#lithro awareness

[flip-flopping-frede]

This again, is a reflection of how much awareness these labels get, NOT how many people exist who use these labels.

Poll Two:

ive included the arospec identities that i see used most frequently, unfortunately i am limited by the number of poll options

reblog for sample size!! (and yes, I <2 sampling bias)

[flip-flopping-frede]

You know how white women want black women to fight for abortion and other women’s rights. And black women have been leading and organizing the movement. And now, white women have failed black women by helping to vote for trump, and want black women to help them fight for abortion rights. And some black women have taken a step back and said “this is not our fight”?

I’m a lithromantic who doesn’t experience or see lithro awareness, education, acceptance, pride, positivity, art, representation, or anything for the lithro label. You know what I do see? Aro awareness, education, pride, acceptance, positivity, art, representation, etc. This is especially the case when it comes to the ace side of things as well.

I’ve witnessed how the aro community treats people like me. People who don’t want to feel bad about their ignorance on my identity non-consensually relabel my label as “microlabel” or “sub label” or “variant” or “type of aromantic” or “sub type”. You feel better about yourself when you attach and associate diminishing terms to my label, right? It’s easier for you to justify excluding labels like mine from awareness when my label is just a “type of aromantic” and “aro awareness is the only awareness that matters”.

No. As a lithromantic, I’m not ok with this culture of aros, aces, and aroaces “speaking over” and “speaking for” marginalized labels that don’t get awareness, like lithromantic. If you, as a label that has the privilege of having some awareness, are trying to “put my label down” by relabeling my label as a microlabel, or some other term with diminishing connotation (to boost your own awareness), you are hurting me and the lithro community from getting the awareness we deserve.

Hot take, but lithros deserve as much awareness, acceptance, pride, positivity, etc. as the aro community.

“The aro community includes everyone! The aro community includes you!” Yeah, that hyper-inclusive mindset of making aro the “poster label” is how I did not discover/realize I was lithro until about a year after being involved in the aroace community/aspec side of social media.

People in the Acommunity, especially fellow aspecs, need to recognize how diverse the Acommunity is.

I’m slowly starting to see more awareness and acceptance for being aromantic allosexual, or aroallo. What I’m not seeing is awareness or acceptance for aspec labels that experience romantic or sexual attraction, particularly primary attraction. I would say that even some people who use the demi/grey labels aren’t helping.

There are people who are so desperate to experience romantic attraction that they convince themself they might be demi/grey. Because they suffer with internalized arophobia being aromantic. I’m unsure what the grey label is exactly, but I believe it is experiencing attraction, rarely, weakly, or under certain circumstances. And demis typically only experience secondary attraction. My point is, it is easy for greys and demis to “fit” into the aro, ace, or aroace labels. Especially when demis are able find themselves in a long term relationship with someone they were able to experience attraction to, they can have a “happily ever after”, and no longer necessarily affected by aro, ace, or aroace struggles.

Another hot take is that I feel it can be really easy for demis to perpetuate amatonormativity. Because, for them, it is a matter of finding someone they connect with and being in/entering a traditional allo relationship after that. I have only seen blatant use their identity to perpetrate, justify perpetuating amatonormativity once, however, I strongly think the demi community especially needs to be educated on amatonormativity.

For me, I experience romantic attraction, but I can’t with romantic relationships. Getting romantically involved with someone is usually a very painful experience for me. I understand how bad it is pressure someone into a romantic relationship.

I feel like my experiences as a lithromantic should matter, and I feel like my label, lithromantic, and other labels that experience primary attraction, like frayromantic and fraysexual, are worthy of more awareness. This one sided, inequal awareness for labels that experience secondary attraction (demiromantic/demisexua), or rare/weak/only under certain circumstances attraction (greyromantic/greysexual) is obvious exclusion aspec labels that experience primary attraction. And it’s hurting people/these communities. How are you supposed to accept yourself or your identity when the aro/ace/aroace don’t see your labels as worthy of awareness, and actively try to diminish your identity by attaching diminishing, “othering” descriptors to your labels, like “variant” or “sublabel” or “microlabel”?

[shmisky]

whats your headcanon sexualities for the stan twins

Ah, a pretty fun one!

