#Aro representation

[thecommunalfoolboy]

It’s crazy how many people just don’t understand why a lot of aro and or ace people don’t like that Alaster gets shipped. It’s not that hard to understand we don’t have a lot to let ourselves lose. I mean can you name 10 asexual characters? 5? Can you name two aro characters. There’s the guy from Archie who they made have a sex scene in a movie version. There’s a few books. I think a background character in Heartstopper? Do you see the theme here??? You’re all queer people, do you not get it? How it feels to have nothing? Is it so wrong to be upset that there’s finally an outwardly aroace person in popular media and instead of people embracing that they’re fighting on the internet about why it’s ok to ignore it? And I will never in my fucking life have anything against the people who are aro and or ace and portray him in THEIR experiences, even if it is a romance or sex favorable experience, but it is obvious that way too many of you guys are allo and it just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I don’t even like him as a character that much, he isn’t even made by an aroace artist. The show isn’t even that fucking good, I just want to keep someone like me for once in my life. If there were a million other aroace characters I wouldn’t care, but it just hurts seeing erasure coming from my own community. It just sucks, man, I don’t know. It just sucks

[koifishanonymous]

and if i said they were in a secret-third-thing fucked up mutually destructive qpr what then

[laurasimonsdaughter]

@lostmidnightwriter tagged me in this prompt...

The young man stood gazing upward and waited, increasingly nervous as time went on. The giant, reptilian face seemed somewhat bemused, which was a worrying expression on a dragon.

"You have not come to slay me and save the princess?" the voice boomed.

"No, Your Dragoness, honest!" he called back. "I would like to stay here if I may!"

The dragon did not spread her wings again but crawled partway down the castle wall towards him, curved claws digging painfully into the hewn stone. A large, ruby eye peered down at him. "I am no dragoness, we are all Dragon."

He swallowed. "I meant as in, You Highness."

"Ah!" To his amazement the scaly maw curved into a smile. "That is most appropriate, I am the noblest of beasts." The dragon tilted her head to examine him closer. "Who are you? And why have you no sword or steed?"

"Well," he said uneasily. "The king's already sent six noble knights to free his daughter and I'm the youngest of three over at the nearby mill, so it's only a matter of time before they'll expect me to go and succeed and be married to her."

The dragon nodded approvingly. "Very traditional, one must admit, only I do not intend to be defeated with either bravery or trickery, so you see you have come in vain."

"No!" he pleaded. "I don't want to defeat you, or get married, but I'll never hear the end of it if I don't go, so maybe I could stay here instead?"

"Stay with me?"

"Well, you do have a beautiful isolated castle far away from everyone and a princess for company... That sounds pretty nice." He looked up at her hopefully. "Surely you could use some help around here? I'm no nobleman, I know how to work. I won't be anyone's servant, even to someone as pretty as the princess, but I can help out."

The dragon considered this for a long, thoughtful moment. "She is a very good princess," she said after a while. "Loves flying, sings very beautifully, knows exactly how to scratch behind one's horns."

"She certainly sounds more talented than the average princess, ma'am."

"Why of course, she is my princess, after all," the dragon said proudly. "But I must confess, she is a deplorable cook."

Ah, that explained the recent raids on some of the local farms.

The dragon came down from the castle wall with an elegant leap and sat down before him, her head slanted curiously. Strangely, she looked much less intimidating close up. "Can you cook?"

The miller's son smiled. "Do you and your princess like pasties?"

[acesincomics]

Marvel character Gwendolyn “Gwen” Poole aka Gwenpool has been confirmed aromantic and asexual!

Gwenpool will come to terms with her sexuality in next week’s issue of Love Unlimited: Gwenpool, her current series which is made by an acespec creative team.

Acespec creators Jeremy Whitley @jeremywhitley, Bailie Rosenlund @bailiesartblog, Kelly Fitzpatrick, Alanna Smith @alannawrites and Kaitlyn Lindtvedt discuss Gwenpool’s asexuality and aromanticism in this new interview for Marvel.

It’s a really great interview, highly recommend reading it!

“Acespec people aren’t often shown in media and when they are, it’s often shown as a trope of being a broken thing that needs fixing. The more diversity and stories we can tell, the better.” -Kelly Fitzpatrick

Love Unlimited: Gwenpool is available now from Marvel Unlimited. The concluding issue of this 6 part limited series will be out next week.

Check out this reading list for Gwenpool if you’d like to read more of her comics!

Gwenpool is the second Marvel character to be confirmed asexual this year, although she will be the first to have her asexuality shown on-page.

Morgan Red was confirmed asexual back in March and his asexuality will be addressed in New Mutants Lethal Legion #5, out in July.

