I have a confession:
I dont like the fact that geo from the kid at the back is aroace.
And is not because i have something against fantasia or ace spectrum representation! Its because to me(an aroace person myself) dont like the way that geo's sexuality probably was chosen based on VERY harmfull stereotypes on asexual people.
What are those? Im gonna make a list with the ones that align with geo's personality:
Ace stereotype 1:chatacter who dosen't feel a lot of emotions and is normally asocial or emotionally distant, as a way to justify the lack of a romantic relationship.
Ace stereotype 2:a character that shows no desire to socialize even when they are on a friend group, being excluded or even forced to socialize with other people by third parties.
Ace stereotype 3:character that is very rude and emotionally constipated, this is another way to justify the lack of romantic interest, because some people use the reasoning of ''they're lonely and loveless because they are unlikable'' which is also ANOTHER stereotype and shows asexuality as a choice and not as an actual orientation.
Ace stereotype 4:character that is unnecerally cruel to people who show atraction towards them or despises any romantic gestures, this aligns with the former and shows that people who dosen't want to had romantic relationships are love haters or despise the whole gender of romance and sexuality as a way to ''reafirm how asexual they are''.
Ace stereotype 5:character that has one or zero friends, because yes, crowe is the only one geo considers a friend in the group, everyone else is a nuisance at best to him.
JUST TO CLARIFY! i dont hate Fantasia's work! i really like the story of tkatb and its characters, but this is something that bugs me specially because of the constant lack of representation of aroace characters that are actually well written and dont follow stereotypes, and even if fantasia had no ill intent in deciding geo's sexuality(after all she is the one who knows her characters the best) i also think that geo being aroace was not the best choice if she wanted to include an aroace person.
if you make an asexual character based on stereotypes YOU SHOULD NOT MAKE THEM ASEXUAL, is that simple! even if the character is not made to be representation you should investigate their sexuality to avoid falling into stereotypes and potentially offending someone.
honestly any other sexuality for geo would have been just fine, even if he was just a straight ally dude it would have been better.
