#TMBD Fandm athiktomisia

[rjalker]

*slaps the roof of The Murderbot Diaries fandom*

[ID: The meme drawing of two people standing in front of a car, with a car salesman in a suit gesturing to the car, now edited to be saying, "This fandom can fit so many aroace-hating aroace people in it!". End ID.]

"partnering aroace people exist!"

yeah, and why do you think that gives you the right to erase nonpartnering aroace people? It's because amatnormativity still has a stranglehold on you and you're perfectly fine with that as long as you get to throw nonpartnering people under the bus to get the allos to accept you.

Being a partnering aroace does not give you the right to shit on and erase nonpartnering aroace people, which is what you are doing when you defend allos erasing Murderbot's explicitly unattracted Queerness.

Stop licking amatanormativity's boot and show some fucking solidarity with nonpartnering aroace people, or shut the absolute fuck up.

[rjalker]

From now on when I talk about the rampant solitaremisia in The Murderbot Diaries fandom I'm not calling it touch aversion anymore. I'm not calling Murderbot touch averse. Because that makes gregariable touch averse people think that they now have a free card to defend the disgusting levels of athiktomisia and specifically solitaremisia that runs wild in this fandom everywhere you look.

Murderbot is solitaremit. It does not want to be touched. It does not crave touch on any level. It does not seek out touch. It is not gregariable. It does not get touch starved.

You people just fucking hate solitaremits and think we're broken and need fixing through the power of love, or friendship, or sex.

You can either follow the links and learn what the words mean or shut up. I am done with gregariable people defending the inherent solitaremisia in erasing a cannonically solitaremit character who's actually treated seriously and with respect 100% of the time instead of being reduced to a joke about how it's sooooo funny to assault touch averse people because we don't really know what we want.

[rjalker]

the number of gregariable touch averse people who think that they get to hand wave away the rampant solitaremisia in The Murderbot Diaries fandom because they're touch averse is hilarious. Bitch. You are not solitaremit. Murderbot cannonically, explicitly, is. Being touch averse and gregariable does not mean you get to erase solitaremit people when Murderbot is literally the only fucking representation I have ever fucking seen.

How are all of you people so desperate to shit on disabled people that the author shows you a very clear progression of Murderbot learning that it's okay to set boundaries, so it immediately starts putting "you're not allowed to touch me" in its contracts as soon as it can, and this is respected by all characters with morals, but you all just hate disabled people so much that you want to pretend it actually enjoyed being touched?

You literally will not let solitaremit people have this one fucking thing, because you're all just too fucking ableist and aroacemisic to care about other marginalized people.

If you erase a character's cannon Queer and disabled traits/identities, you are being a fucking bigot. You are perpetuating bigotry. You all fucking know this, you just think it's okay as long as it's happening to cannonically aroace and solitaremit characters.

[rjalker]

Like, nonbinary autistic aroace with complex relationship with touch here? Go be a semi-an/ti somewhere else.

"complex relationship with touch" is a weird way of saying "I hate touch averse people who do not ever want to be touched and I especially hate the ones who call out athiktomisia that portrays touch averse people as being broken and in need of fixing"

I'm literally aroace but oh my fucking gods, stop trying to police fandom.

Yep, that tracks!

Damn, how many aroacemisic aroace people can fit in this fandom anyways?!?

[rjalker]

Fandoms will see this post and go "omg calm down no one's violating the fictional character's autonomy by shipping it!"

Fandoms will see a cannonically, explicitly Queer character who represents multiple of the most stigmatized groups within the Queer community and will go "okay, but what if I erase all of these traits I dislike to make ~them~ more palatable for me?"

And then act shocked when the minorities who are being purposefully erased are angry about this.

Fandom will see a characters who is canonically nonbinary, uses it/its pronouns, is aroace and viscerally disgusted by the thought of being in any kind of relationship, and hates being touched, and go

"Oooh! But ~they~ would be better if ~they~ didn't use those disgusting pronouns! Nonbinary people all use they/them! If you use it/its pronouns you're disgusting. This character uses they/them pronouns now because they're real pronouns!!!! "Ooh and don't you think ~they'd~ be so much better if ~they~ were horny for this brown man I am whitewashing for the sake of shipping with this aroace character, who I am also whitewashing for the sake of shipping.

"Oooooooooh but noo you know what'd be even better? O: if this character was a binary trans woman!!! Or a binary trans man!!!!! Because nonbinary people are gross and not real anyways :)

"Oh this blatantly autistic character explicitly says it hates being touched and only touches people in life or death situations when the literal only other option is letting them die?

