So During Rings Of Power Season 2, There Was A Bit Of Theorizing Going Around That Mirdania Would Turn

This. They hate all of us, we're not any better to them.

There's also a bit of... I think unintentional support of other queerphobia when people say stuff about how asexuals aren't doing anything. As the post discussed, we are seen as a threat to a lot of people, but I think the intent when aspecs say this is more like "we're not hurting anybody/doing anything wrong". But the thing is... Neither are trans people or gay people or other queer identities. When people say stuff like that, it's almost agreeing like "I can see why you don't like them, but we're different".

So there are several issues. I do think a lot of it comes from people not really knowing aphobia exists or even within our community not understanding how strong it is in some groups.

tbh I really dislike how aphobia tends to be discussed whenever there's some kind of incident that makes it visible to general society. The most common response seems to be some variation of "why would anyone hate asexual/aromantic people, they aren't even doing anything" and it just always sits wrong with me. It paints such a passive picture of our existence and feels like a comment influenced by the level of invisibility that aspec people have in society. Why would you be annoyed by someone who is practically invisible? Just go back to ignoring their existence, it's easy!

But despite the invisibility, aspec people are actually doing quite a lot of things that will piss off queerphobic, right-wing and religious people (and hell, even left-wing people). And the most obvious point is that we are actively not performing heterosexuality the way they want us to. People who's entire world view is "cis men and women should be in monogamous, heterosexual marriage and have (white) babies" are not going to lean back and say "oh but those asexuals and aromantics are fine". They will also hate our guts, and they will come up with all sorts of reasons, including insinuating we're all secretly into bestiality, or mentally ill, or not human, or attention seeking children. It's just plain old queerphobia, and like all queerphobia, there's no inherent logic to it which you can worm your way out of by "not doing anything".

And like, there's a lot more that aspec people do which people hate. Raising awareness about amatonormativity? People feel attacked, they hate it. Asexual people having sex? Or not having sex? People hate it! Aromantic people being in (seemingly) romantic relationships? People fucking hate it! Aromantic people having sex? Ohh people hate that!!

I guess the existence of aphobia can be confusing when you haven't spent much time thinking about asexuality and aromanticism, but in the end, these are identities that aren't heteronormative and they will be hit with the same or similar bigotry as any other queer identity. I just get tired of this response after seeing it recycled for 10 years without ever seeming to go any further.

Gaslight, Gatekeep, Girlboss

Yeah I know Dedra is a horrible person serving a fascist galactic regime, but mad respect to her for standing up for her autistic bf and putting his insufferable mother in her place. 💅✨

That's awesome 😂 It really is so perfect!

Rings of Power meme dump part 2!

The tapestries made by the Aubusson manufacture based on the art of JRR Tolkien are currently exhibited at the Collège des Bernardins in Paris until May. @actual-bill-potts and I went there yesterday, they're so beautiful!!

These are all handmade tapestries, each is based on a Tolkien artwork (the Rivendell one has the facsimile on the right for scale).

Under the cut: group ID and bonus details

ID: 7 photos of the tapestries, which are each about 3m high, located in a 13th century monastery. The first is the map of middle earth, the others are illustrations Tolkien made of his books. The bonus photos below are details of the tapestries.

me: oh yay Andor is back what's going on gang

Andor: undocumented immigrants are facing sexual violence every day. left wing infighting will get everyone killed. rich people buying back things stolen by colonists is still an act of colonialism.

me: right so just a light season then

Weird kind of validation to having to call a physical therapy session early for the third time in a row. I got a cold a couple weeks ago so my heart rate is still being even stupider than usual. It's incredibly frustrating obviously, but it's also honestly nice to see some stats clearly representing a problem after my doctor refused to refer me to a cardiologist for more testing because he ran a preliminary test wrong 🙃

Also got told I should be walking less to recover unfortunately. I need to PACE and go for WALKS. Real stupid I think.

do you ever just think about how Elrond and Celebrian likely represent Tolkien's fear of being left alive, alone, without his wife, Edith... and then that very thing comes to pass... and then just start crying.... everyday i think of letter 340 and slowly feel my heart breaking more and more

hot take but “it’s perfectly fine to portray aspec characters as having sex/dating bc aspec people still do those things” and “fandom often overwhelmingly portrays aspec characters as having sex/dating with little to no regard for their aspec identity, leaving little room for aspecs who don’t do those things” are two statements that can and should coexist

What doesn't kill you flares up and tries again