The parallels between the way society treats people with low/no empathy and people on the aro/ace spectrums. Am I onto something here
Empathy and attraction are both treated like inherent and essential parts of the human experience, and people who lack them are viewed as unfeeling, inhuman, or defective in some way.
Empathy and attraction are seen as the literal sole reason someone would engage in certain acts (helping others, dating, having sex). Allos and persotypicals often act like because THEIR motivation to do those things comes from their experiences of empathy/attraction, those are the ONLY POSSIBLE motivations, and thus anyone who lacks those feelings should not only be incapable of but entirely disinterested in those actions.
Which is frustrating because there are plenty of reasons why someone with no empathy might choose kind and helpful behaviours, or why an aroace person might choose to date or have sex. Other people just don't realise it because their motivation is the typical one, so they never have to look any deeper into it.
And of course, it's fine if someone with low empathy doesn't want to help another or someone without romantic/sexual attraction doesn't want to engage in those relationships; those choices shouldn't be forced on anyone and it doesn't make anyone less human or less deserving of basic respect. But I also think we shouldn't make assumptions about a person's choices based on the feelings they do or don't experience (and vice versa).
Anyway, this post is brought to you by aspec-persodivergent solidarity 🖤
