#aroallo creator

[hiraeth-daydreams]

Found these images and had a vision cut through me, so have the aroallo version as well.

I apologize immensely

#didnt find the exact same font anywhere so i had to imitate it manually i hope its ok #if anyone knows the original creator of the first pic please lmk i looked everywhere and only found reposts #*Not kin related #*Sinful #*My post #aromantic #aromantic allosexual #aroallo #alloaro #arospec #aspec

[crastlefolke]

3 and 10 for the ask game? :D

3: arospec headcanons?

every character i like is arospec but more specifically bashir from star trek ds9 and carpenter from the silt verses

10: do you like the aromantic flag?

yeah!!! green is one of my fave colours and i really like the gradient of green to grey to black.

#carpenter has been confirmed arospec by the creators but i was hcing since like episode 4 #bashir is aroallo like me because i say so <3 #i will say i dislike when ppl try to make the aro flag 4 stripes like the ace one it doesnt look right

[your-fave-is-aroallo]

are you willing to do hazbin hotel?? (it's totally fine if not though!!)

yea sure ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

#not aroallo characters #- d #ask #im not entirely sure why its considered problematic? i see lots of stuff about it but most of it is about the creator. unless the creator is #donating to a bad cause_ idgaf

[spacelazarwolf]

As an aroallo who’s been involved in the ace/aro discourse from a few years ago, I’ve read the manifesto and found the blog behind it, and… yeah that’s not a psy-op, that’s just aros replicating political lesbianism on accident because they’re frustrated with amatonormativity and conflating it with romantic attraction in general, but I also feel kinda… weird about seeing it sent anonymously to someone who isn’t aro and idk if you’ve ever openly said if/that you’re aro or not. Even though the original creators of the manifesto were being completely genuine about it, that wouldn’t stop someone who thinks aromantics are homophobic freaks who need to be pushed out of the queer community from using it to create rifts by sending it to alloromantic queer folks to subtly say “look, this is what those heartless monsters think of you!” And since they’re anonymous, I have absolutely zero idea what their intentions are and cannot examine them more closely. It seems so far the reactions have been to criticize it while maintaining the stance that aros as a whole are fine, which is great, but I still can’t shake my suspicions of the original anon. I dunno. Maybe I’m still too burned by the discourse.

(This is not me saying you’ve done anything wrong, I get that you get a lot of unhinged anons and cannot control what people send you. This is me side-eyeing the anon who sent that to you really hard).

if it makes you feel better, this was the original message i got:

have you ever read the aromantic manifesto? (link here: aromanticmanifesto + tumblr ending) I'm not in very many aro-centric or aro-informed spaces IRL and tumblr is a cesspit so I'm very curious to hear what other queer people think of it, as an aroqueer person (genuine) feel free to ignore this!

in case that kind of helps to contextualize it, it wasn't like. someone just dropping a link and leaving, it was someone asking what i thought. i just couldn't read the pdf that the blog had linked bc it was formatted in a way that was hard on my eyes. but also i get a ton of ppl "asking what i think" and then it's just bait so it is so fucking hard to tell which questions are ppl who are genuinely curious and who is just trying to set me up :)))))))

but yeah, i think it's a pretty common anxiety for all types of queer people to worry that any time one of us does something stupid that we're all going to get punished. i'm monitoring my notes in case anyone uses this as an opportunity to be a dipshit abt it.

#ask avishai

[alloarocharactershowdown]

Quarterfinals propaganda

Sister Carpenter

"She's canonically aro!! The creators confirmed as such on their blog and there's also plenty of evidence for it within the podcast even if they don't use the word. Most blatant is that part of her backstory is that her childhood best friend fell in love with her and after she turned him down it isolated her from all her fellow kids, and she's pretty much been pushing other people away ever since believing she can't trust them. However I would argue it also manifests in more subtextual ways: her arc about rejecting the river god she was raised to worship that she always thought would make her happy, her telling her own god "I'd rather die for nothing, my heart filled with nothing" than die for him… it gives me some kind of strange aro feelings. Anyway the creators haven't confirmed anything either away about her sexuality, just that she's aro, so she could conceivably be aroallo! (I didn't get a chance to submit her for the aroace or general aro character polls so I'm taking my chance now)"

Link to poll

#sister carpenter #the silt verses #propaganda #alloarocharactershowdown #alloarocharactershowdown2023 #round 4

[starryskiesstuff]

Hi. This is re: your notes begging for an alloaro character in the tags of a post yesterday. I listen to a lot of audio fiction, which you can find on any podcast app, or like, spotify. And know some characters.

