I'm gonna talk about aphobia so I'm sorry if this thread is distressing or spam on your tl. I'm just pissed

1/15

first of all... claiming that ace/aro people aren't oppressed? and not even KNOWING a single ace or aro person? it's pathetic, and a very obvious attempt to divide our community.

the question, "are aspec people oppressed" is totally wrong, flawed, and aphobic. for one, it ignores real life.

aphobes claim that, by examining real life, you would see that aspec people are not oppressed.
however, real life experience also comes in the form of intricately knowing the struggles of people who have vastly different experiences than you.

if you don't talk to ace/aro people about this, then obviously you won't get their own personal account of oppression.
that's not to mention that you can't make aspec people into a monolithic group. this question ignores the ways in which oppression can intersect.

you can be oppressed in multiple ways, and some forms of oppression make the other forms worse. you can't separate ace and aro people into one group to question, because anyone can be aspec!

this question also asks us to judge aspec people in a way that others are NOT judged. it is assumed that aspec people are different, and they inherently have to defend themselves to allo members of the community. that's fucked up.

no one asks if allo people are oppressed, because they are assumed to be valid! and so, this question is a very meta form of oppression in itself. it creates a system in which allo people debate among themselves on behalf of aspec people, which...

if you look closely, is a pattern we can see in the discussions around so many minorities. members of the majority ALWAYS feel the need to talk over members of the minority, and the cycle of privilege in voice and opinion repeats. yes-- allo people are privileged.

this means that the question of, "are aspec people oppressed?", is a tool through which people keep this cycle going. it is NEVER a genuine question, because any answer other than "no" is not accepted, and because it shouldn't be up to any minority to defend themself in this way.

the LGBTQIA+ community is formed entirely around the often unseen experiences of the people around us. you may never know a stranger's orientation or gender, and yet you should accept them as a community member.

it's a community of trust and solidarity. aphobia is, very obviously, antithetical to these ideas.

if you can see that allo members of the community can vary in the privilege they experience, then why not see this for aspec people?

and finally, at worst, if you have an aspec person who happens to be quite privileged, how could it harm you?
if the lgbt community is BUILT to provide resources to those who deal with attraction in non-normative ways. it makes no sense to deny aspec people these resources.

they're not finite. and in the end, the ultimate harm in fracturing a community is far greater than accepting people and expanding it.

don't be an asshole to aspec people. end thread