I’m aware that you probably just wanted me to answer with my opinions and not, say, an analysis about it, but then again you sent it to me, and I couldn’t resist yapping about it! So, yes, I shoved some canon tidbits in here too...

I think Stan’s bi, bisexual and biromantic. I don’t think it’s hard for him to actually fall in love because of the completely smitten way he talks about Marilyn, his ex-wife, in his commentary of Land Before Swine.

Uh, sometimes comedy comes from a place of pain and I, y’know, was actually married for less than a day. [...] Reach for the same slot machine handle and it was love at first sight. Marilyn. [...] Man, I was putty in her hands. [...] And I guess her name was fake and her hair was fake, but y’know, the love was real. She really was the one that got away. [...] Sometimes I still think of her. [...] I had love in my life once and uh, y’know, it bit me. And I learnt a bit of a lesson from that which is ya open your heart and blood comes out and ya die. So, y’know, try not to be a sap like I was.

And regarding his attraction to men, well! Even if I weren’t a stancest shipper, we would have this:

And, amusingly, even this (referencing Stan’s marriage to Goldie in Soos and the Real Girl), despite me not taking it seriously:

I’ve seen a gen artist headcanoning him as lithromantic—that is, feeling romantic feelings for someone but not desiring reciprocation, to the point of maybe losing interest if the person reciprocates. That... checks out! A lot! Especially if you consider Stan’s experience with Lady Susan. But since I headcanon him as having reciprocated romantic feelings for Ford as a stancest shipper, I save lithro!Stan for when I’m in a gen mood.

Now, Ford... Why is everything more complicated with Ford? 😭

I headcanon him as demisexual and demiromantic, in both cases bi.

Why demi? Well, first of all, we see that Ford really isn’t in his element when it comes to romance/attraction:

If you didn’t watch J. K. Simmons as Ford reacting to TikTok thirst comments, please do. The entire (hilarious) video is just... the fandom’s horniness over Ford going straight over his head. He somehow manages to interpret all the comments wrongly, until he finally understands their sexual meaning and then promptly gets both horrified and enraged.

This is how Alex sees Ford’s sexuality, from this interview:

Stan shows that he has romantic interests, Mabel shows that she has romantic interests, Dipper shows that he has romantic interests, Ford shows none of that. He has sublimated himself romantically so, so deeply.

I think, for people on all sides of the gender and sexuality equation, the idea of, “I can’t—I’m not sure what this part of myself is, so I’m going to fixate on something I can understand. I am going to become the guiness world record holder on making lego re-creations, of this, and I’m gonna get better at it than anything, and if—as long as I’m doing this, um, then I don’t have to focus on that.”

People speculate about Nikola Tesla’s sexuality, it’s like, there’s a lot of people - some people say—‘cause Tesla was hot, and he was lyrical and poetic and mysterious, and women—they say—were very drawn to Tesla. And Tesla doesn’t talk about women. In Tesla’s autobiography, he talks about how, like, women’s earrings freak him out, and he hears clanging train whistles in his head when he sees an exposed ankle. He was so off in his own plane!

I really thought of Ford kind of like Tesla in that realm. He is distant. So it doesn’t at all surprise me that people found their own experience reflected through Ford in that way.

But it was, you know, when we were doing Gravity Falls, like, gay marriage had only like, just been legalized!

I think all of this heavily hints to Ford being in the ace/aro spectrum.

Now, why bi?

We see subtle hints of Ford being perhaps attracted to men even before the whole drama with Bill, such as his little comment about the Invisible Wizard’s good looks:

But we also see hints of his attraction to women! I was convinced, before, that Ford could only be gay (and demi) and that any and all hints of his attraction to women were comphet. The only “proof” of sorts that I had is:

That “the ladies” became “lies” in the blacklight version, hahah.

But is this enough to stand against the evidence we have of him showing even a certain eagerness to be liked by women?

From the same commentary on Land Before Swine:

[Dipper] gets [his creepiness] from Ford, I think. That and his inability to make eye contact with women. [...] Fordsy had a fear of girls ever since Cathy Crenshaw got freaked out by his hand in third grade. [...] He tried to hold a girl’s hand. She spilled punch on his head and ever since then he had a hard time talking to girls, unlike—unlike myself. That’s life. Anyway, cut to high school, the guy’s never kissed a girl, prom is coming up and he asked me for advice. “Stanley, I know things have been a little weird between you and me with college but can you talk to me about girls?” 

