Just trying to figure out why you have these strong feelings about Shaw. She's had conversations with characters about her interest in one night stands & sexual interests. She had the conversation w/ Reese and she expressed sexual interest in Tomas in 4x7. As for Root, she teases & flirts but is pretty serious about not crossing any lines to where Shaw would be uncomfortable. She doesn't physically initiate anything towards Shaw until after 4x7 where it's heavily implied they slept together.
Like if you have headcanon about Shaw being ace, right on. I think we should all have freedom to ship and have our own headcanon a because we see different things in our favorite characters. But to shout into the void and claim a relationship is abusive when it’s not is a bit over the top. So I was just curious if you would be able reasonably explain what you see and why you feel the way you feel. (If you don’t mind doing so. It is your blog after all.) So
You’re gonna have to be specific where Shaw’s sexual talk was because as i said when she talked with Reese she described no need for relationships and only talked about sex as scratching an itch. I also don’t recall her stating sexual interest towards Tomas, but she was smitten with his looks or something. I’m smitten with several people. And if Shaw has an itch to scratch and finds someone attractive enough to enjoy it with, she would still be asexual. Asexual is just feeling no sexual attraction toward people. A lack of sex drive itself would be non-libido. Some aces are fully sex repulsed and would never do it personally, even if horny, while others don’t mind.
I also wanna point out here that IF we are to support Shaw being canonically attracted (in any aesthetic/romantic/sexual way) to others like Carter and Tomas, we must accept her behavior with them was consistently different from her norm. You blatantly saw she liked and blushed around them. This is a stark, stark contrast to her very closed, uncomfortable body language around Root.
I have no idea where it ever hints they ever slept together. Ever. But Root crosses the line all the time. You think if someone reacts coldly toward your advances it’s still okay to tease them time and time again? As long as, what? They don’t outright molest you? No, the line was continuing to go against Shaw’s comfort every time they were near each other. I wish i had the episodes downloaded so i could count each time Shaw was just done or disgusted by Root’s behavior. None of it was in a playful “oh you” way. If a man did this, the fandom would recognize it immediately and call it out. Women everywhere have this negative experience.
I appreciate you being kind and open about this, but everything about Shaw pointed to aromantic and/or asexual. Her personality disorder might be part of it, but it’s allowed to be. Someone disrespecting her privacy and agency until the writers decide to reward that someone (yet again) with Shaw giving in is abusive. It’s the same narrative we’ve seen a million times, only now it’s wrapped in a progressive lesbian bow so we can all pat ourselves on the back.
It’s extremely difficult to claim 100% canon aro/ace for a character when no one in mainstream media will say it or know what it is. So when a character is established with all the traits with only the word for it missing, it’s wonderful. Except often if that character is around long enough, the writers (usually men who can’t think of anymore creative plots besides romance/sex) have a habit of erasing their orientation to make a relationship “extra special.” Sherlock in CBS’s Elementary doesn’t do romance and only treats sex like something his body needs akin to food and sleep, but after several seasons the writers recently gave him a romance arc out of the blue. Katniss seriously just did not care about loving anyone but her family, until she had to be given a hetero happy ending of wedded motherhood. Shaw couldn’t have cared less about romance and companionship (besides Bear) and only thought of sex like one would a food craving, yet she was forcefully worn down by a toxic narcissistic abuser who doesn’t think the word “no” applies to her ever. When Root does the same things to Finch, we’re supposed to find it funny. I don’t know if it’s not seeing women as threatening or just the overall normalcy of rape culture, but Root is every male-written sexually-undertoned femme fatale. Which is bad enough, if she wasn’t allowed to abuse a character i connect with very personally.
I’ve been writing about this for a while now if you or anyone wants to go through my poi tags.
