#aroace rep

[lemonycranberries]

loved the little part where Isaac says that a relationship seems nice in theory but it isn't what he actually wants and James goes "so you're aromantic?" and Isaac absolutely lights up with a smile and he says "you know what that is?"

the funny part is that when James said that my face also lit up with a smile and my thoughts were "he knows what it is!!" even while watching fictional characters. the fact that our identity is so unknown and invisible makes this such a universal aro experience.

[roseredsnow]

This is your week till Acolyte reminder that Vernestra Rwoh

Is canonically aroace and she was been confirmed aroace since 2021 by her main writer Justina Ireland, the tweet doesn't work for me but the article and a link

Please do not ship her, you can have any other characters in Acolyte and any of the at least 13 confirmed sapphic characters in the High Republic, let us have our rep for once.

Edit: Forgot to include the word aromantic was also used in the character encyclopedia.

[luzsadventures]

coming straight from my three page long notes app essay I wrote at 4am after seeing the barbie movie, some thoughts on why barbie is definitely aroace, and why that means the world to me tbh:

BARBIE IS AROACE. TELL ME IM WRONG.

barbie not wanting to be with ken is so important. she never has to explain herself. she’s just not interested. and that’s okay. she’s never shamed or ostracized because she’s not interested in ken. it's not played for jokes. there’s never even a moment of “well, maybe barbie will have a realization that ken's been there all along and they'll end up together”. nope, there’s never any expectation. and it’s not even in a girlboss feminism, “she doesn’t need a man” kind of way. she just doesn’t want that, and the movie respects that. the movie respects what she wants, which is something we don't see much when it comes to aroace rep (or like most rep when it comes to women tbh).

barbie also turns down ken in a way that makes it clear that she's just not interested. there's no hesitation or sugar coating to it. we see this in the "girls night" scene in front of the dreamhouse, when barbie says simply, she doesn't want ken there. even later on when she turns him down in ways that are a little nicer, she's still very firm in her decision. time and time again we see barbie knowing what she wants and asserting it. we live in a world where when turning down men women always feel the need to be nice about it and "let them down easy" either out of being polite or sometimes as a safety precaution. regardless, to see barbie be able to be firm in her decisions is so empowering.

I love how this subverts expectations, bc we know ken is (supposed to be) barbie’s boyfriend. she’s everything and he’s just ken (although we can get into the nuances of that statement some other time). that is the role ken has always played. so to have that subverted, to make it clear to begin with that barbie is not really all that into ken is such a nice change.

this is also SO important because barbie is a beacon of “stereotypical” femininity, and has also been historically sexualized. so the fact that the movie lets her be feminine and girly but she can still not be interested in ken is amazing. she is still allowed to be herself, and her femininity is neither tied to, nor does it detract from her want to not be with ken. the movie said girls can be feminine without being tied to male attention !! girls can be feminine just bc its fun !!

I can talk about this for hours it’s so genuinely healing for me. I doubt many others picked up on it, hell idk that this all was intentional, but I loved it <3

[avitha]

[rel312]

Isaac saying that he’s never had a celebrity crush during truth or dare is so real, I feel so seen, I’ve been in that situation so many times and every time nobody believed me and idk if it was just cause it wasn’t focused on very long but it didn’t really feel like nobody believed him so I’m happy he didn’t have to go through that but I just… it was such a good scene, thank you Alice for putting that in there

[unnecessarilygrandiose]

this is something important about heartstopper that i think needs to be said, to aspec people specifically:

please be kind to isaac and the aroace representation we'll get come thursday.

aroace rep is something we get very rarely, especially on the screen. i can think of exactly two shows with aroace characters, and one of them is heartstopper. so it's not unfair of us to hope that we each get to see our experience represented in isaac.

but like. that's simply not going to happen.

isaac is one character. he can only represent one kind of experience about what being aroace entails. and every single aspec person has had a different experience with realising their identity and coming to terms with it. everyone has a different relationship with the complexities of their sexuality and labels.

and y'know, it could be disappointing to expect something from a character you thought was representing you and see them be something very different. hell, i can bet anything that at least a few aspec people will be completely disillusioned with whatever we'll get.

but 'i didn't like this' doesn't automatically mean 'it was bad'. maybe it means that 'this didn't represent me, which was sad, but it did represent some people, and it was a cornerstone in aroace representation in mainstream media as a whole, which is good.'

(i mean, i'm not saying there's a zero chance it'll be objectively bad and harmful rep, but the chance of that is extremely low, since alice is aroace themself. also, loveless is an amazing book)

i feel compelled to say this because we know that it's going to be a while before isaac is comfortable with his identity, which can be upsetting to watch because the 'you can't be happy without romance and whole without sex' is pushed pretty hard onto us on a regular basis, and there's this sort of defensiveness where we kind of want any fictional aroace characters to be immediately accepting of themself because no, we're actually very happy and completely whole without those things, thank you very much. this was the main criticism of loveless by many aspec people— that it didn't represent them because georgia struggled so much with her identity.

but. just because you personally didn't have to face that (and good for you!) doesn't mean it's not a very real experience many aroace people go through every day.

just because our first mainstream media rep of being aroace isn't an easy, feel good story, doesn't mean it's not important.

be as disappointed with isaac as you want if he doesn't represent you—but please still be kind to him. if we're too harsh in our criticism, the creators who worked on this story might feel discouraged from creating more aroace characters and stories.

more aspec rep, especially aro and aroace rep, is important! more rep means more variety! it means a greater chance of all of us finding stories we love and resonate to! but if we don't get everything we want the first time, please let's not call it bad and demotivate the very people who can give us more.

