#alloaroworlds

[thermodynamic-comedian]

I uh I think I’m probably aromantic and I’ve maybe been mistaking platonic and sexual feelings for romantic ones this whole time, I’m at a total loss on where to look for info on the aromantic community or whatever. help a brother out?

of course!

there's not a lot of aromantic content out there that isn't aroace-specific, but for a good blog about the experiences of growing up as an aromantic person, there's @growinguparo !!

there's also a lot of great aroallo blogs!! some of my personal favourites are @aroallo-culture-is @alloaroworlds and @arosunflower (i hope you guys don't mind me shouting you out lol)

and if you don't mind a quick self-promo, i've got my own aroallo blog! @aromantic-allosexual mostly for rants and rambles about being aroallo.

overall, there's a lot of great aro and arospec blogs out there, these are just ones i personally know. for general info about being aromantic, i'd suggest just reading up on the experiences of other aromantics. everybody's experiences are different in some way, but it really helped me to find people with similar feelings and thoughts and experiences as mine.

[aroosprey]

responding to @alloaroworlds 's tags

#as an autistic who struggles with touch#i feel this so much#sex? fine#hand holding? ick#i hope this isn't entirely tongue in cheek because I do feel this way!

I'm touch repulsed and I can assure you it's not just tongue and cheek for me!(though I have no problem with people using the phrase in an entirely unserious way for themselves) Hand holding in particular is a big no no for me lol, some ways of touching I can handle with mental preparation but aaaa I can't stand hand holding in the slightest

sex is cool but I draw the line at hand holding

[alloaroworlds]

[image description: a square allo-aro cross-stitched flag patch sitting on a red watermelon slice pillow. The patch bears the dark green/lighter green/white/yellow/gold horizontal stripes of the allo-aro flag and is finished with an edging embroidered in light pink thread.]

Aro Week Patch Giveaway - Allo-Aro

To celebrate Aro Week, I’m doing a week of patch giveaways. The allo-aro patch features @arotaro‘s yellow/gold design with a pastel pink border.

These are all handsewn pieces. They will have the small imperfections that come from being hand-embroidered. They’re also made using using a mix of Sullivans colourfast thread and thread from eBay that I will not promise is colourfast. I have also used a little clear nail polish in their construction (hidden underneath the embroidered edge).

Colours may not precisely match the flag colours (colour-matching thread to a backlit screen is difficult and/or I don’t have a better match in my thread stash). Since I like to play with different stripe and border combinations, every patch will feature a one of a kind, never exactly-repeated colourway.

Patches will come with a length of thread matching the embroidered edge for sewing onto your bags, coats or hats. I’ll be posting a tutorial about how to do this on my Patreon and WordPress site in the next few weeks.

These patches have been made by someone in a pet-free household who doesn’t wear artificial fragrances or perfumes but does wear deodorants and use shampoos containing essential oils.

I will ship these (sealed in a plastic zipseal bag) with a card in a standard letter envelope to any postal address accessible to me through Australia Post. (In other words, global with a few odd exceptions.) The giveaway ends at 12 PM AEDT (Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time) March 2.

To enter, you need to do the following:

Follow me at @aroworlds or @alloaroworlds

Be an aromantic of the identity listed in the header or entering on behalf of someone who is

Have your ask box or DMs open

Be an adult or have an adult’s permission to give your mailing address to an adult online

Reply to this post with the word “allo-aro” somewhere in said reply. Reblogs, while awesome, will not count as entries.

(I’m autistic. I can’t always tell the difference between “reblogging to signal boost” and “reblogging to enter” responses. So all reblogs will be accounted as signal-boosts and replies accounted as entries. I apologise to anyone who’d prefer to enter under the anonymity of a sideblog, but I need to make this as uncomplicated as possible.)

If you’d like to support me in future aro-community pride craft giveaways, I do have a Patreon (Aro Worlds, link in description box), where I’ll be running a subscriber-only giveaway for a dragon patch in the pride colours of your choice.

Good luck and thanks for reading!

[k-a-cook]

Linkspam Friday: April 5

Linkspam Friday: April 5

If all goes well, when this post goes up I should be escaping my GP’s office after another biopsy on my hand: an another adventure in our long-running quest to discover what is causing my dermatitis. I can’t say that I need this experience again, but at least I can write about wounds and blood with verisimilitude, and I’ve two characters for which this is quite important. Small mercies, right?

