Michael Paramo
Michael Paramo | |
|---|---|
Paramo in 2024. | |
| Born | 1993 (age 32–33) |
| Alma mater | California State University, Fullerton |
| Notable work | Aze |
| Website | https://azejournal.com/mxparamo |
Michael Paramo is an American writer, academic, and artist. He founded the literary magazine Aze in 2016.[1][2][3] His research examines human sexuality, romance, love, interpersonal attraction, and gender.[3] He published a book Ending the Pursuit in 2024.[4][5]
Early life
Paramo is of Mexican American descent and grew up in Southern California.[2][3] He attended California State University, Fullerton and studied American Studies.[6]
Career
Aze
Paramo created the literary journal Aze in 2016 (originally known as The Asexual).[7] He authored several essays that were published on the platform, including on the whiteness of the asexual community,[8] the split attraction model.[9][10] and the coloniality of gender.[11][12] Paramo's writing was referenced in regard to the visibility of asexual people of color in Communication Education and the Journal of Folklore Research.[13][14]
Paramo interviewed Pragati Singh on Aze in 2018 on the subject of asexual awareness in India.[15] The magazine also reached 10,000 followers on Twitter.[16] In 2019, the magazine's name changed from The Asexual to Aze.[17][18]
Book
In 2019, Paramo was interviewed by Tristan Taormino on asexuality, aromanticism, and agender identity for a book he was writing.[4] He began attending the University of British Columbia as a PhD student in the Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice program.[19]
Paramo published Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity with Unbound in 2024, which questioned social norms of sex, romance, and gender.[3][20] 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."[21] In an interview for Geeks OUT, Paramo spoke to the inclusion of poetry in the book as a hybrid method of interweaving critical and creative expressions.[5]
Research
Paramo was referred to by ITV's platform Planet Woo as "one of the globe's leading aro academics" in 2024.[3] His concept of azeness was described as a politics of refusing settler colonial norms of sexuality, romance, and gender or cisheteropatriarchy.[22] A 2025 article in Sexualities wrote that he linked asexuality with "wider critiques of white supremacy, heteronormativity and neoliberalism."[23]
Personal life
Paramo identifies on the asexual and aromantic spectrum.[18][24] He also creates visual art and music.[5]
References
- ^ "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.
- ^ a b 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
- ^ a b c d e Kyle, MacNeill (2024-02-14). "The new aromantics flying the flag for the misunderstood identity". Planet Woo, ITV. Archived from the original on July 17, 2024. 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.
- ^ a b Taormino, Tristan (2019-10-11). "Michael Paramo on Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity". VoiceAmerica. Archived from the original on November 24, 2021. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
- ^ a b c 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.
- ^ Fawthrop, Wendy (2017-04-25). "CSUF student explores how RuPaul slays 'monsters' in humanizing drag queens". Orange County Register. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
- ^ ""Centering ace perspectives and narratives": an interview with Michael Paramo, founder of The Asexual". Drunken Boat. 2017-10-23. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
- ^ "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...
- ^ 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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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'
- ^ 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.
- ^ Brandley, ben; Labador, Angela (2023-10-02). "Towards an asexual-affirming communication pedagogy". Communication Education. 72 (4): 331–347. doi:10.1080/03634523.2022.2151638. ISSN 0363-4523.
- ^ Gilman, Lisa (May 2023). "Cake is Better than Sex: Pride and Prejudice in the Folklore of and about Asexuality". Journal of Folklore Research. 60 (2–3): 196–228 – via Project MUSE.
- ^ Paramo, Michael (2018-02-01). "Indian Aces: Awareness and Activism in India". AZE. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
- ^ Trust, Asexuality New Zealand (2018-10-23). "Celebrating Ace Achievement: "The Asexual"". Asexuality New Zealand Trust. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
- ^ 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.
- ^ a b M., Bradda (2021-06-10). "Pride Reads: Three Queer Speculative Fiction Magazines to Check Out!". The Geekiary.
- ^ JW (2021-05-14). "Lunar Notes: An Interview with Featured Writer Michael Paramo". Night Music. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
- ^ "Review of Ending the Pursuit". www.forewordreviews.com. 2024-08-14. Retrieved 2026-03-07.
- ^ Ending the Pursuit | Michael Paramo | London Review Bookshop. 2024-02-08. ISBN 978-1-80018-285-1.
- ^ Campbell, Ellie (Spring 2025). "Seeing the Invisible: Asexuality in the South". Southern Cultures. 31 (1): 108–115 – via Project MUSE.
- ^ Jukes, Joe; Bayer, Rachel (2025-03-17). "New directions for asexual geographies". Sexualities. doi:10.1177/13634607251326375. ISSN 1363-4607.
- ^ 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