Asexual Cake

About

Asexual cake is an emoticon and symbol associated with asexuality and communities of asexual people online. It’s association with asexuality comes from the idea that cake is better than sex. Because of this, it has become a pride symbol for asexual people, used to express their asexuality and as an in-joke within the community.^[1]

Origin

On June 23rd, 2004, Cake came to be associated with asexuality in when Davey, a member of the Asexual Visibilty and Education Network (AVEN),^[3] forums suggested that a cake emoticon be made to be used on the forum.The concept of cake being better than sex originates with the cake variety known as “Better Than Sex.” This emoticon then became popular within the forums, given for “congratulation, comfort, or when a poster does something particularly asexy.” Within the AVEN forums, “offering cake” also became a common way to welcome someone to asexual community.^[1]

Spread

From the AVEN forums, asexual cake spread to other social media sites and has been used by asexual members of various online communities.Blogs on Tumblr focused on asexual often utilize the asexual cake meme as a signal of asexuality. These include “Asexual Cake Universe”, “Cake Yeah Asexuals” and “Asexual Cake Porn.”^[4][5][6] The cake symbol is also popular on asexuality-centered subreddits, where users often post pictures or art of cake to express their asexual pride.^[7] For example, on July 4th, 2018, Redditor jetsamjunk shared an image of asexual cake tee shirts which garnered over 145 points (99% upvoted) in a year. On February 14th, 2020, Lizbetargent shared a photo of a crocheted asexual cake they made (shown below, right). The “r/asexuality” subreddit describes cake in their “Asexual Symbols” page as “a symbol for asexuality by allusion to the common observation that asexuals prefer cake to sex”^[8]

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References