Fantasy fiction podcast Starfall has two leads, an aroallo swordswoman and an alloace stagehand, who are best buds. Their aspecness is so far only creator confirmed but due to be discussed in the upcoming season 2, and the show also has no active romance, to my memory. It felt like it fit with what your tags expressed.

Some other canonically fiction podcast aroallos are:

Sweetheart polyamorous space botanist Nessa Cheong of Moonbase Theta, Out

Bardic fantasy adventurer and old friend to the lead of Sidequesting, Sam

Nico Salvai, ""romantic"" interest and mafioso wildcard of urban fantasy podcast VALENCE, who's canonically arospec but absolutely not acespec

Resident wacky professor Van Helsing of modern Dracula adaptation, Murray Mysteries

The Department of Variance of Somewhere, Ohio's Violet Lull, a receptionist for a government department dealing with weird shit who is completely over everyone's bullshit

And, just one episode (E28), but creature advice podcast Monstrous Agonies features an aroallo human seeking advice about their alloace vampire QPP

Special mention, though it doesn't have an aroallo, to The Silt Verses, a weird-fiction horror podcast with an aro lead (confirmed aro in show, aroace by creator, and adored by every listener I've spoken with) which features no surviving romances and is just, so refreshingly aromantic and also just really good.

Thank you kind anon! I will make a note of those

#aroace #aro #ace #aromantic #aroallo #story recs #podcast recs #queer

[aroaceconfessions]

As an aroace creator I've realized well over 2/3rds of my ocs are aroace as well + well I'm glad to be able to create representation and have been working on adding more allo ace-specs as well (plus an aroallo whom I adore), I feel really bad about how "same character syndrome" they all are in orientation + feel like I'm representing the queer and a-spec community "wrong". Especially since none of my stories have sex and most don't have romance either, so I always forget to give them a different orientation then mine. The guilt of it all honesty gets so bad sometimes that it makes me not want to even try writing allo characters because I feel like I've already failed...

#aromantic #asexual #aroace #arospec #acespec #aspec #aroacespec #arose #representation #storytelling #storybuilding #aroallo #alloaro

[ziptie-bouquet]

Creators who retcon characters that didn't have relationships within their shows as aro(ace lol because aroallos in media basically don't exist), I hate you.

I know we're invisible and starved for rep, but it upsets me so much. Please show me things that are related to the aro experience.

Show me a QPR, show me an aro in a romantic relationship and how they got there, show me questioning aros, show me loveless and aplatonic aros. Say those words, I don't care how awkward they sound to you. People need to hear our terminology, they don't even know that aromanticism exists.

For the love of god, actually write aro characters.

#aromantic #aro #aromanticism #looking at peridot and lilith clawthorne #those two upset me #like jesus fuck at least TRY

[tarotmantic]

ages ago i remember seeing an orientation prefix that like basically meant ur orientation was influenced by neurodivergency which I definitely feel fits me. I don’t remember the term but yeah, i believe my autism informs my aromanticism (it probably also informs my asexuality and my gender identity but that’s not for this post).

I consider myself on the cusp of loveless, i feel very allied with that community and generally see my experience reflected most there. I’m very solidly on the end of the aro spectrum, I’m not even remotely grey-aro. Never experienced anything I could label as traditionally romantic lol. I often say I love my friends but that’s mostly for ease of communication. I care for them, and I care for many other things- but love? I don’t know. I don’t consider myself aplatonic though.

This is kind of where I see myself in the loveless community because I’ve read people talk about the rejection of the idea of love, and all the baggage attached to it. You can say “oh there’s other kinds of love, love isn’t just romantic” all you want but you can’t deny all the connotations it has within ~society~. Even if I could “love” my friends, because I fundamentally miss out on the experience of romantic love- an experience so entrenched in society and the popular conception of humanity- I feel disconnected from the entire notion. Love doesn’t mean anything to me.