[ultimatemissadhd]

non aroace people are such a mystery when it comes to aroace rep.

Because if a cold single character is not canon or even implied aroace, they will insist that they are aroace coded because they're cold and single and they will defend it with their life.

But if a character actually is aroace coded, they will completely ignore it and ship them with other characters.

Also if a non aroace coded character rejects a different character, they're aroace coded but if actually aroace coded character rejects someone, they're just in denial.

It's kinda like.... some non aroace don't actually give a shit about aroace people or represention.

because they can't handle a fact that an aroace character can have friends because every interaction is romantic to them, a good aroace character for them would be the one who would hate everyone.

It's complicated, I know because it doesn't make sense.

Listen to aroace people and don't ship aroace characters, simple as that.

[theaspecyear]

Three aspec-friendly j dramas recs

Koisenu Futari Sex content: none (there's one flashback that references a past experience, but nothing explicit. It's also not in a positive light.) Romance content: none Rep: the two protagonists are explicitly aroace. They're adults: the focus isn't on discovering their identity (Sakuko does that in episode one), but on how they live life defeating the norms and on their developing qpr (which they call "Family (subject to change)").

Konya Sukiyaki Dayo Sex content: none Romance content: some (one of the two protagonists is allo and has romantic interests and a relationship) Rep: one protagonist is explicitly aro. She never comments on her sexuality, but she never seems interested in sex either. The two protagonists live together and develop a qpr (they don't call it that, but it's clear they don't consider their bond a "normal" friendship).

18/40: Futari Nara Yume mo Koi mo Sex content: none (implied in the past since there's a pregnancy) Romance content: present Rep: the two protagonists have a considerable age-gap (18 and 40) and they refer to their bond as something that "has no name but definitely exists". It's pretty much a qpr, but they're both allo and they both develop separate romantic interests. There's also a secondary aspec character (I love her); there are no explicit terms used, she only says she's never been in love (and probably never will). I noticed hints of this character's identity since episode 1 and I think all of them fit the aroace profile, but she doesn't comment on sexual attraction or lack thereof (she is surprised to know her friends have had sex, though, and that screams asexual to me). All in all, platonic relationships of every kind are very important in this drama. Be warned for the pregnancy and motherhood though if that's not your thing. (And for romance.)

[angieblogging]

if aroace yelena has no defenders… i’m dead.

[scribble-kitti]

HAPPY AROACE AWARENESS WEEK YALL!!!!!

HUGE shout out to all the aros and aces and cupioromantics and everyone else that falls under the aro/ace umbrellas, yall are so important to me, i love you all so much and i hope you guys have the greatest day <3 💚💜🩶🤍

[moonyswarmsweaters]

fighting the urge to write a pandora centered fic, Aroace Pandora dealing with figuring herself out when all her friends date and fall in love

artist pandora who appreciate the beauty of everything she sees

who is stuck in her own mind in the best and worst ways possible

struggling with the love of the consent of romance, the commitment, the passion, while releasing the way she feel them is not “normal

yeah

[lemonycranberries]

"No, I know they would be [supportive]! Honestly, I... I just can't be bothered to give everyone a vocab lesson" IS SO FUCKING REAL AAAHSJAHJHJHISJHJHK

[roseredsnow]

Just to remind people Acolyte season 2 is not confirmed to be cancelled.

It's all rumours they did it for this season too, like literally any time we got news a day later they'd start it up again

(Take when Abigail Thorn casting rumours started as an example)

Make yourself loud and clear that you want season 2 and hopefully we'll get it, that's how we've got this far with the books to the point they're teasing more than planned

[rosieethor]

Happy Aromantic Visibility Day! I wrote some aro books for your reading pleasure~

[elrikadraskanitsi]

El - Happy Pride month to everyone who celebrates it! I hope you are well and safe out there! ❤️

For Pride month, as an aromantic and asexual person, I wanted to draw something that means a lot to me personally. And I decided that it would be fanart of the Japanese television drama series Koisenu Futari (恋せぬふたり).

I first heard about this show from the YouTube channel The Ace Couple. They do podcasts about different topics through an Ace lens and have dedicated two episodes discussing this show. I am going to link the episodes here if you are interested (because, honestly, they do a way better job at reviewing and analysing the show, than I could):

Koisenu Futari: Is this the Perfect AroAce Rep!?

We LOVE Koisenu Futari!

The show is about the lives of two aromantic and asexual people - Sakuko and Takahashi, who decide to live together in order to escape the inconveniences of life. Along the way they learn a lot about themselves, the people around them and just life as a person, who doesn’t fit with the expectations that society puts on everyone. It’s honestly a really heartwarming series with a lot of amazing scenes. There were a lot of moments where our two main characters just stopped to express how they feel about different aspects of life and honestly, a lot of the things they said made me pause and say: “Those are my exact feelings!”. There were also a lot of scenes that genuinely made me cry. I have never watched a show that made me feel so seen, made me feel like I wasn’t broken and that there are other humans out there who share my experience. Another thing that I love about this show is that the two main characters show two different experiences of being aroace and that means a lot. Personaly, I relate a lot more with Takahashi.

If you haven't watched the show yet, I highly recommend you do so. It’s very well written, the characters are very interesting and lovable and the message that is trying to convey is very important.

This got really personal, but I hope you enjoyed it and I hope you have a wonderful Pride month!

[rel312]

The painting on the wall behind Isaac during the scene where the artist talks about being aromantic asexual being the aroace sunset flag colors is such an amazing detail