I…

[daybringersol]

please reblog for more representative poll results !

tagging for reach @aroalloambitions @aroallo-culture-is @alloaroworlds @alloarostuff @sorting-algorithm (feel free to dm to be removed)

idk how many times ill have to say that sunflowers are a widely known symbol for hidden disabilities before i stop seeing posts that are like “guys im voting for sunflowers as the aroallo symbol”. /lh

anyways, here’s other ideas:

- dandelion : green & yellow, represents resilience

- yellow rose : green & yellow, represents friendships, roses as a whole are associated with romance/sex, could be used to indicate our complex relationship with sex & friendships, might be a bit exclusionary to aplatonics tho

- yellow carnation : green & yellow, represents rejection

- yellow chrysanthemum: green & yellow, unrequited love

- yellow tulip : green & yellow, unrequited love, joy, friendship, spring (so rebirth)

personally im voting for yellow tulip

[alloarboreal]

Survey for allo aros!

Hi everyone! I was interested in collecting some statistics about the allo aro community and finding out a bit more about us, so I've made a survey! Anyone who identifies as allo aro can participate, please share it with people you think might be interested :)

Results and discussion will be posted on this blog sometime in the future.

@alloaroworlds, if you could share this I would be grateful for the signal boost :)

[aro-and-tired]

Wanted to let you know I SUPER appreciate your blog because usually when I look for aro content I get "aros are valid!" encouragement or discourse but not experiences or actual discussions about aro life. As an arospec it's super alienating to see nothing actually in depth. Your blog makes me feel less alone and I'm so so grateful for you.

BTW do you know any other blogs that actually talk about aro stuff instead of just posting flags or discourse?

Thank you very much! I also don't really like the "aros are valid" kind of posts, they don't make me feel anything. Positivity posts just aren't my thing, I prefer to stick to the discussions.

Thinking of blogs I follow, @raavenb2619 has a good mixed bag of discussion, memes, art and other posts. They have a lot of good stuff about loveless aros, discussing the term and its meaning and uses. They also post about ace and trans matters a lot, in case you are interested in those.

@just-aro also has good discussion posts, they mainly post about aro things, they're the only blog I can think of off the top of my head that deals with non-SAM aromanticism. If I remember right they also run @aro-culture-is, which is a submission blogs for aromantics to talk about stuff that they experience as aros.

I also enjoy @alloaroworlds, it's a blog dedicated to alloaro stuff specifically. Ze archives basically all the alloaro stuff there is around on tumblr, so the blog itself is a big mixed bag of content and if you want discussion alone you have to filter through the art/edits/etc. but I enjoy a place to focus on alloaro stuff. Ze also keeps a very well organized list of links for various resources on hir blog, so you can take a look through those too.

All these blogs do also talk about discourse sometimes, because in the end it has poisoned aro spaces for so long that it's impossible to ignore it entirely, but it's not what their blogs are dedicated to so you can scroll past it I believe.

[transcendragon]

@alloaroworlds No problem! Not only are the flag colors lovely, I’m demiromantic and bisexual! That puts me on the aroallo spectrum, so I understand how aromantacism and allosexuality can impact each other and make a unique experience that often isn’t discussed much even in aro/ace spaces. I’m happy to contribute to the aroallo community as I can.

"Aroallogon" the aroallo dragon. A new dragon, gliding over a wheat field in this aro allo flag themed art. Stay tuned for my alloace art tomorrow!

My original art made in Procreate, image descriptions in alt.

[shades-of-grayro]

Everything I look up online about not liking or wanting romantic love seems to come to the conclusion that it's because I'm too proud, unkind, don't let anyone get to know me, hate sacrifice, or think I am perfect. I feel like I've been kicked while I was down. I'm not sure if I'm aro, I'm bisexual and definitely don't hate sex but don't pursue it much, I have no desire for romance with any gender. None of these articles online help, they all keep saying I'm terrible and broken. I feel so lost.

Regardless of whether you choose to identify as aro or not, it might be a good idea to immerse yourself in aro spaces for a bit. That will give you the space you might need away from these harmful messages you're hearing.

