yourlocalaro

[yourlocalaro]

woke up on valentine's day to the posters finally up around our hall about the program during ASAW next week to decorate cookies and learn about aromanticism. tis a good day 😌

[yourlocalaro]

Aroace culture is the song Take A Hint from Victorious

.

[yourlocalaro]

[Image Description 1/7: A screenshot of an interview question and answer. The question reads, “1. How did you discover you were aromantic?” and then is answered, “When I was 14, I thought that when I turned 15 I would gain romantic attraction to people like a video game achievement. Long story short, when that didn’t happen, I googled ‘don’t want a romantic relationship’. And google told me I might be aromantic.” End Image Description 1/7]

[Image Description 2/7: A screenshot of an interview question and answer. The question reads, “2. How has your experience been within the arospec community?” and then is answered, “It’s been mostly amazing. Everyone in the arospec community is really nice and supporting of each other. I have had some encounters with exclusionists and arophobes, but I try to reason with them. When that doesn’t work, I just block them.” End Image Description 2/7]

[Image Description 3/7: A screenshot of an interview question and answer. The question reads, “3. Are there any common aromantic experiences you relate too? Any ones you don’t relate too?” and then is answered, “I absolutely relate to being confused about crushes. You want to spend the rest of your life with someone you saw once????? What????” (paragraph break) “I don’t relate to having wanted a romantic partner before finding out I was aro. I have never wanted a romantic partner, I was always against being in a relationship. It just made me uneasy and repulsed got think of me in a romantic relationship.” End Image Description 3/7]

[Image Description 4/7: A screenshot of an interview question and answer. The question reads, “4. Have you ever struggled with internalized arophobia?” and then is answered, “YES. ABSOLUTELY. When I was questioning, it took me 7 months of self-doubt to fully accept that I was aromantic. I thought I was too young, too inexperienced, too wishy-washy and not mature enough to know what I wanted. I thought I had scienced the heck out of romance and focused too much on what romance should feel like rather than how to feel it. I broke out of that arophobia one night after a long night of research. My final thought was: ‘You don’t know what you want if you don’t have your future planned out.’ My response was: ‘If I know what I want in terms of extracurriculars right now, I know what I want in terms of relationships right now.’” End Image Description 4/7]

[Image Description 5/7: A screenshot of an interview question and answer. The question reads, “5. What are some of your most memorable experiences within the community?” and is answered, “Creating this meme account and interacting with other aro accounts on instagram and discord.” End Image Description 5/7]

[Image Description 6/7: A screenshot of an interview question and answer. The question reads, “6. What’s something you’d like to see improved about the arospec community or the aspec community as a whole?” and is answered, “Being openly represented and accepted would be nice. That way arospecs won’t be invalidated.” End Image Description 6/7]

[Image Description 7/7: A screenshot of an interview question and answer. The question reads, “7. How do you feel about pineapples 🍍” and is answered, “Yes. Grilled pineapples in burgers taste really good, too!” End Image Description 7/7]

Aro Community Creator Interviews, Pt. 1

Howdy! Yes, Pride Month has summoned me from the abyss and I have returned with a handful of posts to start off this lovely time of year! Over the next few weeks Im going to be releasing 4 interviews I did of aromantic creators I enjoy within the community and get the word out! Happy Pride losers, and enjoy this first interview!

Interview One - Aro Memes

(aromantic_memes on instagram)

[yourlocalaro]

oh mood

for those who don’t know, the flag game is a game played by exchange students in most big exchange programs for the duration of their exchange. at its most basic, you get a “flag”, or basically a point, for every person you kiss. the flag matches whatever their nationality is, and the goal is to collect as many flags as possible. I’ve also heard versions where you get “medals” or golden/silver flags depending on if you do other things with them, like have sex with them or go on a date with them (despite the fact that dating on exchange is frowned upon by most exchange programs—rotary actually has a rule against it I think, so I’m sure this version’s less common on the whole with rotary exchangers than in other programs who are more lax about it), but those versions are generally a lot less common and people usually just play the basic one.

it’s like,, kind of a lowkey big thing for a lot of exchangers, mostly bc they think it’s fun and see it as a challenge. literally Cannot tell you how many times I’d be talking with other exchangers and literally out of nowhere they’d start comparing how many flags they had and what ones. almost positive the programs are widely aware that the “game” exists, but they kind of just refuse to acknowledge it. rotary actually has a rule in place against dating on exchange I think (not sure about other organizations), and there are definitely good reasons for it, but honestly, it could’ve partly been kind of a response to this? no idea if that’s the case, though, mostly bc I also have no idea when, where, or why it started, or who did it, but it’s like. kind of an ingrained aspect of international exchange culture these days ig :/

exchange student aro culture is completely failing the flag game on every level, bc no thanks

.