On a minor tangent, this is definitely why I like narratives that twist love, that make love the villain. A lot of the poetry I write takes love and write it like obsession. I like playing with it, because I don’t have any sentimental value on true love, because I don’t know what it’s like to love but I know what it’s like to hurt.

I don’t have any aromantic friends, and I haven’t really talked about it to the friends I do have. I think about discussing is with them but I have no clue how to raise that lol. I kinda wanna know what they think about it, if they have any questions. Especially since they’re starting to get into relationships now.

I am out to my friends, but I’m not out in any capacity to my parents. I don’t think they’d be against it, they’d most likely be supportive but they also definitely wouldn’t get it. I don’t have the energy to explain it to them. I don’t know if they’ll ever ask, especially since I’ve never had a partner. Do they think im just hiding it from them? Who knows.

There’s a lot of things I’ll never experience, like first crushes or break ups or dating apps. Since im also asexual (also no grey, will never ever have sex in any capacity) I won’t ever experience those supposedly universal things like losing my virginity or even just like the feeling of being horny either lol. Whole swathes of the human experience that aren’t for me.

That’s where the grief creeps in, so many things I’ll never have. Ugh, I shouldn’t have to mourn things I never wanted. That’s where voidpunk comes in. I know the creator originally made it for aroallo folks, but also left it open for anyone who felt it fit. The nonhuman thing is very attractive to me with being very queer and very autistic. Especially since my identities are kind of all the absence of something.. void feels very apt.

Anyways.. this was a long post, I enjoyed rambling on though. I don’t put my thoughts about this to metaphorical paper often, but it’s always rattling around my head. If anyone else wants to chime in im all ears! As I said, I don’t really have anyone with similar experiences to talk about this with so im always willing to hear what the community is thinking.

#tarot.txt #aromantic #loveless #actually autistic #queer #voidpunk

[fandomsareforlife]

For the oc ask game...

I don't know who those people that you mentioned in the tags are... or at least I don't remember them?

But uh, it says that if u don't know, then just ask-

Yeah hi

I'm asking 👈(" ⁰ ∇ ⁰ "👈)

Hello, my friend! I have actually mentioned one of my OC’s before, Eugene Techno, in detail. You can find it here!

However, my other ones are all but a mystery to you, I have realized. As such, I am finally committing my ideas to paper. I will not be going super in depth, solely so this way you don’t have to read like an essay. I will be talking briefly about the history of them and their creation.

Also, these are all based off their personality traits/backstory in my A-Z series, so some things may be retconned/changed in other series/stories. Just roll with it, okay?

So let’s get started.

Selena Darkley Oppenheimer

Pronouns: She/Her

Let’s start things off with probably one of my first OC’s for Ninjago. She is Shade’s big sister and in some aus Ultra Violet’s twin and is 22 years old at the time of the Tournament Of Elements. She’s the same age as Griffin, Ash and Chamille. She is also the master of spirits.

(Also she and Griffin used to pretend to date since they were expected to get married at a young age.)

She has definitely been through some changes. For one, she actually used to be Shade’s twin sister, but then I realized I liked the idea of her being an older sister more.

Some things about her is that, like her siblings, she is part-phantom, which means that for her magical rituals relating to the body, soul and life force are much easier than they are for others. She is fairly tall at about 5 foot 9 inches.

She is definitely not a great influence on Shade, but she tries. She truly does try, but unfortunately her growing up very independent makes it hard for her to be able to care for a small human.

She’s aromantic and allosexual, cause we need more aroallo rep in stories. Not great at flirting, but will do so if needed.

Zevon Turner

Pronouns: He/Him

Now, you might look at the last name and go, “Hey isn’t there a guy named Griffin Turner?” And to you I saw, yes. Yes there is.

He’s Griffin twin brother, and is affectionately know as the evil twin. He’s definitely more willing to cause chaos than Griffin, but that’s a story for a different time. He is also the taller twin, which isn’t saying much considering he’s barely any taller but he is fine with that.

He is very much a fighter. His specialty with magic is combat magic, so spells that can be useful in a fight. Specifically, ones that affect time and genera combat spells, such as cutting spells.

Also, he is the designated earth science nerd since his brother is not willing to be it.

