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I would like to unleash a MASSIVE STORM of visibility on the world


Member33070

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Member33070

Hey everyone.

I'm kind of in desperate need of an overwhelming project to do, and I think this presents a great opportunity...

We need more visibility - bad. I have done an insane amount of volunteering in the past, and when I care about something, I tend to go completely overboard. This would be a lifelong project I'd be willing to undertake. No half-attempts here. If I'm in charge, stuff gets done. A lot of stuff.

Here's some things I want to do:

  • Pepper every school in the world that teaches sex ed with letters about asexuality
  • Find a distributor willing to make and sell asexy flags on the cheap that we can buy and wave proudly
  • Make a crapton more shirts with proceeds going to more visibility projects or charity - or no profit, I don't care.
  • Find a mass distributor for asexy black rings on the cheap, possibly find someone willing to make custom rings on the cheap
  • Work hard to make an unoffical asexual day/week/month where we gather, eat cake, and be visible. Essentially like Pride but maybe more festival-y. Need lots of ideas for this.

I need more ideas and to know where I should start.

What do you think is important?

How do I go about getting volunteers to help with massive projects like letter sending?

What are your dreams for visibility and how can I make them happen?

Is there anything I should know about copyrights or anything if I try to find someone to make flags or shirts for us?

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Angry_Spade

I'm for it! Could I maybe help out with shirt designs? If you have any suggestions on what the shirts should have on them, I could do that at least. :3

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Effanineffable

A fire has been lit! Honestly, I wouldn't know where to begin either. I briefly considered starting an asexuality awareness / support club thing on my campus. But we're a conservative all-male college of roughly 900 students. Our GSA barely gets by. So, perhaps a pipe dream.

Now, if there could be something on Oprah... that would be a storm indeed.

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Angry_Spade

OMG, I'm /SO/ forgetful! I can make Asexual-related pins! I have a gajillion button pin supplies in 1 in. and 2 in. sizes!

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Member33070

Sweet! I really just don't know if there's any rules I have to follow with the flag and whatnot...that's my main reason for posting here. I would get started right now on visibility merch if I knew it was pretty much free reign.

Again, I'm thinking people would have an option to buy and donate to charity or a fund that goes to more projects - or they could buy the thing for super cheap and we'd make no profit.

I know we've got the Cafe Press store, or someone does, but I almost wonder if that's the cheapest way to go about it? I want to do some hunting...I have a lot of shirt ideas but anything anyone comes up with would be awesomely appreciated!

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Member33070

I think one thing I will do is start a visibility tumblr. That seems easy enough. Open it to submissions. *nod*

Needs a good name. About the best thing I can come up with is "Obviously Asexual" since it will be about ways to spread awareness and visibility, putting up sites with purple plaid and black rings and such. (Now Visibly Asexual)

If anyone can think of a better name post here, PM me or submit a new one.

http://obviouslyasexual.tumblr.com/

http://www.visiblyasexual.tumblr.com

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Angry_Spade

I think the flag design is public domain. At least according to wikimedia commons it is. Flags are usually not under any kind of copyright as far as I know.

It would be kind of nice to see more color/flare in the designs I saw on cafepress. Hehe, but that's the artist in me talking, and a lot of color would be rather counterproductive because then people would mistake us for the sexualities in between.

We could also do stuff related to the ace of hearts and ace of spades for the romantic and aromantic asexuals.

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Member33070

Angry_Spade - agreed, agreed! I'm working on the tumblr a bit now, but hope to start on the merch around the middle of next week. I'll kind of brainstorm in the meantime (I always get great ideas to start on massive projects right during midterms lol! - I'll be studying all weekend but get right back on it Tuesday night)

Any ideas you come up with between now and then would be awesome so there's something up. I have a few pretty simple, yet iconic ideas - like a solid lavender/purple shirt with the fading triangle on it, and possibly a shirt that is entirely made up of the flag, like a striped shirt would be, you know?

Avistew - That does help, thanks so much!

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MÃ¥skemigselvetsted

That sounds like an amazing idea (:

If I can help with anything - please let me know.

