#aroace media

[yannig]

Thought I'd add some real ace content for reprieve in the middle of this bot war

So let me tell you about my current favorite show:

Koisenu Futari / Two people who can't fall in love

It's a Japanese show centered around two AroAce characters who try to make a life together and support each other in the face of society's expectations!

It's 4 hours long (8 ep - 30 minutes each)

You can find it on Dailymotion (here) or Myasiantv.ac (here). The English subtitles aren't perfect (mostly a lot of gender mix-up between he/she, boyfriend/girlfriend, ...) but they do the job well enough!

I'm halfway through ep 2 and I fucking love it, this show is so good!!!!

I love both protagonists so much, and they feel so lively! Witnessing Sakuko discover the AroAce label brought me to tears from sheer joy and relief for her!

Any aspec media is really hard to find, but it's especially the first time I see a story centered around two AroAce characters and I'm so happy!!!

Anyway go watch it, it's worth it!

(content warning just to be sure: they face a lot of amatonormativity. That's basically the point of the show, so it happens often. Nothing violent, just the usual pressure and expectations from literally anyone around them.)

[eternalduos]

Fantasy High Junior Year really said "Yeah, Riz carries around an evil demon manniquin in his briefcase, but actually that evil demon manniquin is a physical representation of his fear that his friends will abandon him in favor of romantic partners, and all he'll be left with is the lie he told in an attempt to fit in" and did not elaborate

[redysetdare]

enough stories about how someone learns to truely be happy through love. i want a story where someone is desperately seeking out love thinking it's the only way to be happy only for them to learn by the end that happiness is what they make of it and they don't need love at all to make it.

[clownsuu]

The fact that you depict characters as both aroace and in relationships makes me actually so happy because everyone always thinks that shipping is off the table for those characters and forgets sex/romance stances exist, you filled me with so much joy ;w;

It’s a weird stereotype indeed smhh (harmful even) making it sound like individuals who are aro/ace are incapable of being/falling in love- or just being able to feel love in general

[convolutedblasphemy]

Allos in fandoms will say two men who used to drink tea under the moonlight together in a past life, wear matching accessories and were shown to deeply care about each other once upon a time are canonically gay because "friends don't do these things" but if a confirmed asexual character is repeatedly shown as uninterested in sex or romance in the source material AND the promotional material it's "ambiguous" and "unclear whether this character is aromantic or on which part of the spectrum he lies".

[fnafs-ex-boyfriend]

It’s a little hard to describe how important Alastor being aroace is to me. He’s just this cool, suave, mysterious, petty guy with a silly voice that has the same attitudes as sex and romance as I do and I think that’s really cool and awesome.

Edit: There’s a follow-up

[reggieslocket]

society if we got more wlw, ace and aro representation in media:

[writerquil]

bro who "hates" someone so much to the extent of creating an entire fucking musical number about them

[sunlit-mess]

how delusional can you be as if it's disrespecting

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

Why the fight for queer rights isn't over (it should be obvious, but to some people it isn't)

TW: transphobia and homophobia

Hi, Tumblr, this is Asmi. If you know me, it's probably as the Good Omens Mascot, which is flattering. I've found so much love and queer positivity in the good omens fandom, and the beautiful thing is how it's canon. Many people outside the queer community don't realise how crucial media and communities like this are. Right now since I'm on break from education, I'm on tumblr for most of the time I'm awake (which is not a lot, I nap more than Crowley). It's wild how different it is from the real world, that I live in at least.

I'm sure a lot of you might have had a similar experience to this: Basically, two people in my life, my bio father and my ex, both told me to my face that queer people needed to stop calling themselves oppressed and how now it's queer people who hold all the power and are oppressing other people. With all due respect, what the fuck.

I live in India, and being a trans guy who is bi and aspec, it's a cesspit. While I'm gendered correctly on Tumblr, and people are so loving and supportive, in real life even my friends who say they support me misgender me 90% of the time. Same with my family. In my previous college which I had to leave because of bullying by both the students and admin, even the queer students would misgender me (I told them I used they/them pronouns, because he/him would have been too unsafe, but even that they didn't manage). In the college I'll join next, it won't be safe for me to be out at all, at risk of losing opportunities and safety. Gay marriage is still illegal. Homophobia and transphobia is the norm. This doesn't even cover all the daily indignities like queerphobic jokes, casual discourse on whether or not we deserve rights, etc. Discrimination against aroace-spec people is rampant even within the queer community, worldwide.

And I live in an urban area, one of the largest cities in India known for its progressiveness and for being relatively safe for queer people. I am privileged compared to other queer people here. The story in other cities, in rural areas which make up most of the country, is far more horrifying. I'm unqualified to speak about anything other than my own experience, but if you can (if you are in a stable and calm enough mental state to handle the information, please put your mental health first) I'm sure there are first person accounts on the many forums.

The fight for equality is not over. It doesn't end with laws riddled with loopholes, it doesn't end even with laws that genuinely help the queer community. Aside from the huge problems of living safely and with access to equal opportunities and resources for people, we deserve dignity, peace, and the right to feel accepted and that we're not an abnormality. And so much more.