That indicates a lack of ability with girls, but not lack of eagerness. And, indeed, Bill mocks him for it in Journal 3, confirming Stan’s tale:

“Little Cathy, what a dream.” The fact Ford possibly considered her to be dreamy hints of Ford having been actually interested in her.

Bill again mocks him (together with Dipper) in TBoB:

And alright, this does sound like very generic cheap mockery, like, “hahah, virgin loser!” But why would Bill go so far as to repeat the joke if he didn’t think Ford wouldn’t at least be a little bit annoyed by it? If he knew Ford was 100% interested in men/male beings, his joke about Ford’s lack of sway with women would have been pathetic. And yes, I know Bill is desperate and pathetic and TBoB, but he usually knows where to hit Ford, as exemplified by him mocking Ford’s hands in front of his Henchmaniacs.

Then of course you have the Soothsquitos’ advices for Ford, including giving the Oracle (Jheselbraum) his phone number:

Even adult researcher Ford is excited about finally getting women to talk to him (and this is also in the blacklight version of Journal 3, which shows that he couldn’t have been dismissing his interest in women as just “lies” when he finally got the chance to write in blacklight):

Dipper is impressed, in the comics, with the fact his Grunkle Ford had once dated a siren:

And a lot of people assume that to have been Bill, since the page we can see is talking about Bill, but... that doesn’t make much sense. Why Dipper would be so happy and excited and not horrified? After all, he hates and fears Bill. Why wouldn’t Dipper go straight to the point and call the “siren” by his name, Bill? Why would Dipper describe Bill by “siren” and not “demon”? What kind of euphemism is this? I think it’s way more likely that Dipper had read about the siren in a previous page and just happened to comment about it when he reached the Bill page.

The siren in question is probably this girlie from the storyboard of AToTS drawn and shared by S. H. Cotguno on TikTok.

And, of course, we can’t forget one of the deleted scenes from the end credit montage:

This one is particularly hilarious to me because when I first watched it, I thought it was supposed to be about the Stan twins were competing for the same lady. But then I realized that Stan had arrived first, smirking and holding his own flower, and sat down. Only then Ford appears and sits down too, mirroring Stan’s smirk, despite the fact he had already seen Stan there. And Stan doesn’t seem phased by Ford’s arrival, he continues smirking. Only when the lady gets up and leaves them that they turn angrily to each other 😭 They were fully ready to share her...

So yeah, I do believe Ford was/is interested in women in the same way he is in men, but he can’t deal with that very well for lots of reasons. I think he tries, but ultimately doesn’t experience romance in the way Stan does and that confuses and frustrates him. The only “people” he’s been truly in love with, imo, were Bill and Stan, and it would still be that way if Bill and Stan were female. So yeah, Ford to me is a bi ice cream with demi sauce on top.

I don’t think that’s how the Stans would define themselves, though. They likely don’t even know most of LGBTQ+ labels, much less the fact that you can be both demi and bi and stuff like that, and I prefer to stick to a more realistic approach.

Stanley, jokes about marrying Goldie aside, would probably still think he’s straight. His twin is... his twin is something special, okay? Ford doesn’t count. Ford is Ford.

Ford, on the other hand, would be so out of his depth that he wouldn’t even know how to answer the question. I don’t know if he would even be able to identify his attraction to Bill as romantic, and being in love with Stan just feels natural to him.

[lestats-ovaries]

putting in my two cents as an aroace hazbin fan to the whole alastor shipping debate (adding a cut below because this got long-)

before I start, it's important to remind everyone:

alastor is canonically ace and (semi)canonically aro, and that should be respected the same way we'd respect angel dust's identity as a gay man, or vaggie's as a sapphic woman.

"ace" and "aro", while also functioning as labels unto themselves, are umbrella terms for a lottt of identities. Some of which do include the ability to experience sexual and romantic attraction, in different ways and at different levels (demi, cupio, lith/lithro, grey, aro-and aceflux, the list goes on).

So, given all that, is it possible to interpret alastor as experiencing some level of romantic attraction, or sexual attraction? Of course, identities like the ones I listed above are just as valid as any other acespec and arospec identity.

So, what's the issue then? Right now, a lot of fans are using the breadth of aspec identities and experiences as a shield, to excuse them shipping him like they would an allosexual/alloromantic character.

