#Aro

[arokalypse]

the entire year is aro pride year and anyone who says otherwise will be sent to the sun

[thermodynamic-comedian]

aro subtype: desires a homoerotic rivalry with someone, but feels immense disgust at the concept of "enemies to lovers"

[aromanticofficial]

official aromantic post

being on the aro spectrum would be a lot easier if being single wasn't made to feel like a literal death sentence

[random-colorpicked-pride-flags]

Pride Flags Colorpicked from James Somerton Theft Layout

(inspired by @princessofgames, @makky-mystery-ichor, and @f-ckingawful’s posts!)

[loveless-arobee]

(Loveless) AroAllo art!

Heard we were making rabbits an AroAllo symbol, so have my contribution.

[aro-culture-is]

Aro culture is knowing I'm only able to talk to other aros about the fact that I'm aro due to trauma and be accepted because allos will go *shocked gasp* and give me unwarranted advice, ignoring and speaking over the fact that I love being aro.

.

[aamysworld]

As someone who is Aro-Ace it's make me feel good reading this.

The way that exclusionists treat ace and aro people often reminds me of how the average person would treat me when I started being open as non-binary. I’ve said it once and I’ll say it a thousand times, we are not enemies. Our experiences do not oppose each other, they are intertwined. If you’re ace, if you’re aromantic, if you’re any variation thereupon; your home is here. You belong here, too. You are beautiful, and powerful; and you don’t have to explain yourself to anyone. You are a valued part of this community.

[chroniccoolness]

my final thought of the night: if you are allosexual, it is important for you to examine how you interact with asexuals, the stigma you may place upon them, the way you are taught to see them, and how you view their identity. I do not care what your romantic orientation is, including if you're aromantic, this process is important.

if you are alloromantic, it is important for you to examine how you interact with aromantics, the stigma you place upon them, the way you are taught to see them, and how you view their identity. i do not care what your sexual orientation is, including if you're asexual, this process is important.

same generally goes for being Not aroace/aroallo/alloace and examining how you view them. even if you're part of the aspec community. if you truly care about dismantling aphobia, you will think about how you see and treat aspecs who are not like you.

[aromanticofficial]

Question for other aromantics! Are any of you 100% fine with (and maybe actively enjoy) romance in media but get uncomfy/replused with romance irl? Because that's how I am and its such a baffling change. Because of how much i enjoy fictional romance I really thought i wasn't romance repulsed until recently.

[aro-polls]

aros, do you label your sexual orientation?

yes

no, but i label one or more tertiary orientations

no i'm just aro

results

[embracing-the-ineffable]

My favorite thing about this: that's Michael Sheen 🤣

[optimisticnightmarechild]

I remember the days of ace/aro exclusionist discourse very well.

The main fuel seemed to be screenshots of kids on Tumblr saying ignorant things about Lgbtq people and history.

Like, they're kids. Of course they don't know any LGBTQ history. They were born 5 minutes ago. We get it, you hate kids.

These two images angered exclus the most. They would say "these don't mean you're lgbt, because it says straight too!".

I'm sorry, did you forget straight trans people are part of the community? Hell, transhets did a ton of ground work for the community to even be a thing and got little to no credit in return.

Also, I imagine (grain of salt) that it was to encourage possible cishetallo allies to consider that we're all people and we should come together.

Lmao I forgot to add this: aro, aces, nonbinary people, etc. have always been present in the community one way or another. So much Lgbtq history is lost, do you seriously think there wasn't a single aro/ace person that was marching with the other queer elders?

Anyway, I just wanted to waffle about exclus.

[reinanova]

i have a few scenarios for you to consider

~~~

character: “i’m not straight”

fandom*: mmmm but what if you were

~~~

character: is bisexual in the comics

fandom: well, character isn’t explicitly stated to be bi in the movies, therefore character is straight

~~~

writer: yeah character is pan and has a dating history with all genders (and this wasn’t shown bcuz of xyz)

fandom: well, it doesn’t matter what the writer says, character is straight bcuz they’ve only dated the opposite gender on screen

~~~

character: is gay (either implied or explicitly stated to be homosexual and homoromantic)

fandom: well, maybe they’re homosexual but heteroromantic**, therefore i’m only going to ship this character with the opposite gender

~~~

character: is a lesbian

fandom: well, lesbians can still have sex with men therefore i’m going to write f/m smut with this lesbian and a man. not as a “figuring out/exploring my sexuality” fic but just bcuz i can

~~~

queer community: hey this character is canonically queer, could you please be respectful of that?

fandom: how about you go fuck yourselves. this is so embarrassing to be asking for respectful representation, literally shut the fuck up

~~~

character: is canonically gay

fandom: well you can’t prove he’s not attracted to women so he’s straight actually

~~~

disclaimers:

* i’m talking about a fandom as a whole in this post, not a couple individuals who may do this. this is talking about if a large chunk (think half or more) of a fandom is ignoring a canon queer identity

** no hate to someone who may identify this way. if someone is this identity, kudos to them, but people shouldn’t just use this as an excuse to ignore someone’s queer identity

this is how you sound when ignoring aspec*** identities. do you hear how ridiculous this is?

*** aspec (the way i use it at least) includes the asexual spectrum (ace-spec) and aromantic spectrum (aro-spec). also your friendly reminder that people can be aro and not ace and vise versa but you can’t ignore one or the other to suit your fancy

there will probably always be people doing this (re: ignoring canon queer identities) in fandoms, however, not in mainstream and popular ships and not to the extent that aspec identities are erased. bcuz if you have a problem with the above scenarios but not when the character is aspec, an already basically invisible identity, you need to re-examine your thinking and deal with your hypocrisy

do you know how hard it is to prove a LACK of something? even if someone straight up says, “i experience zero sexual or romantic attraction to anyone,” someone else will be like, “well how do you know you just haven’t found the right person yet?”

is the idea that someone doesn’t want a romantic or sexual relationship that difficult to understand?

if you want to see your identity represented in a character headcanon, great! but do so in a way that doesn’t negate another marginalized and underrepresented canon identity

there are SO! MANY! straight characters at your disposal. use one of them for your queer headcanons until we reach the point where your identity is canon. then you’ll probably be fighting for representation the same way i am right now

it also sucks to see fighting within the aspec community. bcuz yes aro and ace identities are a spectrum. however, when there’s a singular character with an aspec identity, you physically cannot showcase that spectrum. so if an ace character is sex-favorable, allos will believe all ace people are sex-favorable and ignore aces who are not. same thing for sex-repulsed aces and so on. the only solution is to fight for more aspec representation so everyone can see themselves in media without sacrificing parts of an aspec identity to fit how you identify

i’m tired. i’m so fucking tired of fighting for an ounce of representation. this should not be an uphill battle for people to accept aspec characters. i shouldn’t have to fight the queer community and straight people for this

[leonhartswife]

I strongly believe that Zoro is somewhere in the aromantic spectrum and I rarely see anyone talking about it.

yes, I get it, he just has a “tough personality” or whatever, but nothing will ever convince me that this man isn’t aromantic and I’m tired of hiding it.

[smspikyhampster]

I was bisexual -> Panromantic ace -> Aroace :D

And for gender

Girl-> egg -> trans man -> Nonbinary trans man :D

Everyone introduce yourself by what you thought your OG queer identity was and what you currently identify as

Ill go first: hi I was bisexual now I’m a pansexual aroace