A relatively new day of significance of the annual calendar is International Asexuality Day, which is marked each year on 6th April.
The day was chosen to be marked on 6th April so it didn’t clash with many other days of recognition that fill up the calendar, and it was first celebrated in 2021.
Asexuality is defined as a lack of sexual attraction to others, or a low interest is sexual activity. As a field of research its relatively new, but scientists and advocates are quick to highlight that asexuality is difference to abstention from sex or vows of celibacy.
it is estimated that one per cent of the population is asexual. Colloquially people in the Asexual community describe themselves as Ace, and their flag is stripes of black, grey, white and purple.
The shades of black, grey and white are to highlight that sexual attraction is a spectrum and people may range from feeling no attraction at all, to maybe some low level of sexual attraction. The purple stripe represents the importance of community. Wearing a black ring on your right middle finger is also a method of indicating asexuality.
Alongside International Asexual Day there’s also Asexual Awareness Week in late October.
Filmmaker Monica Teut was born in 1954
Monica Treut is an acclaimed German filmmaker whose work has explored a wide variety of narrative works and documentaries that follow queer themes.
While studying literature and political science in the 1970’s she began using video as part of her work. Her debut film Seduction: The Cruel Woman arrived in 1985 and explored sadomasochistic sex practices.
She began to spend time in the USA where she worked with Annie Sprinkle and Werner Schroeter, and she later made films about both.
Treut has undertaken many roles in her filmmaking process from acting, to writing, directing, producing and editing. Her films cover a wide range of topics.
Among her many works are Virgin Machine (1988), My Father is Coming (1991), Female Misbehavior (1992), Erotique (1994) Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities (1999), Lesbian Nation (2009) and Genderation (2021).
Image: Monica Treut in 2009 published under a Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0 license.
