#i should have just labelled this ace books bc there's no aro ones here (from the info i have) : | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

atalana · 4 years

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I understand that your only source of representation is through Jughead, so how do you feel about people who ship him with other characters? Would you want them to stop?

i mean in an ideal world? absolutely yes

that said, i'm well aware i can't control much about the world outside of my own personal bubble, and people who ship jughead with other characters but stick to their own space aren't the biggest problem here? i'm not gonna go on a crusade to tear down any sectors of the archie and/or riverdale fandom with jughead ships, because honestly that sounds way too tiring and like, i'm sure i have things that i like to think and write about that other people would find infuriating, i don't wanna be a hypocrite and insist my way of doing fandom is the only way to do fandom

and the same goes for other fictional characters that are strongly implied to be aro/ace but 95% of the fandom has ships with them in, it gets on my nerves, but it isn't majorly harmful

the biggest problem, honestly, when it comes to jughead specifically, is riverdale, for bringing archie comics back into the public consciousness and pretending to be supportive of lgbt+ rights, and then at the same time erasing jughead's canon sexuality. like, this has been less of a problem in recent years bc from what i've seen the show has made a fool of itself in lots of other ways? but for people who do still watch it, just remember, no matter how many gay characters they include, they do not support this community. they include gay characters because it's become socially acceptable to include one or two and pretend like you're a paragon of representation. they're not. they're cowards who do not care about us

but when it comes to fandom, here's what is a problem when dealing with aro/ace representation, and things i'd like all fandoms to work on:

stop assuming that everyone needs sex or romance to be complete, stop assuming that any kind of positive relationship between two non-related characters must be romantic. like please. im so tired. people exist in this world who would be actively worse off in any romantic/sexual relationship, even a loving one, than they would be on their own. acknowledge these people exist, and maybe, just maybe, consider them in your sexuality headcanoning. (do you know how much it hurts to see someone make a sexuality headcanon page of a fandom with like 20+ characters and all of them are gay bi or pan? like representation for all of those are great as well, you should include them, but don't do so at the cost of excluding us. if your only reasoning behind headcanoning a character as bi is "they have Bi Vibes and I Want To", why is it so hard to make one or two of them ace or aro or both?)

people who have no interest in the opposite gender are both gay and aro/ace coded. it's something i've found constantly, whenever even a hint of aro/ace representation shows up, there's gonna be a very loud section of the fandom who insists they can't be aro/ace because they're gay coded, and making them aro/ace would deny representation. these people's only argument? they showed no interest in the opposite (binary) gender. guess what guys! that can be both! and insisting it's only gay is honestly aphobic as fuck and you will instantly lose my respect

same goes for characters who in canon show no interest in anyone at all. you'd think this would be a stronger argument for them being aro/ace than for them being gay, but not for these people! and like, this isn't me saying gay people can't relate to characters, of course do what makes you feel better, but i'm just asking for you to make space for us and acknowledge we're here. let the people with aro/ace headcanons feel just as acknowledged and validated as the people with gay headcanons, instead of shunned and like no one wants them around

(i still lose followers any time i make an aro/ace positive post. which honestly only makes me more incentivised to keep doing it. i'm here i'm queer and i'm not going anywhere, the hill i've chosen to die on is protecting younger aro/ace people and fighting for their rights and good luck knocking me down)

this does include the archie fandom, by the way. i'm assuming you sent this because you saw my post from 3-4 years ago about jughead being canonically aro/ace? well, there are plenty of people who angrily told me that jughead, a character explicitly said in the text to be aro/ace, was gay coded and i was being homophobic. like fucking stop it.

if you're genuinely interested in being a good ally to aro/ace people, and i really do appreciate that you've asked this!! here's a few things you (and the fandom at large) can do:

make space for aro/ace people in your headcanons, even if you're not aro/ace yourself. honestly, while this is a personal opinion, i don't even mind if your understanding of what being aro/ace is is slightly wrong? i mean if you wanna explore that in depth, doing research is better than not doing research (my ask box is always open), but i'm just happy to see anyone be inclusive, those people are the good people in my book

make space for aro/ace people in your jokes and memes. we like to have fun too! i'm still never really gonna get over the gay alignment chart meme, like... they had two separate squares for gay and lesbian, one for bi/pan, and none for aro or ace. that pretty much sums up everything wrong with representation at the moment. if you had to stick to three for the sake of the meme template, gay/lesbian, bi/pan, and aro/ace would have been much fairer. and yeah it's just a meme but like... we shouldn't only be on people's minds when things are serious

stop making all your aro/ace headcanons jokes. don't headcanon horrible real life people as aro/ace. be careful that your aro/ace headcanons aren't entirely children or robots. like, you can headcanon those characters as aro/ace, but if you're exclusively doing that, you're not really seeing us as people

(i have... complicated thoughts about spongebob apparently being canonically aro/ace. but i wouldn't hold that up as the pinnacle of representation)

(also despite many assholes' insistence to the contrary, being aro/ace isn't an 18+ identity. if a 12 year old can be gay a 12 year old can be aroace. they may not have discovered the sexual part yet but they can still know the romantic part. every sexuality goes through this same persecution why are even gay people still passing it down)

aro/ace people can be happy, well adjusted, non traumatised adults! many of us are! go make some headcanons of that!

while just aro or just ace people definitely do exist, and you can headcanon characters as such, some of us don't split those labels (i just use aroace for myself bc it's one thing, like how bisexual and biromantic people just go by bi). make sure you have some aro/ace people in the mix there, and you're not falling into the pitfall of using our identities only to make Gay Lite(TM)

don't let people walk all over us. we had a really thriving community back in 2013, and then the exclusionists came in and completely wiped it out. i saw it happen. they've faded into the background but only because 90% of aro/ace people are now scared to speak up on their own behalf. encourage aro/ace people to share their experiences if they want to, encourage aro/ace headcanons where you see them, make sure your fandom is a space where aro/ace people want to be. and if you see people being exclusionists (laughing at aro/ace people like they're cringy, pretending like aro/ace people are stealing non existent resources from gay people, or calling aro/ace people homophobic for existing are big weapons of the exclusionists), don't pretend it's just an argument or "discourse", let them know they don't belong. we can only fight so hard on our own behalf, we're a community for a reason. we're in this together

research, read, and most importantly, have fun with it. that's what fandom's for. if the only way you get enjoyment out of characters is by putting them in ships, try exploring a different, non romantic angle, and see what happens. encourage different forms of relationships. encourage aro/ace characters who are happy and secure in their own identity. encourage aro/ace characters having the same emotions as everyone else, just without the being attracted to people part. we're cool people! and ultimately, ship what you want. but just remember we're here, we're desperately in need of representation, and we can't make that happen on our own

#asexuality #asexual #aromantic #jughead jones #archie comics #representation #words #ask

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