damn. I was so excited for the new ace flag, but arospec aces are represented by the pink stripe for love, and I just checked, and the creator's response to aro people pointing out that this is a problem is to brush them off and say "you should unlearn the western idea of love, and then you won't be upset by this"
which is just flat out aromisia and belittling as hell. Especially when the flag is meant to represent multiculturalism and intersectionality. The stripe is literally pink for love. A western symbol. But then if you're aro and don't like being represented by the color of love, it's only because you have a western mindset?????? That is just blatant hypocracy.
and the creator has specifically said she *doesn't* give permission for people to change the shades of the colors unless the whole entire thing is getting changed at once, so you can't edit it to make it more accesible, cuz the "final" version right now is eyeburning almost on par with the usual intersex flag.
i don't feel like making an instagram account just to bring up the innaccessability, and other people have already brought up the aromisia, and I don't know how substack works.
Apparently there were tons and tons of surveys and polls about this. If that's true, how is the final version *this* eyeburning, and this belittling and erasing of aro aces?
I also just don't understand the purpose of attempting to reject the AVEN original ace flag, (for valid reasons. Why the hell does the white stripe officially stand for allies???) but then clearly just doing that again with two extra colors.
Once again. to the Queer community in general and especially those who make pride flags:
Please remember that disabled people exist. You should pretty much never be using full saturation, and if you want your flag to be accessible, you need to talk to lots of disabled people with photosensitivity to make sure it's not going to cause us migraines or seizures.
There's a reason the disability pride flag was almost immediately changed to be less saturated, and it's because the original *was causing seizures*
I'm just very bitter that aroaces always seem to get the short end of the stick whether it's in the ace or aro communities.
And no one ever wants to remember that disabled people also exist in these communities, and deserve to not be caused pain by trying to interact with the symbol that's supposed to represent us.
Editing to add the next day: There is no reason for any of this to be set in stone. This flag has already been changed from its original pastel form to this. It can change again. Nothing is stopping it from doing so if it's meant to actually be inclusive and intersectional and able to be something the whole entire asexual community can use.
But that won't happen if aroaces continue to be ignored and dismissed, and the inaccessability continues to be ignored and defended.
