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Asexual Flag and Symbol!?


Chip123

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Kawaii_Neko
During World War II and the concentration camps, gay men were tagged with an inverted pink triangle on their uniforms. "Undesireable women", including lesbians, were given inverted black triangles. During the pride movement, they reclaimed these symbols as a positive identifiers. Soon after, bisexuals started using the pink-and-blue overlapping triangles to identify themselves.

The triangle has a lot of queer weight to it. It's identifiable as symbol that stands for a type of sexuality. Personally, I like that. It's unifying. I'm not partial to the shading, but the purple colour has already been claimed by bisexual pride and black by lesbian pride. To me, the gradient fits?

I'm by no means trying to say all the other flags/symbols are stupid or don't have meaning or anything. Just letting people know that I think there is a bit of logic behind the triangle, and if we want to stick with it, that's fine, and if not, that's fine too.

It just seems to me (as a former art major) that a gray triangle is a bit bland...dare I say boring. I totally understand where you're coming from with the history aspect. But we asexuals weren't really in the persecuted groups. The gay and lesbian communities turned painful memories and symbols around and used them for empowerment. We need the empowerment, but we're "coming from left field" (as my husband likes to say...). I feel that a strong front, with our own symbiology needs to be presented.

For example, in the piece that I designed, I incorporated two triangles (which make the diamond). An upward triangle represents the male population, the downward is traditionally female. Then the center is the astrological Earth symbol, to show not only a global phenomenon and community, but also can be interpretated to show that gender isn't such a big deal to us, hence no venus or mars sign. The colors were picked based on a poll that was previously done where the community chose which colors they best felt represented us.

Everyone has they're own interpretation of who they are which is probably why it's fairly difficult to settle on a design or concept. I do know that the more distinct an image, the more it will stick in people's mind. And if we want to get the word out there, then that mind-stickiness is what we're looking for, right?

^__^

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A whole lot of people, including myself, have designed symbols that we feel represents the asexual community. And a lot of them are really great. The problem is none seem to have sticking power. The inverted shaded triangle, whether people like it or not, has sort of become the default symbol. And I like it. It works. I like the symbolism, the history, the simplicity, and especially the recognition. I personally would stick with the triangle because so many people will already recognize it. Over 12,000 people internationally have been to this site and may recognize that triangle. How many people have viewed this thread, and will recognize the various proposed symbols here? So when I wear my kick ass necklace I have a better chance of a random asexual seeing it and recognizing it than if I wear one of the other proposed symbols.

Ace of Hearts I think is coming in second, but it is not a tight race for first. As far as ACE of Hearts goes, I like it, but it seems (to me) to be more representative of romantic asexuals. I dunno - any thoughts there are welcome.

Not saying that we shouldn't keep playing with ideas. Just saying that I think trying to change the asexual symbol from the entrenched inverted and shaded triangle to anything else is going to be an uphill battle.

Also, I don't see any problem in having multiple symbols. There does not have to be just one. So I will keep coming here and checking out people's work. It's cool that asexuality inspires such pride and creativity.

I do like your symbol, Momoiro_Usagi....but it is very complex. I just looked at it but I could not redraw it right now without looking again. It doesn't stick in my memory well.

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Kawaii_Neko

Fair enough! ^_^

Maybe we could call it silver instead of gray? I dunno...just sounds a bit better. Classier even... :wink:

I sometimes forget that not everyone is an artist (though we seem to have quite a few online here...maybe another connection?) so please forgive. The final piece did come out fairly complicated. The original one I sketched (doodled really...) was just a shaded diamond with the Earth symbol inside. When it came to doing it on the comp, it suddenly decided to become more complicated. :roll:

Also, I don't see any problem in having multiple symbols. There does not have to be just one. So I will keep coming here and checking out people's work. It's cool that asexuality inspires such pride and creativity.

I agree! I think it's great that more and more people are becoming comfortable about asexuality and wanting to show it. It's very inspiring! I'm so glad I found my way here! ^__^

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I should point out that the inverted triangle we use actually isn't purple at all. It's all in black, white and grey tones.

The purple color is only a part of the background.

I have no problem at all in using a version of the inverted triangle to symbolize asexuality. I know that it has been used by other sexual minorities and I happen to think that that is a huge positive insofar as it relates to our situation.

