solidarity
[ID: A picture of two arms in a handshake, the first arm labelled “Amatonormativity”, the second arm labelled “heteronormativity”, and the place that the hands clasp labelled “Why don’t you have a boy/girlfriend?”]
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solidarity
[ID: A picture of two arms in a handshake, the first arm labelled “Amatonormativity”, the second arm labelled “heteronormativity”, and the place that the hands clasp labelled “Why don’t you have a boy/girlfriend?”]
Why you should have an aro as a best friend:
Because we won't steal your girl/boyfriend. And we give good advices.
10 Dads Who Didn’t Want A Cat
Via BuzzFeed
Me: Maybe I'm not really aro and I'm in love with my friend?
Also me, after imagining to be in a relationship: Ugh…I want to puke…nope, I'm 100% aro
Amatonormativity is toxic
Sometimes I realize how amatonormativity is dangerous and toxic for everyone, and it’s scary.
Let me explain: I’m romance-repulse, and I don’t give a fuck about any kind of relationship. My romance-repulse affect even my friends and family since if they try to hug me I’ll escape from them and you can’t imagine how disgusted I can be from a kiss on the cheek. And I’m happy how I’m since nobody ever complain about it, maybe my family but every family complain about everything.
But sometimes even I wonder how is it to be in a relationship with someone and how’s to not be a romance-repulse, how’s to be…“normal”?
I see everywhere I go and in everything I watch how romance is important in our life and how people is happy with it, even with the problems it can create and with its unhappiness like…I dunno…someone who’s not loved back, some crush who treat you like a object, some infidelity and ect.
And I really wonder how can it be to feel romance and understand why is it so important? Obviously I always say everything you do with a lover you can do it with a friend (after all exist even the “friendship with benefits”) and that’s why I don’t understand why I ask myself what could happen if I’m not neither aro neither romance-repulse, I mean why I’m “intoxicated” with this thoughts if I’m perfectly fine how I am?
Simply because I live with amatonormativity every single day and instinctively I wonder if I’ll be like my family expect me to be, with some “I love”, with a family, with children (actually I really hate them, don’t wanna have them) and to stop to act like I don’t care about nothing besides my cat and my things, what could happen? I’ll be really…“happy”?
And you know what? I’m 19 years old so it’s more suffocating to live with amatonormativity because “you’re not a child anymore, you should think about your future and find someone special for you” and obviously: it can’t be a friend, ‘cause “it’s different”.
Upload:
I was babysitting my eight years old cousin and they were trying to steal one of my plushies, when I decided to hide it my mom told them it was a birthday's present from "my best friend" (this is even a lie, they are not my best friend but a classmate and I neither think of them as a friend but as a taxi) and then, of course, my cousin thought my mom was referring to a "lover" and not a friend.
Eight years old and already now they think everyone should have a boy/girl-friend. Someone save aro children please!
I made a thing
When someone around me mentions asexuality or aromanticism
I hate how the “crazy cat lady” trope is seen as pitiful and weird, cause like, never marrying and finding love and companionship in animals is a hella aro things to do, and I aspire to one day live surrounded by many cats and no spouses, and be quite wild and eccentric while I’m at it. It’s like my ideal life.
Romanticize the crazy cat lady lifestyle this 20noneteen
I’m already living the dream my friend!
I’ve even started to use my cats’ birthdays as excuses to invite my friends over so being the crazy cat person of the group has in a strange way given me more ways to spend time with my friends.
Omg goals 🐱
[id: the good place meme with the cactus, you know the one. michael is labeled “me” and is asking for “good aro representation” instead of “asexual representation”. janet is labeled “ “progressive” writers” and is holding a cactus labeled “asexual representation” behind her back. after a back-and-forth, “ “progressive” writers” give “me” “asexual representation” instead of “good aro representation”, which is what I asked for. I am tired of this but not surprised. end id.]
i gotta do everything my own damn self (both making this meme and making my own aro rep…)
before anyone gets their panties in a twist: im not saying that ace rep is bad, im saying that writers will make a character canonically ace and code them as aro and then try to claim that it’s good aro rep when its. Not
Amatonormativity is toxic
Sometimes I realize how amatonormativity is dangerous and toxic for everyone, and it's scary.
Let me explain: I'm romance-repulse, and I don't give a fuck about any kind of relationship. My romance-repulse affect even my friends and family since if they try to hug me I'll escape from them and you can't imagine how disgusted I can be from a kiss on the cheek. And I'm happy how I'm since nobody ever complain about it, maybe my family but every family complain about everything.
But sometimes even I wonder how is it to be in a relationship with someone and how's to not be a romance-repulse, how's to be…“normal”?
