arotechno

[arotechno]

I wrote an aro short comedy story :)

[arotechno]

Back up but with some revisions.

Working on not deleting things randomly.

[arotechno]

Aro Books For Pride

Something I've noticed through the years, is that straight and queer people alike often have a tendency to forget about a specific queer identity: aromanticism.

Sometimes it's misunderstood, sometimes it's confused with asexuality, and sometimes it's ignored and/or erased.

This pride month, 23 authors have come together to gather their works and offer them at a discounted price to celebrate aromantic representation from all over the spectrum.

Whether it's to read them during pride month or the rest of the year, by buying this bundle you can get yourself tons of books while also  supporting indie authors directly during a time when every little bit of support and community counts more than anything.

Get 23 books for $15, or get all 36 books for $20.

NOTE: this is a bundle that also incudes 18+ content intended for an adult audience.

If this is your first time hearing of the term aromanticism, or if you've heard about it before but are confused about what exactly it is and/or how it differs from asexuality, here's lots of cool resources (and also, my own beginner guide I made some time ago).

[arotechno]

Please remember aroace and aroallo do not form a binary. There are people in between and people outside of it

[arotechno]

a zine about being loveless. my experiences may not reflect your experiences ect ect. id in alt and under the cut.

cover text: LOVE-LESS a zine.

cover image: a realistic heart sitting next to someone's arm. a string of fate is tied around one of its fingers.

page one text: The shell! Flesh, bound by worldly law, the supposed expression of what lies beneath.

page one image: a frog sitting on its eggs. there are several black circles containing simple hearts pointing out from various creatures, and one empty black circle.

page two text: Within: viscera combed down to an atom's width, pressed against the warmth of a cage

page two image: a flock of sucks. all but one of them have hearts.

page three text: That masquerades as a person as it tries to escape the unyielding pressure

page three image: a collection of plants. all but one of them have hearts.

page four text: Of absolute nothing.

page four image: two birds. only one has a heart.

page five text: The interior of this body holds no organs. They have been mashed to paste

page five image: ants on an anthill. all but one have hearts.

page six text: To make room for dark matter; the heart, superseded by absence.

page six image: four axolotls. one does not have a heart.

page seven text: The exterior of this body reflects no intent.

page seven image: a dog, a cat, and a hawk. the dog does not have a heart.

page eight text: It writes love poems for the simple joy of mocking them; the plain-sight disguise of human skin.

page eight image: the author's self portrait. it does not have a heart.

[arotechno]

nothing will ever baffle me more than alloaces saying "wow i wish every ace character in media wasn't aro" LIKE WHAT DO YOU MEAN????? WHERE??????? SHOW ME!!!! as if aromanticism isn't consistently erased/downplayed/unspoken if it event exists at all. as if the "don't worry ace characters can still love and be in relationships so you can put them on tv!!!! <3" isn't a talking point i've seen from alloaces and people in tv production alike. i want all of us to have more representation in so many diverse forms but can we acknowledge that this is nonsense. please.

[arotechno]

nothing will ever baffle me more than alloaces saying "wow i wish every ace character in media wasn't aro" LIKE WHAT DO YOU MEAN????? WHERE??????? SHOW ME!!!! as if aromanticism isn't consistently erased/downplayed/unspoken if it event exists at all. as if the "don't worry ace characters can still love and be in relationships so you can put them on tv!!!! <3" isn't a talking point i've seen from alloaces and people in tv production alike. i want all of us to have more representation in so many diverse forms but can we acknowledge that this is nonsense. please.

[arotechno]

i've only glimpsed this phenomenon through the proverbial glass bottom boat but if "found family" is being restricted by nuclear family roles that is so sinister and people need to start getting aro about it real fast. get relationship anarchist about it, even. we've gotta reinforce the idea of chosen family over these prescriptive roles of parents siblings etc. especially in media and fandom. when you experience truly unrestricted chosen family dynamics in your personal life it frees your mind let me tell you

like i've seen people arguing lately that people overuse the idea of found family in fandom, putting characters forcibly into conflictless nuclear family roles that don't mesh with the source material at all—and while the latter part is true, and i agree, that's not really what found family/chosen family has really ever meant to me, at least not exclusively? everyone's definition of family is different obviously and i think that's where the rub is. all i'm saying is as a society and within fandom we could stand to get weirder with it!

[arotechno]

It's starting to look like people are doing to the concept of found family what they did to the concept of queerplatonic relationships. AKA, trying to restrict the definition when the point is they can look like anything and it's just a matter of the people involved choosing to describe their relationship as such 🤔

YOU'RE SO RIGHT ANON!!!!!!!! and it's driving me bonkers!!!!

[arotechno]

these types of nontraditional families are also super rad but i think your definition is really restrictive and still missing my point. first of all, why three or more people? can two people not be a family? one person and their pet(s)? no? that seems like an unnecessary criterion.

and who is to say that someone must fulfill certain traditionally expected roles to be considered family? is it not enough to just say "these are my people, i trust them and they're home to me" and call it a day? you make this point about how these roles can fluctuate between so-and-so parenting so-and-so and whatnot but you are missing my point! there don't need to be any roles! nontraditional families with parents and children or what have you are important. they're wonderful. but that's not what found family should be restricted to. my friends are not fulfilling the roles of parents (gross!) or siblings to me, and in fact those roles are fulfilled by my actual parents and sibling (not to say these figures are necessary, just as my own example). they're still family to me. their 'role' is 'friend who is family to me'. please tell me you understand this

found family is about radically redefining what family means and subverting established roles and structures within families. it's about allowing ourselves the freedom to build those relationships ourselves without the pressure of preexisting frameworks. it's NOT about "this one's the mom and this one's the dad" and recreating the nuclear family and to act like that's what it is and to then claim that found family as a media trope is reductive or normative is complete horseshit to me.

