#romance is a social construct

[entropy-sea-system]

People don't seem to realise that sexual and other social things are also social constructs, its not just romance thats a social construct. So much of existence IS a social construct by design because literally a lot of things are really the ideas we've built around things, that doesn't make it less real but if you call romance a construct, for fucks sake, don't assume that things like sexual stuff and friendship and family, etc. are somehow not also social constructs or are somehow "biologically" present !! Just because you feel like your involvement in sex and other nonromantic things is "biological" doesn't make that the truth, and its bioessentialist to pretend otherwise.

Just because you feel people can't "convincingly" define romance in a way that's sufficiently distinct from other things to your liking, doesn't make it the ONLY interpersonal emotion and action that is socially constructed !! Im allosexual, arospec, and atertiary, and trust me, literally all forms of social emotions and relationships etc. are socially constructed. Its not just romance (which, yes, can count as social because surprise! it involves interaction or perception of other people !!) , and not everyone actually has a social drive or a sex drive, for example, so its not like those things are "universal" or a "biological reality of being human" to begin with.

Also, there are biological components to literally ALL emotions and relationship types because how the brain and body works IS biology. I just mean to say that these are categorised and named and expounded upon as social constructs but obviously, will have biological components merely because how the brain and body processes emotions and interactions IS technically part of biology - and varies for different people. If you think only sex actually involves bodies think again, because there is sometimes still touch involved in other relationship types (and sexual actions don't always involve touch to begin with) and beyond that, literally every emotion causes effects in the body because thats just how brains work.

[thriftdyke]

it really does bother me how no one can seem to answer the question “what even is romantic attraction, really.” like some people are like “it’s who you wanna kiss and cuddle <3” and I’m like ok well kisses and cuddles can be either sexual or platonic depending on context. “It’s who you feel passion/desire/arousal for” well that just sounds like sexual attraction which you can have without even knowing somebody so I fail to see how that’s romantic. “It’s who you want to go on dates with” I go on dates with friends all the time plus “date” is a social construct anyway there’s really no innate difference between a date and hanging out. “it’s who you have deep feelings for” great news for you that can be literally any type of relationship. my friend told me she defined it as “who you wanna give roses to” and I’m like do u hear urself??? like the more I talk to people the more I’m convinced romance and romantic attraction is an elaborate socially fabricated illusion that has no real defining characteristics. and like there’s nothing Wrong with it being a constuct but why people are so attached to defending the supremacy of it is something I cannot for the life of me figure out

[moiraimyths]

Romance isn’t a social construct lmao it’s human, the same as being aroace is.

Buddy... I got bad news on two fronts.

[winepresswrath]

i am absolutely a nicki girl by the way it's just that much like show!lestat my love for him is so pure he doesn't even have to be hot. he can be an ugly crier with a floppy lil wig it only inspires tenderness.

[themself]

would I sound crazy if I said that one of my beliefs lately is in abolishing romance as like a structure

[k-martins]

I'm watching Komi San can't communicate right now and my only thoughts are…

GOODNESS, I WANT A SCHOOL SLICE OF LIFE FANFIC ROMCOM WITH SLOW BURN BY ITAFUSHI SO SO MUCH THAT IT'S CAUSING ME PHYSICAL PAIN D':

Oh, and I love Tadano, Komi and Najimi. They are so cute!!!

I almost cried when Tadano and Komi exchanged kitten keychains (T-T) I thought of Itafushi doing the same but with black and white dog keychains like Kuro and Shiro.

Please someone write a fanfic like this, I beg you (T-T)

[butchnavi]

for being aroace af im an embarrassingly massive shipper. it's all YEAH I HATE ALLOS FUCK AMATONORMATIVITY until two women interact for 0.2 seconds in whatever media im consuming smh

[scarletalligator]

anyway watch utena

[epicdogymoment]

gender and sexuality labels are so fucking hard how am i supposed to know how what i experience (already hard to pin down) compares to what "normal people" experience (completely unknown to me)

[nickandros]

um. videogame posting. ANYWAY i think the main reason i find the playersexual debates around bg3 so inane is because i think the most deeply uninteresting thing you could do in any given fantasy world is impose the exact same gender/sexuality social relations from the western world in the 21st century.

[stabbedthrutheeye]

platonic relationships can look exactly like romantic relationships and that doesnt mean that theyre not actually platonic. btw.

[rjalker]

before I forget.

I don't think I actually remembered to say this explicitly yet.

But it's only Straight Lines (with capital S and L) specifically that are considered Women (with a capital W).

But we know irregular lines exist. But they are not classed as Women with a capital W, or even women with lowercase. Nope. They're just Criminals. Irregulars. They're not considered women at all.

The classification of some people as "women" and "female" is 100% socially constructed just like classifying people as "regular" vs " irregular", or deciding that circles are better than everyone else.

Was Edwin Abbot Abbot considering the socially constructed nature of gender when he wrote this book and how some people are classed as women and female while others are not? Probably not, but it's there anyways, and it's fucking great.

Anyways, read Transgender Warriors by Leslie Feinberg :) You can borrow it from the Web Archive for free at this link.

[victusinveritas]

[goldensunset]

Just to make sure, you don't hate loveless aros or anything, right?

course not! i have nothing against anyone for the way they feel or experience the world. it’s really more about behavior and attitude toward other people esp on here. the vast majority of people are being perfectly fine about it i’ve just noticed there’s a certain type of person being bitter and rude but y’know. big posts loud minority and all that

[calowlmitygoddess]

As i was going trhu goodreads i realized something, i dont see forbidden romance as much anymore. Nowadays enemies-to-lovers are very popular and i love it, i love a good enemies-to-lovers wich is the perfect set up for a forbbiden romance but no one seems to grasp it????? wheres the fucking yearning??? wheres the angsting bcs you cant be togheter??? the moving mountains and seas to be with the other person??? every other book nowadays is just two assholes bickering for 300 pages and then smut and they call that enemies to lovers fuck you

[qbdatabase]

An Epic Construct by Dawn Cutler-Tran Penelope matches with the mysterious, yet charming Riley on an LGBTQ+ friendly dating app, but he's slow to open up about his sexuality ... and everything else. But as she explores dating again, Penelope falls fast and hard for a beautiful woman who supports her as she finally begins to explore her gender identity. But what if the two people she's falling for are more than just amazing, what if they're her soul mate?