[thalfbloodloser]

i wish we had alloaro representation in media. a charming character who fucks - both literally AND aesthetically. one that makes other characters go "wow! they're so cool and good in bed, but ultimately un-datable, because as soon as they sense any romantic intention on you, they flee" (kinda like lucifer morningstar from "lucifer". he's aroallo in my heart)

a character who's funny and has a horrifyingly 80's sense of fashion (they have a curly combed-out mullet and mismatched earrings. you'll find them at pride wearing a corn costume because it "matches the aroallo flag" and they're "being subtle") or one who's the embodiment of a 60's greaser (their motorcycle helmet is themed after the aro flag and the back of their leather jacket says "LOVELESS / LOVE LOSES") or one who's a girly fanfiction writer that has more ships than a star wars movie (their fics are muntifandom-ly famous and most their stuff is covered in yaoi/yuri patches and stickers. everyone thinks they're a hopeless romantic because of it, but that's exactly why they're so big on the fiction ≠ reality discourse) or...

anyone else, really. just ultimately a HUMAN who's casually aromantic. one who doesn't make it a parade but isn't subtle about it, either. will they hold other character's hands? maybe. kiss their cheek? perhaps. hang out with them, on picnics and walks along the river? can't see why not! but platonically. or maybe have them be genuinely romance-repulsed & not so eager to participate in anything socially perceived as romantic. that would also be amazing.

let them express themselves sexually! let them fuck. give them a..."fuckbuddy", if you must. or a best friend who's sexually involved with them - classic romcom material, i know - but without it being "complicated"; because there's no romance involved to complicate it.

give them funny scenes. another character tries to kiss their lips or ask them on a date? they laugh nervously, the scene cuts and we get a hilarious shot of them escaping through the bathroom window. or audibly saying "ew" and then regretting it. another character is struggling to write a romcom/romance book without it being corny? we get a scene where our character casually describes the most romantical (and, to them, unappealing) plot ever - because, much like aces acing the smut department, they're far from misunderstanding what is or isn't heartstopping for alloromantics - only to have the other character stare at them like "?????????? HELLO????". give us a scene of them being confused as to why their hookup is yelling at them for acting "so casual" and responding with a quotable shitty line ("just because we had sex last night i can't call you "bro"? / "what? expected me to marry you or something? get off my bed, it's 9AM" / "would you rather have me mad? sad? what's happening here. give me a hint")

but give them complicated scenes too. scenes portraying the loneliness that comes with being aromantic but not asexual, the lack of community. them talking about how hard it is to maintain sexual relationships just sexual. the painful "breakups" because one of their friends declared their undying love for them but they cannot possibly match that energy, even if they wanted to. have them weep because somehow that keeps happening. the unfairness in being accused of heartlessness and selfishness by other queers. the shame on being told they're fetishistic and the reason why queer men/women/people are seen as sex-crazed or impure.

...anyways, i'm rambling- do y'all have any aroallo ocs? or ideas for alloaro characters? maybe aroallo headcanons? i'd love to know what you think! :)

(don't tag as #ace / #asexual / #asexuality)

[aaaroace]

I know i complain a lot, but the lack of aro culture in queer spaces is really annoying. no your “aros are valid!” *insert aro flag* posts don’t do it!

aromanticism isnt just about asking for “validity” from others. it’s also not just a hashtag u can put in a pride post that has absolutely nothing about aromanticism.

it sucks that I need to go back to aro spaces to find some quality content. there’s also barely any poc/asian aro-ace content out there that also focuses on aromanticism as a separate thing from asexuality!

this post will still not do anything, I know… but

pride month is almost over, yet aros still exist! include them in your voices, in your minds, in your posts.

[creation-help]

The more I engage with the aro community online, the more I feel that we just need.

More.

There's so many different flavors of aromantic and what that means for each person and it's sad to see infighting over what is and isn't valid representation and my advice to upcoming creators is to just.

More. Have more.

Aros who partner Aros who don't, Aros who like sex, aroaces, loveless Aros, loving Aros, Aros who focus on non romantic relationships instead Aros who focus on no relationships and find their own thing. All kinds. The microlabels too - did you even know of some of them? I bet you didn't. There's aromantic people who feel rom attraction only if it's reciprocated and vice versa! There's Aros who can't tell the difference between different types of attraction and so don't label anything. There's aros who only feel attracted after forming a deep bond. Who only rarely feel attraction. Or only under specific circumstances. There's so much variety in aromantic world. Have more representation. Just more.

