#asexuality in fandom

[disastergay]

why do people write smut of asexual characters?

"isn't the whole point of being ace that they don't want to fuck?"

They're fictional characters

It's not and never will be canon

Some people are actually shitty and don't believe in asexuality, which is fucked up of them and they should be told off for it

They're fictional characters

Not every ace is sex-repulsed/averse and some are in fact sex-favorable, please don't erase those of us that do have sex

Still others have high libidos despite a lack of sexual attraction

Some aces do experience sexual attraction and feel comfortable acting on it

They are, and I cannot stress this enough, fictional characters, and besides, no fanfiction will ever influence the future of the work's canon because there are literal laws and regulations in place to stop that from happening

say it with me: attraction =/= action. attraction does not equal action.

it's 100% okay to feel frustrated when you see people drawing lewd art and writing smutty fanfiction about your favorite asexual characters. a lot of the people doing that aren't even ace themselves, and plenty of them deserve a side eye. I'm right there with you on that. but PLEASE stop perpetuating the myth that the only reason someone would ever write/draw smut of ace characters is because they're allosexual and acephobic.

I'm not trying to hurt those of you who are sex repulsed by writing about sex between two fictional characters (which I'm told I do so in the most asexual way possible, I might add).

the ace corners of fandoms have always been hostile towards aces who experience sexual attraction and/or are interested in having sex. this is unfair.

fandom at large has always been guilty of erasing ace representation (see the jughead debacle), ESPECIALLY sex repulsed aces who never feel any sexual attraction whatsoever. often times fans will hide behind sex favorable aces and grey asexuals' existence to justify their erasure of canon sex repulsed ace characters. this is also unfair.

both of these things can be true and equally important. stop with the infighting so we can start setting a better example for how to treat both canon and fanon aspec rep in the future.

this has been a PSA.

[oldtvandcomics]

Not to contribute to a Discourse, but I keep seeing the "should we ship Alastor or not" thing, and. Like most other things, it lacks nuance.

It is true, many people don't understand how to write him in a relationship without it feeling very weird and very out of character. But this is also true about most popular ships? The voices of the characters are not right, and they keep acting in a way that is too sweet, too romantic, and the actual dynamic that made that ship interesting in the first place is missing. "He would not fucking say that" is such a popular phrase for a reason.

In Alastor's case, his asexuality is one of the major things that fanfic authors get wrong. Another is his moral grayness, his difficulties expressing (or even noticing) his emotions, and, at least in the Alastor/Lucifer ship (which is what I have been reading) the antagonism of the canon relationship and how they would navigate it with their absurd fight for dominance. And yes, these are definitely problems.

But, as someone who has been bingeing these fics faster than the tag is moving, these are only some of the fics.

And every popular ship has got a lot of bad writing in it.

The good fics, despite being shippy and more often than not, smutty, all acknowledge Alastor's asexuality in some way. It depends on that author, how, but I have seen him confused about this new situation, participating in sex for his own reasons like manipulation and enjoying having control, I have seen what in other fics would be sexual desire replaced with hunger for blood, hunger for power, or desire for closeness, I have seen asexual and aspec authors use him to talk about their own experiences with being sexualized against their will, or to explore what they would and would not be comfortable with doing. I have seen Alastor look for and find ways around his discomforts, using magic and staying clothed and making sure that he is in control.

So I don't know. Are people being weird about him? Heck yes. But I feel like fics, even shippy and smutty ones about Alastor are also doing some actual good, representation-wise. I can only speak for myself, but I can say for certain that watching a powerful, asexual character navigate his way around sexuality has filled a need in me that I didn't even realize that I had.

I'm really not wanting to start any fights here, just, you know. Different angle to look at this from.

[lovemadethemdoit]

i need y‘all to understand that a character having sex on screen doesn‘t mean they can‘t be asexual/on the ace spectrum

now, yes, there are some characters that this won‘t work for, but please strike that blanket thought in your pretty little head that says „has sex, can‘t be asexual for that reason“

it‘s not like that

[sees-writes]

Seeing as it is Ace Week, here is a quick reminder that some Ace’s really do enjoy reading smut! There are also a lot of Ace’s that don’t particularly enjoy smut and that is perfectly ok!

Just because smut can be a large part of fandom doesn’t mean that you have to be a part of it too. Reading gen fics is all you need sometimes and that’s perfectly ok to want more gen fics over ship fics!

Remember that you don’t have to please other people if you don’t enjoy something everyone else seems to 💜🖤🤍

[confusedgoldenflower]

If you don't stand with all of the LGBTQIA+, you stand with none. People seem to forget about all of that within fandom.

If you NEED someone’s sexuality stated in that specific term we only now use (and largely in the west), you don't stand with us (looking at you, acephobes).

If you NEED specific characters to have sex, you don't stand with us--referring to how objectively aspec characters are mostly just sexual in their tags and fanart.

Can they have sex? Obvi-fucking-ly. But when there's contextual evidence that they're aspec, what the actual fuck, why are they constantly fucking!?

