Ending the Pursuit
Asexuality, Aromanticism and Agender Identity
Michael Paramo’s personalized social science study Ending the Pursuit is an intersectional analysis of the history and culture of asexual, aromantic, and agender identities.
Interweaving historical references, scientific studies, internet discourses, memoir, and poetry, the book aims to unearth the origins of asexuality, aromanticism, and agender identities while dismantling misconceptions about them. The history of these marginalized identities is intricate; their portrayal through Western, cisheteropatriarchal lenses only obscures their representation. To illuminate them better, Paramo breaks down aspects of attraction from both historical and contemporary perspectives, showing what such identities have to teach about sexual and gender expectations today.
Moments of vulnerability breathe life into the text; most effective is Paramo’s inclusion of personal anecdotes. His candid account of his family’s acceptance of his gay identity contrasted with their rejection due to his asexuality underscores the widespread misunderstanding of these identities. Furthermore, Paramo’s interspersed poetry infuses the text with an artistic and vulnerable energy that counters presumptions of coldness that are often misattributed to asexual, aromantic, and agender people:
The love machine spins my gears
Alters codes in my brain
Flips the switch on/off
Loner on the road to nowhere
Out of love, but still
Intuition lights the stars
On fire, shows me otherwise
Worlds, the universe
Are nothing but
The text veers more academic with its historical analyses, which is authoritative if lacking some accessibility. Its frequent callbacks to the institutionalized, capitalist, Western cisheteropatriachy exemplify related denseness, though it still initiates a multidimensional and multilayered conversation regarding sex, gender, race, and class.
Ending the Pursuit is a comprehensive exploration of asexual, aromantic, and agender identities in history and society.
Reviewed by
Allison Janicki
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. No fee was paid by the publisher for this review. Foreword Reviews only recommends books that we love. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