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Sounds interesting! :cake:

Some of my thoughts:

* Pepper every school in the world that teaches sex ed with letters about asexuality

I think one of the first things you'd want to do for this is come up with a template letter that people could use. Maybe if people don't want to sign letters with their own name/details you could have volunteers in different countries who would let there details be used (and didn't mind responding to further enquiries from schools etc...)- or am I over-thinking that? Actually this is when it'd be really useful to have a 'real-life' asexuality organisation that we could send letters on behalf of (maybe that could be a more ambitious future project :lol: )

* Find a distributor willing to make and sell asexy flags on the cheap that we can buy and wave proudly

There was a thread on here a while ago about a UK distributor who was selling the flags fairly cheap on amazon(uk) as well as some other stores like these:

http://www.best-buy-flags.co.uk/Asexual-Flag-3-x-5-ft-buy-flags-12209,bestbuyflags.html

http://www.flagsoftheworldshop.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=10_36&products_id=8371

All the websites seem to be speciality flag stores- so maybe if people find similar stores in their own countries and email them asking about asexuality flags, more will start distributing them?

* Find a mass distributor for asexy black rings on the cheap, possibly find someone willing to make custom rings on the cheap

No idea how you'd go about this but it would be really useful, it took me ages to find a plain black ring!

* Work hard to make an unoffical asexual day/week/month where we gather, eat cake, and be visible. Essentially like Pride but maybe more festival-y. Need lots of ideas for this.

This sounds like it might be difficult to organize and we already have a lot of meetups and things. However if you were going to try and do it, maybe it's something that could incorporated in the Visibility Week that some people around here are working on?

Thinking ambitiously: At some point if you want to do lots of different things/projects you could have a dedicated visibility website where people could sign up to be volunteers and assign themselves to various projects, if you want to do stuff worldwide you'd probably need people/teams to co-ordinate & organize things in there own country.

Thinking REALLY ambitiously: Eventual world domination :ph34r: :lol:

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Member33070

Sai, you made me think, how does one go about forming an actual, legit organization with this sort of a theme, I wonder? I feel like people would take it more seriously if it was "approved" by the magical organization-approving beings. But it would probably have to grow a bit for that.

One thing that really should happen is to form clubs at schools, sort of like the GSA or other LGBT organizations. I know many people think we can easily blob in with them, and I am happy when we're accepted into those groups, but I feel like we're also a whole different animal to some extent.

I do need to figure out a volunteer sign-up thingum so that distribution of the letters is taken care of. Maybe a site with the letter, and then people can post what schools they have sent it to and we can keep a record?

So this would be any school that teaches sex ed, directed towards the sex ed department. Then we need a seperate set of letters to go to GSA organizations and other LGBTQIA...BCDEFG groups. In all likelihood the queer groups know about us already, but addressing them personally probably makes them more apt to want to help us out.

So my other concern - I think you may have mentioned - is we might need someone to respond to some of the letters. People who don't take it seriously, have a zillion questions that the websites aren't helping them with. So our letter-sending minions may need to volunteer to respond to any letters they send. That can make it hard if they want to be anonymous. What address should they use?

Well, you know what - THIS ISN'T ABOUT ANONYMITY ANYMORE. That should be one of the rules of volunteering for these projects, in my opinion. Something like, "I DECLARE MYSELF ACE! I don't need to be anonymous about it!" If we've got some allies, that's cool too, they can totally introduce themselves as allies, but I am completely convinced that all of these, "aah, I can't be out, people will make fun of me" folks are making things kind of difficult. I'm out to everyone. Even complete strangers, bible-thumping relatives, the most conservative and liberal people I know, the most sex-obsessed...EVERYONE. I got called "not real" and a "late bloomer" and all the other typical things. Coming out is hard, but after the first few times it's old hat. *shrug*

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Ninjapandaperson

* Find a mass distributor for asexy black rings on the cheap, possibly find someone willing to make custom rings on the cheap

No idea how you'd go about this but it would be really useful, it took me ages to find a plain black ring!

Dude, four words.

Black paint. Assembly line.

And I mean assembly line like not with machines but with people.

I bet something with machines would be expensive.

There was this episode of the Big Bang Theory…

Oops, getting off topic.

We could just have people get together, order a ton of normal rings, and then BAM!

Spend hours painting them!