Just to make it clear, that in itself is erasure. And I know that's a strong statement, and that there being such a broad aroace experience adds nuance to any statement you can make on that, but we have to acknowledge as a fandom that there are objectively wrong ways to handle aspec characters, both in the way we discuss them and in the way we portray them in fan works.

And before anyone says it, saying "alastor isn't real" or "fanon content won't change his canon sexuality" doesn't work when real life aspec people can't even look in a tag of a character that's supposed to represent them without seeing their identity erased. It's the way I feel attempting to engage with a lot of hazbin content, and I know a lot of my fellow aspec hazbin fans are feeling it as well.

So, what's the solution to all this? That's unfortunately kinda complicated. Everyone has a different opinion on what constitutes as erasure, what is good rep, how much benefit of the doubt we should give people, et cetera, and so everyone's solutions look different. In a way there also isn't a way to solve it, since aroace erasure is so normalized in fandom culture (not just the hazbin fandom; fandom culture as a whole) that there will always be a significant portion of fans who will ignore, erase, or otherwise deny alastor's or any other aroace character's sexuality.

So, to put my two cents on it:

My philosophy is that if you're going to ship alastor (or any aspec character for that matter), it's best to have an identity in mind for him to use as reference. For example, I think of alastor as sex-repulsed aroace, and I write him with that in mind. Whatever you pick can be a steadfast headcanon, an identity tailored to the story you want to tell, or one you want to explore in your fanwork, whether for fun or to educate yourself on it better.

What's better is that you don't even need to mention the sexuality itself in the work! Show don't tell is a great writing tool, and for alastor specifically, who canonically isn't aware of his sexuality, it works perfectly. Just simply creating with it in mind, asking yourself, "how would someone with [insert identity] experience this?" and going from there, makes a world of difference.

Just in terms of good fanfic etiquette, I'd also make sure to include it in the tags if you're posting it on ao3, just to make sure your readers know what's up and to help with filtering (I personally don't read any alastor ship fics that don't include the asexual or aromantic tag at this point). Bada bing bada boom, that's representation right there!

Since Alastor is one of very, very few ace characters in mainstream media, and even less aro characters in media period, us as a fandom creating good representation with him is really important, especially in terms of the breadth of aspec identities. We don't get much representation, so claiming he's definitively one label or another isn't productive, and hurts the community in the long run. Fanfiction is first and foremost an exploration of canon, so why not play around with what "aro" and "ace" can look like for him?

Case and point, I've seen some incredible ship fics that headcanon him as demisexual and/or demiromantic, and do a great job representing those identities. I've also seen some really good fics that portray him as sex-repulsed, and others that portray him as sex-neutral or positive. All of that is great, and again, even if it isn't directly mentioned: adding subtext, putting it in the tags, and even simply writing the fic with the sexuality in mind does wonders.

Me personally, I headcanon Alastor with the same identity as me; sex- and romance-repulsed aroace, but open to queerplatonic relationships. That doesn't mean fics that interpret him with a different aspec identity are less valid, or are interpreting him wrong. All of it is valid representation.

And that's not even getting into queerplatonic relationships, which is what I put Alastor into for my own headcanons (queerplatonic radioapple fic when). For that, please do your own research, but remember that queerplatonic relationships tend to look different for every couple. They can be poly, include kissing and physical intimacy, or look just like what most people would consider a regular friendship or regular romance.

So, can you ship aroace characters? Sure you can, as long as it isn't at the expense of their sexuality, or more accurately, the representation their sexuality gives to a historically underrepresented group.

That's pretty much it from me, please remember to support aspec fanartists and fanfic writers, and happy (early) aromantic spectrum awareness week for all my fellow arospecs!!

[flip-flopping-frede]

And this is a pretty accurate reflection of how much awareness these get. Frayromantic and lithromantic awareness simply doesn’t exist, despite those being two common labels for arospec who experience primary attraction. I’m not surprised by these results, but please don’t use polls like this to justify lithro and frayro exclusion from arospec awareness. If anything, this is a sign that the two common arospec labels for people who experience primary attraction desperately need more awareness.

