#i think the characters are word of god aroace but like there's no indication of anyones sexuality at all or amatonormativity or anything | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sazandorable · 4 years

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things I wanna see in ace fanworks!

It’s Ace Week!

And there’s huge variety among the aspec community (spectrum! that’s what it means!), so here’s a post about a variety of things I’d love to see more in fanworks involving asexual characters!

(I’m especially thinking of Jon from The Magnus Archives and Zolf from Rusty Quill Gaming, but this should easily apply across fandoms!)

I’ll try not to repeat it every line but: blanket disclaimer that this is very much a “what I feel, what I want, me, personally” post. Others (including other asexual people) might feel differently, and that’s perfectly okay. That’s kind of the point of this post! This is absolutely not a “here’s the one correct way to write all ace characters that all ace people will enjoy and agree with” Rules post — on the contrary, this is partly in reaction to seeing other people say that they dislike seeing, or don’t dare create, things that I, personally… desperately want to see, actually.

CW: this post will contain references to many common sources of trauma for asexual people, such as aphobia, partner abuse and rape, as well as sex (in general and sometimes in specifics) and asexual people having sex.

So! I, personally, love and would love to see more...

Fanworks by all sorts of asexual creators

No matter what your specific experience is, it is important, and your getting to create and share art about it is important, and you deserve to get that, and there are people interested in seeing it. And the same is true for all the other aces with different experiences, too.

Variety! Room for all of us! Share your experience happily, and let other aces happily share theirs!

Fanworks by allosexual creators

I’m so happy you’re interested in asexuality and in depicting it! I do want my experience to be normalised and seen as a normal thing that anyone can find interesting and relatable, even allosexual people. If you don’t mean to be an asshole about it, if you’re generally interested in exploring asexuality and you’re doing it from the heart, thinking of asexual people as people — then I want to see it, and I want you to be able to give a try to creating or consuming whatever you want, and I do not want you to be attacked for doing it.

Of course, you might still unwittingly fuck up, and people might still get hurt, and truly hurtful things should still be pointed out in order to be improved on; but I want us as a community to help creators up instead of shouting down, and I hope you continue putting thought into creating fanworks involving ace characters.

Keep reading for some tips and suggestions of things to think about, to keep in mind and to look into to improve your representing of us and our experience of it!

Extremely specific, different, kinda weird, niche, Problematic™ content, from creators of any identity (including questioning!), who are wary about sharing it because they think that there’s no audience for it, or that they’re not allowed, or that it’s a bad and evil way to represent asexuality

I want to see that, I’d be thrilled if you did it, I hope you do it, and I want a fandom environment in which you can do that safely because you deserve to. Of course, make sure to provide good tagging and CW!

Awareness that asexuality is a wide varying spectrum of experiences and there is no One Correct or More Valid Way to depict it

Awareness that even people with the same identity, label and life experiences might want to create or consume different things

Permission for everyone to create whatever they like, so long as it’s just done earnestly

No shaming, gatekeeping, accusations of fetishising, etc.

There are newbie writers who will never learn if they’re scared away from trying; there are people who haven’t yet figured out that they are in fact ace and never will if they’re not allowed to explore it safely; there are ace people who consume ace content to feel good about themselves; there are ace people who create ace fic in order to explore complicated, hard, unpleasant experiences and feelings; there are ace people whose experiences do not match stereotypical narratives I’ve most seen brandished around, and those people are just as ace and just as allowed to create and consume whatever they want; I do not want to foster a fandom environment in which people must out themselves and offer up their experience to scrutiny in order to be “allowed” to write certain topics; etc., etc.

Over the past two years, I’ve regularly seen a lot of yelling along the lines of “this work includes x and not x because this character is ace!” or “this fic I just read is the only valid ace fic” or “oh my god everyone look at this, this is the perfect ace fic”. A lot of it comes from a place of defensiveness and/or pride, ace people happy and proud to share something that was, finally, pinning down their experience. That’s awesome! ... For them. There are plenty of other asexual people who don’t relate to or enjoy those narratives — in fact, all the ones I’m thinking of squicked me hard, despite being made by ace creators and accurate to (an) ace experience, and I would be really unhappy if all ace fanworks was like those. Meanwhile, plenty of stuff I enjoy gets accusations of being fetishising.

So it would do a world of wonder for me and my experience of ace fanworks if those things could be internalised by the fandom as a whole!

Clear distinction between “being asexual” and “not interested in sex”, ”sex-repulsed” or “not having sex”

Those can and often do overlap, but the word “asexual” just means “experiencing little or no sexual attraction”!

In fanworks about an ace character, the two are generally linked and the reason a character doesn’t want to have sex tends to be that they’re ace, but the shorthand and immediate assumption that “being ace” automatically and always means “never having sex” or “hating the concept of sex” always feels a little weird to me.

This goes both ways — even if your aspec character is very sexually active and enjoys it, or if they’re demisexual and currently experiencing attraction to their partner, etc. — they’re still a person who experiences little to no sexual attraction in their daily life, they’re still aspec in a way that can be depicted and that I can be made to feel.

On AO3, widespread use of the tag “Canon Asexual Character”…

There are different views on the “correct” way to use that tag, in part because… what's the point of it? Should we use it in every single fic in which the Archivist appears, because he happens to be ace in the canon, even if it doesn’t come up in the fic?

IMO, it is helpful — it indicates to me that the author wrote their story with that character’s asexuality in mind, and it informed their writing of that character. Personally, I use it on fics where it feels “relevant” even if it doesn’t come up, such as a fic from Martin’s POV about Jon not being very touchy-feely (even though it doesn’t specify that that is because Jon is ace), but not a fic from Jon’s POV in which they’re happily living together but it’s not about the physical specifics of their relationship (even though in my head that relationship is non-sexual, but I could have written this specific fic the exact same way if Jon wasn’t ace).

The use or non-use of the tag can also simply help distinguish fanworks that were created and posted before that revelation, and did not depict that character as ace because the creator genuinely wasn’t aware of it.

… but also more detail than that, for instance: tagging the “shade of ace” the character is written as

A few examples:

#aroace Jon

#demisexual biromantic Jon

#greysexual nonbinary Jon

#sexually active kinky asexual Jon

#sex-positive low-libido Jon

#touch-averse Jon

#sex-uninterested ace demiromo Jon in happy QPR with Martin

#sex-repulsed sub Jon gets creative

#aspec Jon experiences sexual attraction for the first time and it’s for freaking Elias of all people oh God oh no

etc., etc.

Those are VERY different things! There’s some I’d be delighted to read, some I’m not interested in, and some that would actively squick me personally for personal reasons but I can think of some friends of mine that would be super happy to see it.

If you don’t know or aren’t sure of the exact terms, or if you wrote a relatively broad scenario and want to let people project any labels on it, you can also just describe what the situation is or how you depicted your character relating to things. That’s still very helpful. For instance:

#Jon doesn’t like kissing but cuddles good

#the struggle of NOT liking touching but craving intimacy

#Jon and Tim pointing at each other like spiderman meme, same hat?? how??

#Daisy and Basira have no idea how to explain their relationship and it’s none of your business

#Zolf is just tired and wants people to stop prying into his love life

etc., etc.

More awareness that there’s plenty of stuff about the ace experience that, while very common, can be squicky or even traumatic, and more tagging/warning about that

Here’s some other things that are common to the ace experience and commonly depicted in fanworks involving ace characters, and that can be genuinely upsetting and potentially triggering and traumatic, whether or not an ace person has encountered it in their own life (lots of CWs in this list, obviously):

encountering aphobia, even clueless and well-meaning

having internalised aphobia, aphobic thoughts, self-hatred, feeling broken or strange

social pressure to have sex or relationships, people being invasive or judgy about others’ love life, feeling disconnected from allo people

trying things out just to see

having sex

enjoying sex

forcing themself to have sex

referring to past sexual experiences as something that they didn’t enjoy

being emotionally pressured into having sex

wanting to please their partner despite not desiring sex

feeling an obligation to satisfy their partner

the prospect of romantic rejection for their asexuality

the idea that they must earn love

the idea that getting their boundaries respected is something exceptional and rare and an incredible sacrifice from their partner

being sexualised by someone else or the object of someone’s fantasies

wanting sex or experiencing sexual attraction for the first time

etc., etc.

Two concepts here that are both simultaneously true: 1) those are indeed very common to the real life experience of ace people, 2) it is possible to depict the ace experience without tackling any of that.

