You Know, If I Had To Describe My Experience As An Aromantic In One Word, I Think I’d Go With “alienating”.

fat frog wednesday

bonus:

I remember posts like this being helpful when I was questioning so I thought it might be good to make a checklist of sorts for The Aro Experience:

not picking up on your friend’s crushes

not understanding the appeal of kissing

thinking about your future and being excited to live alone/with friends rather than immediately thinking about marriage

being annoyed or grossed out by romance in the media

alternatively, seeing romance in the media as formulaic, saying things like ‘these two characters will kiss once then break up I can tell from the portrayal of their first interaction’ rather than getting emotionally invested.

choosing not to read/watch something because there is romance

not getting why people say they want a relationship if they don’t have a crush at the time

your ideal romantic relationship being suspiciously similar to your ideal friendship when you think about it

being able to explain your ‘type’ with fashion style, aka caring more about clothes than looks when considering if you find someone attractive

feeling like your views on relationships are more ‘childish’ than your friend’s views are

feeling uncomfortable when family or friends ask if you’re dating/like someone, even if their questions aren’t particularly invasive

assuming other people make up their crushes to fit in or seem cool 

making your own crushes to fit in, or just mindlessly agreeing that  people all your friends like are ‘hot’ even if you don’t think so

feeling out of place and like you can’t contribute when your friends talk about crushes and relationships

thinking people your age are way too young to date, and this view never seeming to change as you get older

This is mostly from personal experience and obviously every aro is different, but hopefully this is helpful.

“this is the hill you want to die on?” oh no i just love arguing. i fully intend to leave this hill once it gets boring. sorry for the confusion!

~

Aro culture is learning not to show your excitement over making new friends because everyone will say you have a crush.

Call me selfish but I appreciate having a person I talk to throughout most of my day. It’s like we’re having a long conversation that neither of us tires of

Welcome to the space age, ladies and gentlemen

my parents aren’t teaching me life lessons.

#i need some adults to TEACH ME SHIT ABOUT LIFE

I just have to imagine there to be some kind of petting zoo part in it as well

I’m just saying that maybe it wouldn’t have turned out quite as bad.

So, I was studying for my finals and reading the bit in Snorri’s Edda about Ragnarok and at one point a wolf swallows the moon and it says “og gerir sá og mikið ógagn”. Now, I understand that the meaning of the words have changed a bit over time and all that, but to a modern Icelandic speaker, this just sounds like “one of the wolves took the moon, which was unhelpful”