some type of adult girl

estrogene:

radicalhufflepuff:

aleatoryw:

I think the reason so many ignorant people think heretoromantic aces and heterosexual aros are “straight” is because they see our asexuality, our aromanticism, as a weird “neutral” rather than an orientation, as a recessive gene that gets overwritten by the attraction we do feel. They are wrong. My asexuality colors so many of my thoughts, and in our romance saturated culture, I’m sure aromanticism does the same for aromantics. It is not an odd quirk for an otherwise straight person. It is a different facet of being queer, and anyone who wishes to identify with that word should not be pushed away.

“queer” isn’t just a value-neutral identity for people who aren’t cishet. It’s the reclamation of a slur that’s used against certain people, specifically people who are trans or are attracted (sexually or romantically) to the same or similar sexes. heteroromantic asexual and heterosexual aromantic people are not called “queer” by homophobes, transphobes, or acephobes and therefore it is not theirs to reclaim.

i agree with radicalhufflepuff. to add on to what they said, being a girl is also a “different facet of being queer.” but that doesnt mean my womanhood, in itself, is “queer.” obviously being ace is different from being a woman. likewise, the category of “ace/aro” is fundamentally different from being “queer”. this in no way devalues those identities or says “they dont exist” or even “they arent oppressed” (though i would contend that ace/aro identities arent discretely oppressed).

men should not be “reclaiming” a slur like “bitch” for themselves because they are never the real target of those slurs. similarly, ace/aro people are not the targets of “queer.” therefore, unless an ace/aro person is non-hetero, they cannot reclaim “queer” as a slur. there are queer ace people, but not all ace people are queer.

moreover, it should be noted tht queer isnt just a fancy new category people throw around on tumblr. its grounded in real, historical violence (often religious) against people attracted to people of the same or multiple genders. reclamation is a morose decision in opposition to violent hegemony, not your mom’s pride parade.

(via estrogene-deactivated20171022)