This is an exploration of the evolution of the meanings attributed to love, sex and gender that is both readable and bursting with information and conceptualisation. It is certain to have you question the ways and reasons behind the relationships in your life, as it explains the colonial, capitalist and cisheteropatriarchal mechanisms and history behind those ideas.
It includes historical snippets, such as case studies that exemplify the pathologisation of asexuality in the 19th century. But it also pauses on epistemology and the birth and gradual definition of the very notion of asexuality online in the 1990s.
I would have loved an additional epistemological chapter on aromanticism and the birth and life of the aromantic community, as well as more pages on the agender identity, but there is already much to unpack in this book. The history of the varying importance attributed to romantic love across centuries, and the way gender was constructed to serve colonialism and capitalism, were illuminating.
I also appreciated Michael Paramo’s endeavour to offer an alternative to the current situation, laying out plans for a future where love is the key but this time based on community and interconnectivity instead of what separates us. I also appreciated the nuance they brought to their own relationship with labels, sure to resonate with many in the queer community.
All in all, a liberating, dare I say revolutionary, read, sure to add to the canon of queer theory and history. A book to explore, pass around and change the world.
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