnival of Aces (Siggy, The Asexual Agenda)
Ace Tumblr and “The Discourse” (~2011 onwards)
2011 in Ace Tumblr History (Epochryful)
What were you doing in 2011? (Various, The Asexual Agenda)
2011 (Ace Admiral)
Aftermath of the 2011 Ace Tumblr Debacle [archived] (Cake at the Fortress)
Gather around, baby aces, and I shall tell you a tale of ye olde days of 2011 (emeraldincandescant)
2013-2014 in Ace Tumblr: The Gray Wars (Coyote, The Ace Theist)
Series: Documenting the Ace Discourse, January-February 2015 (Jotdancing)
The Origins of Aspec Discourse: History and Reflections [achived] (aro-soulmate-project)
The Discourse, Viewed from Afar (Siggy, The Asexual Agenda)
The AVEN DSM Task Force (~2008) and Flibanserin Approval Hearings (~2015)
How the DSM (sort of) came to recognise “asexuality” as (sort of) legit (Rotten Zucchinis)
Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder and the Asexual Community: a history (Asexual Explorations Blog)
a(n his)story in progress of the FDA, flibanserin, pathologising discourse… and ace community (Rotten Zucchinis)
Sexually Broken: The Rhetorical Production of the Distressed Nonsexual in the Flibanserin Debate and Beyond – Hannah Helene Thompson (Masters Thesis)
Ace Symbols
The Ace Flag: A History and Celebration (Siggy, the Asexual Agenda)
The One With the Flags and symbols (Neth Dugan/Bristek, London Worldpride Asexuality Conference)
Asexual Awareness Week
The History of Ace Week (aceweek.org)
Ace Day(s) (2015 and 2020)
What’s the deal with this “Ace Day” Thing? (Sennkestra, Next Step: Cake)
Aces Have More Than a Day: Failures of Community Memory & Advocate Integrity (Coyote, The Ace Theist)
Ace Day was Incompetently Organized (Siggy, the Asexual Agenda)
Ace Day History (Rose, Fuck Yeah Asexual)
Creating Change
A History of Aces at Creating Change: An Interview with Bauer (TAAAP)
Misc (may re-sort later)
A Small Piece of Asexual History: The Heart of Aces, Unfortunately (Ace in Lace)
Bonus: Journalistic Writing about Asexual History
How the internet created the asexual movement (Kristen V. Brown, Splinter)
Finding Asexuality in the Archives / Asexual history goes back way further than an internet identity (Michael Waters, Slate)
NEXT STEP: CAKE 