Elijah Paleman (edited)

Pronouns: He/They

Elijah is Paleman’s older sibling, by two years. He used to be called Xavier/Anthony, but I decided that Elijah was cooler. (+I decided to have Xavier added to my name hoard and wanted to give homage to a lot of creators who use Elijah as Paleman’s first name.) He is also dating Zevon, cause I said so.

(Also, quick note: Elijah is fine with both masculine and gender neutral words being used in regards to him, but they usually just use whatever one he remembers exists.)

He is the tallest, because he has some giant blood in him, which meant that they managed to be six foot 3, which is pretty unheard of for Darkley’s graduates.

Elijah is very much the rich kid stereotype in the friend group. Their parents were not as focused on getting him able to survive by himself so much as getting him ready to take on the family business. (The family business is a tech/security company with some focus on fashion and various illegal things.) That meant that while he is definitely a decently skilled fighter and negotiator, their survival skills leave something to be desired.

His whole thing is being very good with tech. Unlike the rest of his friends, he doesn’t have a bunch of innate wild magic in him, which means that he doesn’t have the same issues as them with using tech, since he is part giant, which means that his magic doesn’t affect tech as much. Therefore he is the designated tech guy.

Also, just to let you know, he does actually try to be a good older sibling. Like they bought books on how to. And he and his brother get along great.

—-

Alright that is all of them! If you have anymore questions please feel free to direct them towards me, but note that I might take forever or answer.

#ninjago #oc #original character #Selena Darkley Oppenheimer #Xavier Paleman #Zevon Turner #I was going to add a picrew for this but I am lazy #I might do it later if I can find one that I like for Zevon #cause he has this very specific hairstyle that I can not find on any picrew #edited since I decided to change some deets on Elijah #and Selena

[hopeless-greyromantic]

♧ earwynn • 19 ♧

♧ e/em it/its ze/zim he/him ♧

♧ greyromantic + greysexual but i like to call myself aroallo adjacent (i don't id as ace but i do id as aro), lovequeer, romance + sex favorable ♧

♧ i support all mspecs, aspecs, contradictory labels, and all weird hyper-specific genders ♧

♧ im here to make support for myself, and aces, aros and apls who are like me! im kinky, im sex favorable, im romance favorable, and i find comfort in the words greysexual and greyromantic to describe the ways my lack of attraction meshes with my kinkiness and desire for/ complicated experience with sex and romance! I've had a rough time understanding my aspec side, this blog is just for me to learn to find hope in being greyromantic and greysexual :) ♧

Header is the inaequic aroace flag by spirgender, icon is Chikorita in front of a new greyromantic flag (i can't find the creator), tag for my posts is "hopeful greyro"

#🍀

[emphasis-on-the-oopsie]

daisy for the oc ask im curious 👀 also any oc

Daisy - What inspired you to create your OC?

All of my ocs are inspired by me somewhat!

But other inspirations are

Cal: Flint Lockwood (i didn't do this one on purpose but they have similar energy)

Matilda: her hair was partly inspired by Carmen in Carmen Sandiego (2019), and hir hair was also supposed to be a more reddish/darkish orange. Possibly also inspired by Matilda from Matilda (1996) and Sam Sparks

(Caltilda was heavily inspired by Sparkswood lmao. Nd4Nd couples for the win)

Sol and Eros: i wanted an alloace and an aroallo friendship/relationship so badly, and for sol specifically i wanted to see an ace character being flirty and sexy but still being asexual

Saturn: dragons!!!!!!! This animatic for their appearance

A bunch of epithet erased ocs that i haven't named yet: their epithets ofc. One of them was inspired by jello (creator of ee) saying that some people discover their epithets late in life.

#my tma fankids are also lowkey inspired by linda and brian from LAOFR #*laoft #ask logan #ask games #neptune is based on eldritch horrors voidpunk and mad scientists #hotel to my trivago #astro's ocs

[astralaspecs]

You are not predatory for being alloaro.

Alloaro wlw are not inherently predatory.

Alloaro mlm are not inherently predatory.

Alloaro nblm, nblw, and nblnb are not inherently predatory.

Being alloaro does not make you a bad person and your sexual attraction with lack of romantic attraction is not a bad thing.