[yourlocalaro]

[Image description: A digital comic. It begins with a woman obscured by her long hair. Her hands are pulling away from her chest and black blood is being pulled with them. The sentence next to her says " you pull apart my chest hoping to find the emptiness beneath". Below, there's a panel filled with dandelions - there's hair draped over it and also a hand, suggesting it to be the woman's chest. Next to it, it says "instead you are faced with a garden". Underneath, there's a fully black heart shape beneath a dandelion. The sentence around it says "my heart is filled with dandelions". The sentence after is "love does not grow here. And finally, there's a drawing of a hand clutching a cluster of dandelions with black blood dripping from it. The final line is "and yet, it beats".]

I'm slightly late, but happy aro awareness week <3

[yourlocalaro]

being an ace/aro writer in a class of non-ace/aro writers is just a huge reminder than so many people don’t view found family or platonic partnership as something deeply emotional and important. Like I keep getting the question “why does character A care about character B if they aren’t attracted to each other?” or insinuations that romance and sex are the height of love and therefore should be in every story

like I’m tired of hearing “lol I really thought they were gonna get together at the end” just because there are two characters that care deeply for each other. They ARE together dummy, just not romantically or sexually!! There’s so much more to love than those two things.

[yourlocalaro]

Aromantic Experiences in Fandom: Survey Results

PART 1 - PART 2

As this is the second part of the discussion regarding results of this survey, I suggest checking out Part 1 before this.

This post will discuss how aromantic content creators in fandom feel when it comes to creating aro-specific content, and how aromantic fans feel when it comes to shipping and their preferences for it. There will also be a space for additional comments.

Keep reading

[yourlocalaro]

Aromantic Experiences in Fandom: Survey Results

PART 1 - PART 2

This survey was aimed at aromantic people, to share their experiences with fandom spaces, creating fancontent, and shipping. The survey got a total of 916 responses. The questions were split into various sections.

As the survey itself was quite long, the results will be discussed into two posts. This post will outline what the demographics of the respondents were and what their general experiences with fandom aree. The remaining sections, concerning content creators, shipping and additional comments, will be discussed in a separate post. Each post will have a summary at the end.

In addition, I plan on adding a couple posts discussing results split by certain variables, as I’m curious to see if different groups express different feelings regarding a few matters.

Keep reading

[yourlocalaro]

okay, i’m finally getting around to writing this, and uhh ill say its for aro week too. this is written as an aro person directed at alloromantic people. when i refer to writing, i’m kind of using it as a general term for creative works. Here’s me throwing my hat in on the question:

Can you ship aromantic characters?

and my answer is,,,,, actually a question. Why do you want to ship aromantic characters? 

I want alloros to realize that for a lot of aros, we do not get to see ourselves represented often. I can actually count on like one hand how many popular canon aro characters there are, and on the whole, none of their identities are respected. people constantly try to weasel their way out of actually writing aro characters, or they just ignore or deny their identity outright. fandom spaces (hell creative spaces in general) are at best not welcoming to aros, and at worst actively hostile towards us. So when the first question brought up when a character gets canonically confirmed as aro is “okay cool but can i ship them???” or “that’s nice but how can i still write about my fave ship that involves them??” i want to fucking scream. its a slap to the face and it shows that people really do not give a shit about aros. you say stuff like that and all i hear is “my fictional ship is so much more important than representing your marginalized minority identity” so instead of me just sitting here and saying “yes you can totally ship aro characters, as long as you’re respectful!!!” i’m saying “can you stop and think why you want to shove an aro character into a romantic relationship at the first chance you get?? maybe you have some arophobia you haven’t worked on?? maybe since we live in an amatonormative world, you’re letting that influence your views??” because that question being the first thing out of your mouth when you see a character you like confirmed as aro? that’s already disrespectful towards aros in my book.

