Michael Paramo

Michael Paramo
Paramo in 2024.
Born1993 (age 32–33)
EducationCalifornia State University, Fullerton
Notable workAze
Websitehttps://azejournal.com/mxparamo

Michael Paramo is an American writer, academic, and artist. He founded the literary magazine Aze in 2016. His research examines human sexuality, romance, love, interpersonal attraction, and gender. He published a book Ending the Pursuit in 2024.

Early life

Paramo is of Mexican American descent and grew up in Southern California. He attended California State University, Fullerton and studied American Studies.

Career

Aze

Paramo created the literary journal Aze in 2016 (originally known as The Asexual). He authored several essays that were published on the platform, including on the whiteness of the asexual community, the split attraction model. and the coloniality of gender. Paramo's writing was referenced in regard to the visibility of asexual people of color in Communication Education and the Journal of Folklore Research.

Paramo interviewed Pragati Singh on Aze in 2018 on the subject of asexual awareness in India. The magazine also reached 10,000 followers on Twitter. In 2019, the magazine's name changed from The Asexual to Aze.

Book

In 2019, Paramo was interviewed by Tristan Taormino on asexuality, aromanticism, and agender identity for a book he was writing. He began attending the University of British Columbia as a PhD student in the Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice program.

Paramo published Ending the Pursuit: Asexuality, Aromanticism, and Agender Identity with Unbound in 2024, which questioned social norms of sex, romance, and gender. 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." 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.

Research

Paramo was referred to by ITV's platform Planet Woo as "one of the globe's leading aro academics" in 2024. His concept of azeness was described as a politics of refusing settler colonial norms of sexuality, romance, and gender or cisheteropatriarchy. A 2025 article in Sexualities wrote that he linked asexuality with "wider critiques of white supremacy, heteronormativity and neoliberalism."

Personal life

Paramo identifies on the asexual and aromantic spectrum. He also creates visual art and music.

References

  1. ↑ "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.
  2. 1 2 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
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 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.
  4. 1 2 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.
  5. 1 2 3 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.
  6. ↑ Fawthrop, Wendy (2017-04-25). "CSUF student explores how RuPaul slays 'monsters' in humanizing drag queens". Orange County Register. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  7. ↑ ""Centering ace perspectives and narratives": an interview with Michael Paramo, founder of The Asexual". Drunken Boat. 2017-10-23. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  8. ↑ "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...
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ "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.
  11. ↑ 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'
  12. ↑ 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.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ 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.
  15. ↑ Paramo, Michael (2018-02-01). "Indian Aces: Awareness and Activism in India". AZE. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  16. ↑ Trust, Asexuality New Zealand (2018-10-23). "Celebrating Ace Achievement: "The Asexual"". Asexuality New Zealand Trust. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  17. ↑ 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.
  18. 1 2 M., Bradda (2021-06-10). "Pride Reads: Three Queer Speculative Fiction Magazines to Check Out!". The Geekiary.
  19. ↑ JW (2021-05-14). "Lunar Notes: An Interview with Featured Writer Michael Paramo". Night Music. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
  20. ↑ "Review of Ending the Pursuit". www.forewordreviews.com. 2024-08-14. Retrieved 2026-03-07.
  21. ↑ Ending the Pursuit | Michael Paramo | London Review Bookshop. 2024-02-08. ISBN 978-1-80018-285-1.
  22. ↑ Campbell, Ellie (Spring 2025). "Seeing the Invisible: Asexuality in the South". Southern Cultures. 31 (1): 108–115 – via Project MUSE.
  23. ↑ Jukes, Joe; Bayer, Rachel (2025-03-17). "New directions for asexual geographies". Sexualities. doi:10.1177/13634607251326375. ISSN 1363-4607.
  24. ↑ 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