Pride and Parresia (Aro version)

Woman and aromantic (aro/ace). Italian and definitely queer (who knows, knows). Fencer and literature lover. 19 y/o and feminist (intersectional ofc). My profile/blog is literally named Pride and Freedom of spreech (in greek Parresia). Nothing else to say.

[pride-and-parresia]

Let's suppose that you were able every night to dream any dream that you wanted to dream. And that you could, for example, have the power within one night to dream 75 years of time. Or any length of time you wanted to have.

And you would, naturally as you began on this adventure of dreams, you would fulfill all your wishes. You would have every kind of pleasure you could conceive.

And after several nights of 75 years of total pleasure each, you would say "Well, that was pretty great." But now let's have a surprise. Let's have a dream which isn't under control. Where something is gonna happen to me that I don't know what it's going to be.

And you would dig that and come out of that and say "Wow, that was a close shave, wasn't it?" And then you would get more and more adventurous, and you would make further and further out gambles as to what you would dream.

And finally, you would dream ... where you are now. You would dream the dream of living the life that you are actually living today.

Alan Watts

[pride-and-parresia]

Gli Annali di Volusio moriranno sulle rive del Po

e serviranno per incartarci gli sgombri.

Catullo

[pride-and-parresia]

THERE IS NO DISCUSSION TO HAVE.

We no longer know the meaning of a life. We do not have the perception that other people's lives are like our own, that death is to reset all possibilities to zero, is to make a mind disappear forever from the face of the earth.

THERE IS NO DISCUSSION TO HAVE.

What if it were you? If all of a sudden you disappeared, lost everything, if all of a sudden you could no longer hug your loved ones, smile, speak, see...would you care that it was not your country that started the war, so it is not right to be the first to lay down your arms? Would you care about that border? That monopoly? The Twitter of that politician? Life, then, wouldn't be the most important thing to you?

THERE IS NO DISCUSSION TO HAVE ANYMORE.

[pride-and-parresia]

"Shakespeare had a sister.

She never wrote a word.

She lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here to–night, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed.

But she lives; for great poets do not die;

If we face the fact, for it is a fact

that our relation is to the world of reality and not only to the world of men and women, then the opportunity will come and the dead poet who was Shakespeare’s sister will put on the body which she has so often laid down. Drawing her life from the lives of the unknown who were her forerunners, as her brother did before her, she will be born."

Virginia Woolf

[pride-and-parresia]

I'm so sick of being mansplained for everything that I could scream right now.

Fine, I AM screaming.

[pride-and-parresia]

I really wish another me in another life could have a romantic love story.

But I'm really thankful it won't happen in this one, people. Really. Really much.

[pride-and-parresia]

Dear American sisters and dear American queers,

I want you to know that I hear you. I know what you are going through and how you must feel cause I experienced a similar situation myself two years ago in my country. I know how it is to be scared and disappointed.

Tomorrow we will stand together and fight for our rights as we always did, but today we can take a moment and cry not for a political defeat but for a human one, for another country that let us down.

A.

[pride-and-parresia]

can i ask you how did you know you weren’t bi or gay, but aroace?

Hi! Thanks for the question.

I questioned for a long time. What actually helped me was the queer community. I read lots of blogs and watched lots of conferences and videos. Listening to people talking about their queer experiences and seeing myself in some of them was revealing.

I learned there are different types of attraction (sexual, mental, romantic, platonic...) and a person can feel all of them or just some, and with different intensities, too! I tried not to mistake physical attraction to romantic attraction anymore.

I took my time to analyse how I've always felt uneasy when someone had feelings for me or (worse) asked me out. I basically tried to imagine myself actually going out with them and start a relationship: my entire body and soul were repulsed.

This is strictly my experience thou, so the only advice I can give you is: listen to yourself and be patient.

Green and proud,

A.

[pride-and-parresia]

Hi Aro friends,

I've got a question: how do I reject someone I like but not romantically and who has feelings for me, without a two hours-long explanation/coming out and without making it seem like the fricking cliché "it's not you, it's me"?

THANK YOU

[pride-and-parresia]

There was a time when I desperately wanted to be gay or bi or pan or something that I felt I could justify in any way with others. Something that wasn't as "strange" ad being aromantic.

Ofc I couldn't, but I wanted to and now that I'm able to be proud of myself I'm ashamed of it.

And I'm also sad because this says how deep the lack of aro representation and recognition is and how much we still suffer because of it.

WE ARE AS QUEER AS THEY ARE. (Now read it again but shouting ;-) )

~A (pride-and-parresia)

[pride-and-parresia]

I'm taking my final exams these days but ofc I didn't forget our month!

Happy Pride month to you all, LGBTQIA+ people! It feels so good being part of this community.🏳️‍🌈

With pride and joy,

~A. (pride-and-parresia)

[pride-and-parresia]

In Italy women didn't vote until 1946.

My great-grandmother couldn't vote for half of her life and when she finally could se did it proudly every single time.

After becoming a mother she thought her daughter to do the same. And my granny voted even when she was confined in bed by her illness.

Yesterday I voted for the first time, with my mom by my side, holding my electoral card as someone else could hold a love letter. And it meant the world for me.

In Italy women's skin remembers the struggle of its ancestors. They fought so we could talk, so we could vote. And I will until I die.

[aromantic-aurea]

AUREA is excited to host a livestream fundraiser for ASAW 2024 on February 24th with three sessions on aromantic research and speakers from PRIDEnet, AroUQ, and the Aro Census.

Here you can find the livestream link and schedule.

Accessibility information: The livestream will have ASL access and captions.

Image descriptions in alt text.

[pride-and-parresia]

Let's say goodbye to this amazing week with such a beautiful initiative.

I hope there will be loads of us!

[pride-and-parresia]

To those who say we aren't sweet.

[pride-and-parresia]

Arospec Awareness Week is that anniversary (yes, it's an actual holiday for me) you (aro) can celebrate just by being yourself. No big parties or cliches needed. I freaking love it.

~A. (Pride-and-parresia)

[pride-and-parresia]

I first heard about aromanticism on social media just a couple of years ago. From that moment it was a relatively short time before I realized that aromanticism was the explanation for that teenage me, unable to understand and, after all, even wanting the first strange crushes.

On the one hand I believed that my distance from romantic love was simply a character trait, on the other -as time passed- I began to wonder if I didn't have some kind of problem that prevented me from falling in love or even having a real crush.

Discovering aromantcism and feeling unreservedly welcomed under this huge green umbrella gave me tremendous relief and joy. All the pieces finally fit together and I embarked on a beautiful journey of self-discovery and awareness of the all the new ways I could relate to the world.

I still have a thousand and one questions about coming out to those who have never heard of aromanticism (the first person I attempted it with asked me why I had "made this choice") and how to deal with the low regard there is for this orientation, even within the LGBTQIA+ community.

However, today I "just" want to thank wholeheartedly people who every day, on social media and otherwise, strive to spread information about this magnificent orientation. You have changed my life.

Happy Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week to you all!!!

Be proud and green,

~A. (Pride-and-parresia)

[drakenhert]

you want to be romantically attracted to someone? the thing that killed romeo and juliet?