I'd honestly say this for almost any type of minority rep (though there are nuances to approaching it). Bc when you have more, it's not so much pressure on getting it quote on quote "Right" at once and all your rep isn't riding on one character. Variety is always good. It avoids tokenization and coming across stereotypical

[pizzaronipasta]

In the first titled section of the Wikipedia article on pride flags, "Notable examples," aromanticism and asexuality are the second and third subsections respectively, immediately following the "Rainbow" subsection. The headers after "Rainbow" are obviously just sorted alphabetically, but it was a very pleasant surprise to see aspecs be given even this level of prominence in an article on queer iconography—on a site as mainstream as Wikipedia, no less! It was especially nice to see aromanticism come before asexuality for once; it's such a rarity outside of aro-specific circles to see aromanticism recognized separately from asexuality, let alone in such a way as not to be overshadowed by it.

I was absolutely ecstatic to see aromanticism come first in an alphabetical list. This is how starved we are of representation.

[the-irreverend]

In light of how Hazbin Hotel handled Alastor's asexuality, I really do hope this gives aro/ace representation in fiction more momentum.

I can't be the only one who feels that the aromantic and asexual community should get a little more acceptance and acknowledgement in fiction (and in fandom)!

[mrfroggems]

Alastor edit by me !

I've recently made a post talking about how Alastor is aroace and that should be respected and I've gotten a lot of comments saying that he is not real and it doesn't matter what you do with fiction. While this may be true to a certain extent. You should still respect canon sexualities, because those sexualities are representation and it should not be removed or disregarded.

[hussyknee]

Why is it that ace representation never involves an ace that enthusiastically writes, reads and watches erotica, porn and kink, gets palpitations over hot people doing sexy things, but runs the fuck away at the mere suggestion of sex that requires themselves to actually participate in any context or capacity?

There's so many variants of asexuality but all I ever see are aces that are simply flatly disinterested in sex of any kind and aromantic to boot, so they never have to undergo the most common ace struggle of wanting a relationship desperately but almost giving up on one because everyone seems to want sex. No shade to aro aces but I think aromantics also deserve more than being eternally associated with asexuality.

[caesthoffe]

aromantic rep is so minimal that i am sitting in the library, silently celebrating the fact that we finally have our own wikipedia page instead of just being a subsection of the "romantic orientation" page

[laurasimonsdaughter]

is there any aromantic themed folklore stories?

I think that very much depends on your personal definition. Of course there are plenty of folktales that do not include romance, but for me that usually isn't quite enough to consider them aromantic. For me the folk- and fairy tales that feel the most aromantic to me, are the ones where the plot makes me expect there will be a love interest along the way or a wedding at the end, but instead there is neither.

Here are the ones I've taken a personal liking to so far:

The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces

Source: Cape Verdian folktale, collected by E. Parsons from Antonio Soares Rosa in 1916-1917.

Content warnings: princess-shaming.

Character I read as aro: The hero.

Why: He answers a royal proclamation that states that whoever is able to find out how the princess wears out seven pairs of shoes every night can marry her and have half the kingdom. When he accomplishes this, however, he declines the marriage and returns home to build his mother a new house.

Read it: Full text online.

How The Devil Married Three Sisters

Source: Italian folktale, published by Widter and Wolf in 1866.

Content warnings: fairy tale violence, abusive spouse.

Character I read as aro: The youngest of the three sisters.

Why: While the first sister is pleased by her handsome suitor (the devil) and the second sister is also described as "wooed and won" by him, the third agrees to marriage only because he is rich. She proceeds to save her sisters, outsmarts the devil, and they all get away.

Read it: Full text online.

David Cotterson

Source: Danish fairy tale, collected by Jens Kamp, published in 1879.

Content warning: suicide contemplation, fairy tale violence.

Character I read as aro: The hero, David Cotterson.

Why: His biggest desire is to become a sailor and see the world. In his biggest adventure he defeats a seductive witch, saves a prince who has been cursed to be a dog. He then decided what he wants most of all is to got home to his loving parents, which he does.

Read it: Offline in this book, or my summary online.

The Squire’s Bride

Source: Norwegian folktale, collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe, published 1841-1844.

Content warning: attempted arranged marriage, attempted kidnapping.

Character I read as aro: The heroine, a farmers daughter.

Why: She's being courted by an old, rich squire. She rejects him, not for a better (kinder, younger) suitor, but simply because she doesn't want him. He doesn't back down so she humiliates him to teach him a lesson.

Read it: Full text online.

The Three Brothers

Source: German folktale, collected by the brothers Grimm, published 1857.

Content warning: ends with natural death.

Characters I read as aro: The protagonists, three brothers.

Why: Their father tasks them to learn a trade to show who deserves to inherit their family home. They become a master barber, blacksmith and swordsman, and the third inherits the house. But because they love each other so much they decide to share the house. They live happily and grow old together, after which all three die close together and are laid in the same grave.

Read it: Full text online.