the terminology isn't always applicable and you can argue that it or some of its cliches are overused. and certainly you're welcome to have your own personal definition of what family is. but suddenly it's like the new tumblr zeitgeist is "found family is reductive and cringe" and it's baffling because what you MEAN is that forcing fictional characters into nuclear family roles is reductive. to suddenly decide that found family is "mom and dad and siblings :)" and thus normative and reductive and somehow bad is an insult to everyone who has nontraditional families without typical familial roles in real life. and i'm tired of pretending otherwise. that's all.

[arotechno]

Hiiiiii I'm the person who recommended ISAT to you some time ago (can't recall if I was on anon or not oh well) an I'm so happy it resonated with and you liked it so much! This game hit me like a ton of bricks too :'3 And I'm not surprised by that anon saying it seems to be blowing up in the aspec community because beyond having characters being aspec, it has strong aro themes in general! Anyway yeah, just happy I could infect tou with 'Love ISAT' disease

🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝🤝

[arotechno]

have you ever played the game In Stars And Time? it's a timeloop story that's... appealing enough to aromantics for Certain Reasons that when I did a census poll for the fandom, the majority of the respondents were arospec.

(I can elaborate on reasons, but spoilers lie therein)

YES I HAVE!!!!!!! just a few months ago in fact!! it was actually recommended to me in another ask lol. obviously the arospec rep was a huge factor (love u mira) but (and i'll be vague here to avoid spoiling anyone) the themes and the reasoning behind the time loop and the emotional arc of the final two acts had me literally crying and pointing at the tv whenever my roommate came into the room to see what i was doing. very very relevant to my own personal struggles related to being aro and my ideas of family and self-worth and place in people's lives. genuinely like holding a mirror up to my soul.

[arotechno]

found family is about radically redefining what family means and subverting established roles and structures within families. it's about allowing ourselves the freedom to build those relationships ourselves without the pressure of preexisting frameworks. it's NOT about "this one's the mom and this one's the dad" and recreating the nuclear family and to act like that's what it is and to then claim that found family as a media trope is reductive or normative is complete horseshit to me.

the terminology isn't always applicable and you can argue that it or some of its cliches are overused. and certainly you're welcome to have your own personal definition of what family is. but suddenly it's like the new tumblr zeitgeist is "found family is reductive and cringe" and it's baffling because what you MEAN is that forcing fictional characters into nuclear family roles is reductive. to suddenly decide that found family is "mom and dad and siblings :)" and thus normative and reductive and somehow bad is an insult to everyone who has nontraditional families without typical familial roles in real life. and i'm tired of pretending otherwise. that's all.

[arotechno]

is this my new curse. is this the new brick wall i'm gonna spend all my time yelling at

[arotechno]

no this is exactly what i'm talking about!!! like, you aren't wrong. putting characters and relationships into nuclear family roles is often reductive. i agree! i agree!! but my point is: WHY are we suddenly equating found family with nuclear family roles to begin with? why has the argument shifted to imply that the idea of found family is reductive, limiting, and normative? i thought we all agreed we were expanding the definition of family to be less normative and more radically inclusive. if i call my friends my found family or say they're "basically family" i'm not saying i see them as siblings or whatever. i'm saying they are home to me. my point is that "regular friends" (whatever that means) and "found family" are not necessarily mutually exclusive. you can view family however you want and you can dislike whatever media tropes you want but i truly DO NOT understand when "found family" became equated with nuclear family dynamics when it was always supposed to be about SUBVERTING those dynamics. can anyone hear me

i've only glimpsed this phenomenon through the proverbial glass bottom boat but if "found family" is being restricted by nuclear family roles that is so sinister and people need to start getting aro about it real fast. get relationship anarchist about it, even. we've gotta reinforce the idea of chosen family over these prescriptive roles of parents siblings etc. especially in media and fandom. when you experience truly unrestricted chosen family dynamics in your personal life it frees your mind let me tell you

like i've seen people arguing lately that people overuse the idea of found family in fandom, putting characters forcibly into conflictless nuclear family roles that don't mesh with the source material at all—and while the latter part is true, and i agree, that's not really what found family/chosen family has really ever meant to me, at least not exclusively? everyone's definition of family is different obviously and i think that's where the rub is. all i'm saying is as a society and within fandom we could stand to get weirder with it!

[arotechno]

i've only glimpsed this phenomenon through the proverbial glass bottom boat but if "found family" is being restricted by nuclear family roles that is so sinister and people need to start getting aro about it real fast. get relationship anarchist about it, even. we've gotta reinforce the idea of chosen family over these prescriptive roles of parents siblings etc. especially in media and fandom. when you experience truly unrestricted chosen family dynamics in your personal life it frees your mind let me tell you

like i've seen people arguing lately that people overuse the idea of found family in fandom, putting characters forcibly into conflictless nuclear family roles that don't mesh with the source material at all—and while the latter part is true, and i agree, that's not really what found family/chosen family has really ever meant to me, at least not exclusively? everyone's definition of family is different obviously and i think that's where the rub is. all i'm saying is as a society and within fandom we could stand to get weirder with it!

[arotechno]

A bit niche but I drew my faves from my comfort show