Welcome to Breaking Down Patriarchy. I'm Sam Rose Preminger. For those who are familiar with me, I'm an editor and producer here on the podcast, but I'm stepping in just for today. Amy will be back next week as normal. But I wanted to host a very special episode, and I'm hoping you'll become apparent shortly why I'm here.

If you're listening to this on the day that it releases, it is the very end of Pride Month.

And here at the back end of Pride, we are going to be discussing the last but not least letter in our LGBTIQIA alphabet.

That A stands for asexual, and I have to remain it's not something that I knew a lot about

asexuality until meeting and starting to date and falling in love with an amazing asexual person

I am very excited to be joined today by my partner Julia Alora who, who is an incredible sculptor, artist, and advocate

on behalf of asexuality. And she is going to be joining us to share an essay titled Six Unsexy

Questions, after which I'll be interviewing her as we break down a bit more about what it means to be asexual,

looking at mixed orientation relationships, and challenges faced by asexuals, including

how patriarchy affects them. But before we kick things off, we'll start off as usual

with a professional bio. Julia Allora, she, they, is a Portland-based sculptress,

creating biologically infused sculptures out of recycled materials.

Born and raised in the wilds of upstate New York,

her love of the natural world drives her to find beauty in everything,

at times expressing this through sharp, fierce grotesqueries, or smooth, living visions of steel

and glass. Her creations harken to the viewers to consider their connection to nature,

their responsibilities to the world and to others.

She incorporates ethically sourced bone, junkyard steel, dumpster treasures, and other found objects into lovingly made monsters and figures.

And I am so grateful to have for joining the podcast. Welcome, Julia. Thanks for having me.

Very happy to be here. So in part one of our episode, Julia is going to be sharing her essay, and then I will

rejoin us in part two for a discussion. But for now, I will turn it over to you.

Hello, Julia Laura here. I'll be sharing my essay titled six unsexy questions, which are the questions I've gotten asked the most often about being asexual.

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