I don’t know why, but the idea of sexuality with sentient and intelligent nonhuman beings is so much more appealing and less stressful than what’s accepted as normal. And just recently I saw people pointing out the huge percentage of aces and trans people in the teratophilia tags and beyond. Obviously something about fucking a monster with sixteen eyes and three rows of teeth draws us to it, but it boggles my mind??

You’re definitely onto something, I feel. Like, transness and monster narrative is a trend to the point of prediction. Trans people (like me) affiliate themselves with the fictional concept of sapient monsters for much the same reason why these monsters exist in the first place. Werewolves, for example, can be seen as a literary symbol of ‘transforming’ into a bestial state of mind that people fear/repress. It’s easy to take that line of thought, and relate werewolves into a fictional symbol of something trans people can’t express easily through words in our daily lives.

Even lowkey monsters/aliens like Steven Universe’s concept of gem fusion fall neatly into trans/ace fascination with monsters. It’s hard to explain the concept of a relationship built on physical intimacy and constant communication/coordination that also has the potential to be chaste/platonic. By making a visual representation of a gem fusion, we get an intimate act that creates something that transcends ideas of sex and gender identity.

When aces express ourselves sexually, there’s always this inescapable connotation with sexual attraction. And it can get really annoying or even traumatic. One of the most common questions we get at Fuckyeahasexual is ‘am I still ace if I masturbate’. The answer is, of course, yes. But it’s easier said than believed. 

So a trans person explores the concept of sexual intimacy by way of an alien who lives by non-human standards of gender identity, who fucks with a penile ovipositor that dispatches eggs into the corresponding canal of their partner that fertilizes them internally, and boom, we have a quick and imaginative method of coming to terms with our bodies and our comfort with our sexuality. 

It’s the idea of interacting with associates, friends, and loved ones who are free of the expectations that bind us in the real world. Sure, we could just struggle through the dating world and try to find someone who understands the concept of platonic sexual stimulation. But it certainly would be easier to be creative with the idea of a sapient being who knows our boundaries right off the bat.

Discussing queer sex culture has always been difficult. The world is perfectly find with the concept of a guy spilling his genetic material over his partner’s face because it portrays the idea of them being ‘owned’, but if we talk about sex as platonic communal building, or sex with diverse genitalia? Oh no, that’s too much, how gross and disgusting.

Aces and trans people are the friends of monsters. I wouldn’t have it any other way.