"Well silly billy, don't you know that if you don't want to be touched there's something deeply, deeply wrong with you that you need to fix? I'm not being ableist by saying this, though! Really, when you think about it, you're the one who's ableist because you don't want this character's touch aversion to be healed by the power of friendship/sex/romance!!!!"

Fandom will literally see a character whose traits are demonized by all of society and go "okay but hear me out what if I demonize these Queer and disabled traits and remove everything that makes this character who it is so that it's less repulsive to me as someone whose identities are more socially accepted?"

And then insist that they're totally progressive and Queer friendly and welcoming to minorities and such a fun, safe, great fandom to hang out in.

[rjalker]

Martha Wells: I'm going to show an exceedingly simple and straightforward progression of Murderbot learning that it's allowed to set boundaries for its own wellbeing, so it'll start off thinking it doesn't have a real choice (because it's never been given a choice before now), to firmly setting its boundaries and enforcing them. After it lets someone hug it when they're upset, it explicitly goes out of its way to prevent that from happening again. Murderbot does not enjoy touch, nor does it seek it out or crave it in any way. And this is okay, and people who have morals will respect its boundaries. Because you should treat people with respect even if they're different from you and you can't relate.

The solitaremisic fandom: omg...Murderbot craves touch...it's so touch starved...it's just shy and self-hating and needs to learn to love itself enough to ask for hugs :)))) if you hate being touched you're broken and need to be fixed through the power of love/friendship/romance/sex!!!!!!!!!!1

Book 5, (book 6 chronologically because Martha Wells decided to make things difficult)

but people want to pretend like Murderbot's actually getting more comfortable with letting people touch it, rather than getting more comfortable setting firm boundaries. Because they don't like the message the author is beating them over the head with.

Arada rubbed her eyes and her mouth pulled in at one side. “Are you trying to make me feel better?”

“No.” I actually wasn’t. I lie to humans a lot, but not to Arada, not about this. “I wouldn’t try to make you feel better. You know what I’m like.”

She made a snorting noise, an involuntary expression of amusement. “I do know what you’re like.”

Her expression had turned all melty and sentimental. “No hugging,” I warned her. It was in our contract. “Do you need emotional support? Do you want me to call someone?”

“I’m fine.” She smiled.

This is character development for everyone involved (Arada took the longest to figure out Murderbot didn't want to be touched because she wasn't picking up on its nonverbal cues the way Mensah did, Murderbot has been learning to TELL people it doesn't want to be touched rather than just bearing it in silence), but because solitaremisics don't like the fact that Murderbot is reaffirming and strengthening its boundaries instead of weakening and compromising on them, they pretend like this isn't what's actually happening.

Even though it's a very clear linear progression from book 1 to this point that is not at all difficult to understand as long as you aren't already determined to pretend it's not happening.

[rjalker]

Yeah from now on I'm not even saying it's touch averse. It's solitaremit. Gregariable people do not get to argue with me when they're erasing, and defending erasing, the only bit of representation I'll probably ever see that I don't literally write myself. This bigotry isn't just athiktomisia, it's specifically solitaremisia.

do I really need to start adding "if you get touch starved do not fucking argue with me" on my posts about not erasing Murderbot's touch aversion when it explicitly does not get touch starved and literally reiterates and strengthens its boundaries after being forced to bend them in the last book?

Yes. There are multiple kinds of touch aversion.

And yours is not the one being represented here. If it were, I would not have a single fucking problem with what people are writing.

Charley Pollard likes holding hands and hugging, but hates sex and kissing. I do not get mad when people write about her holding hands or hugging someone. I do get mad when they write her kissing or worse, having sex with someone.

Murderbot does not enjoy touching. It does not seek out touch. From anyone. Not even people it likes and trusts.

If Murderbot sought out touch and enjoyed being touched and got touch starved, I'd have literally zero problem with people writing about that. But that is the exact opposite of the case, and the fact that that's all everyone fucking writes about is in fact literally bigotry. It's ableism. It's athiktomisia.

How are you all reading a book series with the theme of "respect people even if they're different from you" and immediately leaping to erase everything that makes Murderbot who it is so you can instead make it as much like you as you think you can get away with?

It'd be one thing if you were adding on additional traits that do not conflict with or erase its current character traits, like making it physically disabled, giving it other neurodivergencies, ect.

But no. All you people do is go, "oh? it's ace? Well not anymore!" "Oh, it's aro? Well not anymore!" "Oh, it doesn't want a relationship? Well not anymore!" "Oh, it has no desire for touch? Well not anymore!"

What's next? You're all gonna start insisting it totally loves making eye contact and loves showing off its face?