I suppose we'd also have to order paint…

And painting tools…

and we'd have to be able to get together…

But still…

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frozen moment

I love your enthusiasm, and I want to be a part of it :)

I'm very busy at the moment with uni, so I'm not sure that I can help much in the short term, but I'd like to be in the know about visibility and what's going on so I can try to contribute.

Personally, I'd like to see the 'black ring thing' more visible - and it would be easy enough to make a start on that...

1. Sell black rings via AVEN or something (as others have suggested)

2. What about putting a description of asexy symbols (ie. black ring, and flag) on the front page of AVEN (or maybe FAQ)?

When I first discovered AVEN, i read the front page and the faq pretty thoroughly, so I imagine others do too. I only found out about the black ring thing after digging around in the forums for a while. If it was on the front page I bet tonnes more people would know about it.

Just my thoughts :)

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I love your enthusiasm. :cake:

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If you need some ideas for tshirts/clothing plz let me know...I like some of the themes of the clothing sold at the store but honestly some of the styles are SOOOOO boring we need to spice it up a bit!!! I have the cutest idea for a design for a tank top...a looser fitting one maybe a cute burnout patterned slightly sheer style with a butterfly with a mosiac of the aven flag colors and the word "asexy" written above...I actually found a place to order some like that but the min order is like twelve...before I invest in that I would like know I could get my money back!

anyway I want to declare my aceness proudly lol but also look cute doing it!!!

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SpirallingSnowy

I love your enthusiasm. Id happy for the Aussie stuff to go through me - as well as any other willing aussie volunteers. also, my mum works for Dept Education and Training so i can much easier than most get the addresses for every single school in my state.

Also, inundating the media is a good idea - having a letter template to send to every newspaper/magazine/tv show that does stories on people etc.

Yes, its an epic task, but LONG over due.

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Birdwing, I agree with the above comments- impressive enthusaism!! ^__^

Asexual Awareness Week in October is going to be a HUGE event. And there is a day for Asexuality...I think...also somewhere in October. I forget when exactly, I think October 21st, but I could be wrong. Anyway, I encourage you to get involved in Asexual Awareness Week because that should hopefully be a huge and hopefully annual visibility event.

Also a few people from AVENchat and I- well, we've been procrastinating on this. XD But maybe you could help us stay motivated. We've created an Etsy shop where we're going to make and sell asexuality-related things. Some ideas have been: black rings, ace triangle pins, tote bags with a cute asexual-themed drawing, cake plushies, etc. Do you think you might be interested in helping with something like that?

Also here is a list of "open letters" to professionals, including educators.

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infactiamme

These sound like awesome ideas!

Just earlier this week I was thinking about writing a song about asexuality!

If there is any way I can help just ask! :)

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virescence

I could knit things? Or create knitting patterns for things? Wristbands in flag colours would be easy and cheap... Or... anything else that can be made out of fabric. Scarves! And mittens. Purses, electronics covers... I wouldn't have time for making anything big, but I can do small things and work out patterns.

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Birdwing, I agree with the above comments- impressive enthusaism!! ^__^

Also a few people from AVENchat and I- well, we've been procrastinating on this. XD But maybe you could help us stay motivated. We've created an Etsy shop where we're going to make and sell asexuality-related things. Some ideas have been: black rings, ace triangle pins, tote bags with a cute asexual-themed drawing, cake plushies, etc. Do you think you might be interested in helping with something like that?

Cake plushies? That is beyond awesomemess!

Can we have giant teddy bears? Because the one they sell on the store here is to small...I am thinking LIFESIZED! :)

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I could knit things? Or create knitting patterns for things? Wristbands in flag colours would be easy and cheap... Or... anything else that can be made out of fabric. Scarves! And mittens. Purses, electronics covers... I wouldn't have time for making anything big, but I can do small things and work out patterns.

Well, since you mentioned wristbands... What about rings? Couldn't you knit black rings? They'd have to be simple, just a black strip, can't really have aces and stuff on them (unless you embroider them?) but it could be more cost-effective than metal rings. You'd just need to make a variety of sizes.

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virescence

I could knit things? Or create knitting patterns for things? Wristbands in flag colours would be easy and cheap... Or... anything else that can be made out of fabric. Scarves! And mittens. Purses, electronics covers... I wouldn't have time for making anything big, but I can do small things and work out patterns.

