"A Tale of Sex, Hate, and Cliches"

Today I stand tall as a human being.

I’m going to discuss several things highly significant to us as a species and as a community. To be more specific, I’ll be talking about what these things mean to me.

In everyday culture we’re surrounding by sex. In commercials, in movies, in TV programs, it’s sex, sex, sex. Sexuality has becoming a key part of us as a society -and this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. There’s nothing wrong with embracing healthy sexuality, nothing wrong with being comfortable about sex and our bodies in a sexual manner. It’s just that sex isn’t everything, and sex isn’t for everyone.

I come to you as a proud asexual, a human being who has no libido, no sexual attraction, no lust. This does not make me any better of a human being than those who are sexual, but it doesn’t make me any less either. One should never be degraded or humiliated because of their sexual orientation, because it’s a part of them. It’s a part of them as a person, as a human being, and they should feel proud. Whether they’re heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual, asexual, or demisexual, or anything in between, there’s no reason for shame.

Me, I’m proud of my asexuality, but it does make life somewhat difficult.

When I look as a human body, I do not see sex, I see a human body. I see art, because I’m an artist. To me, breasts or penises are just body parts, not unlike arms or eyes. You can imagine, being like this in a society swamped in sex can be a little difficult. People push sexuality on us from all sides, watching TV you’re bombarded with the idea of ‘sexiness’ or ‘desire’.

Now, I’m going to appear to switch topics now, but I’m not really. It all ties in together in one big knot, after all.

When you’re born, the nurse takes a look at your crotch and states whether you’re male or female. That’s all fine and dandy, but in my world, my personal world, gender is nothing. Gender is sex, and to me, sex means nothing. Just because you’ve got a penis and I’ve got a vagina doesn’t mean we’re male and female, it just means that you’ve got a penis and I’ve got a vagina. We’ve also got different colour hair, but I don’t see a huge societal rift between brunettes and blondes, I don’t see a misbalance of power just because you’re hair is lighter than mine, I don’t see a reason for one of use to be set in a certain standard just because of our hair colour.

So in my world, I walk through a mass of human beings, not males and females, just people. I’m a neutrois asexual, and I’m panromantic. My affections and love is for any and all that works there way into my heart, regardless of what’s between their legs. Platonic relationships are not beyond me, it’s just that when it comes to my ‘type’, my type is people. I don’t play for a team, I don’t swing either way, I’m just here. Just here, loving, living, who ever I want to love and live for.

Sometimes I think to myself, wouldn’t it be nice to be a cisgender heterosexual. If I could be, for once, apart of the majority. If I could be what society deems ‘normal’. But then I think to myself; But I’m not. And then I continue being who I am. Because the fact that I’m not a cisgender heterosexual is neither unfortunate nor fortunate, it just is.

But the problem is, some people aren’t fine with that. Some people aren’t fine with others being their very own being. I’ve met many a person who smush gender binaries in my face like a strange box-shaped bosom in a hug of social conformity, and that’s not ok.

To me, this is like me, an asexual transgender neutrois kid, going up to cisgendered heterosexuals and saying “Gender doesn’t exist! How dare you be comfortable with your male or female gender? What the hell is wrong with you? Be transgender! It’s the only way to be normal.” Or “You have sex? That’s disgusting! How do you even live that way?” Because I’d be shoving my identity down your throat, and that’d be wrong.