Here are some ideas for places you can go for aro-friendly content:

There's AUREA's website:

Aro Worlds has a bunch of allo aro content (as a quick definition allo aro refers to non-ace aros; but it can be a bit more complicated than that as you'll learn here). They have two tumblrs @aroworlds and @alloaroworlds and a WordPress site:

Aces & Aros has an article feed which you can filter for stories talking about aromanticism:

And they also have learning materials if you'd like to learn more:

Lastly, arocalypse is a forum for aro folks if you want to socialize:

[fuckyeahasexual]

So can you give us an idea of when the reblogging/boosting alloaro voices is going to happen? Alloaroworlds has made a post specifically for you and the general acespec community full of information on alloaro issues (you were tagged, so you should already know). The longer you stay silent, the less trust there's going to be between communities and reblogging some aro positivity isn't going to change that. No more vague promises. Do something.

Great question! I'm actually compiling a list of posts both to start reblogging immediately and to add to our queue, to ensure that aro and alloaro voices are continually represented in the long term. Indeed, the very good post by alloaroworlds is one I'm reading myself and using as a jumping off point to collect more resources and information. I'm sure you'll agree that a mass reblogging of posts that none of us have even taken the time to read or absorb or learn more about would be counterproductive and performative, so we certainly appreciate your willingness to let us actually do what's being asked of us well, instead of just in the way that looks best and changes nothing.

-Dew

[pansexual-pied-piper]

@alloaroworlds and the website by the same person

Hey~

Can I ask for some help? Where can I find something about aromantic allosexual experience? People talking about their lifes or characters in media... I'm still on my journey with labelling myself, and reading other people's stories is a great help with finding something I can relate to.

I don’t know any specific blogs, but this one is for any arospec, ace or allo. Maybe some aroallos could send in some of their experiences or any good places they know of?

[double-a-plus]

Hey, @ my fellow aroaces:

Please do not complain about alloaros and aros without sexual orientations having their own spaces. Don’t invade those spaces either. If you’re angry about being excluded, you need to evaluate yourself. These spaces are not the problem. Alloaros and aros w/o sexual orientations are frequently erased and excluded in aro and aspec spaces. Alloaros in particular are treated horribly by us and other aces because of their allosexuality.

I urge you to educate yourself on the experiences of alloaros and aros w/o sexualities and the issues they face within our community. Understand why these spaces are necessary, and learn how you can change your behavior so aro and aspec spaces can be welcoming and safe for everyone.

Here’s some recommended starting points:

Here’s a post detailing examples of alloarophobia and how you can be an ally to alloaros.

More on alloaro erasure and it’s impact.

A post on non-SAM aro and other non-ace aro inclusivity.

Why recognizing aros and not alloaros specifically isn’t sufficient.

Why we as aroaces are part of the problem despite being aro ourselves.

How alloaros’ experience with allosexuality is different from alloromantic allosexuals.

Here’s a second one.

Why alloaros aren’t dividing the aro community.

More on how alloaros don’t feel welcome in general aro spaces.

This list is only a fraction of the information out there. Look through the alloaro and non-SAM aro tags. Look through blogs ran by alloaros and aros w/o sexualities. Share their posts. Follow through with their suggestions.

Some blog recommendations:

alloaroworlds

arotaro

aro-allo-positivity

aroallo

allo-aro-alphonse

nonsamaro

just-aro

Like I said, I’m not alloaro nor only aro, so I can’t speak on their experiences. If you’re an aroace with questions and are having trouble finding answers, I’ll be happy to help you search for one.

[aroace-people-are-lgtbq]

Is it still appropriate to continue following FYA? I'm ace and have been following FYA for years and they've helped me so much, but now it feels wrong and uncomfortable. I'm so sad that I never knew about the alloaro community until learning about FYA's actions. I fear my knowledge may be lacking, and I wish to support my fellow aros. I'm trying to find alternative ace blogs but do you know any other aro blogs?

Honestly, following or unfollowing fya is a decision you have to make for yourself.  For me, it was a decision that was a long time coming as I had been excusing their past mistakes and flubs because fya had been so important to me as an asexual. I wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt that they were trying to get better and learn. when they made the post, I stopped following them because it was abundantly clear that they did not care about listening to criticism and meaningfully supporting all aspects of the aro community. 

So I guess long answer short, I think you and I feel very similar. It doesn’t feel right to follow or reblog fya for me anymore, despite the comfort they gave me in the past. 

And like to be honest, if I wasn’t running an aroace blog, I’m not sure how aware of the alloaro community I would be. I know what I want to believe, but well, that would be dishonest. There’s a long history of arophobia/aromisia in the ace community and the best thing that we as aces can do is be aware of it and call it out when we see it.

