Q&A: “do you happen to know any cool aro/ace history?”
nohelpwhatsoever said:
while on the subject of that “know your bi history” comic post, do you happen to know any cool aro/ace history? i actually haven’t come across any historical aces who aren’t linked to religious celibacy :/
(re: this post)
i’m afraid that i’ll be of no help whatsoever (get it?) when it comes to history… of anything, really. history was always one of my least subjects in school because i can barely remember the events of my own life, let alone those of other people’s lives etc…
that said, you’re in luck because some people are actually into (and good at) history– more specifically, ace history. i haven’t come across much in the way of aro history, sadly…
in terms of ace history, though, definitely check out @historicallyace and their #history tag in particular to find a treasure trove of information about ace history in general. there’s also The Asexual History Interest Group that you may be interested in joining as there might be some resources there that relate to your question. there’s also Acing History.
regarding historical figures who were or might have been aro and / or ace, i’m afraid that’s a tricky subject considering how relatively recent aromanticism and asexuality as orientations and identities are, which limits how far back into history you can go and find someone who explicitly identified as either one or both of those things. on one hand, i’m personally wary of making presumptions about a historical figure’s sexuality, especially given that that would involve me projecting my modern perspective and understanding of sexuality onto them and would not actually be reflective how that person actually thought of themself at the time that they were alive. on the other hand, i also agree with what this post gets at. modern perspectives on sexuality are applied uncritically to historical figures all the time when it comes to (heteroromantic) heterosexuality, but then whenever it comes to any other sexuality suddenly there’s much more criticism and reservation… eh.
this entire post is just a huge “i don’t know, but other people probably do. sorry!”