*sigh* I feel a lil obligated to share this vid considering past ramblings. And I understand shippers of any aroace characters are VERY tired of the conversation, I get that and you should be free to have fun with the characters as you see fit. But there is a conversation I think both sides just never wanna get into. And I highly recommend EVERYONE, EVEN PEOPLE WHO ENJOY SHIPPING AND IDENTIFY AS ARO/ACE, to give this vid a watch. Like damn, the shit about Gwenpool was SO disheartening to hear.
It's never been the shipping itself that's the issue, it's the pushback against the aroace identity.
Just as a reminder, I (nor the video) are against shipping or spectrums and all that. There is just immense invisibility on the core parts of the aroace identity when it comes to popular characters, and (to me) the spectrum comment typically doesn't sound genuine but more of a hopeful defense that a character isn't aroace (from what I've seen). It always reads more like they're grasping as to have their favorite ship become valid or possible within the media the character is in. That's obviously not the case for EVERYONE and genuine-ness is difficult to read in text form, but that just happens to be how it typically seems to me when people make the spectrum case. And I think if having something like shipweeks is important, something like aroace weeks should be celebrated too! And they definitely exist! They're just severely ignored when compared to something like ship weeks.
The overabundance of shipping aroace characters can kinda feel like if, say, the most popular ships/ships that are everywhere in a fandom involve a gay character in straight relationships. By itself it is genuinely harmless. But there is a sort of underlying tone of being against that character being gay, even if not intentional. Everyone should be allowed to have their fun shipping characters however they like, no matter their orientation because they're not real. But there's an undeniable trend that if a character is popular, Their aroace identity will be challenged, ignored, or pushed back. Which doesn't really feel great (personally, not everyone is me and I don't speak for all).
Might I reiterate from my previous post on the subject:
The aro community is allowed the scraps but not the dinner.













