Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Everybody, Break Your Bottles

Safe and warm at home, full of yummy linguine and thoroughly freaked out after watching Disc 3 of Dexter (partly because the show has lots of blood, and partly because I accidentally watched the episodes out of sequence-- oh no!), I'm not in a particularly fought-up mood.
But I have my moments. And during these more aggressive moments, I think about how awesome it would be to have an asexual riot.
I realize that riots are spur-of-the-moment things, and can hardly be incited by a blog post. I also know that, at least to my knowledge, the most Aces to ever gather together in San Francisco has been 6 people. Seeing as there are at least 15 police officers eating pizza around the corner right now, sending the half-dozen of us out into the streets to fight it out might be unwise.
I think it's the cinematic quality that appeals to me-- slow-motion, the arc of flying objects, the Beach Boys' "Wouldn't it Be Nice" playing in the background. Not to mention that the Stonewall riot, as most of us have heard, is usually called the beginning of the modern gay rights movement. I'm not sure that asexuality is in need of a rights movement, but it would be nice (you can really cue Pet Sounds for anything) for people to know we exist, even if they are kind of scared of us forevermore.
I've shared this funny vision with people, and I always get the question: "But what would you/we riot for?" Sex is visceral and physical, and there has always been a strange relationship between sex, violence, and control. If we lack the drive to have sex, do we also lack the drive to be fiery and passionate? I'd answer "no", although I think it might be less obvious in our case. I don't think passion is related to sexuality. Just read any advice column ("Dear Ily-- my husband just isn't into it, is it me?") for examples of this. I see no reason why Aces couldn't throw barstools with the best of them-- and we won't be distracted by that cutie rioting over to the left, either.
If we haven't rioted, I don't think it's for lack of reasons. True, we can blend in better than the drag queens who rioted at Stonewall. But does being able to lie back and take it for England mean that we should? I give a big "NO" and a raised beer bottle to that. I won't break it on your head, though. Beer is expensive in this city. I'll just raise a toast to asexual passion, wherever it may find us.

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