So back to my question, Why do you want to ship aromantic characters? is it because you can’t write characters without them being in romantic relationships? or because you think a character without a romantic relationship is boring? Because if so, that’s a bad reason and it sounds like amatonormativity is rotting your brain. 

Is it because you just really like a ship with the aro character? Because you can write two characters with a strong relationship without writing them as a couple. A strong friendship can hold just as much power as a romantic relationship.

Is it because fuck aros, i will write what I wanna write and I don’t wanna write this character with their canon identity? because then you’re just an arophobic asshole that needs to work on your shitty opinions. aro representation is just as important as any other lgbtqia+ representation.

Now if you’re reading this and thinking “well i heard aros can be in queerplatonic relationships!” I want you to think for a second. Are you writing a qpr or are you writing a romantic relationship with the serial numbers filed off? Have you talked to aro people or read stuff actually written by us? because, yes, some qprs can look a lot like a romantic relationship from the outside, but that’s just it, you’re looking at it from the outside. qprs are more than just “romantic relationship with extra steps”, and i think it’s really telling how many times i see alloromantic people saying they’re depicting an aro character in a qpr, not a romantic relationship, but then they never ever make any effort to distinguish the qpr from any other romantic relationship they write or draw. It just feels like qprs are getting used by alloros as a gatcha any time an aro person objects to how they depict (or don’t depict) aromanticism. if you want to write a character in a qpr then go for it! but you need to actually do research, talk to aros, get multiple opinions and not just take the first opinion that agrees with you and run with it.

“But what about headcanoning a character as arospec?” now i will say before i go into this, i am aro, not arospec, so if an arospec person wants to come in and correct me at any part here im happy to listen. but my problem when alloros bring up arospec identities is a very similar problem to how qprs are often depicted. I remember when Peridot Stevenuniverse got confirmed aro (she did, do not argue this with me) people were jumping over themselves to assure everyone that “a character getting confirmed as aro just means they are any arospec identity” which,, uhh,, not true? i mean if an arospec person wants to see a canon aro character as, say, aroflux, i��ve got no problem, aro and arospec people can do what they want really. but, i do have a problem with all the alloro fans who were spreading this. because, do you really see the character as demiromantic? or are you using that identity to deflect criticism from erasing aro identities? are you actually trying to write a good depiction of a demiro person? or are you just writing normal ship stuff and slapping a “uwu ive never felt romantic attraction until i met you! and now i will act exactly like any alloromantic person!” at the beginning? being in fandom spaces, i do see the occasional fic actually depicting an aspec identity (i say aspec her because aro is so rare that most of these examples i’ve seen have been acespec identities rather than arospec) but like 99% of the time, that’s written by someone who actually shares the identity. before you use our terms and identities to cover your ass when you erase us, consider not fucking doing that. consider listening to all aros and getting our thoughts and input. 

And last here is “but what about romance positive aros?” now i think most of what i’ve said previously can be applied here. the only thing i wanna add is, i think its very interesting that almost every time i see non aros depict aros, they always write them as very into romance, very open to be in romantic relationships, and very quiet about their aro identity. despite the character in canon not showing any of these traits. romance positive aros are good and important, but not every aro is romance positive. there’s quite a few of us that are romance repulsed, and alloros only depicting aros as super romance positive no matter what is suspicious to say the least. if an aro character is shown to be open to participating in romantic activities in canon then of course write them that way. but if an aro character is shown to be uninterested in, or even actively against romantic activities then respect that too.

so, to wrap up my thoughts in this ramble: please ask yourself why you want to ship aro characters so bad, because if the only reason is that amatonormativity has brainwashed you into not being able to write, or draw, or do anything with a character without them being in a romantic relationship, then you uhhh need to work on that, that’s honestly a writing/creative flaw imo. if you like the relationship dynamic between an aro character and another character, consider making them friends. friendship is not less powerful than romantic relationships. nobody is ever too old for the power of friendship trope. If you’re erasing an aro character’s identity because fuck aros, then fuck off somewhere far away from me and work on your bullshit. qprs, arospec identities, and romance positive aros are all very real, very important parts of the aro community, but please talk to other aros about them and actually make an effort to understand how these things work, dont just assume. And also don’t use these things as a way to erase aro identities and cover your ass if get called out. its disrespectful towards all aros.

