skyrim apologist

not that im saying that that shouldn't be done, full support to everyone tagging the posts as such - the rediscovery of the joy and strength in platonic love has helped me so much in my journey as an arospec person

it's just so insane to me that it has to be rediscovered in the first place, you know?

like the fact that society as a whole has basically forgotten the importance of relationships that isn't a monogamous partner- to the point that aro and ace people are having to re-remember the concept of loving our friends is so, so sad

it feels like we're losing our sense of community; especially due to the rapid decrease in third spaces, stricter work hours, and honesty the loss of places where we can just loiter

the present day schedule means you just sort of have enough free time to have a genuine connection with just one another person - and the structures built around marriage and monogamous relationships only strengthen that

monogamous amatonormativity is profitable

if you have a community to support you, you no longer have to rely on corporations to sell that support to you (especially in the rise of ai companions but that's a whole other conversation)

and thus we have reached the point where the influence to not have space for anyone except your romantic partner has spared mostly those who are, completely or for the most part, unable to give in (by spared i mean it hasnt completely succeeded, not that it hasnt spent a hell of an effort trying)

so yeah, to everyone, regardless of your orientation, if you're actively making space for your friends in your life, im so proud of you; and for those who want platonic love but aren't/can't/are unwilling to go and seek it, there's so much love waiting out there for you.

Let’s play the biggest game of kick the can on the internet.

Things are worse now than they were 25 years ago.

I was sixteen years old, freshly out of the closet, walking around holding hands with my girlfriend proudly, happily, utterly in love and at no point did I ever feel scared.

This was twelve years or so before same sex marriage was legalised and an apology was given by the queen for the criminalisation, harm and stigma brought upon our community. Equal rights seemed unthinkable to me at sixteen years old, and yet I never once felt a need to hide who I was or who I loved.

Today, I do.

The Pride flag I hang every June has been stolen and found burned in a nearby field. My neighbours don’t put my bin out when they take out everyone else’s, a deliberate choice of exclusion. A woman braked to a stop outside my house and asked me what I was doing there (I was very obviously cleaning my windows), and she looked shocked when I said I was the person who lived there, glared at me and drove away without explanation. I am the only female-shaped person who visits my local barbers, and although the staff there are friendly and welcoming, I see the coldness in the eyes of some of the other customers in the mirror, and I feel the need to explain my hair fell out due to cancer rather than that I actually quite like having short, masculine hair. Because I don’t feel safe.

I don’t feel safe.

Everywhere I look, I see Pride posts flooded with hateful comments, and it’s more than the ignorant basement dwellers I’ve dealt with all my life, these are deranged, radicalised individuals who believe their hatred is allowed because it is being given a platform. They are organised. They are finding each other. They are so full of rage and desperate to point it somewhere. At someone.

And I hate that I’ve been pushed into a state of fear and shame that I’ve never, in my twenty five years of being openly me, experienced.

It is bad out there. And I’m afraid it’s going to get worse.

I know my page, my whole thing, is mama bear hopecore, but I’m genuinely all out of hope. It’s so fucking hard to be hopeful in this charged political climate. So if you’re out there, and a part of you is afraid, I’m telling you that you are 100% right to be, that in twenty five years the most dangerous it has ever been is right now, and just staying alive and being yourself is all you need to focus on right now.