I see everywhere I go and in everything I watch how romance is important in our life and how people is happy with it, even with the problems it can create and with its unhappiness like…I dunno…someone who's not loved back, some crush who treat you like a object, some infidelity and ect.
And I really wonder how can it be to feel romance and understand why is it so important? Obviously I always say everything you do with a lover you can do it with a friend (after all exist even the "friendship with benefits") and that's why I don't understand why I ask myself what could happen if I'm not neither aro neither romance-repulse, I mean why I'm "intoxicated" with this thoughts if I'm perfectly fine how I am?
Simply because I live with amatonormativity every single day and instinctively I wonder if I'll be like my family expect me to be, with some "I love", with a family, with children (actually I really hate them, don't wanna have them) and to stop to act like I don't care about nothing besides my cat and my things, what could happen? I'll be really…“happy”?
And you know what? I'm 19 years old so it's more suffocating to live with amatonormativity because "you're not a child anymore, you should think about your future and find someone special for you" and obviously: it can't be a friend, 'cause "it's different".
Alright, alright, this is reeeeeeally funny!
I'm reading Bj Alex and I'm loving this manghwa even if it's ongoing. But…maybe I'm saying no sense, but I see Alex like an aro!
Let me explain
I already know the manghwa will end with Alex and Dong-gyun together and all the obviously endings you always see, I mean you can see it even if you're blind…but how Alex talk about relationship and be engaged and even there's obviously hate about them I can see perfectly how we aro would react, he himself says "I like the relationship we have and I don't to lose it because you love me", actually they have the sexfriends relationship if you didn't know. I already know it is only because a trauma he had time ago, but I mean you can be aro even because of it so I don't see nothing wrong with it.
If only he could coming out like an aro and then be in a qpr with DG I'll be really happy, but yeah I know it is all a mental film, but you can't change my mind!!
y’all want to know what frustrates me to no end?
all of the aro-spec positivity is lumped in with ace-spec positivity. all of it. i haven’t found anything more than an occasional post that is solely aro-spec. hell, sometimes things that are tagged aro/aromantic/aro-spec are only abt asexuality!
don’t get me wrong, i love ace-spec humans and y’all are wonderful but like. i honestly think people don’t understand that aromanticism can exist separately from asexuality. lumping them together constantly makes confused humans (such as myself) doubt their aro-ness because we like sex but may or may not want love.
asexuality and aromanticism can overlap but that doesn’t mean that they’re the same!!! you don’t have to be ace to be aro!! that is not a factor in your asexuality!!! please be aware of that, lovely humans. we are here and we might not be ace but that’s okay!! you don’t have to be ace to be aro. you just have to be you. thank u for coming to my ted talk.
I'm pretty sure this song can be a song for aro people who's not ace 🤔
This is what it’s like to be aromantic & asexual.
You see others in romantic relationships & it’s beautiful. You’re happy for them. Sometimes it makes you sad because it’s not something you want, but you want to want it, because that would mean you’re a normal person.
You notice people, that they’re attractive, & maybe your eyes linger, but they are just aesthetically pleasing to you. Nothing else. Men & women affect you equally.
Maybe you have a desire to have kids, like I do. I want to adopt.
But then you can’t help but think, what if it’s too hard on your own? How will I find a platonic, life partner?
You enjoy reading & watching stories that feature romantic relationships & interesting dynamics, but if you ever think of yourself in that situation, it’s disturbing. You don’t want it.
So you don’t. You don’t want it. You admire, & appreciate, & daydream about being a normal person who wants a romantic connection, who wants sex, but you just don’t.
& that’s ok. You’re not broken.
Can Someone Explain To Me…
Some of you aro people who’s aplatonic can explain to me what actually means be aplatonic?
Like…you can have friend but don’t see them in the way “I want to be with someone neither with some platonic love”? Something near to single forever in my life and it’s awesome?
‘Cause I think I can be apl but I need more information and the people that say “I’m aplatonic so I don’t have friends” confuses me really hard. I’ll be grateful at who’s can explain to me better what’s means be apl.
Thanks.
I can do my best but a also have a whole apatonic tag that you are free to explore which might give you more understanding then the few sentences I’ll write here.
At its core aplatonic is the difficulty or inability to make platonic connections. This inability to form these connections is more easily summarized by saying ‘I don’t experience platonic attraction’. For me I describe it as feeling no ‘pull’ towards other people. I can have the time of my life with someone but there will never (and has never) been a thought of ‘ya, you know, I would like to do that again/see that person again’ my thoughts always go in the ‘that was fun. Hope that person has a good life.’