Frayromantic is the arospec counterpart to fraysexual. Fray is the opposite of demi. The fact that there were less discovered frayros who were able to answer this poll than lithros should be a sign that the ace community is doing a bad job with fraysexual/fray awareness.

I just found 3 large fray accounts, and the most recently active one was active 3 years ago. There is no fray pride and there is no fray awareness. @ Aros and Aces, stop pushing the aro and ace labels onto everyone. Lithros and frayros are a vulnerable communities who really struggle with self hatred, and absolutely would want to be a part of the aro community /aroace community, to the extent of trying to “fit” themselves into aro and aroace experiences. I know this from personal experience as a lithro who struggled with self-hatred about my identity, desperately wanted to “fit” in with the aro community and hated that I experienced romantic attraction/felt it was the problem.

I'm sorry for anyone that got placed in the "other" category (bellusromantic, autoromantic, desinoromantic, and recipromantic) .

[perfectlyyoungtimetravel]

HAPPY ACE AWARENESS WEEK 🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🖤🖤🖤🖤🖤🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍💜💜💜💜💜

NOW IS OUR TIME TO SHINE AS WELL ALONG WITH OUR GENDERFLUID FRIENDS! NO MATTER ACE,AROACE,DEMI,GREY,FLUX,CUPIO,LITHRO YOU'RE STILL IN THE ACE SPECTRUM! 🖤🖤🖤🖤🍰🍰🍰🍰🍰🍰🍰🍰🍰🍰🍰🍰🍰

[aro-sora]

[ID: Three versions of the Kingdom Hearts logo colored with the lithromantic flag. The first one has the heart colored as the flag and the crown yellow. The second version has the crown the same color as the red top stripe. The third version is colored so that the stripes are divided equally on the full symbol including the crown. End ID]

@arospecfanworksweek Day 5: Lithromantic

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts

These are free to use just please reblog if you save them ❤️💛

Previous | Next

[flip-flopping-frede]

Don’t forget that Arospec Awareness Week is usually unfortunately a time for a focus on aro celebration, and arospec identities (that desperately need awareness and education) get left behind

If someone calls ASAW "aroace week" one more time...

Aros and Aces are two separate communities. Yes, there is overlap. Yes, aroaces are of course welcome in both. Yes, not every aroace separates them. However, the two weeks are separate for a reason. Let aros and aces have separate communnities sometimes; not every ace is aro and not every aro is ace

[aspecpplarebeautiful]

Slowly coming to the realisation that I don't really have the capacity for a romantic relationship? I've always loved fantasizing about romance, both with fictional characters and with myself and people I actually know. But as soon as something actually romantic happens to me, the good parts of that feeling is very quickly overshadowed by the fact that such a relationship is so much hecking admin. Having to make time for another person when I already have trouble getting time to spend with friends. Having to keep another person in mind in the decisions I make. Heck, another person expecting pretty consistently that I'd want to hang out and be affectionate with them. I love and appreciate my friends, and am willing to do lots of these things with them. But as soon as that comes with romantic expectations I just want to nope the heck out, because it doesn't feel like the discomfort I experience is worth the rewards of romance at this stage.

Anyway, I'm kinda toying with aro / lithro labels at this point. I know if I tell this to someone irl, they'll probably say I'm just scared of romantic commitment. However, I feel like it's more that I'm *well* aware of how much this commitment entails, and I'm also aware of and realistic about my own discomfort and limitations in the area 🤷‍♀️

In any case, sorry for the long ask, just wanted to share my experience. I feel like it's valid for me to use some kind of arospec label as shorthand for all of this

Thanks for sharing, Anon! And yeah definitely this all makes sense to me, and you're definitely the expert on interpreting your own feelings. It sounds like you're well on your way here, and definitely sometimes trying labels out really is the best way to know if they're right for you or not.

All the best!

[kreegz]

not requested, but i made some more aro icons for arospec awareness week! this time it’s just a set of 9 icons with barry from pokémon d/p/pt! reminder that requests are open :)

[aro | aroace | lithro] [arospec | aegoro | aroflux] [cupioro | demiro | grayro]

please reblog/like if saving, and please credit if using!

[rolaplayor101]

Sorry To Bother You

Crona has an identity crisis and spends the entire day running away from everyone, only to be cornered by Soul, who wants to have a talk.

