Okay so like 90% of the internet I absolutely adored Netflix's Heartstopper. However I just found out Isaac's supposed to be aro ace and I can't help but feel a little disappointed.
Obviously Isaac is an adorable character. But he doesn't have much plot and doesn't appear very often at all and I feel like if there is aro/ace representation in media (and that's a big if) this always happens. Particularly in teen romance stories. It's always like "Oh this person's our token aro, but it's a romance story so we don't know what to do with them so their just going to sit quietly in the corner and be aro". But in reality you could have done so much with Isaac.
There could've been a person who had a crush on him and you could've explored how that made him feel. Awkward? Confused? Flattered? Maybe he felt pressure to go along with it because he's supposed to be a "horny teenager" and here's a person available and interested. Maybe he would've talked himself into a crush and it would've taken him months to figure out that no, this was actually just internalized amatonormativity.
Or maybe they could've explored how it made him feel being surrounded by all these almost-couples in his friend group when he clearly isn't interested in anything like that. Did it make him feel left behind? Question what his life consisted off while his friends were pining over each other? Did it make him question himself if he was missing out on something? Question if he was "broken"?
There are so many people struggling with these things. Just look at the confessions on this site and you know it's true. Why not pick them up and tell those stories?
My point is not that Heartstopper is a bad show or anything. Far from it, I absolutely loved it. I also loved the representation, particularly of bisexuality. That is important and I am happy that Heartstopper does such a good job at it. I'm just not happy with the representation of Isaac as an aro/ace character. Not just with this show but with (teen) romance shows in general. Because I believe there are stories to be told here. I believe there is a place for aro/ace people in romance stories as more than just a geek who's reading books on the side. Because aro/And I believe we deserve our stories to be told too. And we deserve to have places in teen romance shows.
Anyway thanks for listening to my Ted talk, I guess.