Michael Paramo
{{Short description|American writer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Michael Paramo
| image = MichaelParamo.png
| caption = Paramo in 2024.
| birth_date = 1993
| birth_place =
| nationality = American
| alma_mater = California State University, Fullerton
| occupation =
| notable_works = Aze
| website = https://azejournal.com/mxparamo
}}
Michael Paramo is an American writer, academic, and artist known for founding the literary magazine Aze (formerly known as The Asexual) and for their work examining interpersonal attraction and love with consideration to asexuality, aromanticism, and agender identity.{{Cite web |last=Taormino |first=Tristan |author-link=Tristan Taormino |date=2019-10-11 |title=Michael Paramo on Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity |url=https://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/117981/michael-paramo-on-asexuality-aromanticism-and-agender-identity |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=VoiceAmerica}}{{Cite web |last=Kyle |first=MacNeill |date=2024-02-14 |title=The new aromantics flying the flag for the misunderstood identity |url=https://planetwoo.itv.com/posts/aromantic-asexual-valentines-day |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=Planet Woo, ITV |quote=Mexican-American writer Michael Paramo is one of the globe’s leading aro academics... they published Ending the Pursuit, a book questioning society’s normative views on sex, gender and romance.}}{{Cite web |date=2021-10-26 |title=Exploring Asexuality: The "A" in LGBTQIA+ |url=https://psychcentral.com/health/exploring-asexuality |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=Psych Central |language=en |quote=Michael Paramo — creator of AZE journal (originally known as The Asexual) and moderator for the Facebook group The Ace and Aro Advocacy Project — is a digital artist and researcher who identifies as homoromantic and asexual.}}{{Cite web |last=Wong |first=Brittany |date=2019-04-09 |title=What It's Like To Date When You Don't Experience Sexual Attraction |url=https://www.huffpost.com/entry/dating-when-youre-asexual_n_5be4d00ae4b0dbe871a8efda |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=HuffPost |language=en |quote=Michael Paramo, a 25-year-old from Southern California who founded and edits the online magazine The Asexual}} Paramo identifies on the asexual and aromantic spectrum and advocates for people of similar experience to express themselves toward expanding society's ideas of human sexuality, romance, and gender identity.{{Cite web |last=Kliegman |first=Julie |date=2018-07-26 |title=Asexual People Can Be Sexually Assaulted Too |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jmkliegman/asexuality-sexual-assault-harassment-me-too |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=BuzzFeed News |language=en |quote=}}{{Cite web |last=Paramo |first=Michael |date=2018-10-11 |title=The 'A' Doesn't Stand For Ally |url=https://www.intomore.com/culture/you/the-a-doesnt-stand-for-ally/ |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=INTO |language=en-US}}{{Cite journal |last=Montenegro Marquez |first=Janeth |date=Spring 2022 |title=Asexual Latina/o/x Representation in AZE |url=https://feralfeminisms.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/02-FF-ISSUE10.2-Montenegro-Marquez.pdf |journal=Feral Feminisms |volume=10 |issue=2 |pages=13–15 |quote=Paramo created this journal to give other queer individuals, queer BIPOC individuals especially, a space of community to explore their identities. The journal began in 2016 as The Asexual, then became AZE to be more inclusive of ace, aro, and agender people.}} They published a book Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity in 2024.
Career
Paramo created Aze on October 5, 2016 (at the time under the name The Asexual) while attending California State University, Fullerton as a graduate student in American Studies.{{Cite web |date=2017-10-23 |title="Centering ace perspectives and narratives": an interview with Michael Paramo, founder of The Asexual |url=https://d7.drunkenboat.com/blog/2551 |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=Drunken Boat}}{{Cite web |last=Fawthrop |first=Wendy |date=2017-04-25 |title=CSUF student explores how RuPaul slays 'monsters' in humanizing drag queens |url=https://www.ocregister.com/2017/04/24/csuf-student-explores-how-rupaul-slays-monsters-in-humanizing-drag-queens/ |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=Orange County Register |language=en-US}} The journal was created because of what Paramo saw as an absence of places for asexual people to publish their creative work: "I knew their experiences, stories, perspectives, and voices needed a space of expression."
In 2017, they authored an essay discussing the whiteness of the asexual community and advocated for the community to be more inclusive of BIPOC individuals.{{Cite web |date=2021-04-06 |title=International Asexuality Day |url=https://www.weareamplify.org/blog/2021/4/6international-asexuality-day |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=Amplify |language=en-US |quote=As Michael Paramo writes, current discussions of asexuality are rooted in mostly-white, mostly-online spaces...}} They also presented research on the dehumanization of non-traditional gender identities, more specifically of drag queens, and the relationship of this phenomenon to colonialism.