Blog recommendations:

@aro-allo-positivity

@enbees-and-aros

@alloaroworlds

@lovingitaromantic

@aro-culture-is

@demi-romantics

@aroworlds

@aromagni

-Mod ama

[alloaroworlds]

Dear @fuckyeahasexual,

I hope you can appreciate how distressing it is to me to see the hurt and rage in my allo-aro community right now. It’s distressing to see my fellow allo-aros feel once again dismissed, ignored and erased. It’s distressing to see the post that provoked that feeling, to have my identity and my pride in my identity brushed aside as though allo-aro can’t be as meaningful to me as ace is to you.

It’s distressing to feel, again, the reasons why our shared a-spec community is not a welcoming space for allo-aros. It’s distressing to feel, again, the depth of allo-aro despair at seeing our asexual kin show such a woeful lack of understanding of allo-aro identity and experience. It’s distressing to be reminded, again, how we are expected to share the a-spec community with people who are not only ignorant of us but routinely hurt us because of that ignorance.

You say that you want the chance to “safely listen, process, and understand how to better serve my community”. Assuming that you mean “our shared a-spec community, which includes asexuals and allo-aros as members deserving of equal inclusion, recognition, safety and respect”, good! Because right now, you are not serving the entire a-spec community. As right and acceptable as it is for you to focus on aces (just as I focus on aros and allo-aros on my accounts), it is not right and acceptable for you to perpetuate, overlook and maintain ignorance to allo-aro antagonism in the process.

You have a position of high visibility in Tumblr’s a-spec community. Because of that, you have a duty of care to not harm all a-specs. Even when talking about or referring to asexuals alone, as is your right to do.

This means you need to learn about allo-aro community, identity, experiences and, yes, erasure and antagonism. Even when--especially when!--that erasure and antagonism is perpetrated by asexuals.

So, where can you start in learning about allo-aros?

https://aroworlds.com/allo-aro/

In particular, I’d have you check out these pages:

https://aroworlds.com/2019/03/22/allosexual-aromantic-erasure-a-guide/

https://aroworlds.com/2019/09/17/allo-aro-manifesto/

https://aroworlds.com/allo-aro/allo-aro-post-archive/

http://aroworlds.com/allo-aro/allo-aro-community-directory/

(Please! Go to other allo-aro blogs and read through them! Go check out our tags like alloaro! It won’t be a pleasant experience, I acknowledge; we have a lot of anger and nowhere else to voice it! But it is necessary that you develop a thorough understanding of allo-aro experiences, erasure and antagonism as part of your role as a highly-visible, well-known a-spec Tumblr account. The best way to do that is to expose yourself to many different allo-aro voices.)

No, the above isn’t a complete resource. It is by and large the perspective of one allo-aro (me). My website is a place, however, where you can start to get to grips with some of the issues we navigate on a daily basis as members of the a-spec and aro communities.

And if you’d like to learn more about lived allo-aro experiences, you needn’t stop at web articles when I also have a post collecting my allo-aro fiction:

https://aroworlds.com/2019/01/15/fiction-collection-allo-aro/

I sincerely hope you do more in future to understand, support and protect allo-aros, because you have too often shown yourself ignorant of allo-aro antagonism. This absolutely has to change.

Regards,

K. A. / @alloaroworlds.

[aroworlds]

Links, Books and About

As I can’t fit everything into my description box, let’s have a post!

Me

I’m an adult, Australian, autistic, agender, allosexual (abrosexual) aromantic (nebularomantic/arovague and idemromantic). The gods cursed me with mental illnesses, coeliac disease, dermatitis and chronic hand, wrist, shoulder and back pain ... leaving me with an equally-chronic spoon shortage. I make simple stock images for as many shades of the aromantic umbrella as possible, I sew and design cross-stitch pride patches, and I write flash fiction, short fiction and essays while sighing at the novel projects my chronic pain made me surrender. Lastly, I consider myself a loveless aro and have written an essay about that.

If you want to read my essays, head on over to the discussion post category on my Aro Worlds website.

If you want to help me survive capitalism as a disabled aro creator, please follow my pointing hands to Patreon and Ko-fi. Patrons get early access to stories, essay posts, images and patterns, as well as a few exclusive stories.