Of course, you can have all that! You can create content about that! That’s very relatable for a lot of people, and that last one, for instance, can in fact be an accurate and important depiction of demisexuality. But it’s also not a given that a fictional work about asexuality will/should depict it, and not a given that all ace people looking for ace content will want to see any item from that list. So please, give content warnings for all that, too.

It would be a tremendous help in curating and improving my experience if this could become a widespread habit — I have lost count of the amount of fics tagged as fluffy that I had to backbutton out because they suddenly threw in something really depressing that I, personally, didn’t want to see happen to a character I project on (while other readers found catharsis, validation and kinship in seeing their experience represented accurately!).

If it does come up, tags about what comes up

Beyond the content warnings for clearly traumatic stuff, is there “#Discussion of asexuality”? Is it “#Coming out as asexual”, or “#Jon discovers the existence of asexuality”? Is there “#Acephobia” (“#Accidental”? “#Casual”? “#Internalised”?)? Is there “#Explanation of asexuality to a clueless partner”, or “#Jon’s partner tells him about asexuality”? Is there “#Relationship negotiation”?

Since, again, not all aces have the same experience, odds are that some people will JUMP happily on content depicting a specific experience which they relate to... and inversely: again, there’s some of that which I personally do not relate to and actively do not want to read.

Detailed tagging is a huge help for me to figure out if a fic about asexuality is going to squick me and make me sad for the evening because ah I am weird after all even amongst my brethren, or if it’s going to be, finally, my heart’s desire, what I’ve been craving for, and make my entire week. (Sidenote, thanks to good tagging I did find the perfect QPR fic I’d been yearning to read last week and I’m still thinking about it right now and so, so, so happy.)

Making it clear when an ace character is going to be having sex — beyond just the ship tag and rating

Reminder that a fic rating alone does not necessarily mean sex! A fic tagged just “#JonMartin” and rated Explicit could have them in a relationship and then an explicitly detailed scene in which Jon dies a excruciatingly gruesome death, or a graphic scene of Martin having some solo fun, or even another character, or a sex scene between another tagged ship.

With smut involving an ace character as with everything else, there are lots of us that do want to see it (for a wide variety of reasons), and obviously there are lots of us that desperately want to avoid it (but might be in the Explicit tag looking for smut involving other ships, or horror or whump content, etc.) — please help us know whether to click or not click!

The normalisation of not expecting/forcing anyone to do things they don’t actively want to do

There’s a relatively common thing in heartwarming ace fic where the ace character is surprised that their allo partner is fine with dating without having sex and the partner goes, “I love you, of course I’m fine with that” and the ace character is all oh, oh, oh I am loved and respected, did not expect that. Or an allo character saying “That’s fine, I don’t make you do anything you don’t want to do,” or “I don’t want to do anything unless you’re into it!”

And I see how it sounds nice and romantic. It probably is to many people. But it can also be extremely sinister and anxiety-inducing in its implications: what if the partner didn’t love the ace character quite that much? What did the ace character expect? If this is amazing and rare, then what was the baseline expectation? If this ace character has dated before, what were their past relationships like, for this to be surprising?

I end up running into it more in fluffy fanworks about asexuality than in fanworks that aren’t. Again — you can absolutely do that, but please tag/warn for it; even if it’s just in passing, in fluff fic it’s really not something I expect from the genre. Even though I might sometimes be specifically in the mood to read an exploration of that, in dark fic or in hurt/comfort fic!

And now for more specific stuff I wanna see in stories:

This last bit is intended as both an encouragement for people who want to create these things and think there’s no audience (there is!!), and as a box of ideas for people who have no idea how to depict the asexuality of characters but want to :3 Again, this is not in any way a statement that these are The Only Correct Way, or even things that all aspec people want to see, nor is it a diss at people who create, consume or want the exact opposite of these things — for that matter, some of the items on this list are mutually exclusive. It’s just my own tastes and literally just stuff I personally would love to see (more).

Ace character being single, happy to be single, and happily ace

Asexuality being written in but a complete non-issue, not discussed, not brought up, not even to reassure the ace character that It Is Fine

Ace character being flippant and snarky about their asexuality, making jokes and memes about it

Ace character not caring about other people’s perception of them at all

Ace character feeling only pride and happiness and comfort about that label

More than one ace character! Extra love for them having some similarities and also some differences!

Intersectionality: ace character being also aro, trans, nonbinary, bi or pan, polyamorous, kinky, a drag queen, a dom or sub, neurodivergent, disabled, non-white, … ; asexuality being just one part of their identity

Asexuality being queer and belonging to the LGBT+ community in itself; a character being cis, aro or heteroromantic, and ace, and “counting” as “queer enough”

Flirty ace character

Confident, self-comfortable ace character

Ace character considering their specific experience to be perfectly normal and not unique, if not typical

Ace character enjoying something that is commonly considered to be sexy or sexual, but it isn’t for them — such as wearing makeup or lingerie, going clubbing, pole-dancing, massages…

Ace character happily dating someone who is not aspec

I like the thought that it’s possible! I personally like this more than I like fanworks about two aspec people dating. I like it when the ace character is happy to adapt to their allo partner’s requirements and I like it when the allo character is happy to adapt to their ace partner’s requirements and I like it when there are things that just do not match perfectly and that doesn’t put an end to the relationship.

Ace character having a lot of experience dating

Partner(s) already knowing about asexuality and not needing to have it explained to them

Partners just being like “*shrug* okay”, without making it a big deal that they’re “giving up” sexual intercourse

Ace character crushing and getting flustered over physical but non-sexual aspects of their love interest’s looks

Big strong hands, nice jaw, strong nose, long eyelashes, lovely profile, silky hair, lovely eye-colour, delicate wrists, muscles, long legs, collar bone, shoulder blades, squishy stomach, peek of bellybutton, freckles, moles, scars, …

Ace character daydreaming about their love interest in ways that involve zero physical attraction, thoughts about how pretty or handsome they are, or desire to touch them

Jon pining for Martin and just wanting to talk with him, have tea with him, hang out with him… not seeing how Tim is good-looking but being attracted to his humour and nerdiness… missing his relationship with Georgie because it felt nice to cook together and share clothes and watch the telly together… Zolf missing Hamid’s fiery passion or Wilde’s awful puns… being attracted to Cel’s liveliness and inventiveness… being charmed by Azu’s emotional intelligence or her unwavering certainty in her faith…

Smut involving an ace character

No shaming of fellow real living people about that

Not going to go into it again because plenty of us have been talking about that in this fandom for two years now — bottom line is there do exist plenty of asexual people that 1) do have sex IRL, 2) do want to consume smut, can we please, as a community, move past the “this is not smut because this character is ace!” passive-aggressive attacks already. (“I depict this character as not having sex because he’s ace and I’m ace and it makes me happy” is fine! Just don’t imply that that’s the only way to be ace and that other people are wrong to want something else.)

Ace character enjoying sex

Ace character being completely neutral about having or not having sex

Ace character disliking sex in the same way they dislike, idk, coffee. No, absolutely not, thank you, no concession, not for me, but also it’s nothing traumatic or moral or uncomfortable.

Sex being just a thing, not a big deal, having or not having it not being all that important

Ace character enjoying the concept of sex, abstractly. Ace character consuming porn, writing porn, being fine discussing sex with friends, having a dirty mind — just not wanting to be involved in it

Ace character having fantasies that disturb them

Ace character feeling arousal and being just *shrug* about it, not particularly disgusted, just uninterested

Arousal, libido, or masturbation as something different and separate from sexual attraction and desire to sleep with someone or to be touched

Ace character being kinky af

Ace character having multiple partners and different sorts of relationships with each!

Open relationships

Non-sexual romantic relationships

Queerplatonic relationships

COMMITTED!!! NON-SEXUAL AND NON-ROMANTIC!!! PARTNERSHIPS!!! AAAAAA [sobbing emoji]

Non-sexual physical intimacy

Hand-holding! Playing footsie! Cuddles! Hugging! Kissing! Super heavy making out and getting aroused but no sex! Sharing a bed! Lying on top of each other! Bathing or showering together! Giving each other a haircut or a shave! Massages! Non-sexual nudity!

Non-physical intimacy

Committed couple having separate beds/rooms! Getting married! Being in love and not kissing or touching! Loving long-distance relationships! QPR! Affection and closeness expressed through speech, gifts, services, time, shared activities — wearing each other’s clothes, cooking together, long emotional conversations, trust and secrets, love letters, post-it notes, “thought of you” gifts, celebrating anniversaries with a candle-lit dinner, co-parenting...!