Banner from @twendercore

(You can rb if you arent alloaro but don't say a word on this post)

#mod shay #aromantic #allo aro positivity #aro positvity #alloaro #aroallo #aro wlw #wlw positivity #aro mlm #mlm positivity #aro nblm #aro nblw #aro nblnb #shay speaks #okay to rb #feel free to correct me if im wrong abt the banner creator but i honestly dont remember who made it or what url theyre at now #edit: i figured it out and edited the post #rb this version bls

[variant-archive]

♡♡♡

Hello! You can call me Roswell, or Ros for short. I collect variant terms as a special interest. For a more literal archival blog with tags and stuff I recommend @radiomogai. My main blog is @pastelroswell (cw for posts about adult topics and politics, blog is 80% memes, shitposts, positivity and aesthetic stuff though) and 18+ LIOM blog is @xemboy (WIP. If you're a minor and interact there I'll block you there AND here).

Check out my notion if you'd like. It has my term collection and other stuff about me. Please share your term collections with me so I can add to mine, it really helps! /nf

Synnimchro/Altechro (bodily 27). I'm spiritual alterhuman (autocosm, divinekin, dogkin, foxkin, fictionkin, +more). Godshard (of my metasoul). Furry/Postfurry.

I've been in the neolabel community for over a decade! I was here when MOGAI was coined. I'm also the creator of the queer, omni, xenogender, ficto, and altersex flags along with many other flags and terms. I've collaborated on many too. I feel that gender education is my life's calling and I hope to do much more work for the community in the future! ☆

My primary overall gender descriptor is xemboy. I'm an ambiguous, xenic, genderqueer, femme nymboy. I only use boy/dude/guy etc. and not man/male (including "mlm" even though I'm a guy gay for guys). My xenogenders mostly relate to love, divinity, space, and various cute things. I'm also xeneo-dimensen, xeneo-spiritine, xeneo-aurethesia, and xeneo-hedoxine.

I'm an aroallo bi gay. I also use gai, binotrix, floric, rosaen, queer, and homo. I'm POSIC and objectum. My primary attraction and relationship type is queerotic. I do not experience platonic or romantic attraction, but what I experience is indeed love and I'm polyamorous and happily partnered. ♡

I'm altersex (morphisex, phantasex). Atypically hormonally transitioned, paraphoric, and comfortably non-op/transine. AGAB nonconforming.

I use he/him, ae/aer, and ne/nym/nys pronouns and I dabble in others on occasion.

I'm autistic + ADHD-I, and I also have C-PTSD, DPD, dysthymia, and multiple OCD-spectrum disorders. I have other ambiguous or subclinical issues too. I'm also diagnosed with fibromyalgia/FMS. I am legally recognized as being disabled and I can't work.

Check my notion (linked above) for my full term/identity collection. This is a summary.

Special interests are psychology, philosophy, spirituality, nature, aesthetics, and identity of course. Always down to talk about them.

I am an anti-radqueer radinclus.

♡♡♡

DNI:

bigots in regards to any marginalized group. For example, sexist, ableist, racist, transphobic, classist, biphobic, etc.

exclusionist (anti-endo, transmeds, anti-mspec gay/lesbian, aspec exclus, microlabel exclus, xeno exclus, objectum exclus, etc.)

against the use of femboy, androgyne, genderfae, or queer in good faith.

condone or participate in harassment or bullying or abuse towards anyone. Criticism is totally fine of course, there's a difference.

if the blog you're interacting from is primarily a discourse blog. I just don't want to see it, it's bad for my mind.

MAP/pedo, zoophile, necrophile, incest/consang, or create/condone/consume content supporting or catering to these things (including in fiction and ships).

Radqueer. Transspecies, harmless things like transvoice etc. and all consensual paraphilas are ok though! :)

anti-chronosian.

anti-POCD/ZOCD.

anti-BIID.

anti-informed selfdx.

anti-leftism or pro-capitalism.

are a cop apologist/sympathizer.

anti-drug user. This includes stigmatized medications, illegal drugs, and vaccines. I use cannabis and will tag any mention with "drugs cw".

anti-furry or see it as inherently NSFW.

you can interact if you're a minor but please don't try to befriend me. You can ask questions, ask for advice, ask for help coining something or making a flag, and we can chat about terms/identity/special interests and stuff. I care about y'all but please understand I'm paranoid about this because I have some trouble with boundaries and I overcompensate by being overcautious. Socializing publicly (in asks/replies/reblogs) is fine and welcomed!

