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Michael Paramo

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Michael Paramo
Paramo in 2024.
Born1993
NationalityAmerican
Alma materCalifornia State University, Fullerton
Notable workAze
Websitehttps://azejournal.com/mxparamo

Michael Paramo is a 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.[1][2][3][4] 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.[5][6][7] They published a book Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity in 2024.[2][8]

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.[9][10] 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."[9]

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.[7][11] 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.[10]

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.[12][13] 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.[14][15] Paramo interviewed Pragati Singh in 2018 on the subject of asexual awareness in India.[16] The magazine also reached 10,000 followers on social media platform Twitter.[17]

In 2019, Paramo was interviewed by Tristan Taormino for their work examining asexuality, aromanticism, and agender identity for a book they were writing.[1] 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.[7][18] They began attending the University of British Columbia as a PhD student.[19]

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.[2][20] 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."[8] 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.[21] In 2024, they were referred to by ITV's platform Planet Woo as "one of the globe's leading aro academics."[2]

Personal life

Paramo is a Mexican American who was born in Orange County, California in 1993.[22] They identify as being on the asexual and aromantic spectrum and as queer and Xicanx.[18][23] Paramo also creates visual art and releases music under the name COZMECA.[21]

References

  1. ^ a b Taormino, Tristan (2019-10-11). "Michael Paramo on Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity". VoiceAmerica. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  2. ^ a b c d Kyle, MacNeill (2024-02-14). "The new aromantics flying the flag for the misunderstood identity". Planet Woo, ITV. Retrieved 2024-02-18. 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.
  3. ^ "Exploring Asexuality: The "A" in LGBTQIA+". Psych Central. 2021-10-26. Retrieved 2024-02-18. 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.
  4. ^ Wong, Brittany (2019-04-09). "What It's Like To Date When You Don't Experience Sexual Attraction". HuffPost. Retrieved 2024-02-18. Michael Paramo, a 25-year-old from Southern California who founded and edits the online magazine The Asexual
  5. ^ Kliegman, Julie (2018-07-26). "Asexual People Can Be Sexually Assaulted Too". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  6. ^ Paramo, Michael (2018-10-11). "The 'A' Doesn't Stand For Ally". INTO. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  7. ^ a b c Montenegro Marquez, Janeth (Spring 2022). "Asexual Latina/o/x Representation in AZE" (PDF). Feral Feminisms. 10 (2): 13–15. 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.
  8. ^ a b "Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism and Agender Identity by Michael Paramo". unbound.com. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  9. ^ a b ""Centering ace perspectives and narratives": an interview with Michael Paramo, founder of The Asexual". Drunken Boat. 2017-10-23. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  10. ^ a b Fawthrop, Wendy (2017-04-25). "CSUF student explores how RuPaul slays 'monsters' in humanizing drag queens". Orange County Register. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  11. ^ "International Asexuality Day". Amplify. 2021-04-06. Retrieved 2024-02-18. As Michael Paramo writes, current discussions of asexuality are rooted in mostly-white, mostly-online spaces...
  12. ^ Diane A. Litam, Stacey; Speciale, Megan (2022-09-20). "Ch. 8: The Multidimensional Nature of Attraction". In Schubert, Angela M.; Pope, Mark (eds.). Handbook for Human Sexuality Counseling: A Sex Positive Approach. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 129–130. ISBN 978-1-119-90413-7. 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.
  13. ^ "ALTERNATE TAKE: On Chesil Beach (2018) by Dominic Cooke". Cinematary. 2018-06-04. Retrieved 2024-02-18. 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.
  14. ^ Spencer-Hall, Alicia; Gutt, Blake, eds. (2021). Trans and Genderqueer Subjects in Medieval Hagiography. Amsterdam University Press. p. 324. doi:10.5117/9789462988248. hdl:20.500.12657/61200. ISBN 978-90-485-4026-6. Gender is inextricably bound up with racialization. On this, see... Paramo, 'Transphobia'
  15. ^ Geffen, Sasha (2020-04-07). Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary. University of Texas Press. p. 2. ISBN 978-1-4773-1878-2. 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.
  16. ^ Paramo, Michael (2018-02-01). "Indian Aces: Awareness and Activism in India". AZE. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  17. ^ Trust, Asexuality New Zealand (2018-10-23). "Celebrating Ace Achievement: "The Asexual"". Asexuality New Zealand Trust. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  18. ^ a b M., Bradda (2021-06-10). "Pride Reads: Three Queer Speculative Fiction Magazines to Check Out!". The Geekiary.
  19. ^ JW (2021-05-14). "Lunar Notes: An Interview with Featured Writer Michael Paramo". Night Music. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  20. ^ Paramo, Michael (2024-02-08). Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism and Agender Identity. Unbound Publishing. ISBN 978-1-80018-286-8.
  21. ^ a b Kirichanskaya, Michele (2024-04-01). "Interview with Michael Paramo, Author of Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism and Agender Identity". Geeks OUT. Retrieved 2024-04-09.
  22. ^ "Profile (Michael Paramo)". AZE. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  23. ^ Gilman, Lisa (2023). "Cake is Better than Sex: Pride and Prejudice in the Folklore of and about Asexuality". Journal of Folklore Research. 60 (2): 200. doi:10.2979/jfolkrese.60.2_3.09. ISSN 1543-0413. Michael Paramo, who describes himself as a "Queer Xicanx artist-theorist," provides one example of the complexity of ace identity
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