Sexual situations with no touching

(CW bit detailed:)

Sexting, cybersex, phone sex, dirty talking, reading or watching porn (alone or together), consensual voyeurism like watching their partner masturbate or have sex with someone else, kink using toys and accessories or scenes but with no actual touching, …

Romanticised consent and boundaries

An asexual character being super firm about what they do not want and their allo partner being thrilled about that trust and communication!! An allosexual partner trusting their asexual partner about what they want without infantilising them or doubting their capacity to establish their boundaries! “Wait, you always say you don’t like [x]?” “Yes, but I feel like it right now, as I assumed would be pretty clear from the fact that I am doing [x] right now :w” “Hey, just checking, sue me :w” “Yes, thank you :w”

Specific boundaries

Cheek kisses but no lip kisses, no PDA, not having sex where they’re also going to sleep, needing a shower immediately after sex, lights off only, …

(CW more detailed:)

… not caring about feeling or seeing their partner’s hard-on but not wanting to do anything about it, penetration but no oral, bottoming but not topping, giving a blowjob but not having their head held, being fine with extreme acts but not liking fluids, pet names but no dirty talk, dirty talk but no pet names, happy to pleasure their partner but not wanting to be touched, not wanting to come, being only into sex as part of extreme kink but not interested in vanilla sex, …

Shifting boundaries and consent

Ace character likes kissing or cuddles but only on their terms — they will come give their partner a kiss sometimes but bristle at being touched. Today is not a kissing day. Today this ace character is a bit down and would like a lot of physical affection and cuddling. Certain areas are off-limits for touching because this ace character is sensitive on their thighs, ticklish in their ribs, self-conscious about their scars. This ace character considers their chest non-sexual so that’s fine but do not pat their butt.

Today, exceptionally, this ace character is horny and feels like banging. Ace character feels like banging sometimes but is not in the mood right now, bye. Ace character feels like banging from eight to nine pm every second Thursday of the month, catch it or miss it. Couple shares a shower every morning and it’s never meant to be a sexual thing, but today the ace one is getting aroused and hey, you know what, they’d like to get off right now. This massage is fantastic but it’s getting overwhelming, so they ask to stop (but it was great!). Ace character is intrigued about this particular scenario/position/kink and wants to try it out, they do, it’s perfectly nice, but hmm, once was enough, they’re not interested in doing it again. Ace character sexts their partner all day but by the time their partner has got home, undressed and prepared and pulled out the strap, they’ve lost interest.

♠♥ Thank you for reading all this! Hope this inspires people so I get more stuff that makes me happy! ♥♠

#ace week #asexuality #representation #the magnus archives #rusty quill gaming #a lot more TMA than RQG though #writing #fanfiction #happy end of ace week everyone!

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goron-king-darunia · 5 years

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xsuicunex2 reblogged your post:This just in: If you joke about being a pirate,...

Luffy is confirmed AroAce by Eiichiro Oda! He explicitly said "There will be no Romance in One Piece" since "Little boys (target reading demographic) aren't interested in that"

Luffy has had several characters in love with him, including Alvida who swore to marry him (because she adores strong men) and Boa Hancock (who initially hated that Luffy was not immediately entranced by her beauty.) Luffy has been shown to... "appreciate" the nude form of a woman (seen in a gag during the Alabasta Arc where Nami flashes the men in the crew who are peeping at her from the Men's Bath) To be fair, the flashing effects the entire crew, including Chopper who is adamant he's not interested in human women. This seems to indicate it's more for a gag than actual indication of Luffy's sexual preferences.

Nami, also, shows no real interest in partnering up with Luffy so the Luffy/Nami ship is just... well... non-canon as far as I can tell.

Generally speaking the two closest things we get to romantic/sexual characters are Chopper and Sanji. And Sanji just loves all women so he's like... hyper-straight. The straightest Straight. Straight with a Capital S. Str8. (Which makes the Sanji/Zoro ship hilarious to me)

Then there's Chopper who in later chapters meets and is shown to have a crush on a Reindeer Mink (basically a humanoid with animal features/furry/anthro) named Milky

Basically everyone else in the crew doesn't pursue or show interest in basically anyone else and most of their relationships are of the familial sort.

But at the very least, Luffy explicitly rejects several marriage proposals and does not seek out sexual or romantic interactions (Even in the Alabasta Arc Gag he's... just kinda there. Sanji is the one who asks where the women's bath is, and Usopp is the only one who shows genuine interest when they find out [King Cobra of all people says "Yeah, the women's bath is over there" and Usopp is like "I like this old guy." before they all go peek. I think in the anime they even show King Cobra peeking like... dude, that's your daughter and one other woman, what the fuck?)

So yeah. Sanji? Basically confirmed Straight. Usopp? Probs Straight. Zoro? Who knows. Appears to like Tashigi and possibly Kuina who was his childhood friend, but their relationships are murky and could easily be considered friendships. Chopper? Probably straight but definitely only interested in reindeer people. Brook? Straight or just a perv. Franky? Probably straight? Nami? NO ONE KNOWS. She mostly seems to enjoy flashing her own crewmates so she can charge them money for seeing her tits. That's literally all we know. Robin? BIGGEST FUCKING MYSTERY. I wanna say big lesbian vibes but I really can't.

But Luffy? ARO ACE. For sure. Likes food more than anything. Deffo has shown no interest in banging his crewmates. Wants to eat and sleep and go on adventures. Biggest concerns for 90% of the voyage was his hat, his crew, food, and having a musician in the crew. Genuinely does not treat men and women differently aside from one gag (the Alabasta thing) so far.

Like, Boa Hancock is considered the hottest woman in the world except for maybe mermaids and she straight up proposed to Luffy and he was like "Nah. Fuck that."

In the 6th movie where basically everybody dies on camera and Luffy has to watch? The most concern he showed was for Zoro and it was at least 50% because Zoro was the last one left that he thought he might be able to save. Literally the most subdued reaction was for Nami. And the other 50% was probably because Zoro was his FIRST crewmate.

Luffy is 900% about making friends, eating, and beating the shit out of assholes while having fun. I have never seen him give more than a passing glance at Nami's titties for ONE (1) gag. In fact, I genuinely believe he would only have a genuine interest in breasts as a source of milk. He literally cares that little.

I cannot say this enough. APART FROM ONE GAG, Luffy literally does not show any sexual or romantic interest in women or men and routinely rejects marriage proposals from two of the most beautiful women in the series.

TL;DR, Luffy is confirmed by word of God and 99.99999% of canon content to be aromantic and asexual

#xsuicunex2 #Replies with GKD #One Piece #Luffy is aroace #and here is my proof

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buffintruder · 6 years

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Hey! I just wanted you to expand on you're controversial topic about how "podcasts only use white names for characters and treat them as if they were white". Can I have a few examples? I'm just interested on what your points are. I don't really agree on this topic, but I would love to hear more so I can understand your reasoning! (If you'd want to expand you don't have too)

First of all, I just want to make it clear that I love these podcasts, and my complaint is meant as “here’s something that can be improved” rather than bashing. (Also, I don’t want to get into a big fight or receive lots of hate, so this is going to be the only anon on this topic that I’ll answer)

I don’t listen to a whole lot of podcasts, but the ones I’ve listened to that do this are Eos 10, the Bright Sessions, and the Adventure Zone (Balance).

One of my issues is with parts of the fandom. I’ve seen a couple people say something along the lines of “the podcast creators allow fans to visualize the characters however they want, so that counts as representation.” If the creators don’t explicitly say that a character is a person of color, they can’t get points for a racially diverse cast.

That’s because the thing about the English speaking world is that the default is white. If no indications of race are given, people will generally be assumed to be white. (This isn’t universally true; one thing I appreciate about the fandom for these podcasts is that a lot of the art I see isn’t white.) But because we live in the context of a white-dominated culture, no explicit representation is pretty much the same as no representation at all.

People of color deserve to be explicitly represented, and to have their experiences specifically shown in media.

One example is with names. In these podcasts, most of the characters have a European first and last name, or a completely made up one. In real life, there are a lot of people of color with European names, but there are also lots of people who you can tell aren’t white just by seeing their name. These people deal with extra issues, ranging from being mocked for their names to being less likely to get hired. Having good representation works to normalize people having non-European names and shows them as actual human beings with feelings, which is really important.

In the same way, there are other experiences specific to people of other races and cultures, whether it’s food or language or experiencing racism or self-perception or hair or values or something else. There are a million different ways that race and culture affect people of color, and it would be so nice to actually see some of them.

Like, if there is a female character that doesn’t ever have a love interest, it’s easy to headcanon her as gay or aroace or in someway not straight. While that’s fun, it’s a million times better if the creators write her as specifically not straight: if they give her a girlfriend, have her use a specific label to describe herself, or have that awkward moment when somebody asks “do you have a boyfriend?” and you have to figure out whether or not you want to say you aren’t straight, or something else.

