#happy arospec awareness week btw!!

[canadianlucifer]

A little doodle inspired by that one tweet, his great depression ass does not understand what these colours mean lmao

[pridewishes]

HAPPY AROSPEC AWARENESS WEEK BTW (is this super late...)

Just late by 1 day. No worries though, thank you ^^

[fairyprince7]

btw I haven't seen any mutuals except my irl talk about aromantic awareness week so happy aromantic awareness week to all my arospec mutuals!!!! you guys are the coolest EVER 💚🤍🩶🖤

[arobarbie]

happy arospec awareness week btw give me all your fucking money or else

[draculas-fem-aro-husbando]

Happy Nonbinary Awareness Week to:

BIPOC Nonbinary People!

Disabled Nonbinary People! (Also Happy Disability Pride Month to y’all too!)

Neroudivergent Nonbinary People!

Mentally ill Nonbinary People!

Intersex Nonbinary People!

Aromantic Nonbinary People!

Asexual Nonbinary People!

Omnisexual Nonbinary People!

Pomosexual Nonbinary People!

Polysexual Nonbinary People

Bisexual or Bisexual Umbrella Nonbinary People!

Pansexual Nonbinary People!

Novisexual Nonbinary People!

Two Spirits who consider themselves Nonbinary!

People who identify with genders from their culture and consider themselves Nonbinary!

Religious Nonbinary People! (This does not just mean Christian btw)

AroAce Nonbinary People!

Nonbinary People who use She/They or He/They!

Nonbinary People who use They/Them!

Nonbinary People who use He/She/They!

Nonbinary People who use Any Pronouns!

Nonbinary People who use All Pronouns!

Nonbinary People who use Nounself Pronouns!

Nonbinary People who use Neopronouns!

Nonbinary People who are in the Multigender Umbrella!

Nonbinary People who are Genderfluid!

Nonbinary People who identify with Xenogenders!

Nonbinary People who are Unlabeled!

Nonbinary People who identify as Queer!

The Nonbinary Umbrella!

Arospec Nonbinary People!

Acespec Nonbinary People!

Aspec Nonbinary People!

Lesbian Nonbinary People!

Gay Nonbinary People!

She/Her Nonbinary People!

He/Him Nonbinary People!

No Pronoun Using Nonbinary People!

Trans Nonbinary People!

Non-Binaries who use names in place of Pronouns!

That are in the closet or out to certain people!

People who never want to come out!

Nonbinary People who prefer their birth name!

Nonbinary People who prefer multiple names!

You’re all very cool and you are very much accepted!

Also don’t feel forced to ever come out during Non-binary awareness week! Come out when you are ready!

[gorycze]

i like to think din read books to grogu and gave every character their own little voice

happy arospec awareness week btw!!

[pleasantartisanhottea]

hi! for that arospec week ask stuff; I'm curious about 1, 2, 8 , 9, 13, 17, and 18. reminder that you absolutely rock btw!

HELLO!! thank you for the ask!! <3 i hope you’re aware that i absolutely adore you and that you are fantastic!

1 - i consider myself to be pretty solidly aroace (aromantic and asexual)!

2 - i tried out the label quoiromantic for quite a while, but honestly it just... didn’t fit. i’m a person that likes labels and the vibes of “idk what the difference between romantic and platonic attraction are” didn’t really... fit, after a while, for me, personally!!

8 - oh BOY oh BOY!!! aro headcanons!! one aro headcanon i’ve seen quite a bit that i think is so cool is the headcanon that Dipper and Wendy from Gravity Falls are both aromantic! yes, i am very much aware that Dipper has a crush on Wendy and that Wendy dated people, but crushes are... weird, aroallo people exist and are, of course, amazing, experimenting and having one’s identity wibble and wobble around is also 100% a thing, and also also, let me have this please i love this hc so much.

9 - honestly it depends on the day. sometimes, i’m romance-favorable and read a bunch of cute romantic fics on ao3, and other days i filter out every category other than “gen” and i also filter out any and all ships that i can. generally, though, i’m more romance-indifferent than anything!!

13 - i’m just gonna drop the link to this lovely article once again! (i have been Searching for one of the posts i mentioned to a wonderful anon asker and i was not successful lol, rip)

17 - honestly, it just... it just gets exhausting seeing this idea pushed and pushed and pushed, that you need romance to be happy, that friendships are just a stepping stone towards a romance, that ultimately, romantic love is going to conquer all, that eventually, people just have to get a partner. amatanormativity is so pervasive in society that a few off-handed comments can make me feel weird about myself and my identity for a while, that’s not fun.

18 - :D figuring out that i’m aromantic was a trip and a half, but it cleared up so many things for me. crushes, for one! knowing and understanding that crushes are real but knowing that i don’t have to actually get one is a relief, having a crush sounds exhausting i don’t want one lol.

the community is also just... so, so wonderful. i posted a lil’ thing about aroallo people and it has 23 notes???? like! !!!!! that is The Most notes a thing of mine has ever gotten and the responses were all so nice. it’s also just really nice being able to even have a community, to see so many people commiserating about amatanormativity and having mutual, “Wait, This Is REAL?” moments i adore every aro person on this hellsite that makes content and shares it with the world.