For Arospec Awareness Week and Arospec Fanworks Week! Prompt is Diversity of Experiences! 7640 words! One lithromantic allosexual character, one aromantic allosexual character, and one nonsam aro! Mentioning of a questioning lithro character and multiple qprs! TW: sexual innuendos, fear of coming out @arospecfanworksweek

Chapter Two: The Aftermath

Ao3

Fanfiction dot net

Quotev

[flip-flopping-frede]

Another poll that is a good reflection of how much awareness arospec labels get. Is anyone else concerned why 41x discovered demiros were able to answer the poll versus discovered frayros? This seems like it should be a sign that there is a blatant inequality in the amount of awareness the frayromantic vs demiromantic label gets, despite both of them being opposites of each other.

I think that is enough tumblr for today. I went through the frayromantic hashtag and had to report a bunch of aro posts with the frayromantic tag as spam. I found 3 fray accounts that have been dead for years. There’s no fray community because there is no fray awareness. If there was more frayromantic awareness and education on the frayromantic label, people would be able to discover themselves, build community, vote in polls like this, etc. instead, frayros have to deal with seeing the frayromantic hashtag flooded with aro pride, aro awareness week, low effort posts by uneducated people, yada yada. And, when those same uneducated people have the perfect opportunity to raise awareness for the frayro/lithro label, keep those labels in the tags and take advantage of the frayro/lithro community for likes and engagement. If they wanted to raise awareness, instead of saying “aro people can experience crushes!” They could say “aro people can experience crushes! Two arospec labels off the top of my head that experience romantic crushes are lithromantic and frayromantic”

I’m guessing it will be this painful tomorrow to look through the lithromantic and fraysexual hashtags. Frayromantics looking for frayro pride, and being flooded with aro pride spam, is not frayro pride. Tumblr isn’t a good place for the frayro community so far. Any place that tolerates hashtag spam and flooding a hashtag with irrelevant content is going to result in marginalized voices being drowned out by dominant voices.

💆🏽‍♀️

[flip-flopping-frede]

How do you advocate for something that doesn’t even exist, lol. How do you advocate for awareness of an identity that gets no awareness? I have no statistics, oppression, or evidence of erasure because there is no awareness in the first place. So far, I have believed I need community organization and community support/community unity to accomplish anything, but…how do you organize and foster support for a community that hates itself?

Lithros, frayros, and fraysexuals, you have to want awareness too.

Self-pity, hating yourself, hating being lithro/fray is not going to result in change. It is ok to not like being lithro/fray. It is ok if you can find 0 good things about being this way. However, please understand that we are misunderstood and lack community because people with platforms who can raise awareness for us choose not to. They blatantly exclude lithros/frayros from awareness, which hurts us. Awareness is essential for education on our label (people discovering themselves) and acceptance (which is seems our community desperately needs—to be ok with being lithro/fray).

Please care about this.

[idiotic-problem]

new ask game I came up with:

gender?

sexuality/orientation?

favorite color?

favorite flower?

favorite de-stresser?

favorite desert?

favorite stuffed animal?

favorite toy as a kid?

gender? female, as far as im aware

sexuality/orientation? aro-spec (lithro n demiquio) and pan

favorite color? all? not yellow?

favorite flower? aww, there are so many pretty ones! violets are nice <33

favorite de-stresser? music? reading?

favorite desert? snow cones 100%

favorite stuffed animal? i got this lil pillow thats not a stuffed amimal, but i cant live without it

favorite toy as a kid? wasnt much of a toy kid-

[dorkbunny]

It’s Aro Awareness Week!

So guess what? That means I’m giving all of my fellow aro-specs even MORE love than usual!

Black aros? Hispanic aros? Asian aros? Indian aros? Indigenous aros? Any POC aros? White aros? Any aros with any skin color whatsoever? Love ‘em! They’re beautiful!

Allo aros? Gay aros? Bi aros? Hetero aros? Pan aros? Poly aros? Omni aros? Ace aros? Any aros with any sexuality or pronouns whatsoever? Love ‘em! They’re amazing!

Trans* aros? Cis aros? Male aros? Female aros? Non-binary aros? Any aro with any gender whatsoever? Love ‘em! They’re awesome!

Aros? Demiros? Greyros? Frayros? Quoiros? Cupioros? Abroros? Recipros? Lithros? Apothiros? Aroflux? Any aro-specs with any label or microlabel whatsoever? Love ‘em! They’re rad!