I’m not advocating for characters whose biggest or only characteristic is their race, but I want to have characters that I relate to in ways that I usually can’t.

A lot of people in podcasting are starting to understand that it’s important for LGBTQ+ representation to be outright stated instead of implied or never talked about one way or the other. As someone who is queer, I am super happy about that. I’m just asking that people realize that the same thing applies to people of color (and other marginalized groups too, but this post is specifically about race).

And it’s not all bad. The Bright Sessions hires actors of color, which is very important. The Adventure Zone has been doing better in more recent arcs: Irene Baker/Kardala is indigenous, Nadiya Jones is half-Bangladeshi, Gandy Dancer is Asian, Errol Ryehouse is Latino, and Aubrey Little is word of god Puerto Rican. It’s just that it could be better, and I’d like the fandom to think a little more about it.

tldr: people of color deserve explicit representation, and leaving almost every character completely up to audience interpretation gets in the way of that

#anon #my post #eos 10 #taz #podcasts #the bright sessions

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marinsawakening · 5 years

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I didn’t wanna derail the post by @aroworlds I just reblogged, but while we’re on the topic of ‘what to add to a post recommending arospec rep in fiction’, I have a request: please clarify whether the rep is actually canon, confirmed by Word of God to be canon using the words actual identity labels like ‘arospec’, ‘demiromantic’, aromantic’, etc., confirmed by Word of God to be canon using vague descriptors like ‘they are more interested in x than romance’, or if the rep is simply coded.

That’s the short of it, the long of it is this:

(Vocabulary: ‘Word of God’ means that the author said it outside of the source material, like JKR confirming Dumbledore is gay but never actually putting it in the series. ‘Author’, in this case, refers more to a general ‘creator’ of a media, which may be the author of a book, or the production team of a movie, or whoever else created it.)

As an autistic aroace, I’m more than used to seeing myself coded into characters, usually not in a nice way. More often than not, the aro-, ace-, and/or autism-coding is used as a flaw to overcome in characters, or something to mark them as ‘other’ (a robot, an alien, etc). Even if the coding doesn’t end up coming across as negative, the odds of it actually being intentional are really very low. I think that the only time I’ve actually come across autism-coding that turned out to be intentional was in Anne Ursu’s The Real Boy (which is very good and you should read it). I’ve never come across aspec coding, of any kind, that turned out to be intentional (I’m sure it exists, I just haven’t seen it, which should probably make it clear how rare it is).

As such, seeing people recommend characters who are only coded as arospec as ‘canon aro rep’ really grates on me. There is a 99% chance that the author never intended for the character to be arospec, and now they’re getting the credit for creating one anyway. I understand that, oftentimes, arospec-coded characters are the closest we’re going to get to canon arospec rep, and I understand why people put these characters on lists when recommending media with arospec characters. But we can and should acknowledge that those characters do not count as canon rep unless they, at the very least, have been confirmed by Word of God to be canon. We need to hold creators to higher standards before giving them the credit for a diverse cast.

Jumping off that, I’m personally of the opinion that Word of God confirmation is not good enough unless the author had a damn good reason not to put the confirmation in the media itself, unfortunately, however, the vast majority of Word of God confirmations don’t seem to be so well-handled or necessary, especially not when it comes to arospec rep. For one, the word ‘aromantic’ (or another arospec identity label) is rarely used; instead we get vague descriptors like ‘x is too busy with y for romance’, which is, if you ask me, a giant cop-out if the character is being advertised as canon arospec rep. At worst, this indicates the author doesn’t actually know what aromanticism is, let alone that they’ve heard of any other arospec labels, and we end up latching on to ‘canon’ arospec characters who were never intended to be canon. At best, this means that the author does not deem it necessary to specifically use the rightful identity labels for a character; given the long history we have with unintentional arospec coding, the even longer history of obfuscation/general erasure of LGBT+ identities (especially bi/m-spec identities), and the general misinformation/lack of information about arospec identities, I’m sure I don’t have to explain why I stress the importance of actually using the right arospec labels when confirming a character as arospec.

If the author does explicitly use the right arospec labels, we then need to ask ourselves: “Did this author intend to write an arospec character, or did they accidentally write one and decided to confirm them as arospec after seeing how the character resonated with their arospec audience?” While I’d (obviously) prefer option a), that doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily wrong of the author confirmed a character as arospec only after seeing fan reactions. In fact, it’s nice to be listened to! However, if the rep wasn’t intentional, it’s very possible that there are some canon elements that clash with the confirmation; this can cause problems down the line, because not everyone will have knowledge of the Word of God confirmation.

This is actually my biggest gripe with Word of God confirmation as a whole; not everyone will have knowledge of it. To come back to my example of The Real Boy, if I hadn’t decided to google whether Oscar was canonically intended to be autistic, I would never have known that he was. AKA, if I hadn’t had a vested interest in autistic rep and a very strong suspicion that this couldn’t be on accident, I would never have known about the Word of God confirmation. If an allistic person had read that book, the chance that they would’ve actually picked up on the autism-coding is significantly lower, and the odds of them caring enough to look it up even lower than that, meaning that they won’t know that Oscar is canonically autistic. While I think the Word of God confirmation was very well-handled in this particular case, it still doesn’t manage to avoid this trap, because it’s one inherent to Word of God confirmation: Word of God only reaches hardcore fans who keep up with the announcements made by the author, or the people who get suspicious and care enough to go looking for confirmation that they’re right. For something as important as LGBT+ rep (or rep for other marginalized identities), I feel like it’s exceedingly important to have the rep be as undeniable as possible, especially in the case of arospec identities, who (alongside many other LGBT+ identities, such as the aforementioned m-spec ones, but also intersex, nonbinary, and honestly just everyone who doesn’t fit into common narratives of their respective communities) are often erased or ignored even among the LGBT+ community, and who suffer from a severe lack of representation in the first place.

Still, Word of God confirmation is better than nothing, and a Word of God confirmation that explicitly mentions arospec identities is definitely better than one that doesn’t.

This entire post became thrice as long and six times as rambly as I wanted it to be, but the tl;dr is this: there is a significant difference between media that directly acknowledges that a character is arospec in-text, and media that implies it and confirms this by Word of God, and media that simply implies it and nothing more. We should not give authors who only imply an arospec character and then only vaguely confirm it the same respect and credit as we give authors who straight-up state a character is arospec in canon. Since we have little to no mainstream rep to go off of, I don’t mind people putting characters who are only arospec-coded on lists of canon arospec characters, but at the very least, I want acknowledgement that they’re not on the same level.

Also, on a personal level, if I’m seeking out media specifically for arospec rep, I would rather avoid media where the rep is even somewhat ambiguous; I’m sick and tired of seeing my identity teased but not confirmed in canon, and I don’t want to see it rewarded with the same praise as media that actually takes the time to make my identity canon.

#aromantic #aro stuff #my posts #writing wise #ALSO I mostly ascribe to the 'death of the author' theory meaning that I disregard word of god pretty much entirley #(unless it has a significant basis in canon to begin with and can easily be read as canon even without the confirmation)#but i recognize that this is a personal choice and i'm not going to force people to forgo rep just bc it's not stated in-text in the media

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aroworlds · 6 years

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Aro-Spec Artist Profile: Signe

Today’s awesome aro-spec creator is Signe, better known to aro-spec Tumblr as @fluffyllamacorn!

Signe is a busy aroace writer, visual and textile artist! She writes for the Young Avengers, The Shadowhunter Chronicles/Shadowhunters, Hawkeye Comics and New X-Men: Academy fandoms in addition to developing diverse original fiction. You can find her growing collection of fanworks on AO3 under the name FluffyLlamacorn and her gorgeous art at @llamacorn-productions.

She also posts and reblogs fashion and accessories at @clothing-inspiration, and some of her cosplays can be seen throughout this post!

With us Signe talks about her passion for textile arts and how they allowed her to reclaim her femininity, the importance of non-romantic relationships in creative media, the difficulty of writing kissing scenes, and the need for works and discussions that celebrate our aromanticism. Her love of making, crafting and designing just shines through this post, so please let’s give her all our love, encouragement, gratitude, kudos and follows for taking the time to explore what it is to be aromantic and creative.

Can you share with us your story in being aro-spec?

