livebloggingmydescentintomadness:
can someone explain to me how cishet aces are Not Straight™ but how gay/lesbian aces are gay? because if a het ace can’t be straight bc they’re ace, then how can a gay ace be gay?
straightness is a product of heteronormativity. asexuals can be branded as outside the heteronormative even if they’re heteroromantic for not being heteronormative enough.
there’s also the fact there’s two definitions for straight, one being the orientation of feeling attraction only to the opposite sex, the other being the position of privilege for being properly heteronormative. with most people the two overlap, but with aces they can be denied the full privilege that heteronormativity grants a conventionally heteronormative person. simply put, straightness can imply a position of power that asexuals can be denied because of their asexuality, if they actually had proper straight privilege they couldn’t be denied that privilege in the first place.
on the other hand gay implies both being attracted to the same gender as yourself and the lack of straight privilege because of that. it’s more cut and dry without the issue between the two aspects of what makes it up.
so it’s one thing to call a gay asexual gay, as their level of privilege is never in question, but it’s another thing to call a heteroromantic ace straight without taking into account how they feel about being called straight because conventionally heteronormative people may have flat out made it clear to them based on their asexuality alone they’re not considered straight by them. that means you may be grouping them with the very people telling them they’re not heteronormative enough to be straight, the very same people who give them bullshit for not being heteronormative enough for their tastes. since while someone in the LGBT+ community can claim someone has enough straight privilege to count as straight it’s actually the straight majority that decides who gets full straight privilege.
thank you for putting this in words
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