!#there's really not a non-acephobic way to hate on an ace self-love and joy symbol
#and not a non-antiblack one in this specific case
Aromantic asexuals exist, and for a flag that is being held up as all-inclusive of the asexual community our voices deserve to be heard when we criticize our aromanticism being lumped in with the pink stripe that stands for love.
This isn't supposed to be an alloromantic asexual flag, it's supposed to be a flag for the entire asexual community, aromantic and alloromantic and everywhere in between.
It is not antiblack to say that the assigned meanings of this flag's colors do not represent all asexual people. That is just an actual bad-faith argument.
There is no reason this flag can't continue to evolve to better represent the entire asexual community, since that's what it's supposed to stand for.
I as an aroace person do not feel represented by this flag with the stripes and meanings it currently has. I want to be able to use this flag or its new variation, because, yeah, finding out the white stripe in the original flag stands for allies is infuriating.
But (general you) can't have it both ways. Either this flag is meant to be inclusive to the entire ace community, or it's not.
Either this flag is about the evolving, intersectional needs of the community, or it's not.
Being told "well just don't use it then if you feel it excludes you!" is not the answer to ace people asking to be included in the flag that's being held up as The Most inclusive ace flag ever to exist.
I want an ace flag that represents the whole community, and doesn't shoehorn in allies as a literal quarter of the flag.
Telling aromantic aces we're represented by the pink stripe for love whether we like it or not is not being inclusive, and:
and regarding the colors - who cares about the exact hues. f
so you're clearly responding to my post, where I point out how inaccessible this flag is because of its eyeburning full saturation, and that the creator herself has explicitly said she does not want people changing the colors to make it more accessible unless the whole thing is being changed.
Either this flag is supposed to be inclusive of the whole community, including disabled people that this *in its current form* causes migraines for, and aromantic asexuals, or it's not actually meant to be inclusive.
It can't be both ways. And claiming any and all criticism, from it being exclusionary of arospec aces, and the fact that that *it's dangerous for disabled people with these levels of saturation* is inherently antiblackness is just ableist and aromisic.
Constructive criticism isn't antiblackness. Not when it's about factual innaccessabiloity and the people it's supposed to be including feeling excluded and ignored.
Either this flag is meant to be inclusive, or it's not. And right now people like you are going around yelling from the rooftops that it's not.
You cannot have it both ways. You cannot claim any criticism is simply bad-faith antiblackness. That's just not how this works.
I have been begging people for years on this site to stop making new pride flags with full saturation because it causes me migraines and can literally make me throw up. Obviously, the creator of this flag is not on tumblr. So she hasn't seen any of the posts on here talking about that. But simultaneously, most people in the ace community didn't get to take part in any of these surveys that were apparently sent out, and we are only being told this even exists now, when all of our feedback is being brushed off immediately by people like you.
That's not how this works.
Either the flag is meant to be inclusive and represent the whole community, or it's just for ablebodied people who don't listen to loveless aros or other aromantics even when we're also asexual.
And for the hell of it, here's my whole original post, again, for posterity:
damn. I was so excited for the new ace flag, but arospec aces are represented by the pink stripe for love, and I just checked, and the creatorâs response to aro people pointing out that this is a problem is to brush them off and say âyou should unlearn the western idea of love, and then you wonât be upset by thisâ
which is just flat out aromisia and belittling as hell. Especially when the flag is meant to represent multiculturalism and intersectionality. The stripe is literally pink for love. A western symbol. But then if youâre aro and donât like being represented by the color of love, itâs only because you have a western mindset?????? That is just blatant hypocracy.
and the creator has specifically said she *doesnât* give permission for people to change the shades of the colors unless the whole entire thing is getting changed at once, so you canât edit it to make it more accesible, cuz the âfinalâ version right now is eyeburning almost on par with the usual intersex flag.
i donât feel like making an instagram account just to bring up the innaccessability, and other people have already brought up the aromisia, and I donât know how substack works.
Apparently there were tons and tons of surveys and polls about this. If thatâs true, how is the final version *this* eyeburning, and this belittling and erasing of aro aces?
I also just donât understand the purpose of attempting to reject the AVEN original ace flag, (for valid reasons. Why the hell does the white stripe officially stand for allies???) but then clearly just doing that again with two extra colors.
sigh
Once again. to the Queer community in general and especially those who make pride flags:
Please remember that disabled people exist. You should pretty much never be using full saturation, and if you want your flag to be accessible, you need to talk to lots of disabled people with photosensitivity to make sure itâs not going to cause us migraines or seizures.
Thereâs a reason the disability pride flag was almost immediately changed to be less saturated, and itâs because the original *was causing seizures*
Iâm just very bitter that aroaces always seem to get the short end of the stick whether itâs in the ace or aro communities.
And no one ever wants to remember that disabled people also exist in these communities, and deserve to not be caused pain by trying to interact with the symbol thatâs supposed to represent us.
Most ace people never heard of this flag, and telling us that's our fault because "clearly you're not in diverse enough spaces" because we don't use fucking INSTAGRAM is not the correct response to people pointing out ways the flag can be changed to live up to the hype about it being designed with inclusivity and intersectionality in mind.
There's nothing intersectional about a pride flag with full saturation colors that cause migraines and can even cause seizures.
The flag is not set in stone any more right now than it was the first time it was changed from the pastel colors. Getting more community feedback about how it can be made actually accessible and not exclusionary towards arospec aces is not antiblackness.
If (general you) are gonna make such a big buzz about being inclusive and wanting everyone to feel represented, that means you have to actually make sure everyone feels included and represented. (General you) can't just brush off all the people telling you we feel excluded by it that that means we just shouldn't use it.
Is this flag intended for the whole ace community, or is it not?
You are not the creator of the flag, so you can't answer that question. But you've clearly already decided it's not.
That's not how this works. If something is going to be held up as inclusive and intersectional, then it actually needs to live up to that ideal.
Arospec aces asking to be included in a way that we do not feel is erasure is not antiblackness. Disabled people asking for it to be safe for us to even *look at* is not antiblackness.
You not wanting to be potty trained as a kid has absolutely nothing to do with the actual valid criticisms people have against this flag, and it's weird as hell that you decided to equate that to arospec aces wanting to actually feel included in a flag that's supposed to be for *all of us*.
I was so excited when I saw someone had made a new ace flag. Then I saw how eyeburning it was. Then I saw the stripe meanings.
There is in fact a non antiblack way to criticism ableist and aromisic designs. Just because the bigotry isn't intentional doesn't mean it's there. Claiming otherwise is literally just ableism and aromisia.
None of you would be defending a flag that claimed to be for the whole ace community but implied everyone ace person is aromantic and hates the concept of love, but it's always considered fine when the same is done to aromantic and loveless aces.
Also, I brought up the fact that the creator does not want anyone altering the colors because for most pride flags that cause eyestrain, you are welcome to change it to make it more accessible. This flag, in its current state, does *not* let you do that, which is ableist, whether it's intended that way or not. Adding the fact that we're not allowed to alter it for acccessability on top of the aromisia and eyestrain is just making things worse for no good reason.
Again. None of this is set in stone. If the flag is truly meant to represent the whole asexual community, then it will continue to evolve as more feedback is taken in.
But you don't get to claim that any and all criticism of it is inherently antiblackness. That's literally not how this works.
