i love your view of aaron and your blog v much but the reason a lot of people donât ship aaron with kevin or any of the other /male/ foxes is because heâs homophobic. aaron is such a good character and iâd die for him but,, shipping him with a guy just isnât the best tea yanno
Kevinâs âItâll be easier if he remains heterosexualâ basically âdonât ask, donât tellâ (or more like a warning âif youâre not straight then donât act on it, donât tellâ) comment wasnât great either, but no oneâs passive-aggressiving at me not to ship Kevin with male characters. Kevin literally told Nicky to stop being a bad influence on Neil for suggesting Neil isnât straight.
But Kevin is shipped with male characters all over the place. Kevin is shipped with Neil. People donât say Kevin is unshippable with male characters over this comment and hold it permanently over his head like they do with Aaron.
I like Kevin. I like Aaron. I donât like everything they say, but I donât like everything any of the characters say or do. I have various ships that involve Kevin with male characters. I have a couple ships that involve Aaron with male characters. An anon coming in my inbox and telling me that I shouldnât ship Aaron with any male characters because of things he said isnât going to change that.
Nora literally describes Aaronâs comments as knee-jerk homophobia and learned behaviour and not a belief system. Which, yes, it is still shitty to make those comments and Iâm not saying that itâs not. But Aaron doesnât believe to his very core that homosexuality is disgusting. He just says shit that he picked up from his high-school teammates (and I repeat, this is confirmed by Nora). And if thatâs a learned behaviour and not a full-blown belief system, then who is to say that he doesnât learn and grow and realize the weight of his off-hand comments? Who is to say he doesnât change or gain a better understanding of the consequences of the things he says?
Besides, the fact that the trilogy is from Neilâs perspective and Neil is biased and takes Andrewâs side in every disagreement or issue with the twins because he hates Aaron and loves Andrew.
Plus, Aaron sticks with Nicky. Aaron sticks with Andrew. Andrew and Nicky stick with Aaron. Aaron spends his holidays away from Katelyn and with Erik and Nicky. And, as has been pointed out by many people, Nicky had such a negative homophobic experience growing up in his family that it almost killed him and then he found himself free and happy with Erik. If Aaron really was vile and irreparably homophobic, do you really think Nicky would stay with the twins and go join a university exy team just to be close to them? Do you really think he would continue to live with Aaron for years while on a different continent than the love of his life?
And remember when Seth said âFuck you, faggotâ to Nicky and Andrew told him not to use that word and Aaron told Seth not to talk to them at all? People claim Aaronâs homophobic to Nicky for telling Nicky to shut up when Nicky makes the same rape-culture jokes (i.e. Neil just needs a push to swing, Nicky wants to get Kevin too drunk to be straight) that Andrew pulls a knife over. But no one ever mentions this interaction where Aaron took Nickyâs side and told Seth not to talk to them after Seth was homophobic to Nicky.
Anyways, I can and will ship Aaron with Kevin anyways and if I want to write Aaron being attracted to a male character and growing past the things he has said in the books and figuring things out, then I will and an anonymous ask isnât going to make me change my mind about it.
What if instead of âAaron said homophobic things and his character is forever trapped at that moment, defined exclusively by off-hand commentsâ we considered letting his character grow? Maybe we donât assume what Nora herself describes as knee-jerk homophobia thatâs a learned behaviour from his high school team (and not his actual beliefs) makes him suddenly hate his brother and cousin when we have evidence otherwise? Maybe we donât assume that it makes his character locked into exclusively being interested in women and being incapable of being written in a way where he could be attracted to a male character?
Iâm LGBT+ and sure I cringe at a few things Aaron says. I also cringe at Wymack calling Andrew a psychotic midget. I also cringe at Wymackâs use of the term retard. I also cringe at Andrew lying about Neilâs drinks and forcibly getting him drunk. I also cringe at Nicky forcing his tongue into Neilâs mouth multiple times to cram drugs into Neilâs mouth while Neil is frantically trying to escape. I also cringe at Andrew trying to murder Allison in the parking lot. I also cringe at Andrew threatening Katelyn in the library and being super terrifying and possessive and unhealthy and toxic and becoming someone Katelyn has to fear being around and scaring the shit out of her. I sure as fuck cringe at Andrewâs line âDo not ignore me. Your life hinges on how well you can listen. Can you listen?â I also cringe at bystander Neil watching this whole thing unfold and not really thinking anything of it and then telling Katelyn she won and just walking off and leaving her to call Aaron crying and terrified. I certainly cringed at Sethâs casual homophobia and use of the word faggot.
There are a lot of cringe moments that get swept under the rug and characters donât get burned at the stake and defined exclusively by these moments, yet so many people are so quick to burn Aaron at the stake and define him exclusively by a few comments. Which, whatever, if thatâs the way you want to define him. But donât go around pushing that onto other people and donât go around telling people they shouldnât ship things because of that.
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