Well, since you mentioned wristbands... What about rings? Couldn't you knit black rings? They'd have to be simple, just a black strip, can't really have aces and stuff on them (unless you embroider them?) but it could be more cost-effective than metal rings. You'd just need to make a variety of sizes.

Now you mention it, knitting black rings would be very quick and easy. I'll dig out some black yarn later on tonight and whip one up, because I'm not sure how a ring would actually be to wear.

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The asexual flag I have seen, looks oh so similar to the Gay flag. I really would like to see a distinctive flag that marks out our separate identity, so we are not perceived as 'just another gay type group' !

Goodluck :)

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Member33070

Wooooow. Glad to see everyone is getting all excited. :D

I just went through the slaughter of midterms, but after class tomorrow I should be slightly more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. I will be searching for some website where we could get started making/distributing things.

If you have ideas for graphics to go on shirts or whatever, post them here...any sketches you have would be great. Artists, just be all like "I'm an artist willing to finalize any sketches" and people who sketch up something that needs an artistic hand to finalize can come to you, or I will...?

Knitters/crafters - love it love it love it. If you come up with a pattern or something, perhaps writing up the pattern and instructions with some pictures so fellow crafters can make the item? I can post it on Obviously Asexual (http://www.obviouslyasexual.tumblr.com) (Edit: Now Visibly Asexual (http://www.visiblyasexual.tumblr.com)) if you hit submit.

Actually, any of these things can be sent in to Obviously Visibly Asexual for some content.

Uh...what else was there? School thing. Yeah, definitely need volunteers for that. I'd like these projects to hatch somewhat concurrently. We need funds for the stamps unless volunteers are willing to buy them out of their own pockets. But then we need something that we're doing so that the funds seem like they're going to a good cause. But once the ball is rolling everything is hunky-dory...

Rings...this might be much much easier than we all think. There's got to be something they can be crafted out of, even if we just make molds with like, dyed black epoxy or something. Do ring molds exist? :huh: I also know of a few companies in the area that make jewelry, it wouldn't be the cheapest thing known to man but I think quite a few aces are willing to spend slightly more knowing they'd wear it for a long time, daily.

The flag thing would be really easy if we can find a cheap distributor of fabric and anyone in the world that can sew straight lines (aka not me :lol:).

So things I'm going to start on tomorrow:

- finding a good "selling stuff we make and/or design for the website to make" website

- creating a place where volunteers sign up and we keep a list of AVEN names/nicknames and their approximate location (for the school thing and the shipping, if they make something)

- making a place to keep updated on all this, like a blog with links to the store (the tumblr can work for this pretty stinkin' well, I imagine)

OKAY I NEED OPINIONS ON THIS THOUGH - the name of the tumblr/ of this project...I want this thing to have a name. Is Obviously Asexual okay? "Obviously" for short or something? Any ideas / comments appreciated.

gah I swear my eyes are like half open I'm so dead from midterms...thanks for all the support though, this is gonna be great.

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carrotcake

I recently made a T-shirt design. should I email this to someone?

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What about "Visibly Asexual" or "Visibly Ace"? To go with the visibility thing, but I'm not sure how good that sounds.

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demonmilk

For the black rings, why not put up an ad on etsy? Theres plenty of jewelry makers on etsy and surely theres bound to be a few people who are willing to use their jewelry making talents for asexuality awareness.

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Sweet! I really just don't know if there's any rules I have to follow with the flag and whatnot...that's my main reason for posting here. I would get started right now on visibility merch if I knew it was pretty much free reign.

Again, I'm thinking people would have an option to buy and donate to charity or a fund that goes to more projects - or they could buy the thing for super cheap and we'd make no profit.

I know we've got the Cafe Press store, or someone does, but I almost wonder if that's the cheapest way to go about it? I want to do some hunting...I have a lot of shirt ideas but anything anyone comes up with would be awesomely appreciated!

I run the CafePress store (or at least, attempt to do so) and it's true, CafePress is overpriced. I know many of the people here are students or younger people without a lot of money. I think it's good to have, but AVEN doesn't make much of a profit from it. If you could find a way to sell items without a middleman, that would be ideal (like making your own website). If anyone knows how to screenprint, that could be helpful.

(Also I look forward to seeing the Etsy shop!)

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