#aro worlds

[green-enby]

I know it's not the point of the post, but other than saying I feel this so bad, I actually have recommendations that are at least *close* to the kind of rep we're looking for here. And since it's Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, allow me to take this opportunity to share them:

Common Bonds - a speculative aromantic anthology

A collection of short fantasy-themed stories centered on aromantic characters and non-romantic bonds. The title mentions aromantic (although it's in the smaller subtitle so only a more meticulous parent would notice), and it is pretty obscure media, but I seriously suggest it if you're starving for good representation (it's not even expensive at all imo!). Most of the characters are aroace, but there's at least one aroallo, I haven't finished reading it so there might be more—

Hallo, Aro - Aro Worlds

Another collection of very short stories centered around aroallo characters. The other great thing about this one is that IT'S FREE. Also very niche, obviously.

Aro Worlds also has other collections like "When Quiver Meets Quill" (includes all types of aros including stories that don't mention sexual attraction at all, which I'd interpret as non-sam aro coded), "Bones of Green and Hearts of Gold" (same), "Spirits Most Singular" (non-partnering aros), and lots of other things, but I haven't read any of these ones. They're also all available to download for free, as they are collections of public works written by the community.

Koisenu Futari

A J-drama starring two aroace characters. From what I've seen it's decently popular! I've posted about it before and got more engagement than I'd expected. There also exists a subreddit for it, sooo.

Honourable mention: there's also some aroace rep in this other fantasy-themed collection called Being Ace, but it is obviously focused on aces first. It's a really good read so far, though.

I hope this encourages someone to pick up these pieces of media!

Happy Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week <2 [non-normative heart emoticon]

Any time someone asks “Hey, does anyone have any good aromantic representation that they can recommend?”, the responses are always like:

Alloromantic asexual character

Headcanon

Asexual character who doesn’t use the separate attraction model (because the writers didn’t do enough research to know what that is) but who is vaguely implied to not like romance

Character confirmed as aroace via twitter post

Headcanon

Side character in a heavily romance centric story

Headcanon

Aroace character who is actually pretty decent representation but who is also from some incredibly obscure webcomic or podcast or something, so you end up becoming incredibly fixated on a piece of media that no one will talk with you about :(

Character from a book written for teenagers (but which closeted teenagers can’t access without the risk of outing themselves to their parent(s)/guardian(s), because it’s very obvious from the cover and summary alone that it’s an LGBTQ+ book)

Headcanon

And of course, there’s never a single alloaro or non-SAM aro on the list.

[internetgiraffekid1673]

I love it when my irl friends know I'm aroace because it means I can just hug them without them feeling like there are any scary obligations or implications there.

My best friend at college said it best I think:

"Sometimes I think I want a boyfriend, but then I realize. No. I really just want a hug. And then I go and find you and I get a hug and then I don't want a boyfriend anymore."

Like. Bro. Sometimes my friends just need a hug without having to worry about anything else. And I'm so glad that I'm capable of giving it to them.

Anyway, shoutout to all my online friends that I can't hug, I'm giving you a virtual one!

[dangerous-fighter-fairy]

Being aroace with a squish is really like. You look so nice and cute and pretty (not like that), I’d like to snuggle up in bed with you (not like that) and play with your hair (not like that) and lay there for a while (not like that) and hold your hand all the time (not like that) and hang out with you one-on-one (not like that) and get to you know you on a deep and personal level (not like that)

[mossy-aro]

aromanticism is beautiful and everywhere for those with eyes to see. and i am always looking

[hum-tittle]

Honestly one of the hardest part of being aroace or acespec/arospec is having to tone down how much I love. I love making people feel cared for. I remember little details about people. I just want to be a place of comfort and love.

But we live in such a romantic/sex centric society that if you're too nice, or remember too much, you must be interested in them.

The number of times I'm just being my loving self and people interpret it as romantic interest is exhausting.

[cosmicredcadet]

Soulmates are inherently amatonormative and it's so wild how many people refuse to acknowledge that and instead go around trying to "make it more inclusive" which mostly just leads to then forcing aspec characters into a amatonormative narrative.

[knifearo]

this year my challenge for everyone is to unlearn the association between love and morality. love is not something that is inherently morally good, and the absence of love is not something that is inherently bad. sex without love isn't morally bankrupt, it's just an action. people without love aren't less kind or less good, they're just people. when we can get past this false (and often unnoticed) dichotomy of good love/evil lovelessness then i think we are going to be able to take leaps and bounds in sex positivity, aro advocacy, certain discussions of mental health...

[tamymew]

gay lizards gay lizards

[0hliv]

Good Evening chat! 😏

[fellas-is-it]

got tired of all depressing and hating yourself for being aro vibes on legit any other platform besides tumblr (looking at you tictac app) so wanted to listen to positive aromantic playlists and legit could NOT FIND ANY??????

And the ones that were vaguely positive were made for aroace ppl. Which is great! But im not ace!!! So WHERE'S MY POSITIVE AROALLO REP?!?!?!

Anyways i solved this hyperspecific problem myself and made a POSITIVE AROALLO playlist:

Larger image of the playlist cover i made

[pokimoko]

hi!! if you'd be down i'd love to see an aromantic or genderfluid shark! any kind of shark but more specifically a thresher shark or leopard shark ^_^

*cradles shark gently* I just think they're neat.

[cloudeling]

there should be more romance repulsed characters. there should be more aro characters in general but i deserve characters who would rather throw themselves off a skyscraper than be in a romantic relationship

[angryaromantics]

I think what the alloro's don't get is we're not like, out to take love from them. We don't see the word love and automatically grow rabidly angry (mostly lol).

For example, I just saw a text post that was something like, "I love love and being a lover." This was fine. It didn't make me feel gross. It didn't make me feel less than. And what it really boils down to is how that love is being framed.

This post is personal. They have strong feelings about love!! Great!! The "I" takes a strong lead in the sentence. Good job, op, I support you.

What I've seen piss a lot of people off is the posts of the genre, "_____ is about love," or "love is all that matters, " or even, "love is what makes us human." These statements automatically rope EVERYONE into the sentiment.

I try to see many of them with grace. Sure, love is in the soup, whatever. I can recognize that this is just a silly sentiment about how soup makes us warm, and food can be shared at the dinner table, etc. It's a metaphor in action. It might annoy me, but there are no real repercussions of that thought process.

The ones that are trying to sell love to everyone as the most important, vital thing in the world, though? Steeped in amatanormativity. And that is just furthering the cycle of dehumanization for aro people. And they don't even realize it.

[positively-bi]

aromantic bisexuals are so cool

you are not "bad bi representation" or "shallow" for experiencing sexual attraction and not romantic attraction

you are not responsible for other people's stereotyping of bisexuality

you are welcome in the bi community

you are awesome

aromantic bisexuals are so cool

[softandwigglybones]

I am requesting all aspec people and others to converge upon this post like a swarm of locusts so that we may show the world our might (and maybe make some friends along the way)

[cosmicredcadet]

Ppl will say being AroAce is boring but personally I think the fact that I'm not like a majority of people and have a different experience of the world than them makes me rather unique and interesting.