Ace Day: What You Should Know

many people on Tumblr recently celebrated “Ace Day” on May 8th, 2015. many of those people are completely unaware of the controversy and ill feelings that surround the creation of this day. at the same time, some people are aware of it and have responded to it by not participating.

that said, i’ve seen people (who obviously mean well) commenting both in posts and in tags shit that basically boils down to “TDOV copied/piggybacked off of the blackout day! how racist! we shouldn’t be like them!”

please educate yourselves.

• TDOV predates the blackout, having been celebrated since 2010.
• TDOV isn’t a f’kin selfie day. it was founded by Rachel Candall to create a more cheerful and positive day to celebrate and recognize trans people, as opposed to the much more somber Transgender Day of Rememberance, the only other international event specifically about trans people who have passed away.

but you see, here’s the thing:

• neither event invented posting selfies on a specific day, nor do they claim to.
• this is not a pissing contest; it isn’t a matter of who did what first and what was inspired by what.
• furthermore, the blackout and TDOV have nothing whatsoever to do with each other. stop comparing the two events for fuck’s sake.

i also see people trying to argue in support of Ace Day by saying things like “it’s not a selfie day anyway, it’s a day to be proud of who you are and post ace cards!”

• the fact that it isn’t specifically about selfies is beside the point. anyone who thinks that either the blackout day or TDOV were just about posting selfies has obviously missed the point.
• no one is arguing against ace spec people taking pride in who they are and i personally am not trying to police when ace spec events happen. yes, Asexual Awareness Week  existed first and is deserving of attention, but pride exists beyond a single week or even a single day.
• the whole card thing is imperfect and problematic to begin with, having people categorize themselves into one of four categories based on romantic orientation as if things are that simple. if “Ace Day” revolves around this faulty card system, it itself is also faulty. it most certainly alienates and others those who cannot pigeonhole themselves into one of four categories. (case in point: this post)

the point is simply that theasexualityblog (along with others) saw an opportunity based on the success of two other events and took it. while doing so, they responded to people’s concerns in a way that i (and others) found questionable, ultimately only changing the date and dropping “Visibility” from the event’s name. Tumblr being Tumblr and theasexualityblog being as popular as it is, “Ace Day” ended up being celebrated by many without them knowing what happened leading up to the day.

tl;dr: whether you support or are against “Ace Day”, at least know more about it. know that not everyone participated in it for various reasons, even if you did. regardless of what happens with Ace Day going forward, i personally continue to take issue with it and couldn’t sit around twiddling my thumbs reblogging others’ posts any longer, thus this post.

thank you for reading and have a nice day. 😀