Aros in romantic relationships? Aros in queer-platonic relationships? Aros with friends with benefits? Aros who want relationships? Aros who don’t want relationships? Aros with friends? Aros without friends? Aros with kids? Aros without kids? Aros with pets? Aros without pets? Any aros with or without any relationships of any sort whatsoever? Love ‘em! They’re lovely!

Flirty aros? Oblivious aros? Introverted aros? Extroverted aros? Ambiverted aros? Any aros with any personality or trait whatsoever? Love ‘em! They’re superb!

Mentally disabled aros? Physically disabled aros? Abled aros? Autistic aros? Allistic aros? Physically ill aros? Mentally ill aros? Healthy aros? Any aros with any mental or physical abilities or disabilities whatsoever? Love ‘em! They’re sweet!

Overweight aros? Underweight aros? Average weight aros? Tall aros? Short aros? Average height aros? Any aros with any height or weight whatsoever? Love ‘em! They’re gorgeous!

Senior aros? Older aros? Young adult aros? Minor aros? Any aros of any age whatsoever? Love ‘em! They’re fantastic!

Any aros or aro-specs in existence of any sort, in any way, shape, or form? Love ‘em! They’re absolutely 100% valid!

This is just a reminder of how perfectly imperfect all of my lovely aros are. You are beautiful, and amazing, and rad, and lovely, and every positive affirmation ever. Don’t kid yourself into thinking that you’re not or that you’re not good enough or that you’re anything less because you’re aromantic or on the aromantic spectrum somewhere.

And you know what? That’s a year-round thing. This is the Aro Awareness Week, yeah, so it’s our time to really shine, but ya know what? Once this week is over, you’re still awesome, you still deserve awareness, and you still deserve the world. And I and so many others are trying so hard to make sure that you get just that.

Love you! 💚💚💚

...No romo, though. 😉

[arofili]

if you're still taking aro hc requests & nobody has asked this one already, I'd love to hear your thoughts on Bilbo!

What arospec identities do they have? (Can be as specific or vague as desired)

Bilbo is lithromantic + bisexual!

How proud of being arospec are they?

Pretty proud, especially as he gets older and more eccentric

Do they prioritize their arospec identity over any others?

No, he is proud of both his labels equally

Are they out? If so, how did they come out, and to whom?

Kind of? He’s definitely /tried/ to come out, but no one around seems to listen much... He didn’t figure himself out until after his Quest, so the Company isn’t really aware, but they would have been very accepting of him (dwarves are Like That and they’re also really fond of Bilbo). He is out to Frodo, and he helped his nephew in his own questioning process

How do they feel about romance? Romance-favorable? Romance-neutral? Romance-repulsed? Or does it fluctuate?

Romance-repulsed for the most part, which makes the times when he’s feeling romo attraction even more complicated

Have they ever experienced arophobia? If so, how?

see my post on frodo

How do they show their arospec pride?

by supporting frodo and telling his own stories about being aro to the people who will listen (they don’t usually understand)

Do they actively try to combat amatonormativity in their daily lives or elsewhere? If so, how?

Kind of, see above

Was it easy for them to label themselves arospec, or was there a long period of questioning? How many labels did they have to try before landing on the one they use now?

It took him awhile to understand and accept how he felt. He did develop feelings for Thorin, but they weren’t necessarily...idk, they didn’t necessarily make him feel good? He was much more content to pine than to have any confirmation. When Thorin started being more affectionate with him he panicked and kind of felt the feelings slip. Looking back on his few relationships in the past, he eventually pieced together that he was lithro. Unfortunately before he could figure out if a relationship with Thorin (who was also probably arospec, but they never actually got to Talk about it) would even work, Thorin died... thus making the whole situation more complicated.

Would they be interested in a QPR? Why or why not?

If he and Thorin had made it, soft romor or QPR would have been a good fit for them rather than an actual romantic relationship

Final thoughts?

I really love the “he was....my friend” line at the end of BotFA, because Bilbo doesn’t really know what Thorin is to him. And to me, that is very arospec. Also, an eccentric bachelor who runs off on adventures? of course I’m going to headcanon him as aro!!

Please no more asks for this game, unless you’re the person who I said could ask again! (you know who you are)