Embrace | An Asexuality-Focused Animated Short Film

This short is the animation I made for my grad school thesis, following the narrative surrounding a common asexual experience. While there's a lot I would change now looking back, I'm still very proud of it and wanted to share it publicly for pride month. Whether you're ace yourself or just learning more about asexuality, I hope you enjoy!

Sending love from your fellow ace. 💜

MY SOCIALS (Story, Animation, and Background Work):

VOID LEIGH MORDANT (Background Work):
@brushscape

SHIMSHON THE GADITE (Music Score):
@ShimshonGad

[DinoTamer-]

I thing I love about this is how it shows it is different from aromantic. You can see she wants what other couples have, she chases after it but feels something isn’t right. She wants romance, but not sex. Then on the book rack aromantic is its own book. I like the little distinction there ❤

[starwoodanime]

I love that the asexual character is a black woman. Black women are often shown in a sexual light and it's nice to see ourselves in different lights

[SunnyHoneyBear]

I never understood why I didn’t like intimate things like all my friends did. I had a boyfriend that wanted to kiss and have sex. I didn’t. Every time we would kiss, I hated it. It was gross. My friends thought I was weird. I was seen as the immature childish one who turned away at sex scenes in movies and kissing scenes. Only a year ago did I find out I am asexual. This is very nice. Very good story. 😊

[the.mushroom.faerie]

this is going to seem random but i really appreciate the indication of an ace wheelchair user. ive been told to my face that my asexuality is because of my disability, and therefore isnt actually asexuality. so i really like that extra touch.

[randomindividual]

As a male asexual, one of my biggest pet peeves is people (mainly other men) saying the reason is “low testosterone” or something else idiotic. I find it funny how confident they are about something that they know nothing about.

[thatonel]

At 4:10, I love how it shows there is a spectrum of people who are asexual, implementing that were not all the same

[milesmcdonald]

I’m not asexual myself, but I understand feeling alone and broken. I like how she discovered the book and was able to relate and find other people like her. Awesome job!

[alik]

i love how she showed the book to the guy from the beginning! i'm really glad that she's not isolated from him entirely, but instead is helping him understand her better :)
also i so appreciate the aromantic mention there!

[loserchips]

IVE BEEN WANTING TO SEE A SHORT FILM ABOUT ACES FOR FOREVER!!!! Especially highlighting the fact that YES WE CAN HAVE ROMANCE

[namelessnameful]

What you think is a “defect”, a “rift” in your soul is, in fact, your identity and something you can embrace. People are different, but they are all beautiful. This is so well done.

[manonlusyne]

This actually made me tear up. The character's experience deeply resonated with me and my own journey with asexuality. It's absolutely beautiful 💕

[FairFeline]

I came out as ace to my mom a few days ago, and she asked why I would want a label if I'm not currently in the dating scene. I'm going to show her this to explain why it helps. That feeling of brokenness was something I have felt since other people started kissing when I was a kid and the label gives a community. Thank you for portraying that so perfectly in the animation of this video.

[tnaturaliss]

as an aroace person, i sometimes feel alone even in the queer community. thank you for making this beautiful video! it really warmed my heart. we are not alone! 💛
edit: wording

[TheAdvertisement]

I like how the video doesn't focus on her boyfriend but also doesn't exclude him. The video is about her journey, the main character, discovering herself, but she is still able to make up with her boyfriend, to educate him and reveal her identity, and he accepts her.

[LabraDoodleDraws]

This is so much of what my experience was like; ever since I was little kissing and romance scenes grossed me out to the point I would close my eyes and cover my ears when it came on. Everyone, including me, thought “oh this is just normal little kid behavior” and I did start to enjoy romances in books, at least well written ones. But kissing still made me feel weird and when I learned about sex I was disgusted and knew I would never have kids because the thought of doing that made me nauseous. But my sisters talked about their future kids and people at my school had sex and I was left wondering “why would anyone want that? Why do people get attracted to naked bodies? What am I missing??” Then when I was 14 I read online about asexualility and it clicked!

[Manticorn]

The metaphorical imagery cant get any more spot-on than that, really. As asexuals, people think we don't understand the situation we're in, as if we are altogether children, sexually underdeveloped and naïve, in adults' bodies. We KNOW we don't have something that is important to most other adults. We know how different we are. Many of us do try to make compromises for the people we love. It's hard. If we weren't self-aware and aware of our situation, we wouldn't have the flag.

[MyMooha]

I cried watching this. Also, I'm so happy we have books like this now. When I first discovered asexuality, the literature on it wasn't great. It made it out like we could still live happy lives _despite_ being broken, unfeeling robots and I rejected it HARD. Then I looked into it again in college, once things had gotten a little more concise, and was like "ah, yeah, that's me."

[alexyargee]

As an asexual that's having to constantly remind myself that I'm not broken whenever my partner wants to do more than just cuddles and kisses but the thought of doing that weirds me out and I just feel nothing for it, this is nice and very accurate. Its hard sometimes to remember that we're not broken for not having a sexual attraction to others, its just not our thing.

[Navvakkaji]

That "broken" part really got to me. I spent YEARS wondering what the HECK was wrong with me, that I wasn't interested in a relationship in the slightest. I was in my thirties when I finally realized that I was getting a bit old to just be a "late bloomer, " and when I saw an article on how the world looks to asexuals it read as a checklist. I am SO glad that there's more awareness now, because if I'd realized that No, Thanks was an actual orientation earlier I'd've been saved some internal drama. There's still a ways to go, but with more resources out there it makes it easier for people to realize that what they think is "wrong" with them isn't.

[holocene]

thank you so much for this, im legitimately crying! im 34 and didnt realize i was asexual until this year and have spent all my life thinking i was broken! wish i had seen this when i was younger but i am happy for the younger generations that awareness is being spread.