The reason is because asexuals ARE a sexual minority, and if we wish to be seen as a sexual orientation instead of a mental or sexual disorder then it behooves us to take advantage of the groundwork already laid by others. There simply aren't enough of us to do it alone.

We are, at best, only 1% of the population. In effect that number is even smaller since a lot of asexuals simply give up and submit to sex because they see that as much less threatening than being alone. Many of those people are so afraid of being seen as different that they will NEVER allow themselves to be called asexual, and they actually PREFER to be seen as "broken" because that implies that they can somehow be "fixed".

That leaves VERY few of us who are willing to openly (or even tacitly) identify as asexual.

We need all the help we can get! The GLBT community has generally been very sympathetic to our cause because they, too, know that there is strength in numbers. We aren't many, but every little bit helps and the fact that we ARE so hard to condemn (we aren't "sinning", after all, and yet we still choose to identify with those nasty queers!) makes the utter stupidity of judging people merely for their sexual orientation even MORE painfully evident.

It's a win-win situation if we are associated, even vaguely, with other sexual minorities.

-GB

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I should point out that the inverted triangle we use actually isn't purple at all. It's all in black, white and grey tones.

The purple color is only a part of the background.

I have no problem at all in using a version of the inverted triangle to symbolize asexuality. I know that it has been used by other sexual minorities and I happen to think that that is a huge positive insofar as it relates to our situation.

The reason is because asexuals ARE a sexual minority, and if we wish to be seen as a sexual orientation instead of a mental or sexual disorder then it behooves us to take advantage of the groundwork already laid by others. There simply aren't enough of us to do it alone.

We are, at best, only 1% of the population. In effect that number is even smaller since a lot of asexuals simply give up and submit to sex because they see that as much less threatening than being alone. Many of those people are so afraid of being seen as different that they will NEVER allow themselves to be called asexual, and they actually PREFER to be seen as "broken" because that implies that they can somehow be "fixed".

That leaves VERY few of us who are willing to openly (or even tacitly) identify as asexual.

We need all the help we can get! The GLBT community has generally been very sympathetic to our cause because they, too, know that there is strength in numbers. We aren't many, but every little bit helps and the fact that we ARE so hard to condemn (we aren't "sinning", after all, and yet we still choose to identify with those nasty queers!) makes the utter stupidity of judging people merely for their sexual orientation even MORE painfully evident.

It's a win-win situation if we are associated, even vaguely, with other sexual minorities.

-GB

Very well put! I totally agree. And I love the AVEN triangle! :) The shading seems just perfect to me. :D

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But we asexuals weren't really in the persecuted groups. The gay and lesbian communities turned painful memories and symbols around and used them for empowerment. We need the empowerment, but we're "coming from left field" (as my husband likes to say...). I feel that a strong front, with our own symbiology needs to be presented.

No, we weren't persecuted then in great numbers, but neither were bisexuals. They borrowed the symbol as well, with their own spin on it. It's not so much a, "Look, we suffered and died for this!" kind of thing. It's more of a subtle unification of minority sexual orientations.

I also agree that there can be multiple symbols. Universally, I think the inverted shaded triangle is the best recognized symbol, but everyone can have their own personal symbol. I also like the ace of hearts and would sooner purchase an ace-of-hearts teeshirt than one with a big grey triangle on it.

It all depends, and I don't think there's anything wrong with having more than one.

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I should point out that the inverted triangle we use actually isn't purple at all. It's all in black, white and grey tones.

The purple color is only a part of the background.

Ah, of course you are quite right, but for some reason in my head I have imprinted the filler as purple. But I guess the good thing about it is that it would be recognizable in any color. Though I would have to ask if the yellow meant something if I saw one filled in with yellow. Or orange...Or something like that.

I like the idea of calling it silver rather than grey.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I made this today. Size-wise, each side is about an inch. Now I just need to get a chain for it.

pendant.jpg

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Very cool. What's it made with?

It's sterling silver and the stone is, I think, some kind of agate. Finding a stone that even remotely mimicked the AVEN gradient was the hardest part! This one came out of a scrap bin where people throw their discarded end bits from geological specimens, but it cleaned up nice.

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