I just sort of … never cared? I’ve never wanted to get married and have children, and I never really had crushes growing up. I partly figured that was because I was surrounded by assholes who weren’t worth crushing on, but even when I graduated and moved to better schools where I actually had friends, I still didn’t care. I’ve always had a lot of confidence, so I’ve never bothered feeling insecure about not dating. I spent a while identifying as a straight person “who doesn’t care about romance” before eventually identifying with the ace and then aroace identifiers after having known them for a while, but there was never any big moments in the journey that really stand out.

Currently, I see my aromanticism as more important to my identity than my asexuality – being aro is what I do, while being ace is what my body does – but I also don’t really see them as separate. It’s hard to put into words because it requires cementing some stuff that I don’t mind leaving fluid, but while my lack of attraction is a package deal, it’s the lack of romantic attraction that defines my lifestyle the most. I know which I would choose if I had to, but I prefer not having to. That’s the only good thing about the ace discourse: It’s made me very protective of my ace identity again after having let somewhat go of it after I came to identify as aro.

Can you share with us the story behind your creativity?

I’m the type of person who has a thousand different hobbies and therefore doesn’t have time to actually do any of them. The three I care most about are writing, drawing and textile work.

I’ve always told myself a lot of stories. Walking home from school, I would develop my stories, acting out scenes in my mind and developing huge universes. When I decided to share them with the world, it was initially as comics. I drew a lot, so I had developed the characters’ visual identities along with their personalities. While I’ve switched to planning my stories as books, drawing and writing is still pretty linked in my mind and I can’t imagine creating a character that I don’t know how to draw.

I got into textile work through cosplay, but have spread out into knitting, sewing, embroidery, cross stitch, weaving, crocheting, bobbin lace… Pretty much everything I can get my hands on, which is why I give it such a broad name. (This is part of my too many hobbies deal!) I love everything about textiles, from the look and feel of it, to how many different things can be created out of one simple material. Looking at clothes and knowing not just how it’s been sewn, but also how the fabric was made, is so cool. Creating things from scratch can make me feel like something akin to a god, recreating this corner of the universe as I see fit. A big part of my love for textile work is also reclaiming my femininity in a way that’s so different from the girly girl image I was taught to look down on as a girl. This is a way to enjoy being feminine that doesn’t force me to embrace things I don’t enjoy.

One thing I’ve realized recently is that I love the freedom to design my own work. My cosplays have moved further and further away from canon, from human versions to characters without a firm design or completely redesigning a canon design. On the other hand, I rarely feel the need to sew completely original things, and without the built in deadline of a con, I’m not very likely to get it done. I tend to rarely do the things I can just do whenever, but I’m getting better at that.

Are there any particular ways your aro-spec experience is expressed in your art?

It’s easy to spot in my stories. I have a lot of a-spec characters. The two main characters who were specifically designed to get most of my heart – Shizuka, the shy girl who didn’t know how to make friends, and Diana, the confident girl who’s never cared what anyone thinks of her – both ended up being a-spec even though I created them long before I started identifying as aroace. Shizuka is demi and I don’t know whether it’s sexually and/or romantically or if it even matters. Diana ended up being aroace because I was thinking about her future and my mind nope’d out of the possibility of her ever dating. I also made a conscious choice not to include much romance until I got interested in queer love stories and that sorta fell by the way side. Even then, I try to keep the love stories from being the only defining feature of the stories and the characters involved in them and never to devalue other types of relationship. You will never hear the term “just friends” in my work unless I’m trying to make a point about the person who uses it.

(This is not to pass a value judgement on anyone who uses that expression, but to help normalize language that doesn’t devalue platonic relationships.)

What challenges do you face as an aro-spec artist?

The recent anti-a-spec discourse has made me worried about posting about aromantic things too publicly, as aphobic comments and opinions seem way to commonly accepted these days.

Also, writing kissing scenes. What the hell. “And then their mouths squished together for a little while, which apparently made fireworks go off in their brains.” Like. What? Why does society think this is the epitome of every relationship?

How do you connect to the aro-spec and a-spec communities as an aro-spec person?

Building communities about a lack of something is always hard. Once you’ve written the first story about being aro, it can be hard to write the next one, unless you consciously try to write about a different way of being aro-spec. It’s also a hard orientation to include quickly as being single isn’t as clear an indicator as having a romantic partner of the same gender. While I follow a bunch of aro-blogs and I have a bunch of a-spec friends, I wouldn’t say I’m strongly integrated in the a-spec communities on Tumblr.

Part of it is that most content I see is validations that every sort of aro is alright. I see a lot of content aimed at people who feel bad. That’s important, definitely, but I don’t need it. I’ve always known I’m amazing, both independently of and intersecting with my aromantic identity. I’m interested in work that celebrates being aro, work that doesn’t say I’ll be happy “even though” I’m aro, but “while” I’m aro, maybe even “because” I’m aro and don’t need to waste my life on amatonormativity. At the very least, work that spends more than a sentence on reassuring me. I see a lot of content that implies the basic state of an aro-spec person is sad, and I object to that idea.

I have also recently seen a whole lot of posts about QPRs and that’s really cool! I’m happy to see they’re becoming more and more accepted, at least in some circles. I’m less happy to see them become so prominent and so expected that they start feeling like a new shape of amatonormativity. It’s not that bad right now, but I definitely got allo aces saying “at least we can still feel love” vibes from some QPR posts earlier this year. Because here’s the thing: I’m aroace. I won the lottery. I don’t need to define myself by relationships to other people.* I refuse to take another label that sounds like I don’t want friends because of people pushing QPRs to be the new norm. Again, I’m super happy QPRs seem to have become more accepted, just please don’t present them as something every aro-spec person is interested in unless we specifically opt out.

There’s also the question of what kind of aro stories should be told. I mean, as many as possible, obviously, but that’s going to take a while. But the whole deal with being aro-spec is to have less interest in romance, so too many stories that focus on the lack of it become … counterproductive? I think the Jughead comics are pretty perfect in that regard. The main character is aroace and there are several stories that’s hella important to, but mainly it’s just about him going on adventures with his friends.

(P.S. I hate Riverdale. I’ve seen two different Jughead cosplays these last two weekends, but I didn’t dare fangirl, because what if they were based on the wrong version?)

Honestly, my main way of interacting with the a-spec community is befriending people at random and later finding out they’re a-spec. It’s … almost a superpower? It’s pretty great.

* No one needs to define themselves by relationships to other people, but I imagine it’s much easier when you don’t feel the desire to.

How do you connect to your creative community as an aro-spec person?

I don’t feel very connected to creative communities, but that’s more because I’m not very good at reaching out and promoting myself unless I know I have exactly what’s being asked for. I mainly stick to one or two people I can bounce ideas off of for my different projects before I post it and hope it finds an audience. It might also be because I’m juggling so many things and don’t spend enough time on the social connections needed to connect with a community.

How can the aro-spec community best help you as a creative?

Feedback, feedback, feedback! I love it! I live on it! Telling me you like X or Y part of my work can keep me floating for days and makes me so much more motivated to keep arting! So please, check out my art and leave a comment and/or share it with your friends/followers, if you like it.

(Also, if anyone has good tips on how to reach a larger audience, let me know.)

Can you share with us something about your current project?

I just finished my newest cosplay, which is Lup from The Adventure Zone in her lich form! I had a lot of fun designing her – the podcast doesn’t have very specific descriptions and the creators encourage fans to come up with their own designs – and got a lot of positive reactions at the con last weekend. I went for a very non-human design, including hiding my face, and added a bunch of fire details to reflect her evocation magic. I would have added more, but then my sewing machine broke in the last second, and I had to finish everything by hand, so I just aimed for the basic version. I’ll be updating her for the next con and will have much more fire with me then. I have yet to finish editing the pictures, but they should be up soon.

Have you any forthcoming works we should look forward to?

My next project, one I’ve alluded to a couple of times in this profile already, in fact combines all three of my passions. I was considering cosplaying Pixie, one of the underrated students from X-Men, relegated to the background since their series ended, but I kept bumping up against the problem that her uniform was just too … generic to be fun. Besides, what’s the point of cosplaying the pink girl, and then not getting to work with pink fabric?

So I just redesigned her and gave her an individual outfit. And then I decided to redesign all of her teammates. I wanted them all to go together, but still keep an individual feeling, and I achieved that by giving them a rainbow theme when they’re together. Obviously, the next stop was figuring out a story for that to take place in, of which I’ve posted the first chapter. The idea is that they get out in their bright colors and visibly help everyday people with everyday problems to stop people from hating and fearing mutants and maybe actually making a positive change, unlike all of the superhero battles that don’t get anyone anywhere.

The project has three parts: Individual drawings for every member where I develop their outfits further, chapters of fic describing their adventures and a cosplay that I aim to finish for Genki in August, the next big con in Denmark.