Minors can (and should) ignore under the cut as it is specific about adult topics.

- practice kinks in harmful or irresponsible ways, or allow this (for example, not ensuring informed consent among all involved, practicing kinks while being unaware or heedless of the risks and safety protocols putting others in danger, spreading harmful misinformation, discussing kink with minors, posting kink content in non-kink tags or not mature filtering your kink account/content).

- are anti-kink, especially if you are intent on severing the kink and queer communities from one another's shared history. You may have an opposition to certain specific kinks for your own reasons, I'm fine-ish with that I guess, but you can't be against *most or all* kinks or against the concept, practice, or the kink community itself, or if you think that a person who is queer and sees their kink identity as part of their queerness isn't allowed to do so. Kink pride is valid af.

- if you're against kink at pride (when it's just people wearing their gear to show pride, obviously not sexual activity in public unless it's a space/event specifically for doing that).

- are anti-sex work(er) or think that being a sex worker makes you "tainted" or a walking NSFW entity. Your job isn't who you are.

- if you are against kink/sex related identity terms such as genders, alderns, allions etc

#not archive #pinned #do not reblog

[saffigon]

So I recently decided to define myself as straight. I had been defining myself as lesbian, nblw, neptunic, etc for the last 5 years, but recently I found myself finding comfort in being a straight transmasc person*. It took me a long time to find comfort in that, for a few reasons really:

1. I felt like I was no longer queer enough if I was a straight masculine person

2. I felt predatory being a straight masculine person

Despite being trans and aro, I always felt that if I was giving up being a queer person if I said I was a straight masculine person. Yes I am trans, yes I am aro, but that still didn't feel enough if I said I was straight. There seems to be negative attitudes towards queerhet, transhet, enbyhet, arohet, acehet, and mspec people in LGBTQ, MOGAI, GRSM, and/or queer communities.*

I think that, to a degree, we have lost the point as to why straight people cause problems. It is not the orientation itself that is the problem, it is the privilege/people behind it. (Cis)Straight(Allo) people have historically caused problems for our community, made it harder for us to be ourselves, etc etc. But straight queer, straight trans, straight aspec, and mspec people also suffer from those problems that CisHetAllo people have brought. We are not a part of the problem of straight people, we just have attraction to genders unlike our own.

I am in no way saying that straight people are oppressed as a whole, only mentioning that queer people, whether they be trans, aspec, or mspec, are experiencing rejection and negativity in the queer community due to their straightness.

Secondly, men and masculine people approaching love and/or relationships in any way has been painted as predatory, especially if their orientation includes women and feminine people. I understand where this stigma comes from; men and masculine people have been predatory in the past, but to paint all attraction towards women and feminine people from men and masculine people as predatory or gross hurts men and masculine people.*

And of course this is especially common in aroallo communities where there is already a negative stigma for all aroallos, but the compounded issues of men and masculine people being seen as predatory for their attraction to women and feminine people and the negative stigma of aroallos using people for sex creates an especially negative space for straight aroallo men and masculine people

My attraction to women, because I am a masculine person that is aro but not ace, is seen as inherently negative and predatory.

Calling all straight people gross is isolating for your trans, aspec, and mspec siblings. It is telling people that their attraction is wrong inherently and that their queerness cannot makeup for them being straight. It is telling women and feminine people their attraction to men and masculine is inherently gross and men and masculine people that their attraction to women and feminine people is inherently predatory, which is TERF rhetoric.

This is all to say that straight people in the queer community, whether they be trans, aspec, or even mspec people are negatively effected by labeling all straight people as bad or negative while ignoring the real issues that CisHetAllo people bring.

It is also to once again bring to light the negative connotations of men and masculine people being attracted to women and feminine people.

I also understand that all of these things that are things that have been said before. I am not the creator of these thoughts, merely just a person who has experienced them and regurgitating them.

And this is all coming from a straight transmasculine nonbinary person who is aro but not ace. I wanted to point out the things I've noticed on my journey to identifying with a straight identity. This isn't necessarily something that is meant to call out people or be negative, but more a different perspective that people might want to think about as they navigate queer spaces.