The most important thing to do before writing or creating work with aro characters is to talk to aros, and not just the aros that agree with you. look up what a qpr actually is, learn how aros experience their arospec identities, talk to aros with multiple outlooks on romance. and if you can’t bring yourself to reach out, at least read through our own writings, whether that’s fiction, or informational posts, fuck, look through our memes if u wanna. Just please actually make an effort.

So, Can you ship aro characters? its complicated. look at trends in your fandom, question why you want to, and do research. Be an aro ally, listen to us. That’s really the most important thing.

[yourlocalaro]

You know, if I had to describe my experience as an aromantic in one word, I think I’d go with “alienating”. Let me explain:

Imagine you’re aro and watching TV. There some kind of SciFi show on and they are debating the personhood of an AI.

The AI shows curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. They have desires. They have strengths and weaknesses. None of this convinces the doubters.

The AI makes friends. They take up hobbies. They talk about their hopes and dreams for the future. Surely this is enough to relate to them as a person? It’s not.

The AI is shown to fall in love. This is framed as the ultimate proof, the one thing that must humanize them even to the staunchest denier of their personhood or else that person is irredeemable.

You change the channel.

There’s a children’s cartoon on. “What is this?!” the villain cries, pointing at a couple. Their inability to understand the romantic love between those two is framed as stemming from the fact that somebody so deeply evil simply cannot understand something as pure and good as romantic love.

You change the channel.

There’s a sitcom on. Two characters are discussing a third character. “He’s really not that weird,” says one character. “He hasn’t been in a relationship for [x] years!” the other refutes. Cue the laugh track. The implication is clear: If he’s not in a relationship, it must be because he’s too weird.

You change the channel.

There’s a Christmas movie on. The main character is a successful businesswoman. She’s shown talking to her friends and family regularly. “You need a man,” her mother says as they bake together. The daughter denies this. The rest of the movie is all about proving the mother right, as suddenly her career, her friends and her family are framed as not being enough for her to lead a fulfilling life.

You change the channel.

It’s some show aimed at young teens and tweens. “Ew,” one character comments as the idea of them having a significant other one day is brought up. This is treated as a sign of their immaturity.

You turn off the TV.

Your experiences aren’t enough to humanize a non-human character. You’re the villain. You’re a weirdo. Your life is incomplete. You’re immature.

You’re tired.

There’s a reason it was an aro who coined the term voidpunk.

[yourlocalaro]

Hi! I’m working on a research essay for class and I would appreciate it if black ppl who identify as ace and/or aro took this survey!

[Reblogs would be greatly appreciated!]

[yourlocalaro]

Aromantic Experiences in Fandom

Hello! I have a new survey for aros, this time focusing on what experiences aromantic people have had with fandom and their opinions on current fandom spaces. This survey is open to both aros who are in fandom, and those who aren’t, if they wish to contribute. The survey will ask about personal feelings regarding fandom spaces and whether they are welcoming to aros or not, with additional sections concerning shipping and fancontent. The survey should last roughly 10-15 minutes.

You can take the survey here!

[yourlocalaro]

I made a thing!

I replied to a post with this but I'm really proud of it so i thought it deserved it's own post!

What do y'all think? it's my first time doing a comic, so i will happily take constructive criticism on the flow/placement of the panels, but overall i'm really happy with it :)

credit to @mercutihoe for the art prompt

don't repost without credit, reblogs are super cool though!

(edit: hit post by accident lol)

[yourlocalaro]

[ID: The draw 25 meme. The first panel shows an Uno card that says “stop treating interest in romance as a rite of passage and marker of maturity or draw 25”. The second panel shows a person, labelled “society”, holding many cards in their hand. End ID]

[yourlocalaro]

pride icons! be the space gay you’ve always wanted to be lmao