Aze (magazine)

Aze publishes content online in magazine volumes of four issues. In 2019, the magazine changed its name from The Asexual to AZE to represent a shift in its content's focus beyond asexual identity, including gray-asexuality and demisexuality, as well as people on the aromantic spectrum and agender people.{{Cite web |date=2021-06-10 |title=Pride Reads: Three Queer Speculative Fiction Magazines to Check Out! |url=https://thegeekiary.com/pride-reads-three-queer-speculative-fiction-magazines-to-check-out/97094 |access-date=2023-08-24 |website=The Geekiary |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824001421/https://thegeekiary.com/pride-reads-three-queer-speculative-fiction-magazines-to-check-out/97094 |url-status=live }} The magazine had previously published an issue focusing on agender experiences in 2018.{{Cite web |date=2018-11-14 |title=A(gender): An Anthology |url=https://azejournal.com/article/2018/1/6/agender-an-anthology |access-date=2023-08-24 |website=AZE |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824001421/https://azejournal.com/article/2018/1/6/agender-an-anthology |url-status=live }}

Most issues focus on a specific intersection or topic related to asexual, aromantic, and agender experiences.{{Cite web |date=2023-07-25 |title=Journal |url=https://azejournal.com/journal |access-date=2023-08-23 |website=AZE |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824001420/https://azejournal.com/journal |url-status=live }} Themes that have been explored in the magazine's issues have included "Asexual Masculinities," "Redefining Relationships," and "Aromanticism." Other issues have focused on body image, race, media representation, gender, sexuality, and attraction. It has published interviews with Pragati Singh in 2018 and 2023.{{Cite web |title=Indian Aces: Awareness and Activism in India |url=https://azejournal.com/article/2018/2/1/indian-aces-awareness-and-activism-in-india |access-date=2019-12-01 |website=AZE |date=February 2018 |language=en-US |archive-date=2021-04-02 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210402184224/https://azejournal.com/article/2018/2/1/indian-aces-awareness-and-activism-in-india |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=2023-03-27 |title=Asexual Advocacy in India: An Interview with Dr. Pragati Singh |url=https://azejournal.com/article/2023/3/27/asexual-advocacy-in-india-an-interview-with-dr-pragati-singh |access-date=2023-08-24 |website=AZE |language=en-US |archive-date=2023-08-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230824004041/https://azejournal.com/article/2023/3/27/asexual-advocacy-in-india-an-interview-with-dr-pragati-singh |url-status=live }}

The magazine's content is edited by the founder Michael Paramo. The magazine was discussed in an interview for Sex Out Loud with Tristan Taormino in 2019.{{Cite web |title=October 11th 2019: Michael Paramo on Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity |url=https://www.voiceamerica.com/promo/episode/117981 |access-date=2023-08-19 |website=VoiceAmerica |archive-date=2023-08-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819012524/https://www.voiceamerica.com/promo/episode/117981 |url-status=live }} Its content was referenced in Ending the Pursuit, a book about asexuality, aromanticism, and agender identity published by Unbound in 2024.{{Cite book |last=Paramo |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzLPEAAAQBAJ |title=Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism and Agender Identity |date=2024-02-08 |publisher=Unbound Publishing |isbn=978-1-80018-286-8 |language=en}}

Aze's focus on publishing asexual, aromantic, and agender people's perspectives has been recognized as unique since these experiences are "often absent from the mainstream." The magazine is listed as a resource by the Asexual Visibility and Education Network,{{Cite web |title=Links {{!}} The Asexual Visibility and Education Network {{!}} asexuality.org |url=https://www.asexuality.org/?q=links.html |access-date=2023-08-18 |website=www.asexuality.org |archive-date=2023-08-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819003319/https://www.asexuality.org/?q=links.html |url-status=live }} Sounds Fake but Okay,{{Cite web |title=Asexual and Aromantic Resources |url=https://www.soundsfakepod.com/resources |access-date=2023-08-18 |website=Sounds Fake But Okay Podcast |language=en-US}} some American university resource centers, and in Alice Oseman's young-adult fiction book Loveless (2022).{{Cite book |last=Oseman |first=Alice |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R4IJEAAAQBAJ&dq=%22azejournal%22&pg=PT320 |title=Loveless |date=2022-03-01 |publisher=Scholastic Inc. |isbn=978-1-338-75195-6 |language=en}}

The magazine has been noted for its inclusion of people of color within the asexual, aromantic, and agender communities, particularly of BIPOC and Latinx people.{{Cite journal |last1=Foster |first1=Aasha B. |last2=Eklund |first2=Austin |last3=Brewster |first3=Melanie E. |last4=Walker |first4=Amelia D. |last5=Candon |first5=Emma |date=2019 |title=Personal agency disavowed: Identity construction in asexual women of color. |url=http://doi.apa.org/getdoi.cfm?doi=10.1037/sgd0000310 |journal=Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity |language=en |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=127–137 |doi=10.1037/sgd0000310 |s2cid=149934489 |issn=2329-0390 |quote=...an online journal dedicated to asexuality, recently dedicated an issue to the intersections of asexuality and race to promote a “message on the significance of prioritizing the voices of ace POC and decentering the whiteness of ace spaces.|url-access=subscription }}{{Cite journal |last1=Döring |first1=Nicola |last2=Bhana |first2=Deevia |last3=Albury |first3=Kath |date=2022-12-01 |title=Digital sexual identities: Between empowerment and disempowerment |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X22001877 |journal=Current Opinion in Psychology |volume=48 |pages=101466 |doi=10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101466 |pmid=36242854 |s2cid=252339766 |issn=2352-250X |quote=Recent studies and reviews also look into digital asexual identities of people of color such as asexual male identified Filipinx on Tumblr or asexual Latinx in the aro/ace community journal AZE. |archive-date=2022-12-25 |access-date=2023-08-19 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221225084126/https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352250X22001877 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }} Janeth Montenegro Marquez argued that "AZE does a good job of creating a niche for individuals who crave it" by providing "other queer individuals, queer BIPOC individuals especially, a space of community to explore their identities" and theorize about their experiences where they may not be able to "in other queer spaces." The magazine's issue on race was noted by Foster et al. to contribute to expanding perceptions of the asexual community beyond whiteness. Justin Smith referenced a poem published on Aze to argue that there are inherent connections between blackness and asexuality. Ben Brandley and Angela Labrador cited an article from the magazine that argued how people of color may feel excluded from the asexual community.

Scholar Anna Kurowicka referenced the magazine's issue on disability to examine the intersections between asexuality and disability narratives, arguing for the need to trouble the boundaries between both experiences.

In a book edited by Angela M. Schubert and Mark Pope, authors Stacey Litam and Megan Speciale refer to an article published on Aze that discusses different types of attraction as multi-layered, including sexual, romantic, aesthetic, sensual, emotional, and intellectual, to argue for the need to expand notions of attraction beyond sexual attraction within the context of interpersonal relationships.{{Cite book |last1=Schubert |first1=Angela M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rPOKEAAAQBAJ&dq=The+Multidimensional+Nature+of+Attraction&pg=PT189 |title=Handbook for Human Sexuality Counseling: A Sex Positive Approach |last2=Pope |first2=Mark |date=2022-09-20 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-119-90413-7 |language=en}}

{{Portal|Human sexuality|LGBTQ}}

• Asexual Visibility and Education Network
• Free From Desire
• Sounds Fake but Okay

{{Asexuality topics}}{{Aromanticism topics}}

Category:Aromanticism

Category:Asexuality

Category:Internet properties established in 2016

Category:Magazines established in 2016

Category:Online literary magazines