They wrote an essay for the magazine in 2018 on the split attraction model that argued for the expansion of notions of attraction beyond sexual attraction and romantic attraction to include other forms of attraction.{{Cite book |last1=Diane A. Litam |first1=Stacey |chapter-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=Speciale |first2=Megan |date=2022-09-20 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-1-119-90413-7 |editor-last=Schubert |editor-first=Angela M. |pages=129–130 |language=en |chapter=Ch. 8: The Multidimensional Nature of Attraction |quote=In a 2018 essay "Beyond Sex: The Multilayered Model of Attraction," Michael Paramo provided a comprehensive framework of attraction that expands and critiques the historical definition of attraction. |editor-last2=Pope |editor-first2=Mark |editor-link2=Mark Pope (counselor)}}{{Cite web |date=2018-06-04 |title=ALTERNATE TAKE: On Chesil Beach (2018) by Dominic Cooke |url=https://www.cinematary.com/writing/2018/6/4/alternate-take-on-chesil-beach-2018-by-dominic-cooke |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=Cinematary |language=en-US |quote=Michael Paramo writes in The Asexual Journal of “The Multi-Layered Model of Attraction,” in which sexual attraction is just one of many that draws people together. Others include emotional, aesthetic, sensual, intellectual, or romantic.}} They wrote another essay for the magazine that discussed the relationship between transphobia and colonialism, arguing that the former was inextricably linked with the latter.{{Cite book |url=https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/61200 |title=Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography |date=2021 |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |editor-last=Spencer-Hall |editor-first=Alicia |pages=324 |doi=10.5117/9789462988248 |hdl=20.500.12657/61200 |isbn=978-90-485-4026-6 |language=English |quote=Gender is inextricably bound up with racialization. On this, see... Paramo, ‘Transphobia’ |editor-last2=Gutt |editor-first2=Blake}}{{Cite book |last=Geffen |first=Sasha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vdfIDwAAQBAJ&q=%22michael+paramo%22 |title=Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary |date=2020-04-07 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-1-4773-1878-2 |pages=2 |language=en |quote=When European settlers devastated the Americas, they "looked to the existing sexual and gender variance of Indigenous people as a means of marking them as racially inferior and uncivilized: a justification for a forever unjustified genocidal conquest," wrote Michael Paramo.}} Paramo interviewed Pragati Singh in 2018 on the subject of asexual awareness in India.{{Cite web |last=Paramo |first=Michael |date=2018-02-01 |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=2024-02-18 |website=AZE |language=en-US}} The magazine also reached 10,000 followers on social media platform Twitter.{{Cite web |last=Trust |first=Asexuality New Zealand |date=2018-10-23 |title=Celebrating Ace Achievement: "The Asexual" |url=https://asexualitytrust.org.nz/2018/10/23/global-ace-leaders-michael-paramo-editor-of-the-asexual/ |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=Asexuality New Zealand Trust |language=en}}
In 2019, Paramo was interviewed by Tristan Taormino for their work examining asexuality, aromanticism, and agender identity for a book they were writing. That same year they changed the name of the literary magazine they founded from The Asexual to Aze to include asexual, aromantic, and agender people.{{Cite web |last=M. |first=Bradda |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= |website=The Geekiary |language=en-US}} They began attending the University of British Columbia as a PhD student in the Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice program.{{Cite web |last=JW |date=2021-05-14 |title=Lunar Notes: An Interview with Featured Writer Michael Paramo |url=https://nightmusicjournal.com/2021/05/14/lunar-notes-an-interview-with-featured-writer-michael-paramo-m-aze/ |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=Night Music |language=en}}
Paramo published the book Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity with Unbound in 2024, which questioned social norms of sex, romance, and gender.{{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}} Of the book, academic Ela Przybyło wrote "Paramo refuses to take for granted the normalized ideas we are fed around how relationships should work and what they should look like."{{Cite web |title=Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism and Agender Identity by Michael Paramo |url=https://unbound.com/books/ending-the-pursuit |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=unbound.com}} In an interview for Geeks OUT, Paramo spoke to the inclusion of poetry in the book as a hybrid method of bringing together critical and creative expressions.{{Cite web |last=Kirichanskaya |first=Michele |date=2024-04-01 |title=Interview with Michael Paramo, Author of Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism and Agender Identity |url=https://www.geeksout.org/2024/04/01/interview-with-michael-paramo-author-of-ending-the-pursuit-asexuality-aromanticism-and-agender-identity/ |access-date=2024-04-09 |website=Geeks OUT |language=en-US}} In 2024, they were referred to by ITV's platform Planet Woo as "one of the globe's leading aro academics."
Personal life
Paramo is a Mexican American who was born in Orange County, California in 1993.{{Cite web |title=Profile (Michael Paramo) |url=https://azejournal.com/mxparamo |access-date=2024-02-18 |website=AZE |language=en-US}} They identify as being on the asexual and aromantic spectrum and as queer and Xicanx.{{Cite journal |last=Gilman |first=Lisa |date=2023 |title=Cake is Better than Sex: Pride and Prejudice in the Folklore of and about Asexuality |url=https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/3/article/912094 |journal=Journal of Folklore Research |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=200 |doi=10.2979/jfolkrese.60.2_3.09 |issn=1543-0413 |quote=Michael Paramo, who describes himself as a “Queer Xicanx artist-theorist,” provides one example of the complexity of ace identity|url-access=subscription }} Paramo also creates visual art and releases music under the name COZMECA.
References
{{Asexuality topics}}
{{Aromanticism topics}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Paramo, Michael}}
Category:Aromantic non-binary people
Category:Non-binary asexual people
Category:American non-binary writers
Category:American non-binary artists
Category:California State University, Fullerton alumni
Category:Academics from California