Aro Arrows

Aro Arrows is an archive of free to use aromantic-spectrum stock images intended for websites, flyers and publications, including:

Arrow dividers

Bunting banners

Banner bases

Gradient flags

Cross stitch icon bases

Text and page frames

Pixel art letter stickers and icons

Pixel art text stickers and banners

Block text stickers and banners

Phone-sized wallpapers and backgrounds

Combination (aro and non-aro identity) arrows and bunting

I’ve also started an archive category for high-res versions of aromantic pride flags. All flags here are 5000 x 3000, 300 PPI images with links to the original announcement post/flag creator.

Allo-Aro Information Hub

People should keep in mind that this is a work in progress and is in want of updating with more recent content. It is, however, somewhere folks can begin to find allo-aro-authored information, discussions and community.

Current pages include:

Allo-aro 101

Allo-aro friendly uses of a-spec terminology, a guide

Allo-aro erasure, a guide

Allo-aro community inclusion, a guide

My allo-aro manifesto

My allo-aro post archive

My allo-aro fiction archive

An allo-aro Tumblr community directory

An allo-aro flag guide

How allies should write allo-aro characters, a guide

How to ally, a post series

How (not) to ally, a post series

The main hub page also includes links to playlists, other folks’ essays and media posts.

Aro Pride Patch Tutorials

I have a tutorial series for making cross stitch pride patches, ranging from simple square flag designs to text, arrow, ace of spades and heart shapes! If you’re a beginner in hand sewing or embroidery, I recommend starting from the first tutorial and working your way through in order as listed here.

Folks can find my many patterns (including other queer and LGBTQIA+ patterns) archived in my patch pattern gallery.

Fiction and Books

Most of my fiction is free for anyone to read, even on Patreon!

Folks who are interested in shorter, stand-alone aromantic stories may enjoy:

Hallo, Aro

What If It Isn’t

The Wind and the Stars

Ringbound

Folks who want a longer, interconnected series of fantasy short stories and novelettes that aren’t just about aromanticism may enjoy:

The Mara and Esher stories

The Darius stories

The Eagle Court stories

Folks who want collections of aromantic stories may enjoy:

Hallo, Aro

Bones of Green and Hearts of Gold

When Quiver Meets Quill

Spirits Most Singular

Folks who want allosexual and non-asexual aromantic protagonists may enjoy:

Hallo, Aro

Bones of Green and Hearts of Gold

The Nine Laws stories

About my Blogs

@aroworlds​​​​​​​​​: an archive for free creative media (fiction, poetry, art, images and music) encompassing as much of the aromantic spectrum as possible. Content is tagged by format, identity and creator.

Links: About | Content Advisory | Artist Profiles | Post Prompts | Links Page

@alloaroworlds​​​​​​​​​: an archive for any allo-aro content (including creative media, positivity and discussion posts).

Links: About / Content Advisory

@aroflagarchive​​​​​​​​​: an archive for aromantic spectrum (and related) flags. Content is tagged by identity and creator, meaning one can search for “aroace” or “aroflux” to find a wealth of flag variations.

[thatfuckinaro]

having seen @alloaroworlds recent post about creating outreach into allosexual attraction communities, i thought mentioning my experience might be relevant.

A couple years ago, i (a nonbinary allo aro) moved my primary social media from being aro tumblr to a trans leftist circle of twitter. I've been lurking on aro tumblr now and then since, but not posting much.

In my time on twit, I've basically learned that it doesn't take much at all to help unknowing aros (at least those who are already out to themselves as otherwise queer) discover their aromanticism. in my time on twitter I've essentially spawned a decent-sized cluster of aros (mostly allo aros and non-sam aros) who found out they were aro through my limited aro 'activism' (though calling it that is a stretch), even with a very small following on twit.

very few people have ever been openly arophobic to me (though that's probably partly because i subscribed to a tr/sc/m blocklist early on), and there are surprisingly few excl*s**n*sts in queer spaces on other platforms, if you find the right circles.

i really think if more allo aros just existed in other queer spaces, occaisionally posted even relatively surface level aro themed posts, and were available to answer questions, it would help a lot of allo aros, and other aros whose experiences dont fit the exact norm for aspec spaces, discover their aromanticism.

this isn't meant to say that y'all here on aro tumblr need to pick up and leave or anything, you 100% have a good thing going and its not my job to tell you what to do at all anyway. I'm just letting you know, its possible.