#aspec shipping

[e-xolite]

I’m sorry but why do people think it’s appropriate to ship aspec characters- but somehow it’s not the exact same thing as shipping gay characters in straight relationships

Like seriously tell me the difference.

I’m sorry sweety but that’s a little bit hypocritical

[lilythrrose]

I would just like to say that aro/aspec does NOT automatically mean the person AVOIDS relationships. Instead, they exist on a spectrum of how much they seek intimacy, if at all. There are some who are directly repulsed by sexual and romantic activities, and others who are indifferent to it. You can still ship aro characters **if you make it clear that the aro character is doing this because they want to see the other happy, and not for any personal fulfilment.**

[welcometogrouchland]

Extremely bad batgirls comic I made featuring Steph's sex life and Cass' ability to read everything but the room

[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.

[mossy-aro]

tbh as much as i do think it is worthwhile to discuss the topic of shipping aromantic/asexual characters and the nuances of it all (as well as the general attitude allos have towards aspecs in fandom spaces). it also makes me sigh equally because like... what characters. i'll be real guys we don't even have characters to discourse over. literally there are like 3 ever and none of those have fandoms anyway and the ones which do are like 'it was confirmed on twitter in a nebulously worded post by the creator'. its so bad out here

[liilacwine]

psa! your f/o loves you regardless of your sex drive. maybe you fall somewhere on the asexual spectrum (like me!). maybe you're hypersexual, maybe you're sex repulsed, maybe you've got any combination of labels and feelings and circumstances going on- you still mean the world to your f/o <3

[kiwinatorwaffles]

i’m not gonna lie fandom alwaysoften feels like an actively hostile environment towards aromanticism. even if it’s not intentional most of the time. like the way everyone jumps towards romantic ships and prioritizes those relationships over everything else and stripping aro coded characters of their aromanticism to be like “normal people”. maybe everyone just needs to slip away just this once from the amanormativity whispering in their ears to kick aros to the curb

[hilacopter]

normalize liking platonic dynamics just as much as romantic dynamics. normalize being insane over characters as friends and not as a ship. normalize wanting characters to be closer platonically just as you would want them to be closer romantically (I call it platonic shipping). normalize not having characters fall in love for no reason when they were already great and compelling platonically. normalize characters doing things that are usually seen as romantic but in a platonic context. normalize writing platonic fanfiction and drawing platonic fanart. "I am insane about their friendship" can and should be common actually. amatonormativity BEGONE!

[redysetdare]

A character looks straight into the camera and says "I'm not interested in romance" and people will still say "No, it's not confirmed they're aromantic!!!" "They could change their mind!!!" "it's a challenge for them to overcome!!!" "They'll have character development that makes them fall in love"

It's like they are given the most blatant answer to a character romantic orientation and they actively ignore it. all the while all it takes is subtext for people to speak as if it is fact for a character to be any other sexuality.

[knifearo]

ultimately when it comes to shipping and fandom space treatment of aspec characters i just don't accept "aro/ace people can still date/have sex" as an answer from nonaspecs. like yeah. mhm. okay. now i think we both know that you're not saying that out of real interest in the diversity of aspec experiences. so you can turn in your seventeen-page essay on why and how you plan to examine this character's aspec identity within the context of a romantic or sexual relationship complete with evidence from canon and peer reviews from multiple aspec people within the next week or i'm putting you in the pit from the edgar allen poe story

[marblesmind]

I’m just curious how most people get their ships

[tremendously-crazy]

aroace sherlock holmes and bisexual john watson. one goes both ways the other goes neither way and they're in a qpr

[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.

[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”

[barbietoiles]

theres something about these guys.... not quite sure what

[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