The ‘pull’ or ‘want’ to get to know a person better just isn’t there. It doesn’t exist. In that was I don’t experience ‘platonic attraction’.
Which is not to say I don’t have friends, but all of my friends are people that have been in my life so long they are essentially family. It’s the situation of ‘circumstances put us together (school) for extended periods of time over years and years and years to the extent that our families have become intermingled and my mom messages me to remind me about your birthday.
There is also a strong connection between aplatonic and mental health/abuse that I always try to emphasize because the original coiner (over on AVEN) mentioned that their could be a connection between the two for them (though they did leave the term open to all aros).
A lot of people also confuse aplatonic with nonamory (not wanting QPRs) but that’s a different topic.
So if you are looking for a term to describe your difficulty in forming platonic connections/your inability to experience platonic attraction then you are free to use the word aplatonic!
I’d like to add on, that with the inability or desire of making platonic connections or QPRs, aplatonic can also be also used for those that lack of desire and comfort, or are aversion with platonic affection or gestures for whatever reason. This can intertwine with the prime definition of aplatonic, or be just our describer for our “comfort” levels of platonic affection. I know it seems fairly unpopular to be used in this sense nowadays, but I was introduced to aplatonic in such a way.
I appreciate this addition because it’s one I haven’t come across before but I can see how it could easily go hand-in-hand with the definition of aplatonic that I was introduced to/used. Especially since my own touch-aversion extends to everyone, no matter the ‘status’ of our relationship. I think it is very easy to see how these two uses of aplatonic could go together/support one another. (Which is not to say that to use aplatonic you must experience both definitions, just that they are two definitions with an easy and understandable overlap)
I have no idea if that made sense
(I can especially see how romance-repulsed/touch-adverse could be inadequate since most people only associate that with romance and never think to extend it to friends or family…you won’t believe how many roommates I’ve had that thought my touch-adversion didn’t apply to them because they were ‘familiar’ with me. One such incident leaving me completely traumatized given that I was high on pain-meds at the time and had no way to get them to stop touching me)
Also, I hope you don’t mind me adding your tags to my reblog but I thought they were important. I had the exact same reaction when the discourse started, especially when being aplatonic was used as a means to ‘nullify’ my arguments as a trans/nonbinary person. The thing that drove me back to talking about it was seeing so many aro/ace blogs (and almost always non-apl) trying to defend the term using the wrong/inaccurate/partial definition of the term and my overwhelming need to correct them/make sure the term was being used/defined accurately. It can be very frustrating to see aplatonic used to mean ‘not wanting a QPR’ without also defining the nuances of the term that made its creation necessary. It becomes even more frustrating when it is further expanded to ‘it just means not wanting QPRs! It has nothing to do with not having friends’. While aplatonic can be used to say you don’t want QPRs, by ignoring the intrinsic part of the definition of aplatonic as a difficulty/inability to form platonic relationships (which, again, I can easily see touch-adversion falling into the ‘difficulty’ part) these people were essentially turning this aromantic term into the QPR equivalent of AlloAce’s going “but we can still have romantic relationships!” Which, ughhhhh.
I’m really sorry I ended up reblogging this with such long commentary! I hadn’t meant to but once I got started it just went….either way, main point is: good addition I approve!
Not at all! Actually, for people to use “aplatonic” to describe not wanting QPRs is quite something to me, since it didn’t start out like that, but before I knew it everyone was using that definition to combat mockery like “I have no friends I guess I’m queer now”. And of course, the issues of that you pointed out with folks trying to remove the context behind why folks need aplatonic as a personal description.
It’s pretty difficult defending aplatonic since so many people (non-aros) have turned it into a joke, or go around spreading misinformation or half-truths.
Thanks to all of you (who reblogged and who even only commented) now it's all more clear and I can even identify in the description, I'm very grateful for your answers.
Can Someone Explain To Me…
Some of you aro people who's aplatonic can explain to me what actually means be aplatonic?
Like…you can have friend but don't see them in the way "I want to be with someone neither with some platonic love"? Something near to single forever in my life and it's awesome?
'Cause I think I can be apl but I need more information and the people that say "I'm aplatonic so I don't have friends" confuses me really hard. I'll be grateful at who's can explain to me better what's means be apl.
Thanks.
Full offense, but I love being aromantic. I don’t love how people view me as an aromantic person, but I love being an aromantic person. I know for a fact that some of my negative experiences have made me the way I am, but guess what? That doesn’t mean I need to change it. I am who I am. I love who I am. If that makes people angry, then tough. If that makes people feel bad for me, who cares? I’m happy being this way. Aromantic people are amazing.