VelkynKarma

This is something I never see people talking about and I've wanted to bring it up for a while.

There is a huge problem with aspec erasure and fandom as whole being so centered on shipping that it quite literally drives us out, but because some apsecs are okay with it, the rest of us are expected to shut our mouths and get over it — because of course, we're just being dramatic and policing everyone's fun!

No, a percentage of the aspec community that doesn't care if you ignore and erase bold stripes, repulsed, and non-partnering (hell, even favorable and gray sometimes!) aspecs doesn't mean that continuing to do so isn't aphobia, and I'm not about to sugar coat this.

Fandom as a whole is incredibly aphobic.

From the amatonormativity to aspecs being called prudes and fun-police for the crime of wanted to be respected the same way any other orientation is, fandom is so aphobic we are quite literally driven out.

Shipping culture is heavily upheld by allonormativity and amatonormativity and I'm sick if pretending it's not. Does that mean it should be abolished? No! Because there's a difference between shipping two (or more) characters because you want to explore how they'd navigate a romantic or sexual dynamic and shipping them because you can't comprehend a relationship that isn't romance; and 90% of shipping I see is the latter!

I've seen fandoms literally create petitions to change an aspecs orientation, I've seen fandoms insist a character that was directly confirmed to be aro actually isn't because it wasn't said on screen, I've seen fandoms say that if a character was confirmed to be aspec it'd be had representation and they'd drop the fandom entire.

Consider if any of these things happened to a gay character! Could imagine the backlash?? If someone took a lesbian and said "let's have a petition to make them straight!" If someone took a gay man and said "listen, I know it's hevaily implied, indirectly confirmed, and outright stated by the person who acts them, but it doesn't count! They didn't say it on screen so I'm gonna ship them with a woman!" If someone said "I will leave this fandom if this character is confirmed to be bi!"???

Suddenly it sounds much worse, doesn't it?

And I'm genuinely glad that some aspecs are umbothered by this because it fucking sucks. And if it doesn't affect them, I'm glad they don't have to deal with the frustration and isolation. There are plenty of aspecs who very clearly only side with shipping culture and fandom to make themselves more appealing to allos, and that's a whole problem in and of itself.

But that does not mean the rest of us are okay with it, and it does not erase the blatant aphobia that is tied into the roots of fandom. It does not make it okay to step over and ignore us when we tell you you're treating us like shit.

And what's this whole rant gonna do? Nothing! Because allos don't listen to us! Fandom doesn't like us! Shipping culture fucking hates us! Because it's all built on amatonormstivity and people really don't like hearing that!

My issue is pretty much never with an individual engaging in a ship or whatever, but rather in the double standard of how aspec identities are treated compared to any other identities, and the general prevailing attitudes.

Amatonormativity, compulsory sexuality, and general allonormativity run rampant, both in fandoms and real life. I'm not telling anyone to stop shipping. I'm not even telling them they have to always write out the intricacies of how a relationship with a aspec character might look different! All I want is for people to consider how amatonormativity/compulsory sexuality/allonormativity impacts how they are choosing to engage with things, consider looking at the nuances of aspec relationships, and acknowledge when they are writing characters OOC (because writing, say, a character who is strongly implied (or even confirmed!) to be apothisexual as sex-favorable is OOC). It's fine to mess around in fanon! Like, some people might not like it, but honestly I'm happy to just block the stuff I don't want to see.

But that doesn't work if people won't TAG THEIR STUFF PROPERLY!!!

If people would just tag this shit, I would be SO MUCH LESS ANGRY. But when I look in the specifically aro/ace/aroace tags for my favorite characters who are implied/confirmed aro/ace/aroace, ALL I SEE IS SHIPPING!!! Just stop that!!!

Context: For many years now, I have been collecting funny lines from Goodreads reviews to share with my coworkers. (I do collection development, reader's advisory, and weeding at a public library, so I read a LOT of reviews)

Are some of these, perhaps, rather mean? Yes, but they are also very funny, and come from a place of honest frustration. In the tradition of Bargepole threads and lists everywhere, names and titles have been censored.

"First, I want to say that I understand how hard it is to write a book and how amazing it is when it is actually published. Congrats to the author for that accomplishment. That said--"

"Warning: This review will be lengthy due to pure hatred."

"I found myself feeling really, really annoyed with the world that this book is allowed to exist. We live in a universe where the passenger pigeon is extinct but this book goes along merrily being read by unsuspecting lovers of words and ideas and stories? It just seems like too much, you know?"

"Don't do it. Don't spring the cash for the hardcover. Instead, eat an entire bag of Twizzlers, spend some money you don't have at a high-end department store, look up on Facebook the shady college boyfriend that made you cry, research the current value of your home or 401K and then read all about how the big hedge fund managers are faring during the economic crisis. You'll feel about the same stomach pain if you waste your time reading this book."

"This wretched novel begins with the mugging of an old lady and it appears I may be in the process of repeating that loathsome crime as [author] was 78 when she wrote it. It is not nice to put the boot into such a poor defenseless old creature lying there with only a damehood, a Booker Prize and a few million quid. It’s a nasty job but somebody has to do it."

"I think this is the way dead people would write, if they could."

"I am considering setting up SPABB: Society for the Protection of Accurate Book Blurb. This blurb appears to have been written by someone from the publishers who met [the author] the night before, got very drunk, lost his notes and then constructed something in a fug of hangover the next morning."

"I congratulate [the author] on the early half of his book, which was thoroughly fun and made me laugh and think. I congratulate [the author] on the second half of his book, for finishing it. It reads like that was difficult."

"…a woman whose taste in contemporary literature has roughly the same batting average as a pitcher in the National League."

"The author is a pompous windbag."

"Recommends it for: No one. Recommended to me by: A friend who apparently wished to cause me great suffering."

"Makes me wonder: is it possible to obtain similes at a volume discount?"

"The repeated phrases made me want to mail a thesaurus to the author."

"I'm disappointed in myself for finishing this book."

"if the author described [character's] eyes as "obsidian" one more time I was tempted to write her and ask if her thesaurus broke."

"They say that an infinite number of monkeys with an infinite number of typewriters would, if given infinite time, eventually produce the complete works of William Shakespeare. [This book], on the other hand, would probably take the average monkey just under two hours."

"I can't imagine what the author had to do to get this nadir of Western literature printed on innocent trees, but he does seem to know a LOT about being well-connected in New York."

"This book is so bad it is almost worth reading just to make you appreciate the other books you are reading."

"Reads like it was written by a brilliant author, the night before it was due."

"raises interesting questions, like: can a book be so bad as to constitute an act of terrorism"

"has this author ever spoken to a human woman"

"This acorn has fallen so far from the tree that it can’t even see the forest."

"I’m guessing they are touted as ‘beach reads’ because no one will care if they get dropped into the ocean."

"This book begins with all the energy of a hand vacuum near the end of its battery life, and the pace doesn't quicken much from there."

"At least everybody’s eyes stayed the same color this time around.”

Part 2

direct orders of "you really really need to kill this guy" ignored: 1

I want it to get progressively worse until someone is like "he HAS to be doing this on purpose he HAS TO" except he is, in fact, not doing it on purpose in the sense that he understands the double entendres.

I'm not sure how I feel about how I drew the gold in his ear, but ah well. I'm really proud the rest though!

Bonus version without the mirror shines

My sister got a sticker printer, so I'm making myself little sticker designs for fun! If you're interested in buying them, let me know, and I'll make an online store for them :)