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Do we have a subculture of our own?


The A Life Team

  

14 members have voted

  1. 1. Well, do you?

    • Yes
      6
    • Yes, but it's still at its infancy
      52
    • Maybe
      9
    • No, we're still too young
      9
    • No
      6
    • Other
      0


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The A Life Team

Most larger minorities have developed a cultural sensibility of their own. Is asexuality one of those minority groups that have achieved that? And if not, why not?

Please do add your thoughts about the subject, but I urge you to listen to the show first. It will considerably clarify the poll and give tons of thought-provoking entertainment. You can find the show here:

http://alifepodcast.wordpress.com/

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I voted "Yes, but it's in its infancy". I think it is awesome we have our own in-jokes (cake) and browsing the forum, you can really get a 'feel' for the community, which is really nice. However, it isn't completely alien your first time coming here and it doesn't take long to adjust to the "AVEN mindset". It may just be a small subculture with a few injokes and a certain small way of talking, but it is there. :)

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I had to vote "No, we're still too young," because I think that we are confusing AVEN's membership with asexuals-at-large.

The vast majority of asexuals are not AVEN members for a variety of reasons, and I'm not sure if all of them would want to be even if they knew about the site.

I think it is safe to say that AVEN and it's various spinoffs might be a considered a website-based subculture, or maybe a proto-subculture (if that's a word) but asexuals as a whole? No, I don't think so. At least, not yet.

On a sidenote (because I actually listened to the podcast this time!):

I don't believe that DJ was personally responsible for starting the AVEN-cake tradition.

I don't know how to access my earliest posts in the order that they were made, but I joined at about the same time the cake tradition was first beginning. As I recall, it started as a sort of group effort by several prominent members at the time, including Cate Perfect, Jayann, Inanechild, and several others. There were fewer than 700 members back then, and fewer than 100 of them were active, so the arrival of a newbie was still a big deal and we really tried to make them feel welcome - hence we dusted off the imaginary furniture and served various types of imaginary snacks and etc, until we eventually settled on cake as being the best type of "welcome" snack. I am not 100% sure that this is exactly how it happened, but I think it is pretty close.

This much I AM sure about:

The very first cake emoticon was created by the member who later married Cate Perfect. I believe his current username is Mr Perfect, but back then it was Liverlicker2003.

-gb

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Cakes, cats, & compies! that's our subculture :lol:

I would say yes, in it's infancy. It may change more when it comes into greater visibility in the world, but as it is, it's more heavily known in nerd/fandom and liberal spheres. So of course that's going to have an impact in our common traits & values.

Even if most of our culture has spun off of AVEN or somewhere, all subcultures had to develop somewhere. Goth subculture developed on the music scene. Asexual subculture may have started at AVEN, but that doesn't keep it from spreading elsewhere with it's members. I think we'll keep many of the traits.

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somewhereinthemiddle

No I dont think we should. I think having a certain culture could scare people away from accepting it. Asexuals can have all kinds of cultures. I know my culture is very different from the general population and I dont want that to change. I dont want a label or stereotype to start. For example.. "all asexuals are nerdy and like comics and video games and are antisocial". It starts something we really dont want. Lets just leave it as a sexual orientation, please? :)

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What would the subculture include, besides the fact that most asexuals don't feel any sexual attraction to other people? We're all different ages, tastes, nationalities, political viewpoints, educational levels, etc. (Look at all the arguments on AVEN about everything conceivable, or not conceivable.) Some of us don't even like cake, although I can't imagine why.

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I try not to say this too loudly, but ... there are even a few of us who aren't too crazy about cats. :ph34r:

-gb

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I try not to say this too loudly, but ... there are even a few of us who aren't too crazy about cats. :ph34r:

Ooh, glad I'm not the only one. I often feel like a bit of a "stranger in my own land" over the cat thing on AVEN.

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Stormy Wether

What would the subculture include, besides the fact that most asexuals don't feel any sexual attraction to other people? We're all different ages, tastes, nationalities, political viewpoints, educational levels, etc. (Look at all the arguments on AVEN about everything conceivable, or not conceivable.) Some of us don't even like cake, although I can't imagine why.

*sheepish*

I'll just have to drink more tea and stroke more cats to make up for it.

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