[violetemerald]

My Answers to Aro Asks (Part 3/4)

As I said here in part 1, and also part 2, I’m gonna answer all of these, in a 4 part series of answers. Cross-posted to my WordPress blog.

This is part 3 of 4.

(And as it turns out... I didn't just "kind of" fail to finish these in time for Aro Spec Awareness Week... lmao. I completely totally am insanely late finishing up. However I want to post the final 2 parts before I post my March Carnival of Aces post, so I'm kicking this into high gear really quickly.)

As I explained before, I'm answering many of these with long paragraph answers, rather than just 1 word, because I feel like sometimes long answers are necessary, and I have a lot to say.

That being said, we're finally at the parts where I plan to give some... shorter answers.

4. what’s your stance on romantic attraction?

What's my... "stance"? Huh? I think it's frustratingly hard to define. I think I probably don't really feel it. I might be able to be "in love" and like romance or romantic things/like being in a romantic relationship, but actual "romantic attraction" I... think it seems like it's is usually tied up in sexual attraction, or for aces finding people aesthetically attractive, and since I don't feel either of those forms of attraction... Well...

Besides, it's totally a "know it when you feel it thing" and the last time I've felt definitive, non-squish, something I want to categorize as a crush on a person feelings.... was before I knew I was ace. Since then, I don't feel anything like that. I think I just "Thought" I felt crushes before, or worked myself into hoping for things that I know now I wouldn't even enjoy anyway, so I don't project those hopes nor project that type of sense of longing onto people anymore.

5. how did you figure out you were arospec?

By first figuring out I was asexual and then immersing myself in a lot of asexual community conversations and really just... thinking. And thinking more. And writing things out. And asking people questions. And trying to figure out what being alloromantic yet asexual would be like. Etc etc.

6. when did you figure out you were arospec

Well... I posted this blog post entitled, "I think I’m… wtfromantic. Or maybe heteroromantic. Or aromantic? Or panromantic? AH I DON’T KNOW." 3 years ago (March 2014, about 5 months after settling for sure on the truth that I'm asexual), so around then, probably a little earlier? Or later? Since I wasn't SURE I was arospec then when I was posting it. It was... gradual.

7. do you experience romance repulsion? Not really. Not at ALL to the degree that I experience sex repulsion aversion? But in certain select scenarios maybe. It makes me uncomfortable to have select explicitly romantic things imposed on me and my queerplatonic relationship, maybe... but idk. Mainly I can be pretty happy with a lot of romantic things. However I felt really kinda romance repulsed when I was dating a heterosexual/allosexual guy in 2013 and he was in love with me and wanted to see me too often, and him and also one other guy I tried dating in 2012 both wanted to hold my hand too much and I just... was somewhere between actively uncomfortable (but repulsed would never be a word I'd use, btw), and just... indifferent... I don't think I'm romance repulsed though.

8. favorite part of the arospec community?

I don't know if I can pick just one favorite. Unpacking of the complexity of human relationships of all kinds, celebrations of platonic love, subverting amatonormative culture in cool ways, being very welcoming of gray areas... idk. Lots of things.

9. least favorite part of the arospec community?

Maybe sometimes the anger makes me uncomfortable, by a few select bloggers, or the elitism I've seen here or there, or the clashing of needs from people who don't want any kind of partnership, especially?? Or the lack of there being a community really at all, like no in-person meetups for aros, and the fact that it's SO ace dominated so allosexual aros are basically always left out or ignored or whatever.

10. do you consider yourself to be part of the lgbtq+ community?

Yes, but because I'm asexual first and foremost in terms of how I identify, it's mainly for that reason I guess...

11. how do you feel about physical affection?

If the question means to get at more like... do I personally participate in it or desire it...? Well, um... I think I basically reserve it for super close family. I've had periods of craving/longing to hug my queerplatonic partner, kinda, but after a while of not doing it I get over it? I don't really need touch in my life much. I do think it can be one of the most intimate things ever, but it only feels intimate to me if it's 100% nonsexual, like between family or two sex-averse asexual people lmao... :P I feel in general there is too much emphasis on it sometimes in ace fiction, narratives about what can make a friendship queerplatonic, etc... idk. To me physical affection is irrelevant in most of my life. I'm not a touchy feely person. Comfort hugs when I'm extremely upset are maybe the best thing ever but I've only experienced them like... twice, from family, so I don't have a good sample set.

12. do you follow any arospec blogs?

Yes. Yes I do. Lol. Um... too many to link really. I'll just link to this one right now. http://www.pennystirling.com/2016/02/19/aromanticism-in-fiction-pt-2/

Great post, combined with this newer post here:

http://www.pennystirling.com/2017/02/25/so-you-want-to-write-an-arospec/

Made me feel SO validated as an aro-spec person, in particular.

Recently, the aro side of myself has felt more important in a variety of ways than the ace side so... I kinda needed this Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week and stuff. There's just a lot of feelings going on for me.

Edited to add: Part 4 is here: http://luvtheheaven.tumblr.com/post/159057091737/tumblr-aro-asks-meme-my-answers-part-44 !! ;)