*I will not be saying I'm a transman or transguy because I don't necessarily feel like those terms are entirely accurate of my own experiences. My relationship with being a man is still complicated and I feel more comfortable saying transmasc person or masculine person, though these can also be placed with the word man/guy for other's experiences.

*Mspec people of course are not inherently straight, but may experience some of these same things because of their inclusion of attraction to genders unlike their own in their attraction. This includes things like mspec people in relationships with genders unlike their own or "straight passing" relationships, or mspec people expressing attraction or happiness to genders unlike their own.

*When I'm saying men and masculine people and women and feminine people in this instance it is inclusive of nonbinary people, feminine men, and masculine women. That does not necessarily mean that feminine nonbinary people are women lite, masculine nonbinary people are men lite, or that masculine women are men or feminine men are women, but instead talking about how the dynamic of masculine people liking feminine people and how that is treated regardless of gender.

#transhet #queerhet #enbyhet #arohet #acehet

[aro-and-tired]

Aromantic Experiences in Fandom: Survey Results

PART 1 - PART 2 - ANALYSIS: TIME IN FANDOM - ANALYSIS: AROALLOS VS AROACES

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.

Demographic questions

Question 1: How old are you?

15 or younger - 14.7%

16-20 - 47.1% (largest group by age)

21-25 - 25.9%

26-30 - 8.3%

31-35 - 2.7%

36-40 - 1.1%

41-45 - 0.1 % (one person)

51-55 - 0.1% (one person)

Question 2: Which arospec identities to you identify with?

Considering the identities I had given as options, from most to least used:

Aromantic - 80.5%

Arospec - 28.7%

Questioning - 11.7%

Demiromantic - 11.1%

Greyromantic - 10.9%

Quoiromantic or WTFromantic - 7.2%

Aroflux - 4.3%

Cupioromantic - 4%

Aegoromantic - 3.9%

Aroqueer - 3.3%

Lithromantic or Akoiromantic - 2.8%

Nebularomantic - 1.9%

Apothiromantic - 1.2%

Arospike - 0.7% (6 people)

In addition, to these, most commonly added identities were Freyromantic, Belluromantic and Reciproromantic. Various over identities were added by various participants.

Question 3: Which of the following do you identify with?

Aroace - 51%

Aromantic Allosexual - 16.8%

Angled or Oriented Aroace - 12.9%

Questioning - 8.2%

Non-SAM Aro or Just Aro - 6.3%

I don’t identify any of these - 4.8%

General Fandom Questions

The first question in the fandom section was a check to see whether or not the participants were currently involved in fandom spaces. 96.6% (885) respondents said they are involved with fandom. 3.4% (31) respondents said they are not involved with fandom.

Involved in fandom: yes

Question 1: For how many years have you been involved in fandom?

1 or less - 4.1%

2-3 - 20.1%

4-5 - 26.8% (largest group by time spent in fandom)

6-7 - 19.7%

8-10 - 16.3%

11-15 - 8.5%

16 or more - 4.5%

Question 2: In general, would you say fandom spaces are aro-friendly?

Unsure - 45.9%

No - 43.6%

Yes - 10.5%

Question 3: If you answered no on the previous question, can you elaborate on why?

419 people offered a comment to this question. For starters, different people meant different things when they stated that fandom spaces aren’t aro-friendly. Some said that they feel fandom is not actively aro-unfriendly, but not friendly either - aro-tolerant, is how someone put it. Others instead found fandom spaces to be actively arophobic. Some people also specified that it depends on which fandoms one considers, with some fandoms being more friendly than others.

Almost everyone mentioned shipping as the first reason why fandom spaces are not aro-friendly. This ranged from people who enjoy shipping, but still feel that there is too much emphasis on it, from romance repulsed people who feel extremely alienated due to how common shipping is. The prevalence of shipping means that gen fics are rarer and receive less attentions. In general, it feels as if platonic relationships are seen as inferior to romantic ones and not worth of being explored.

It was also commented upon that some popular tropes can have arophobic connotations. Various participants mentioned soulmate AUs and Hanahaki disease as common tropes that some aros are very uncomfortable with, or that often have arophobic themes in the way they are used.

