Asexuality normalises the breadth and depth of sexual and romantic possibility, acknowledging the ways that desire is complex and individual.

As we celebrate our newly launched DISABILITIES issue, we’re also taking the opportunity to look back on all of the brilliant pieces we’ve published this year. This was my first year as Archer Magazine’s Deputy Online Editor. As a long-time Archer volunteer and hanger-arounder of founder Amy Middleton, I was absolutely thrilled to come aboard. …

Play a high-G note on a piano and take a look around the room; you’ll see who the former emos are almost immediately. My Chemical Romance defined ‘emo’ as we know it. Prior to their astronomic rise in popularity, emo was loosely applied to almost any music that played on commercial radio or sat under …

Imagine this: It’s sometime in the 2010s. I’m a loner in my early twenties. I have no friends, so I start attending game nights – board and video. I become somewhat acquainted in these male-dominated spaces, and end up forging a few connections. We text, we game, we have a few outings. Normal people stuff! …

“How do you have anything in common with younger people anyway?” I vividly remember a friend asking me this question with a tone of obvious disapproval.  Instantly, I felt ashamed. At 28 years old, I could see why they questioned it. According to society, you should aim to date someone one to three years either …

  Never anything other than summer   I didn’t get into trouble much at school. In truth, I can recall only a few occasions when my actions were brought into question. Maybe there were more. Maybe they just don’t burn as hot as the time I planted my nine-year-old lips on another boy’s nine-year-old cheek. …

I guessed I was busted for the sex stuff, and I knew I was in very deep shit.

In early June, I was preparing myself for the rainbow marketing and pink washing that comes with the celebration of Pride Month each year.  During this month, brands and organisations often come up with new logos and various types of rainbow branding. They host talks, plan shows, and make a sudden effort to ensure conversations …

It’s Bisexual Visibility Day! Also known as Celebrate Bisexuality Day, today is a day to celebrate and acknowledge the wonderful bisexual+ folks in our LGBTQIA+ community. Image: adrirodrigar   It’s a day where we can celebrate our bi+ pals, consider how we can smash biphobia and enthusiastically wave that (aesthetically pleasing) bisexual flag. It’s also a …

Content warning: This article discusses conversion practices.   What you can’t pray away   I   Sometimes I dream of someone coming up to me in the street; someone I vaguely recognise from the past. They point at me and say, “You.” In that weird way dreams have of collapsing whole timelines and unrelated ideas …

Content warning: this article discusses depression.    In 2015, I forgot who I was. Like a reverse Wizard of Oz, the world suddenly went from vibrant colour to black and white. I felt as though there was a storm cloud behind my shoulder. Joy was being sucked out of my every move.  Depression wasn’t a …

My hairdresser says there’s a different kind of freedom from living out of home, and I finally understand what he means. Since moving out, I’ve recognised a part of my identity that’s come as a surprise for me. Even though I’ve been attending queer book events at the library, and have two copies of Guidebook …

Without official support, education and wide-scale representation, where does asexuality and the asexual community stand on the road to full equality?

Instead of being asked what my favourite colour is or what kind of music I like, the most common question I’m asked on dating apps is, “Can you have sex?” The world of dating is difficult to navigate with a disability. I became a wheelchair user at nineteen. This was also the age at which …

For a long time, I wondered if it was possible for me to reconcile the Korean part of myself with the Australian bisexual part.

Until recently, I had been abstinent for one year. Comedy-abstinent, that is. I also hadn’t had sex for about 10 months, but that was another story. Or so I thought. Sitting through a prominent male comedian’s “comeback special” at this year’s Melbourne Comedy Festival, I realised for the first time exactly how much I had …

Billy-Ray Belcourt (he/him) is a writer and scholar from the Driftpile Cree Nation. He won the 2018 Griffin Poetry Prize for his debut collection, This Wound Is a World, which was also a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award. His second book of poetry, NDN Coping Mechanisms: Notes from the Field, was longlisted for Canada …

Hedon House is a proud supporter of Archer Magazine. The black blindfold slips, and I catch a tantalising glimpse of my stockinged legs strapped to leather stirrups suspended from the ceiling. Between them, my red skirt is stretched and riding high up one tattooed thigh. My body and I haven’t been on the best of …

The name is Wakim. That’s Wak-eem, not Whack-em. My childhood was filled with tabouli and hummus, and punishment was a smack with the wooden spoon. I’m Lebanese, and my features show it. The thick, curly hair on my head is what most people first notice about me. This hair was a catalyst for breakdowns in …

The first time I became cognisant of the importance others placed on romance was when I transitioned from the children’s section of my local library to the teen section. Suddenly, all of the books were about falling in or out of love. Nobody, it seemed, was all that concerned with friendships anymore. Until that point, …

The thing is, yes, I really do want a label for my demisexuality. The finding of this word, and of the community that uses it, was life-changing.

My adolescence began when I was 19 years old, emotionally at least. It started, as things often do, with a book. I was in my first year at university. I had been bemoaning the secondary school final exams for eviscerating my reading habits. Many of my peers complained of a similar ailment: “I miss reading …