#thinking of a couple of other sideblogs where it may be less chill

[variousqueerthings]

aphobia in fandom can look like (all of the below are things ive seen):

villainising characters who reject romantic advances

reading aro characters as "psychopaths/evil" because of their aroness

reading ace characters as "childlike/immature" because of their aceness

generally the pathologisation of characters because of their aspec-ness, as well as demonisation of certain mental illnesses and nd-ness, which tbh could be a whole other post on its own

statements like "it would be sad if x character wasn't in a romantic relationship though" as a way of shutting down reading a character as aro (also seen said about canon aro rep)

aroness and aceness -- especially repulsed aroness and aceness -- is more "boring" than alloness

generally romance and sex (most often read together) as a way of "humanising" a character

generally seeing romantic relationships as the main happy ending for character dynamics, and any individual characters who aren't in a romantic relationship are worse off (pair the spares, but this time let's make it progressive)

(Only Monogamy freespace/overlap with bi/pan-erasure and polyamory erasure)

ignoring opposite gender dynamics that are well-fleshed-out in favour of same-gender dynamics that aren't, because that's "more queer" (read: hotter, but only for guys) (overlapping heavily with erasing women in narratives in favour of two guys that exchange 3 words with one another, and also bi/pan-erasure)

going real hard on "aromantic people can still date"/"asexual people can still have sex" especially around characters who have not been shown to do one or the other or either

in addition to previous point, these statements coupled with a clear lack of research in aspec terminology/theory/politics -- bonus points for using these talking points at irl aspec people who do know what they're talking about

getting angry at aspec people for "ruining the fun" when they point out that it's hard to be aspec in fandom/engage with aspec character reads in fandom/feeling alienated by fandom

good old classic regurgitated "this aspec person said it was okay for me to do this, so..."

good old classic regurgitated "these aspec people are normal, and these ones aren't, im only going to respect the opinions of the aspec people who "let" me do exactly what ive been doing the whole time, and im going to discount/mock/bully out of fandom the ones who don't"

convenient "it's not that deep" arguments only counting when it's aspec rep, ignoring many years of "representation matters" for other marginalised identities

comparing aspec identities to straightness, often in the framework of "headcanoning straight (aspec) characters as queer (not aspec -- and usually not bi or pan either)"

pushing smut at irl asexual repulsed people as "revenge" for them expressing discomfort (especially about characters who are popularly seen as asexual or are even canonically asexual) + "joking" about shipping even harder and creating more hardcore smut specifically in reaction to aspec people who don't want to see it

accusations of queerbaiting when characters are written to be aspec and/or ambiguously aspec

conflating bullshit "anti" purity culture with all of the above, either co-opting aspec people into wank (similarly to ace people being co-opted to "argue" for no kink at pride), or accusing irl aspec people who feel alienated of being prudes/antis/sex-shaming <- this also conveniently trotted out right after a "it's not that deep" argument. it's only not-that-deep when it's about getting to have fun without thinking about others, and it gets deep when that fun cannot be enjoyed thoughtlessly

#aphobia #fandom #this is probably the chillest blog i could have posted this on #thinking of a couple of other sideblogs where it may be less chill #but this fits under various queer things #ive forgotten some im sure #but anyway these are all ones ive seen