What is Aspec Stories and why did we make it?
Blog icon image description
Where to find our content warning tags
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
What is Aspec Stories and why did we make it?
Aspec Stories is an accessible and inclusive community blog that we created for people identifying on the asexual and/or aromantic spectrums (but people of all identities are more than welcome here!). Our goal with this blog is to help spread positivity and support for people within the aspec community by providing a space in which we can all share writing about aspec characters and experiences, which can otherwise be challenging to find.
All four of us mods identify as aspec ourselves, so weāre hoping that this will become a community space for us just as much as for other aspec tumblr users! Between our frustration over the lack of aspec representation in popular media, our wish that the aspec rep that does exist was easier to find (and in many cases more respectful), and the many comments we found about aspec people wishing there were more aspec community spaces, the idea for this blog was born! So welcome to Aspec Storiesāweāre so glad youāre here!!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
**Note that our guidelines may change as we get a better feel for who follows our blog and what they want to write about**
Above all, we want this blog to be a safe and inclusive space for people of all ages, identities, and experiences. So here is a list of general community guidelines we created to help make Aspec Stories the welcoming space we all deserve:
This blog is a NO HATE ZONE. If youāre spreading hatred towards anyone via this blog (e.g. racism, ableism, discrimination towards any members of the LGBTQIA+ community, etc.) we will send you a warning. If you do so again, weāll block you. We reserve the right to block you immediately for spreading hatred, as well.
This blog is also a NO DISCOURSE ZONE. Weāre real tired of discourse about aspec peopleāwe wanna read cool stories instead! If you try to start aspec discourse (or discourse about anything, really) weāll give you a warning. Keep trying and weāll block you. And again, we reserve the right to block you immediately for starting discourse on or about our blog.
Donāt give our submission authors unsolicited advice or criticism about their works! It feels really crappy to put a lot of work into something, work up the guts to share it with strangers, and immediately receive unwanted critical comments about it. If an author would like advice or constructive criticism on their writing, they can openly communicate that with our followers. Otherwise, positive comments only, please!
Credit is always important!!! Do NOT repost peopleās work or ideas without their explicit permission!!! Reblogs are totally cool, as long as you donāt alter or remove anything from the original post. Spread the aspec inclusion and supportājust remember to give credit where it is due!
Please respect fictional characters! They may be fictional, but they represent real, actual people. Fictional characters canāt give consent for what you write about themāif you feel that a character wouldnāt do or say something, please donāt force them to do or say it.
For the sake of accountability, we mods will always sign the things we post within the tags. Visit the āOther tags we use on the blogā section of the āOur tagsā page to see the tags we mods will sign posts with. Please contact us (via direct message or ask) if you feel that weāve posted something that violates our blogās policies.
Finally, there are some topics that we mods have decided will not be allowed on this blog at all. The following is our list of topics that are off-limits.
Content warning: there are mentions of many triggering topics in this list
Discrimination or hate towards any members of the LGBTQIA+ community
Explicit* corrective rape (or explicit rape of any kind)
Explicit* disordered eating
Explicit* experience of conversion therapy
Explicit* sexual activity (specifically NSFW content, e.g. no porn, smut, or lemons)
Explicit* use of hard drugs and/or illicit substances (with the exception of marijuana and alcohol, though we may choose not to allow them if we feel that your representation of their use is inappropriate for this blog. We will contact you directly if that is the case.)
Explicit* verbal or physical abuse
Extreme body horror (i.e. we define body horror as āaltering a characterās body in grotesque or seemingly painful ways.ā This does NOT include disabled bodies, burn victims, amputees, or people with scars. It is meant for situations that are out of the ordinary. Ā Please use your discretionāweāll contact you directly if we feel that you have included body horror that is too disturbing to publish on this blog.)
Hardcore gore (i.e. gore may be included in submissions, but please use your discretionāweāll contact you directly if we feel that you have included too much or that it is too disturbing to publish on this blog.)
Inappropriate treatment of minors in general (i.e. please use your discretion when writing about characters who are minors, including characters who are canonically minors who you have aged-up for the sake of your story. Weāll contact you directly if we think that your treatment of underage characters is problematic in any way.)
Racial slurs, specifically
Unaddressed discrimination of any kind (i.e. while discrimination may be included as part of a characterās experience, it should not go unaddressed within the story. We will contact you directly if we feel that any discrimination represented in your submission is poorly addressed or otherwise inappropriate for this blog.)
Unnecessary violence (i.e. violence that seems unnecessarily cruel or seems as though it serves no purpose to the story being told)
*To clarify on the starred topics: When we say āexplicitā we mean āwriting (or art) that shows said topic happening.ā Topics such as abuse, self-harm, etc. may be present in posts on our blog, but only indirectly or in mention. For example: we will not allow an explicitly shown or described (NSFW) sex scene, but if characters in a story are talking about their relationships with sex without getting into NSFW detail thatās totally fine (weāll just tag it as a content warning). Please contact us if you have any questions about this!
If you feel that anything that we have posted on the blog violates our policy of off-limits topics, please send us a direct message and weāll address it as soon as we possibly can.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Because we want this blog to be an inclusive space, accessibility is very important to us. Weāve done our best to choose an accessible blog theme, make our static pages easier to navigate with screen readers, and use easily discernible link formats. We will also be including image descriptions for any images or screenshots we post or reblog. We mods are all pretty new to the world of website accessibility, though, so if you have any suggestions for ways we could improve our blog to make it even more accessible, please contact us!
If you have any trouble submitting a post or sending us an ask due to general tumblr inaccessibility, please send us a direct message and weāll find a solution!
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Blog icon image description
The blog icon shows an open book from above, lying in front of a soft purple background. Ā The bookās pages flutter slightly, as if in a breeze. The top page on the left side is a light green, and each page below fades a little until the bottom page is fully gray. Ā The top page on the right side is a soft purple, the pages below also fading gradually to gray. The bookās cover is black. All together, the colors are meant to represent the different identities within the aspec community. End id.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Where to find our content warning tags
Weāve said it before and weāll say it a million more timesāwe want this blog to be a safe place for all. This is why we will be including content warning tags on ALL of our posts, and why weāve created a complete list of all of our current content warning tags for you to reference. Ā Please visit the āContent warning tagsā section of the āOur tagsā page to find this list, along with some more info about our content warnings.