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classic-queeries · 7 years

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Holden C*ace*field: Asexuality and Representation

Some background: At the end of my junior year of high school we read Catcher in the Rye in my American Lit class. A friend pointed out a quote to me and said “hey, Holden kinda seems asexual to me.” I hadn’t been particularly interested in the book before she pointed it out, but once I read the quote I saw what my friend saw. Further reading absolutely convinced me that Holden was demisexual.

My English teacher however, did not have the best history with queer coding. When we read The Great Gatsby many in my friend group were convinced that Nick Carraway was gay. When one friend brought it up in class, however, she got shot down almost immediately. The teacher only brought up queer coding once, in reference to The Scarlet Letter, saying that Chillingworth was gay because there was subtext that he sexually assaulted Dimmesdale. Which, if you’ve read the book? Not the conclusion I’d jump to. He kept using the words “homoerotic subtext” which also did not sit well with us.

Needless to say, I did not bring up my demi-Holden theory in class. I did not want to deal with the teacher shutting me down like he had my friend. So instead, after AP tests and I’d handed in my last major paper for the year, I wrote an essay. Full semi-formal style, MLA formatting, definitions of everything, multiple sources and examples all correctly cited. Nothing he could fight me on.

And you know what he did? He fought me on it by throwing my argument back at me without the label. What followed was a few days of me stomping around, ranting to my friends that had helped me with this about how he wasn’t listening to me. I stopped the communication after a few back and forth exchanges. I was getting nowhere.

I’m still proud of the essay. I would classify it as one of the better things I’ve written, simply because it was an argument I actually cared about. So I’d like to share it, share why I relate to Holden even in a small way, because maybe it’ll help someone else.

–Mod Sherlock

When I first ran across the word asexual I didn’t think it applied to me. But it turns out whatever definition I had read was wrong. Asexual simply means that one does not experience sexual attraction. I’ve come to terms with that, and embrace my being asexual, or ace, proudly. You’ll see me down at Pride in June having fun with my friends, decked out in purple, black, and white. Problem is that not many people know about us. The last GLAAD survey had aces as about four percent of millennials (Accelerating Acceptance 2017). That is a bigger estimate than the last one we had at one percent back in 2004.

Of course, asexulaity is kinda an umbrella term. That GLAAD survey involves aces, demisexuals, and graces. I myself identify as asexual because I cannot conceive of what exactly sexual attraction is. People look at someone else and go, “I’d hit that,” or they appear in sexual fantasies? I literally cannot make sense of it. Many people have tried to help, none succeeded. I know a few people who identify as demisexual, which means that they only experience sexual attraction to someone once they form a deep emotional bond. They have to be dating the person, or close friends, or any other number of meaningful relationships, before they experience sexual attraction. There are others who identify as grey-asexual, grace, which means that they have only limited experience with sexual attraction. They may only experience it intermittently, maybe only once or twice in their life. This differs from demi in that they may experience it without the deep emotional bond. Asexuality is best thought of as a spectrum. The ace spectrum is from allosexuals, those who do feel sexual attraction, to aces, with demi and graces somewhere in the middle (AVEN).

The fact that we don’t experience sexual attraction doesn’t mean that we aces can’t have meaningful relationships. The split attraction model (SAM) is about the difference between sexual and romantic attraction. People can have two different orientations for different attractions. I have several panromantic asexual friends, who experience romantic attraction to all genders, yet no sexual attraction. There are homoromantics, biromantics, heteromantics, every sexuality has a romantic equivalent. This of course includes asexuality as well; those who don’t experience romantic attraction identify as aromantic. I identify as an aromantic asexual because romance is an enigma. Like, what the hell even is romance? Going out on a date with someone? Movies are more fun with more people, why not bring a couple friends? Ice cream or food? How is that a date? Romance is entirely dictated by societal norms and I, for one, am tired of it. Why should I be expected to date anyone if I don’t want to? And why is it that everytime I walk home with a male friend I get people asking me if we’re dating the next day and every time I think “oh my god no we’re neighbors he’s gay and I’m aroace what the flippity fuck people.” But I digress.

The SAM stems from the fact that there are many different types of attraction, some of which are easy to confuse with sexual attraction. Sexual and romantic attraction exist and are often conflated. A common attraction variation for aces to use is aesthetic attraction, which is simply thinking that someone looks nice. I can think that someone looks pretty in a military dress uniform without being sexually attracted to them. In addition there is sensual attraction, which means that someone experiencing it wants to interact in a tactile but non-sexual way. For instance, Carrie Fisher? Was very huggable. Both aesthetic and sensual attraction are extremely easy to confuse with sexual attraction and are often so intertwined that a person cannot tell them apart. Sensual has a sexual connotation for some people but i’ve never seen it used in a sexual way. In addition, I know that before I realized I was ace I would categorize who I considered ‘sexually attractive’ by who was aesthetically pleasing and just called that sexual attraction.

Enough with the SAM, though we’ll get back to it. A common misconception about asexuals is that we don’t have sex as a rule. That’s blatantly wrong, that’s the definition of celibacy. We have different levels of comfortability with sex. Some are sex-positive, which means that they enjoy or even want sex. Others are sex-ambivalent, meaning that they don’t particularly care either way. Still more are sex-repulsed, which means that they viscerally consider sex gross and do not want to participate in it or even talk about it depending on the extent of their repulsion. Like everything, this is a spectrum. Allos can also have these opinions on sex, they are not limited to aces.

The major problem that most asexuals face is ignorance. The estimated number of asexuals was so low in 2004 partly because there just isn’t wide enough knowledge about us. That number rose three percent in the past thirteen years in part because AVEN, the Asexual Visibility and Education Network, was formed and started to help spread word. Yet we are still ignored and pushed aside, even pathologized:

“….because sexuality is taken for granted as necessary to normalcy and normative bodies….asexuality is and has been historically diagnosed as a problem in need of medical reress and treatment….[the DSM has] “hypoactive sexual desire disorder” (DSM-III-R 1987)….”female sexual interest/arousal disorder” and “male hypoactive sexual desire disorder” (DSM-V 2013). Such labels indicate that low levels of sexual desire were seen by sexology and continue to be regarded by scientific medicine as ‘unhealthy’ and abnormal, reflecting more broadly on society’s negative attitiudes toward asexuality” (Przybylo 186).

Sexual attraction is so pervasive in our society that when someone doesn’t feel it they’re treated like they have a mental illness. I’m sure there are more examples of this, but I don’t have the stomach to go looking for more. I had to talk myself out of looking through the DSM for myself, I don’t need to find more examples of bigotry and prejudice.

Even so, I find unintentional (I hope) examples of aphobic attitudes in my own classroom. Calling sexual attraction “normal” hurts. That tends to imply that anything against the norm is bad, to be shunned and destroyed. I’m reminded of a song by my favorite band, called “We Are the Others,” which has the lyrics: “Normal is not the norm/ It’s just a uniform/ Forget about the norm/ Take off your uniform/ We are all beautiful”(Delain). “Normal” is not a thing. Everyone is weird to someone else, but that doesn’t give one reason to be a bigot.

On top of this ignorance is the fact that erasure is so common in what little media we have. There was a recent TV show based of a series of comic books from Archie called Riverdale. One character, Jughead Jones, was an aroace in the comics (Riseman). In the TV show they erased Jughead’s aromanticism by placing him in a clearly reciprocated relationship with Betty, and his asexuality is up in the air, but likely erased as well (Alexander). Riverdale is just one of a few that erase ace identities. Most a-spec characters are in obscure books that you would never hear of if you didn’t go looking for them, or in webcomics which are unlikely to gain a mainstream audience. There has not been a mainstream confirmed ace character. Ever. This erasure and ignorance is what makes headcanons so important. I headcanon many of my favorite characters as ace because I relate to them so well, so why shouldn’t they share my sexuality as well? That’s why when I find a character that has a wealth of canon evidence that they might be aspec, I find the bandwagon and start driving.

So when I realized that Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye might be asexual I hopped right onto that bandwagon and hit the gas. It was actually one of my friends that pointed out that Holden might be asexual. I read the quote they sent me, and immediately poured myself into the book. I kept notes on everything that Holden did, everything he said, that seemed like he might be aspec to me. As I read I related more and more to Holden, and I am convinced that Holden is aspec. I propose that Holden is a heteromantic demisexual who, having never seen the terms, confuses sensual and aesthetic attraction for sexual.

