Okay so, it has been brought to my attention by My-Miyuki that there is unfortunately a lot of aphobia here on wattpad, due to fandoms and shipping within those fandoms, so I'm writing this to help educate and understand, please note, that this is NOT an excuse to be rude to people because of this, it's better to try and educate them rather than yell at them without them knowing what they did
With that, I'll be copy and pasting some stuff about aphobia, and writing some stuff myself!!
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What is aphobia?
Aphobia (prejudice against asexual and aromantic people) is extremely common, both from heterosexual and queer people. Because it's so common, aphobia can be hard to recognize if you're not used to looking for it.
Discrimination against asexual people, also known as acephobia or aphobia when directed at aspec people, encompasses a range of negative attitudes, behaviours, and feelings toward asexuality or people who identify as part of the asexual spectrum.
Now for my experience with aphobia.
Being aspec is...not easy to say the least. Not the sexuality part, but the acceptance part, lots of people, both straight and queer, don't respect aspec people's sexuality, seeing it as "commitment issues" or "haven't met the right one" but that isn't true!! It's a sexuality just like any other one, and we are valid too!! Just because we don't feel attraction like allo people do, doesn't make us invalid!! But sometimes we feel invalid, due to aphobia.
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Aroace representation? Finally!!
Aspec people, hardly get representation in media, especially in media for younger audiences, due to the fact that if one character for example is asexual meaning, feeling little to no sexual attraction, it means other characters that aren't ace, DO feel sexual attraction, and in media especially in media for younger audiences, that's a touchy subject...
Which is why when we do get rep, we are SUPER excited, like Lilith in the owl house, she's canonically aroace!!
Just like any other sexuality I assume, you get super excited when you get rep!! And really mad when people disrespect it, right?
For example, amity, a lesbian character, shouldn't be shipped with a guy right? Why? Because she isn't attracted to men!!
So if she gets shipped with a guy...that's weird right? How could someone disrespect her sexuality?
That's how we feel.
We FINALLY get rep, and we're so happy!! Especially if it's accurate!!
Like Lilith, like saiki, like Alastor.
But you know what all those characters have in common?
Their canonically aroace, and get shipped even though they are aroace.
Which is harmful to our community, since it makes allo people think that our sexuality isn't real, or is invalid!!
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Can aroace people date?
People who are both aromantic and asexual experience little to no sexual or romantic attraction. That doesn't mean they don't get into romantic relationships or have sex, though. A person who identifies as asexual and aromantic may fall on completely different places on either spectrum.
Combining both aromanticism and asexuality, aroace individuals do not feel any romantic and sexual attraction toward other people. That said, aroaces can still form relationships with other people, fall in love, get married, build families, and have sex.
Now for my explanation
Yes!! We can!!
But not every aroace person feels that way!! You can make the argument that yes, aroace people can date!! But that isn't all of us, and
Aroace means feeling little to no romantic and sexual attraction, meaning most of us don't get in relationships, or when we are in one, we don't have the same kind of experience in one than an allo person would!!
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So please. Don't take our representation away just for shipping, and this is no hate to anyone, any fandom, or any ship. Just don't downplay our sexuality or take it away. We are just as valid as you.
EXTRA/EDIT:
Sometimes people downplay our sexuality so much, that they just refuse to accept it!! My-Miyuki told me vivziepop herself said that Alastor feels no attraction. But no one addresses it, they just ignore it because they want to ship him with other characters. This is blatant aphobia and no one will talk about it!! If someone said say...vaggie from hazbin hotel, who is apparently canonically lesbian, was in a SUPERRRR popular ship with a guy, that's be weird and disgusting right? Because she is only attracted to women, because it's her sexuality right? What about Alastor though. What's less valid about his sexuality than everyone else's?
- pixie