I haven't said anything that hasn't been said before, but it can't be said enough. To the queer people reading this, take all my love. We need to stand together, eliminate discourse over who is queer enough to be queer, and be the safe space that the world will not provide for us.

It's not over, and it hasn't been won by a long shot, but what matters is that we're fighting. Even existing as ourselves in a world that tells us it is a crime, is defiance and a step towards making this right.

[feelingthedisaster]

where are all my people (closeted aroace girls whose parents think they are a lesbian bc they lack interest in men)?

[yannig]

C'est le jour des langues aujourd'hui donc vous avez droit à un poste en français

Et je vais continuer à parler de Koisenu Futari (une série japonaise centrée sur deux personnages AroAce, mon premier poste ici) parce que cette série est mon coup de cœur du moment. <3

Je ne suis généralement pas très bonne à repérer les éléments de language visuel - mais il y a un détail de cette série qui me fait sourire à chaque fois qu'il est dans le plan.

Quand Sakuko se prépare à s'installer avec sa meilleure amie, elle achète une lampe colorée très fun.

Et c'est évident dès l'épisode 1 qu'elle va bien s'entendre avec Takahashi, parce qu'au delà d'être tous deux AroAce, ils partagent un amour des lampes colorées.

Voilà la première lampe que Takahashi allume la première fois qu'on découvre sa maison :

Il allume cette lampe en premier, avant même le plafonnier. Je vous jure que c'est fait exprès ! Elle est parfaitement centrée dans le cadre !

Je pense qu'elle sert aussi à annoncer le côté... disons maximaliste, de la maison. Il y a beaucoup de choses, partout, tout le temps, mais ça donne un côté très chaleureux au décor.

(en opposition à l'appart moderne et lumineux mais entièrement vide que Sakuko a visité avec sa meilleure amie quelques scènes plus tôt)

(Oui je tire beaucoup d'un unique arrêt-sur-image, et alors. Quand la cinématographie est bien faite il y a beaucoup a interpréter.)

Et comme elle est installée en plein milieu de la pièce à vivre, cette lampe est régulièrement à l'écran, et elle me fait sourire à chaque fois.

La revoilà dans l'épisode 4 :

Même éteinte elle est souvent présente :

Et finalement au premier plan dans la dernière scène de l'épisode :

Cette lampe est clairement un choix de décore délibéré et je l'adore ! C'est quasiment un personnage à ce stade.

D'ailleurs ce n'est pas la seule lampe à fleurs de la maison, il y en a plusieurs rien que dans le salon, et au moins une dans la chambre de Sakuko.

[brella-boi]

im not made for this

[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.

[galaxy-weaver]

I’m working on a project for class about asexual and/or aromantic storytelling. I want to see if I can identify an “asexual gaze” as opposed to the male/female/queer gazes.

I know I explicitly say asexual here, but I’m open to hearing from aromantic (including alloaro) people as well. I haven’t narrowed down a thesis yet, so any thoughts help.

I want to ask fellow aspec people: what media (books, movies, comics, etc.) resonate with you? They don’t have to have explicit ace or aro representation; just what stories do you feel appeal to you?

(This may go nowhere, but who knows? It may go somewhere too.)

[sunnysam-my]

You know what, I'm so sick of how allos fans constantly wanting the main masculine characters of shows based on Neil's Gaiman stories to be in a romantic mlm relationship with one another.

Seriously, Dead Boy Detectives and Good Omens are one of the only shows with 'gay' masculine characters I relate so much to as an aroace gay guy.

Crowley and Aziraphel are such an iconic queerplatonic relationship to me, as well as to many other aro/ace folks, but to this day I see so many people complaining about them being mostly platonic. Before they kissed people constantly complained about that. After they kissed so many people ignored that it was literally non-consentual and violating, because 'omg they finally kissed!' They don't need to kiss to be a couple. They don't need to be in love romantically or sexualy to love eachother and be a romantic couple.

Now the Dead Boy Detectives came out and I felt so seen with how the main boy loves eachother, but differently. Edwin loves Charles romanticly, but Charles doesn't, he loves romanticly Crystal, yet they stay friends, even stronger friends, after the confection, because he loves Edwin more than anyone, just platonicly. It wasn't confirmed in the show Chars is queer, but most people guessed. I loved how finally the main two boys where at least one is gay and they aren't together. Instead they are just (possibly) two queer friends. This literally pretty much never happens. For some reasons us gays are stuck in "we gotta have the main gay couple" hell. Like? Excuse me, you do realise that just like boys can be just friends with girls, the gays can be just friends too, even with the same sex, right? It's a thing. We're not that desperate, please.

Edwin's exploration of his attraction and relationships is something I can really relate to, because it's not just 'two guy fall in love' type of story, like we usually get. It's actually complicated like it is in real world, and Edwin even accidentally hurt someone he saw as a friend because he didn't realise the guy loved him. He then surpringly dealed with the problem very well. Can't forget the strugle to admit to yourself you are queer, because you know you won't be able to go back after that, and you've been programmed to ignore your feelings. Where it's not awful done in a "but we're both boys 🥺👉👈" way. But actually thoughtfully done. Where it's not about others or childish, but about admitting it to yourself.

Gays don't need to love eachother romanticly to love eachother dearly!