Before I get into the meat of it, let’s clear up one thing: asexuals can still get aroused. I mean, it’s a little hard to have sex without that and some of us do have sex no matter what some people seem to think. There is an important distinction for aces, however. In her article “Introducing Asexuality, Unthinking Sex,” Ela Przybylo writes that “Scholars who study the physiology around asexuality suggest that people who are asexual are capable of genital arousal but may experience difficulty with so-called subjective arousal. So when the body become aroused, subjectively-at the level of the mind and emotions-one does not experience arousal”(183). This is a very important distinction. Aces may have general arousal, but we have nothing to direct it at. Our mind is separate from our body in this case. There’s one line in Catcher about Holden feeling horny: “After a while I sat down in a chair and smoked a couple of cigarettes. I was feeling pretty horny. I have to admit it” (Salinger 63). This is after he walks into the hotel and sees several indiscrete people doing rather sexual acts on the balcony. What strikes me about this is that, despite feeling some general arousal, he just sits down and smokes a cigarette. This may be just me misunderstanding, but people do not just sit down and have a smoke when horny? That doesn’t seem like something an allosexual would do. In addition to that, Holden does not seem to be reacting to a particular instance and has nowhere to direct his attentions. His body may be reacting to the ‘perverts’ on the balcony, but his mind is completely clear. Holen is not experiencing subjective arousal. As stated above, this is generally an ace thing.

Another very ace thing Holden does is hire a prostitute then ask her to talk with him, not have sex. In general, when one hires a prostitute, one does so for sex. Holden goes into the fiasco with the thought: “I figured if she was a prostitute and all, I could get in some practice on her, in case I ever get married or anything. I worry about that stuff sometimes”(Salinger 92). This on the surface seems like a typical thing for a young adult to worry about, but, really? Who the hell worries about sex? Holden goes into this so objectively, thinking about getting married in the future and getting practice on her. This is a typical thing for a confused ace who has no idea that they are ace to worry about. After he thinks this the prostitute, Sunny, shows up. They talk for a bit and then Holden is very surprised when Sunny just up and pulls her dress off: “…she stood up and pulled her dress over her head. I certainly felt peculiar when she did that. I mean she did it so sudden and all. I know you’re supposed to feel pretty sexy when somebody gets up and pulls their dress over their head, but I didn’t. Sexy was about the last thing I was feeling….Boy, was I feeling peculiar….All she had on was this pink slip. It was really quite embarrassing” (Salinger 94-95). Yes, Holden, according to societal conventions one will supposedly feel horny when met with a mostly-naked person of the opposite gender. But people go against those societal conventions all the time. Asexuals, for instance, would not feel ‘sexy’ when met with a naked girl. Holden’s peculiar feeling may be the fact that he doesn’t know Sunny, and thus has no chance of feeling sexual attraction towards her. It may also be caused by possible sex repulsion of some degree when faced with someone he doesn’t know. This is, of course, ignoring the fact that he hired a prostitute then proceeded to ask her to just have a conversation with him. That is such an ace thing to do I mean, come on, who would do that.

Even more critical beyond Holden’s uncomfortableness when faced with sex, is the fact that he self-admittedly doesn’t get what sex is all about. Contemplating the people doing ‘crumby’ stuff on the balcony of the hotel he’s staying in, Holden thinks:

“Sex is something I really don’t understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are. I keep making up these sex rules for myself, and then I break them right away. Last year I made a rule that I was going to quit horsing around with girls that, deep down, gave me a pain in the ass. I broke it, though, the same week I made it - the same night, as a matter of fact. I spent the whole night necking with a terrible phony named Anne Louise Sherman. Sex is something I just don’t understand. I swear to god I don't”(Salinger 63).

Holden’s opinion on sex is that it’s confusing. He just simply doesn’t understand how to go about it. He makes himself rules for gods’ sake. He doesn’t understand why people do the do, why people go beyond ‘necking.’ Sex is so centralized in our culture that for an ace person, navigating the world is a problem. Centralization of sex in culture includes the beliefs that sex is needed for romance, the act of sexual intercource is key to adulthood and maturation, and sex is important for a healthy life (Przybylo 181). The key bit here is that Holden seems to believe that he should want sex with people, but he doesn’t understand sex. The centralization of sex confuses him and he ends up reaching for ways to make sex make sense to him, like a set of rules that he immediately tosses aside. He ends up doing the same thing that many aces do before they realize their sexuality: pretending just to fit in. He hires the prostitute because he thinks that might help him with his sex game. He feigns a desire for sex as real life aces often do: “As one participant from a study on asexual masculinity discusses, as an adolescent he had to “play along” with his male friend who “were all into porn mags” and checking out girls, feigning a desire for sex in order to fit in but ultimately “los[ing] out socially because…. A lot of social activities seem to be … centered around sex (Przybylo 2014:229)”” (Przybylo 188). Holden doubts that everyone has these desires and questions people that have sex just for the hell of it. He tells Carl Luce during their conversation: “[i regard sex as] a physical and spiritual experience and all. I really do. But it depends on who the hell I’m doing it with. If I’m doing it with somebody I don’t even-….This is what I mean though. I know it’s supposed to be physical and spiritual, and artistic and all. But what I mean is, you can’t do it with everybody-every girl you neck with and all-and make it come out that way. Can you?”(Salinger 146-147). Holden sees people like Stradlater going and having sex with basically random girls just because they want to. He sees them doing it with girls they’ve only known for a couple hours, and questions, “you can’t do it with everybody?” He simply doesn’t see how people can just essentially randomly hook up and have a desire for the other person. This is a very common thing for aces to question. How do people just hook up if they don’t even like the other person? What underlying attraction is there? Don’t you have to know the person? The concept of a one-night-stand doesn’t exist to many aces.

This brings me to my crowning jewel: Holden basically explicitly states that he is demisexual. Just after the previous quote, while he’s talking to Luce, Holden says this: “You know what the trouble with me is? I can never get really sexy- I mean really sexy- with a girl I don’t like a lot. I mean I have to like her alot. If I don’t, I sort of lose my goddamn desire for her and all. Boy, it really screws up my sex life something awful. My sex life stinks”(Salinger 148). Holy. Fucking. Crap. That is the definition of demisexuality. Holden only has desire for a girl when he “likes her alot.” Demisexuality is only experiencing sexual attraction when a deep emotional connection is formed. Holden just almost explicitly said he’s demi. To back me up even further, I sent this quote to a few ace friends with the caption “if this isn’t aspec then idk what is.” Their responses: “HECK U RIGHT,” “Wow that’s practically explicit,” “If you can’t see the ace-ness inherent in this you need to get your eyes checked,” and “That’s one of the most canon ace things I’ve ever read and [I’m] willing to throw down with both teacher and author in the parking lot over this” (Fuck Yeah Asexual). If I have friends, demi friends who know the definition and use it all the time, willing to freaking fight Salinger and my teacher over this, you know it’s good.

Part of the reason that my friends may be so willing to fight people for Holden to be demi is that we have basically no representation in popular media. I found a total of five major canon ace characters in pop culture when I went looking. Every single other character I found was minor or from something that hasn’t inundated pop culture yet. Of those five, only two explicitly used the word asexual. Luffy from One Piece is commonly believed to be asexual, as is Maya from Borderlands 2 (SBS Volume 54, W.). One of these is a manga, the other a video game. While they do have very large audiences, neither character is confirmed ace in their media, purely by the creators word. Todd from Bojack Horseman is asexual as well(season four ep 3). Raphael from Shadowhunters is ace in the TV show, and aroace in the books, and I already mentioned the fiasco with Jughead (“By the Light of Dawn”, Alexander). Because we have so little representation, interpretations of famous literary characters like Holden as aspec really helps with overall awareness of the ace community. Awareness is coming around, slowly but surely, but every little bit counts.

So I will fight for ace Holden. I will drive this bandwagon right over anyone who objects, throwing my heaps of evidence and definitions out the windows. Maybe I’ll wrap the definition of demisexuality around my little crowning jewel and lob it at anyone who wants to fight me. Y’all are entitled to your opinions, but if you come say I’m wrong and ‘ruining books with my queer characters’ you’re gonna get a great big ball of demi-Holden evidence thrown at you. And I’m gonna wrap it all up nice and pretty in the demi flag.

#asexual #demisexual #literary essay #we're here we're proving they're queer #ace #demi #ace spectrum #mod sherlock

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redmountaindont · 7 years

Text

Prompt: YOU SHOULD WRITE ABOUT RAMEN NOODLES, KAY THANKS BYE

((sorry for not having this up sooner. it accidentally posted privately.))

Word Count: 1717 - Characters: Jeremy Heere, Michael Mell, Christine Canigula, The Squip - Ships: Meremy Hell

Notes: Squip lives and is weak but Michael and Jeremy are dating and Christine is a bean.