Diarmaid and Grainne

Source: Celtic legend, Scottish variant collected by H. MacLean in 1859, from Alexander Macalister.

Content warning: tragedy, coercion, murder of protagonist.

Character I read as aro: The warrior Diarmaid.

Why: He has a love spot on his face, which he keeps hidden to prevent women from falling in love with him. Grainne (who is married to his lord Fionn) sees it and falls for him, but he refuses to go with her until she outsmarts him and places him under obligation to do so. He goes with her but they live in a house with separate beds. Grainne betrays Diarmaid for yet another man and Diarmaid ends up being killed by Fionn before he realises that Diarmaid has never touched his wife.

Read it: Full text online.

Slawa

Source: Romanian fairy tale, found in a German collection from 1977, sadly unsourced.

Content warning: attempted kidnapping, fairy tale violence.

Character I read as aro: The heroine, Slawa

Why: She is a poor young woman so beautiful that the cruel tsar wants to marry her. She keeps refusing and he gets violent, so she resorts to defeating him with magic (which she has because she was once a doll brought to life through the love of her parents), so she is free to go see the world.

Read it: You can download my translation here.

King Bear

Source: Danish folktale, collected by Jens Kamp, published in 1879.

Content warning: animal death.

Character I read as aro: One of the two protagonists, the eldest of two brothers.

Why: The older brother doesn't fully understand why his younger brother has fallen in love with an imprisoned princess, but helps him win her hand anyway. He stays happily at the royal court, but never marries himself.

Read it: Offline in this book.

And just because I still love them, I did write two literary fairy tales with aro protagonists myself some years ago:

The Man and the Mermaid, in which a man meets a mermaid after losing the woman he thought he wanted to marry.

The River Sprite, in which a woman helps a river sprite who is determined to repay her.

Hope there's something on this list that makes you happy!

[purpletrashcans]

I am so fucking annoyed and here is why

I recently made the discovery that i'm probably aromantic and i would like to do what i did when i discoverd that i'm trans which is go and watch/read everything that even has the tiniest bit of trans representation in it, but i can't because there is no aromantic representation

now obviously that's nothing new, i was aware of this problem before and it pissed me right off then as much as it does now

it’s honestly just such bullshit that whenever there is an asexual character in media, basically the first thing they say after coming out as ace is that "they still want to fall in love" like not wanting, not being able to feel romantic love, would make them less human or something like that and of course there are ace people who are not aro, i'm not saying that and i'm not trying to shit on anybodys identity, if you are ace and not aro you are just as valid as anybody else and this lack of aro rep is obviously not your fault, we also need more ace rep while we're on it, that's not the point i'm trying to make, what i mean is that media always tells us that romance makes us human and if you don’t experience that you are either immature, unstable or not human and that's just bullshit

also it is no wonder that when i told my grandma about Loveless by Alice Oseman and how much i love this book, she was worried that i was like Georgia because i never like anyone romantically, she has never heard of aromanticism before, when she thinks of adult people that have never been in a relationship and don't have children she thinks of lonely, sad people and she doesn't want that for me

it is no wonder that when i see my greataunt and -uncle once a year they ask if i have a partner and when i say that no, i don't have a partner, they tell me that i have time and i'll meet someone eventually

and it is no wonder that so, so many people think that they're broken, that they enter relationships and situations that they don't want to be in, that fucking therapist try to cure people, that it took me 21 years, almost losing my friends, actually losing 8 kg in two months do to disordered eating and reading Loveless two times to figure out that i might just be aro, when there is barely any representation whatsoever, when most people haven't even heard of aromanticism

we need more representation and we need it desperately, that way not only will aro people discover their identity sooner and safe themselves a whole lot of trouble, but allo people can also learn how to react to someone being aro and we can all learn that being aro isn't sad or inhumane or weird or lonely

and because i'm a fancy-schmancy college student (who wrote "collage" instead of "college" first because i can not spell)(and have watched too much criminal minds) i would like to end this with a quote by Mariah Wright Edelman (tho the quotes are the worst part of criminal minds, they are so cringe istg):

“You can’t be what you can’t see”

[bottleblondefeelingconned]

Amazing aromantic representation.

It's called I Want to be a Wall by Honami Shirono. A story about a platonic marriage between a gay man and an aromantic asexual woman.

Interesting side fact: in Japan "asexuality" is commonly defined as a lack of romantic attraction as well as a lack of sexual attraction. Whereas in English, a lack of romantic attraction is given it's own definition of aromanticism.

[blues-valentine]

I really hope Netflix isn’t trying to set up Tolya and Inej or that there’s some type of agenda there because this is literally Tolya in the books:

He is been canonically aroace (TO ME) since I read the books and I expect nothing else. Sorry.