#ace aro ship

[amr2002amr]

Tendi and Rutherford from Lower Decks give off such queerplatonic vibes aaaa

I love em so much! I too find platonic relationships more fullfilling and comforting.

Like there was even episode where pretending to be romantically involved felt awkward to them and a coworker said they were the most platonically involved partnership on the ship. Eee

[analogconstruct]

its all "aros can still date!" and "aces can still have sex!" when youre talking about canon aro/ace characters until someone headcanons a character as aro/ace and then its "but they've dated before?" "but they've had sex before?" "but they can't be aro/ace???"

[the-great-kraken]

if you see a male character kiss a male character, you assume they are gay.

if you see a female character kiss a female character, you assume they are a lesbian.

if you hear a character say they don't feel like their gender, you assume they are trans.

so why do a-spec characters have to jump through so many loops?

a character saying they've never had a crush or don't want a relationship or that they don't understand romantic love is so often ignored or used as fodder for other queer or autistic headcanons (reinforcing stereotypes that aroace people are secretly gay or always autistic)

why is it that our stories are always "up to interpretation"? why do we have to wait for the words aromantic or asexual to be said to be taken seriously? why is it that even when characters say they don't want relationships, fans will scream and cry about sex/romance favourable aspecs and qprs?

when it comes to gay and trans characters, even the likes of bisexual lighting is often treated as though it canonises their sexuality. for aroace characters, even the most explicit coding possible is swept under the rug in favour of other "interpretations"

i'm so tired of fighting for representation just to have it ignored and minimised by fans. let characters be aroace. please.

[redysetdare]

All this aroace character shipcourse has proven to me that a majority of people that interact in fandom cannot actually interact with characters and media outside of shipping and genuinely I believe you need to learn how to interact with media outside of shipping.

[aroace-confessions]

ngl i feel like fandoms are hypocritical (<- word choice alludes me) when it comes to implied identities.

a character could be implied to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or any other “main” label that a lot of people know, and people will defend that identity until their dying breath.

but if a character is implied asexual, or aromantic (especially aromantic, in my experience), people will.. completely ignore it? people will only defend it if it’s stated as fact within the media of that fandom, and even then people will use everything under the sun to explain how no, this character actually is allo. and the dreaded “aro/ace/aroace is a spectrum *ships the character in a way that is allo and their aro/ace/aroace identity is nowhere in any way influencing their decisions and behaviors*” that allo fandom-goers adore

idk i just feel like people are super quick to deny any implication a character can’t be paired off romantically/sexually

no this isn’t about any one fandom, just an observation i’ve made over my time in multiple fandoms

Submitted 10/03/24

[aroace-menace]

I personally love shipping in fiction. What I don’t love is when people claim that two characters “couldn’t just be friends because friends would never do that” like. Bruh. Friends can do whatever they want actually and your toxic amatonormativity is just annoying.

[koko-heads]

something interesting is that so many ppl are quick to ship alastor/vox and alastor/lucifer but when it comes to alastor/rosie everyone's sooooooo adamant that they're just friends lol

[aroacesafeplaceforall]

If you get mad at the thought of someone shipping a canon gay man with a women, or a canon lesbain with a man, or making a canon tans character cis (either way) but don’t get mad at the thought of someone shipping a canon aroace character then you are the asshole.

If you don’t care what people ship and people can ship any pairing no matter the canon relations and therefore you don’t care what people do with a canon aroace character… I judge you WAY less. Like a tiny amount like a tiny bit just a smidge like “that’s weird” but not like “that’s kinda aphobic buddy”

[meaningless-mayhem]

Being asexual and possibly aromantic but also being a huge shipper and hopeless romantic is such a wild experience ngl. I'm always freaking out about my favorite ships and giggling internally reading ship fics, getting invested in characters finally kissing or reading about their pining and their love and I think "I want what they have!!"

But then sometimes you have a slamming realization that your sweet shipping scenarios you imagine in your head look totally different irl and that you are extremely aspec.

One time I went down a YouTube rabbit hole and stumbled across Vsauce's "Why Do We Kiss?" video and let me tell you. When I saw that stock video footage of two people kissing each other I was a little flabbergasted lmaooo

[bloggingboutburgers]

Sure it’s not like there’s like a bagillion other multilayered types of human relationships that could make a person act in a certain way, right

[pep-rambles]

While I can't speak for other Alastor ships (but I'll tag you all and you can weigh in). But in the RadioApple/DuckieDeer fandom a lot of those making fanwork, including the smuttier stuff, are acespec/arospec themselves so maybe learn what is actually going on in these fandoms before try to gatekeep in their tags

[slothyykittee]

I hate when this happens I hate when this happens

Also posted on twitter!

[maerhiya]

in regards to the constant dismissal of his aroace identity, i hate it when alastor 'fans' say and use the excuse: "he's fictional, he won't get offended."

like, you're right, but it can and will offend us.

when you see yourself being represented on screen, of course you'd feel enthusiastic about it — representation allows individuals to see themselves reflected in the media they consume, validating their identities and experiences. but when so many people take that representation and decide to disregard and discard it, it is so fucking frustrating. we finally have another character to be part of the tiny amount of representation we have, but then people don't even care about how much it means to us? like yeah, alastor won't get offended because he's not real, but it frustrates and annoys us. do you realize that it's also technically invalidating the aroace community? that you're invalidating our feelings? imagine feeling like you're finally being seen because your orientation is finally being represented in media, and people just decide to blatantly ignore, discard, and invalidate it.

media has such a powerful influence on real life, representation being a prevalent factor of it. there are numerous posts that dictate how people went to watch a movie/show or read a book just because a character depicts their identity in it — obviously, being represented is an incredibly uplifting and validating experience.

which is why seeing an aroace character in a popular show is so meaningful to us because we live in a world where romance and sex are literally everywhere and prioritized above all else. (and it's pretty obvious that alastor's on the repulsed end of the spectrum, but even if he wasn't, at least make an effort to acknowledge his sexuality instead of continuing to portray him as allo; aroace folks can be in relationships but it's not going to be the same thing with allos' experiences.)

any and every representation matters, but why does that seem to stop at people under the aroace spectrum? like y'all can't even let us appreciate the scraps of representation we have. we barely have any, so are we really that dramatic for being upset at how people easily disregard and dismiss our identities that are being depicted on screen just like that? is it truly wrong of us to want to defend and maintain the little representation we have?

[zbloodwhisper]

aroace experience of shipping characters in non-romantic ways .

they're each others world and would do anything for the other. they're constantly seen holding hands and cuddling, they share clothes, secrets, a bed.

and you ask them if they're dating, because to most people it would look like that. but no.

"they're my best friend."

and it stays like that, because that is all.

[redysetdare]

*Kills everyone who erases aro and ace characters*

[mhizzberry]

:( i wish fandom was more strict with maintaining/respecting characters who are canonically (aro)ace the same way that they are when characters are canonically gay/lesbian. the moment those latter characters are shipped with a character of another gender, it's "problematic". and yet, people still make ships for canon ace characters because "ace people can still be in relationships". while true, it happens too often i think, because people just CANT HELP but ship characters. they NEED to be coupled. if so, where does that leave non-coupled (aro)aces who want representation?