Friday, January 11, 2008

Spirit of '77

I got The Sexually Opressed in the mail this week. It's definitely spooky-looking, as Rosie would like to show you:
The article about asexual women was easy to read. Like most articles about asexuality, it was only 11 pages. These were the general points made:
  1. Asexual women (and autoerotic women) exist.
  2. There's nothing wrong with them.
  3. Be yourself.
I can't blame you for saying "DUH", but Ms. Johnson was definitely ahead of her time. (She also uses some unorthodox research methods, like 5 years of reading womens' magazines.) Even though Johnson's conclusions were obvious, finding these older studies has been powerful for me. Reading this article reminded me of the scene in Punch-Drunk Love where Adam Sandler's character says something like:

"I have a love in my life, and it makes me more powerful than you can imagine."

Well, I have a 30-year-old article in my life, and it has finally given me ancestors of experience. Knowing that people like me were previously identified, albeit briefly, feels like I've gotten a message of encouragement. And that gives me strength.

Next, I'm reading the articles from gay and lesbian perspectives...in 1977, the gay community was in a similar position to the asexual community today. Reading about a lesbian who thought she was "the only woman in the world who loved women" would be almost unheard of today. However, this is a feeling that many contemporary asexuals go through daily. I'm going to leave it at that for now. But stay tuned for intriguing quotes from The Sexually Opressed, coming at you this weekend.

1 comment:

maymay said...

I'm actually surprised at the insanely high number of people who tell me "I thought I was the only who who liked X Y and Z!" these days, and I'm one of the "most plugged-in people in" certain alternative sexuality communities that many people know.

Yet I still here that time and time again, about everything, even plain old sexual orientation. Sometimes it's generic, like, "I can't believe there are other people who really like other boys!" and sometimes it's more particular, like "I thought I was the only gay guy who had a thing for cotton."

Nevertheless, I still here it. I wonder how long it will take before people really start believing that the only constant in people's sexuality is their diversity. Probably about the same time that 99% of the representations of sexuality aren't exactly the same every single time, but that's another post entirely….