The sound of a bell was what initially raised the two teenager’s heads at the same time. The only problem with raising your heads at the same time is that they can impact. Hard.

“And this is why this place will be perfect for you two!” A chipper voice came from the side of them, Christine Canigula.

Jeremy laughed. “If you say so, Chris.” He scoffed. Usually, his go-to date restaurant was the 7-11 down the street with the great sushi and slushies. Unfortunately, Christine was not happy to find out that he and Michael hadn’t been getting the “ultimate dating experience.” Sure, she was aroace, but eventually, Michael and Jeremy gave in.

It lead them on a trip to New York, spending the morning walking around Times Square (and fanboying like crazy over the new Nintendo Switch as well as binge-eating red M&M’s at the official store.) However, now they were in Brooklyn upon Christine’s suggestion to catch an Uber and drive down. Christine had whispered in the driver’s ears the place to put into the GPS, and soon the two boyf riends were off, not having the slightest clue where they were headed.

Turns out, they were here: Ichiran NYC. It was a Japanese chain that had recently moved to NYC and sold “the best ramen ever in actual human existence,” according to Chris.

Michael took off his headphones for a minute, hanging them on his neck. “So what exactly is so special about this place?” He asked, looking around. “I can make twelve packages for three bucks at home.” Jeremy couldn’t help but laugh. It was true. The two teenage boys had enough ramen to last them throughout the rest of their junior and senior year at high school. Christine joined in the laughter.

“Trust me, you’ll like this place. Now c'mon. That was the bell for us.” The theater nerd walked the two boys down a pathway, to a row of enclosed spaces. It looked like the SATs in the cafeteria at Middleborough. Michael walked sideways, poking his head in and out of the tiny stalls. Jeremy chuckled and elbowed him in the side. The boy in the red sweatshirt whined and flicked Jeremy back. Jeremy was about to tug on Michael’s hair when Christine turned around and shushed them. “God, I can’t take you two anywhere,” she scolded, before turning back around to follow the hostess.

“Enjoy!” The woman said, giving a bow. Christine and Michael bowed back, saying thank you. Jeremy stood there like the awkward, uncultured swine he is. Christine sat down first, purposefully putting herself between the two boyf riends.

“This is the fun part. Nobody talks to you! You even write down your order on this little form.”

Michael held up his hand, leaning back farther so he could see both Christine and his partner. “Wait, but-”

“Buh!

“Wha?”

“No.”

“A-”

“Stop.” Christine snickered. “Now you guys have a chance not to be all lovey-dovey and awkward. Enjoy!” And with that, she stuck her head back into her seat. Jeremy could faintly hear the writing on the paper. He looked up to find that Michael was staring. The boy blushed before placing his head back into the tiny stall. Jeremy found himself alone with his thoughts.

This place definitely wasn’t claustrophobic-friendly. The boy looked down at the menu in front of him. Jeremy ran a hand through his hair, awkwardly fidgeting with the other. The silence was bugging him.

“I can always fix that.”

Jeremy leaped back, nearly falling off the chair at the voice in his head. “You again?” He hissed under his breath. “I just took a shot of Red, you should be offline.”

The Squip laughed. “Yeah, but you also went to the bathroom like four times after that thanks to the street pretzel. The mountain dew is out of your system already.”

The teenager grumbled before leaning back. He was about to ask Michael for a shot of Red Mountain Dew (they kept it in tiny apple juice boxes just in case) when a more feminine face shot in front of him.

“Shhh!” Christine had a finger to her lip-gloss covered lip. She really actually did go a bit overboard at the Forever 21. Jeremy tried to protest, but Christine grabbed his head, turned it back around and nudged him forward with two taps on his back. The lanky teenager found himself alone again.

“Nice try, Jere.”

“Shut up, you stupid computer.”

“Actually, I have more information on my hardware than the internet altogether, so I doubt you should be calling a supercomputer stupid.”

Jeremy scoffed before looking up to the left of his small corner of the restaurant. A button lay there, indicating that it was for placing your order form. The teenager pressed it, submitted his order and laid back. He waited. Jeremy wished he could talk to Michael. He’d speak to him about what new games were out, which was the better console, and how much he was thankful for him and how much he loved him and how much he loved his hair and his hands…

“Getting off topic there, Heere.” The Squip snarked in his brain.

“I wasn’t thinking about… about that.”

The Squip snickered. “You can’t lie to me, Jeremy. I’m inside your brain. Haven’t we gone over this?”

Jeremy blushed. Okay, so maybe he was. “What does it matter? He’s my boyfriend. I can think of him however I want. Freedom of Speech.”

A mini-Squip materialized on the table in front of him, albeit a bit glitched out and missing some important pieces. You know… like legs. “Yeah, but you’re also in a restaurant. So stop that.”

A tickle went down Jeremy’s spine. It was the Squip’s new way of shocking him. Except they were pretty much powerless thanks to the steady Red Mountain Dew diet and newfound self-confidence (from the great Michael Mell).

“Also, you’re talking through your thoughts. Freedom of Speech doesn’t apply here, Heere.” Squip laughed at their own joke. “Oops. Move your hands.” The Squip poofed from in front of him.

“What?” Jeremy started to move his hands when the shutter in front of him opened.

The person behind the counter placed a bowl of ramen in front of him with his selected garlic, scallion, and sliced pork choices. “Tanoshimu!” The male voice called from behind, before placing a pair of chopsticks and a fork at his side and closing the shutter.

Okay, so maybe this wasn’t the pork flavored ramen he got at home, but damn did it smell delicious! Jeremy picked up the fork (even the Squip couldn’t help him with chopsticks) and began to dig in.

“If there’s one thing you humans do well, it’s make food. Judging by the amount of dopamine in your brain, it tastes fantastic. It’s almost like you were kissing Michael.”

Jeremy sputtered, almost choking on the noodle he slurping. “I’m eating here!” He thought angrily. Jeremy could hear the Keanu Reeves doppelganger laughing in his head.

“You look as red as the lanterns in the lobby,” The Squip quipped. Jeremy groaned as he took another bite of pork. Why did it always do this?

“Embarrass you? It’s a form of revenge.”

“I wasn’t asking you.” He grumbled out loud. A quiet giggle dragged him out of the conversation with his computer. Jeremy leaned back once more to see Christine laughing. “What?!” He asked, annoyed.

Christine covered her mouth, giggling. “A-Are you talking to yourself cause you’re so lonely?”

Jeremy put a hand over his chest, acting as though he was offended. “How dare you! Talking to myself? Whatever could make me do that?” He held a confused face before letting his face fall. Christine got the hint.

“Yikes. You don’t think this place has Red Mountain Dew here, do you?” Jeremy gave her a look. “Okay, okay. Fair enough.” She shrugged before turning around. A murmur of talking ensued, ending with a mouthful of “what?!”

The squeak of the stool they had been sitting on could be heard as Michael made his way over. “Yo dude, are you okay? What’s it saying? Do I have to punch it again?” The poor teenager was so worried he was looking in the wrong pouch for the Red Mountain Dew apple juice boxes.

Jeremy laughed, guiding his boyfriend’s hands to the right zipper. “I’m fine, dude. It’s just being a nuisance.” And also teasing me about liking you.

“He doesn’t need to tease you about that. You show it anyway.”

Shit! Was that out loud?

“Jeremy, you’re still doing it.”

“Oh.”

The moment dragged on for a minute, just the two staring at each other before…

“Here.” Michael handed Jeremy a juice box. He nodded, drinking some.

“Jeremy, please reconsider this. You kno- oh! It hurt zzz when yo-oo! Ow! Jereeeeemeeeey.” The computer slowed to a stop leaving a distinct lack buzzing in Jeremy’s head.

“Thanks, Michael.” Jeremy gave him a hug. It was awkward though, as he was sitting down and Michael standing in front of him. Michael let out a laugh, gently shoving him away.

“We’re supposed to have no contact, remember?” Jeremy made a pouty face. Michael rolled his eyes. “How could I say no to that?” He cupped his hand on Jeremy’s face, pulling him up for a quick, sweet kiss. Jeremy smiled.

“Hey, you two!” A sharp, quiet voice came from their side. Both boys turned at the same time. The only problem with turning your heads at the same time is that they can impact. Hard. Christine sighed. “Even when you’re separated, you’re still adorably awkward nerds.”

#anonymous #quantumwrites #bmc #bmc squip #jeremy heere #jeremy #michael #michael mell #bmc musical #christine #christine canigula #writing #prompt #writing prompt #squip survives #red mountain don't

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