i’m stressed and tired (it sure has been A Year already!!), but....i couldn’t go to bed without responding to this.
i think the first time i got asked whether arkady was ace in the spring of 2019. at the time, my answer boiled down to: i am not word of god, but headcanon what makes you happy! and i mentioned that imagining arkady as ace-spectrum made me happy, because i liked the idea that she might be like me.
that sparked a bit of a conversation, and a few weeks later, this is what i wrote:
i think one of the issues with ace representation in media, including in fandom, is that there’s usually only two ways ace folks get depicted. either they’re totally uninterested in sex and romance, or they’re a non-aro ace who likes kissing and cuddling. and these people absolutely exist!…but they are not the sum total of the ace/aro experience.
and if you fall somewhere else - like i do - the fact that representation is so limited means you not only don’t recognize yourself in these ace characters, but you may not even recognize yourself as ace, because you don’t fit the “right” way of being. i will always want ace characters who are in love but don’t like to be touched, and aro characters who enjoy kissing and sex without needing a relationship, and all the people in between, because somewhere out there in the world those people exist, and they deserve to know that they’re not alone.
it’s been a long two years since then. but - this? knowing that arkady got to be that for someone?
that is everything to me. so thank you for posting this, @impossibleclair. i am so, so happy to have read it.
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