Friday 15 June 2018

Friday Fics Fix - Coming Out Aro








'This was the perfect opportunity to come out. These were the people who deserved to know, if anyone did... But what if? Part of him whispered. What if they don’t accept you? What if everything goes wrong?' 






fics fix title image w/ purple background and white lightning bolt





Coming out is damned difficult.

Add in a romantic or sexual orientation, or gender, which people are less familiar with, and you not only have to come out, you have to explain what you're coming out as.

I don't think my parents understand what Sexually Fluid actually means, even now.

(Cliff notes version: my sexuality changes a lot.)







And there's that doubt, no matter how loving and understanding your family normally are, that they might not accept you.

Especially since even the sweetest and kindest allocishet family members have usually said something casually offensive within your ear-shot without knowing that they're talking about you.








Arthur to Merlin: Something's been upsetting you, hasn't it?
Via Giphy









Aromantic refers to a lack of romantic attraction. Asexual refers to lack of sexual attraction.

They're often shortened to aro, and ace, respectively, and both are part of spectrums related to low levels, or absence of, romantic or sexual attraction.
Aro-spec, Ace-spec, and A-spec all also refer to these spectrums.





'“Really?” The scepticism in Arthur's voice made Merlin's heart sink and start beating harder. “I’ve never heard of it before.”

“Oh, I'm sorry. I forgot that you were the authority on these matters. If you haven't heard of it, that must mean it doesn't exist,” Merlin snapped, hurt.'






This fic has Merlin from BBC Merlin trying to explain to various other characters that he's Aromantic.

Some take it well... some not so well.

And I like the way that it's handled here - unfortunately, even though people don't mean it, they can be ignorant af.

Luckily, some people can be totally awesome-sauce.












Aro/Ace people are often ostracised even within the Queer community.

As such, the level of representation in the mainstream media is... well, almost non-existent.

This is improving in YA books and books by indie authors.





It's also not the case in fanfiction.

Because fanfiction has freedom. And fanfiction is gonna save the ever-loving world. 😎

So, in fanfiction, there are Aromantic and Asexual characters. And that's what I've brought you this week my darling nerdlets!









This week's fic, then, is:


An Ineffective Spell by Buffintruda







Do you know of any awesome A-spec fics? Talk to me! 😃💬











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6 comments:

  1. Great post Cee! I totally understand how ignorant some people can be, and I love how you have found a fic that accurately shows the highs and lows of coming out.

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  2. Great post! There is so much to learn for a lot of people in regards to gender and sexuality.

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  3. This was an interesting read for me. I still need to learn a lot more about aromanticism and pan-frey to be able to understand fully what the terms mean. It would help if there was greater representation in fiction.

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    Replies
    1. Glad I could be informative :) And yeah, the '+' orientations need waaaay more rep than we currently have!

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