[ SECRET POST #3420 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3420 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Banana Fish]


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 051 secrets from Secret Submission Post #489.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Characters who never get involved in a romantic or sexual relationship on screen, never have it as a priority, and aren't treated by the narrative as something that needs fixing aren't exactly novel. You can't take a step without tripping over one in some genres. People may think not wanting to be in a relationship/not wanting sex is weird, but they're not going to treat aro/ace people as subhuman, evil, or disgusting.

LGB characters, on the other hand, are still pretty rare if you're looking at anything other than LGB niche fiction. LGB people are also still told on a regular basis that we are, in fact, subhuman, evil, and disgusting for our sexualities, and heroic representations of people with our sexualities can help combat that for us, whether it influences the opinions of the bigots or not.

[(Anonymous)]

Characters who, because their part in the story is relatively small, are never explicitly established as being in or pursuing a romantic/sexual relationship are not novel...but they also aren't exactly what I would call representation. Or rather, those characters no more amount to representation for aro/ace people than they amount to representation for LGB people.

Main characters who are never explicitly established as being in or pursuing or having a general interest in a romantic/sexual relationship strike me as pretty darn novel, at least in the substantial amount of popular western media I consume.

People may think not wanting to be in a relationship/not wanting sex is weird, but they're not going to treat aro/ace people as subhuman, evil, or disgusting.

I have personally been treated as subhuman and disgusting by more than one person, upon their discover that I was ace/aro. I have not been treated as evil, but I have been called a fucking bitch a couple of times, which carries with it connotations of being a bad person.

LGB characters, on the other hand, are still pretty rare if you're looking at anything other than LGB niche fiction.

Personally, I have seen FAARRRRRR more LGB characters than I've seen ace/aro characters. With a bit of thinking I could probably count forty or fifty LGB characters I know of, whereas I can count...can I count any ace characters? Outside of fanfic interpretations? I feel like I have have seen one of two but I'm not really sure.

Look, honestly? From everything we can tell so far, it seems that ace/aro people comprise a significantly smaller percentage of the population than LGB people do. For that reason alone, I don't expect ace/aro people to get as much representation in the media. But a little bit of representation would be good. And as it stands, we get approximately none.

[blitzwing]

This makes me want to go write aro and ace characters.

[(Anonymous)]

Ugh, please don't.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, Blitzwing!!! Please do!

[(Anonymous)]

Hahaha! The ridiculous thing is, I don't even enjoy stories where the main character is ace/aro (by which I mean fanfic, since that's about all there is out there right now). I just ended up heading up this conversation because it seemed like a worthwhile conversation, and because I don't actually believe that ace/aro representation is markedly less needed than LGB representation. I think they're both needed.

*shrugs*

However, I know plenty of ace/aro people who would be over the moon about someone expressing an urge to write ace/aro characters. So for their sake: yaassss! Woot! If you did that would be awesome! :)

[(Anonymous)]

We don't need representation, because we're not fucking oppressed. If someone called you a bitch, that's sexism not "acephobia" or w/e.

Can you please stop talking and go away.

[(Anonymous)]

Oh my god! I REMEMBER you, anon!!! You've showed up in a couple of these threads, saying the same exact thing almost down to the word. You have a very distinctive appearance; the chip on your shoulder is visible from a hundred yards. You should really buff that thing, or spackle it or something.

God, I wish I'd known it was you before I wasted all those words on you. I put some real thought and effort into that comment, too.

Welp, at least now it's out there for posterity.

[(Anonymous)]

lol, I've never said any of this stuff on f!s before.

Feel free to go on believing I'm the only person in the world who thinks you're full of shit, though.

[(Anonymous)]

So only oppressed people should ever appear on movies, TV and other media? Okay.

[(Anonymous)]

Only oppressed people need representation, and are being wronged in a real way when they don't get it. It's fine for creators to include asexual characters if they want to, but they aren't morally obligated to pander to aces any more than they're obligated to include "furry representation" or "model train enthusiast representation".

[(Anonymous)]

Being an asexual isn't like having a kink or a hobby. Like, at all.

[(Anonymous)]

They are alike in that none of them are oppressed.

[(Anonymous)]

obviously DA

Thank you!

I have personally been treated as subhuman and disgusting by more than one person

Yep.

Personally, I have seen FAARRRRRR more LGB characters than I've seen ace/aro characters.

Me too. Having characters not interested in sex or relationships in some random obscure anime or sci fi book from the 70s that pretty much no one outside of a niche audience sees or reads really does not count. But turn on any show on any of the broadcast networks, any of the cable networks, and the majority of them have AT LEAST one gay character. NONE of them have a single asexual character.

From everything we can tell so far, it seems that ace/aro people comprise a significantly smaller percentage of the population than LGB people do. For that reason alone, I don't expect ace/aro people to get as much representation in the media. But a little bit of representation would be good. And as it stands, we get approximately none.

That's all I want. A little bit. But apparently that's way too much to ask for.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you!

Thank you!

Sometimes all it takes is one other person to jump into the prickly conversation nobody wants to jump into, and say, "Yeah, me too."

Having characters not interested in sex or relationships in some random obscure anime or sci fi book from the 70s that pretty much no one outside of a niche audience sees or reads really does not count.

Haha! This! My father reads a lot of sci-fi and is always talking about it, but I read almost no sci-fi. So when I was writing my comment I was wondering whether sci-fi as a genre has some ace representation. But even if it does, obscure stuff just doesn't count on the same level as, say, prime time TV.

But turn on any show on any of the broadcast networks, any of the cable networks, and the majority of them have AT LEAST one gay character. NONE of them have a single asexual character.

Yeah, exactly! And it's not like I begrudge LGB people their representation. I'm happy for it, I enjoy seeing it, and I would really love to seem more main characters being LGB in the future. But, as you say, a little bit of inclusion in the pop-cultural narrative should not be too much for ace/aro people to ask for. Yet it's often treated as though it is.

[(Anonymous)]

Haha! This! My father reads a lot of sci-fi and is always talking about it, but I read almost no sci-fi. So when I was writing my comment I was wondering whether sci-fi as a genre has some ace representation. But even if it does, obscure stuff just doesn't count on the same level as, say, prime time TV.

Yeah, exactly. I feel like I've heard about some sci-fi stuff supposedly having ace/aro characters, but it's just not the same as the mainstream stuff with a widespread audience.

No matter what genre someone likes, they can find a show, on a major network, with gay characters, that's well-known and popular enough that they can find plenty of other fans of that show to discuss it with. The same thing can't be said for ace/aro characters.

Yeah, exactly! And it's not like I begrudge LGB people their representation. I'm happy for it, I enjoy seeing it, and I would really love to seem more main characters being LGB in the future. But, as you say, a little bit of inclusion in the pop-cultural narrative should not be too much for ace/aro people to ask for. Yet it's often treated as though it is.

Yeah, me neither. Gay characters are great, I would love for there to be more gay main characters, and more gay characters where it's not a big deal and their entire storyline doesn't revolve around their sexuality. And like you said above, there are way more gay people than ace people so it would make sense that there aren't AS MANY ace characters, but ANY at all would be nice.