Many people also stated that they feel as if aromantic headcanons are less respected than other kinds of headcanons. They may receive less attention, especially from alloromantic fans, and at times even get rejected from fandom. Some aro people have reported having been accused of homophobia for headcanoning members of popular M/M or F/F ships are aromantic (or even just not shipping said ships), and accused of erasing gay people’s sexuality even when their aro headcanons concern characters with no canon sexuality.

On the flip side, the rare aromantic representation that exists is often not well respected by alloromantic fans. Many aros have said that it makes them uncomfortable to see allo fans ship aro characters, but their concerns are also often dismissed by allo fans as simple drama. Some people have even reported being themselves called arophobic by those same alloromantic shippers for being uncomfortable with shipping aro characters - the logic used being, that since some aromantic people enjoy dating, it is arophobic to be uncomfortable with aro characters being shipped. It is particularly hurtful that the same fans who get up in arms about respecting the sexualities of canon gay or lesbian characters and become very angry if someone ships them with a character of the other binary gender are often the same people who happily ship aro characters and ignore any argument made by aromantic fans.

Overall, many aromantic people feel that fandoms can be fairly amatonormative, if not straight up arophobic, and that their identities are often not respected and seeing as more trivial than shipping characters together.

Question 4: Do you think it's easy to find aromantic specific content in fandom?

No - 86.9%

Unsure - 7.2%

Yes - 5.9%

Question 5: Do you think alloromantic (non-aromantic) fans are in general respectful of aromantic interpretations of characters/media?

No - 56.7%

Unsure - 34.5%

Yes - 8.8%

Question 6: Have you ever received arophobic hate or harassment over something relating to fandom (aromantic headcanons, aromantic fancontent, etc.)?

No - 82.1%

Yes - 17.9%

Involved in fandom: no

Only 31 people stated that they are not currently involved in fandom spaces and answered the following questions. This is a fairly small sample. The answers here are reported, but it’s possible that they may not reflect actual trends.

Question 1: Have you ever been involved with fandom before?

Yes - 83.9%

No - 16.1%

Question 2: Is the fact that you are aromantic part of the reason you don't frequent fandom spaces? 

No - 58.1%

Yes - 41.9%

Question 3: From what you have seen, do you think fandom spaces in general are welcoming to aro people?

No - 48.4%

Unsure - 48.4%

Yes - 3.2% (one person)

Question 4: If you answered no to the previous question, can you elaborate on why? 

17 people answered this question. As a general rule, people here had stronger opinions regarding the prevalence of arophobia in fandom compared to those who are currently involved in fandom. Many of them said that they were either personally harassed for being aro when they were in fandom, or that they have witnessed this harassment from the outside. They also mentioned the prevalence of discourse in fandom spaces, with many exclusionists running fandom blogs.

One again, shipping was the most common reason given for fandom spaces being potentially alienating for aro fans, both its prevalence and the existence of things such as ship wars. A few people also mentioned having seen aro headcanons being called homophobic. Soulmate AU and Hanahaki disease were also mentioned as aro unfriendly tropes, and one person also brought up the matchmaker trope.

Someone also mentioned that in addition to aro unfriendly, fandom can also be ace unfriendly, and that asexual headcanons can receive the same backlash as aromantic headcanons. Another person said that while sexual content is common in fandom spaces, most of it is fundamentally alienating to romance repulsed aros, as sexual content almost always involves a romantic component.

Part 1 Summary

Overall, nearly half of aromantic respondents, both those involved and not involved in fandom, state that they feel fandom spaces are not aro-friendly. There’s also a fair number of people who are unsure, and only a minority feels that fandom spaces are friendly to aromantic fans. The amount of shipping that occurs in fandom spaces is mentioned as primary reason why aro fans feel alienated in fandom, especially romance repulsed aros. Many people also mentioned an attitude towards dismissing aro fans, if not straight up harassing them. Fandom arophobia has been remarked upon by various people, and in some occasions led to aro fans leaving fandom entirely.

The majority of fans agree that it’s hard to find aromantic specific content in fandom. A little more than half also states that alloromantic fans are not respectful of aromantic interpretations, with less than 10% of aro fans definitely stating that they believe alloromantic fans support their interpretations.

Lastly, a little less than one fifth of respondents stated that they received harassment due to aromantic headcanons, fancontent, or the likes.

Find Part 2 here

#aromantic #arospec #fandom #survey results