I also did post five new reviews:
Demonosity
Pavilion of Women
Glittering Shadows
Medallion
Deadeye Dick
This put a slight dent in my unfinished reviews pile. But only a small one.
During AAW I also happened to talk about asexuality/came out to two people IRL. One was just in passing; not a full on explanation but she asked me what I was working on and it was the piece for gayya. The other was a friend of a friend and we ended up at waffle house talking til 2am about our shitty luck in fathers. So Happy Ace Awareness Week y'all! I saw a lot of great posts and had a good time challenging myself to write!
Ace characters are important to me. That Charlie Weasley is more interested in dragons than relationships is so validating to me as an aroace, even if it's not really explicitly stated.
Even if it isn’t canon though let’s be real for a second it’s totally canon it’s incredibly validating to have a character who isn’t pursuing any romantic or sexual relationships, who is following their dreams, who is considered a total badass, and who, most importantly, is not treated poorly by their family for never settling down with a partner.
Response to the day 7 prompt from the Asexual Awareness Week Fandom Challenge: Why are asexual characters important to you?
Click here to take the 2015 Ace Community Census! The 2015 ace community census is now available - check it out via the link above! This ace community census is open to anyone over the age of 13, i...
aight i know im a little bit late to the party (actually, REALLY late seeing how it ends in less than an hour), but anyhoo for Asexual Awareness week, here’s a couple of Ace OC’s of mine, Dave (top left) and Markus (bottom right)
wish i had something better to contribute, maybe something informative or whatever, but there’s already been so many other awesome posts that have that covered.
Asexual Awareness Week Day 7 - Why are asexual characters important to you?
I love characters who are like me. A lot of my favourite characters have a similar personality to me. When a character has similar struggles to me I feel a connection with them because I rarely see anyone else with my struggles. Seeing someone else dealing with my kind of struggles is inspiring.
A lot of the characters I talked about this week I headcannon as ace because it makes sense, and I love them and want them to be more like me, but with Midge, it’s deeper than that. I don’t headcannon her as ace so she can be more like me, I headcannon her as aroace because she is already like me. I see myself in how deeply she cares for her friend with no romance involved. Well, maybe there was intended to be a hint of romance, but I didn’t read it that way. He is her best guy friend, and she doesn’t want to marry him! So often in movies, the only female character is there solely to be a love interest. I always love the women, but they often aren’t very much like me. Midge is like me. She is no one’s love interest. She has no love interest. She has friendship that is extremely important to her. It’s probably the most important relationship in her life. Watching that feels amazing. Asexual Midge is important to me because it was one of the few times I saw myself on screen. That is why asexual characters, and all kinds of representation, is so, so important.
Asexual Awareness Week Day 6 - How do you think these characters deal with allonormativity, acephobia, and other negative things related to being asexual?
A day late because I was busy. Again, I will talk about all the characters I made gifs for - Beth March, Midge, River Song, Jenny Honey, Mary Poppins, and Bert - under the read more.
Beth March (The March Family Letters)
I don’t think Beth personally faced any direct acephobia, because I think she’s only out to her family (and now the internet) and I think they’d be really accepting. Of course, allonormativity is everywhere. Maybe it contributed to her social anxiety. I think Beth would deal with acephobia by mostly just ignoring it, and talking to her family (especially Marmee) about it.
Midge (Vertigo)
As I said before, I think Midge just tells most people that she’s celibate. I think she tells some people John is the only man for her, but it didn’t work out. Some people probably tell her how great it is to be a wife and mother (or even that she has to be a wife and mother, because you know, 1950s sexism) and she just nods her head and laughs and says sure, when she meets the right man, she’ll get married, but really, John is the only man for her and they don’t work as a couple. I think sometimes she takes out her frustrations with her painting.
River Song (Doctor Who)
As I said before, I think River didn’t really realize that she was asexual until she went to university, and before then her disinterest in sex was the last thing on her mind. I’d like to think that in the 51st century when she worked, went to school, and lived in jail, acephobia no longer exists. If she encounters acephobia in her (time) travels, I’m sure she just laughs and makes some snarky comment. Primitive humans and their ignorance!
Jenny Honey (Matilda)
I’m pretty sure Jenny dealt with acephobia by internalizing it and letting it feed her low self-worth. My poor Jenny, calling herself pathetic. The lyrics “you’re not a little girl” are about being scared of talking to the Trunchbull but they apply here as well. After the Trunchbull left, Jenny felt more free, and slowly gained some self-worth. Eventually she starts going to therapy, but the therapist isn’t very ace-friendly and she doesn’t start deal with her internalized acephobia until after talking to other aces who’ve been abused online.
Mary Poppins and Bert
It’s Mary Poppins. No one says anything bad about her. No men are courting her? Well, that’s because she’s Mary Poppins. As for Bert, all his friends know that he’s in love with Mary Poppins. Some people tease him about it or even pressure him to move on, because it’s Mary Poppins, he doesn’t stand a chance, but he knows that Mary cares about him, and the fact that he doesn’t want sex doesn’t bother him. If Mary Poppins doesn’t want sex and is still practically perfect, than he doesn’t need to want sex. Being around Mary is better than sex could ever be, he’s sure.
Asexual characters are important because I was 21 before I had heard about it and until then I had felt broken. I had only heard of it through tumblr and seeing characters in the media would help so many others, learn and find their identities.
Representation matters! Accurate and positive representation definitely matters!
Response to the day 7 prompt from the Asexual Awareness Week Fandom Challenge: Why are asexual characters important to you?
Come tell us what ace wixen from the world of Harry Potter mean to you!