Ace people deserve as much representation as anyone else in fandom spaces, sex is not the be-all, end-all of adulthood or relationships and it's immature to see it as such. Nonsexual intimacy is real and just as legitimate; even more valid when an arguably canonically ace character is present.

And porn--yes porn, because smut is just porn with words--being so, SO prevalent in fandom is also an issue: there are MANY minors in fandom and no, "we're not all responsible for taking care of the kids," but we sure as fuck have a role in it. When there's 90% smut, laden with tags like non-con, dead dove, incest, sex-pollen/heat/sex curse (noncon means to sex) etc, that--and get this--NORMALIZES that shit. If you think it doesn't, that's like saying we haven't all been conditioned to feel that skinny-ness is normal and fat-ness is abnormal by the media; that heteronormativity and heterosexuality hasn't been normalised to us based off what we consumed whilst younger.

Can ace characters and other characters still fuck? Where the hell did I say that's not allowed whatsoever. Where, in the fuck, did I declare smut unacceptable. Nowhere. That's where.

This is what I'm saying: ace characters deserve to be ace in fandom, ace people by extension deserve that representation and not that feeling of alienation because they identified with a character but find nothing but smut.

What I'm saying is not everything has to be about sex! Have your horny and write your horny, but it's ludicrous for SO MUCH of fandom to be revolving around sex, especially when you can hardly find any non-sexual story about a certain character/ship!

What’s more, it’s fucking acephobic for there to be nothing but objective allosexuality!

And save the "do it yourself," I fucking am and maybe I'd like to just be able to read some good non-sex-revolving stories for once.

This is for all the aces and baby aces: you're not wrong for not feeling the very, very many sex tags, nor are you wrong for interpreting the character(s) as ace. And neither are you not-ace for enjoying the sexy tags or stories. Don’t let anyone force you out of a place you enjoy, especially if it’s an escape for you like so many find with fandom.

PS: “if you don’t like how it works, then don’t be in fandom.” Really just puts the nails in your acephobic coffin. Why the hell should we (and minors) be excluded from spaces that’re supposed to be inclusionary just because y’all can’t fucking control yourselves.

[mossy-aro]

[nouverx]

Louise never heard about puppy love, cause they don't know that term in France 💔

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Lyrics are from Louise by TV Girl ! I was listening to it yesterday and that specific line on the second page screamed Alastor I just had to draw something about it

[nortimer]

Ik this is probably the fifteenth time you've seen someone say this but we need more qprs in fandom space. Instead of shipping we'll call it canoeing and we'll make it just as popular. Please I need this ok

[strange-wanderings]

You use "aces and aros can be in relationships" to justify shipping canonically ace and/or aro characters. I use "aces and aros can be in relationships" to justify headcanoning characters canonically in relationships as ace and/or aro.

We are not the same.

[welcometo79s]

Being ace in fandoms is so awkward sometimes because yeah the allos like the irredeemably evil villain who has murdered countless innocent people and experiments on children because he's conventionally attractive, what's my excuse? I like this guy for his personality. His personality is a burning truck of chemicals without a driver rolling at 220 km/h down the hill towards the daycare.

[oatmealdoodles]

they are literally THE step sisters ever

Also technically after pride but whatever

[almostshamelesspenguin]

Character: I think boys are pretty

Fandom: oh! They're gay! That's canon!

Different character: I have no interest in romance or sex. I don't understand it. Relationships confuse me. They seem pointless to me. I have no desire to be in a romantic or sexual relationship. I am an aromantic asexual.

Fandom: well, I guess you can interpret them as aroace...I don't see it though.

[sketchy-doge1]

Tiny parade!

[something-lemonade]

Being in Fandom is so weird as an aroace

Allos be like "she could F me" "I wanna marry him!" "Oh they are so hot"

And I'm like "that's my dad, that's my other dad, that's my older brother, that's my mom, that's my sister..." like a little kid playing house

[Yes the dads are gay for each other <3]

[non-binary-star-system]

Please remember that there are aro/aces who enjoy concept of romance only in fiction and like shipping characters or writing smut fanfics but still they wouldn't do that things in real life 🤍🖤💜

[eziojensenthe3rd]

Republicans nuked KOSA. Its considered DOA and wont be showing up at the house. This is good news certanly but its not entirely over. This bill got bipartisan support back in the senate, dickheads from both sides thought the idea behind kosa was worth doing, its just that the republican party decided to nuke it for reasons im trying to figure out? To try to deny a win for democrats similar to how they stopped a cancer research bill?

Something like kosa will pop up again, kosa itself may just rise from the grave and we'll have to go through this same song and dance so all i can say is stay informed on this type of shit. Inform your senators and reps not to support this shit and if they dont oppose it, vote them out in the next election they're running in.

There are bills that do in fact regulate the internet in a way that helps but also doesnt violate free speech by targeting how data is harvested. Thise bills should be pushed while censorship should die. For now, celebrate this day. KOSA atm is dead, done so in a manner so anticlimatic yet deserving. But be vigilant.