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Arospectrum Awareness Week

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by Ali6132, Feb 15, 2016.

  1. Ali6132

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    I feel like I needed to make this post since the arospectrum is pretty much invisible to most, it seems.
    Today (February 15th) was the first day of Arospectrum Awareness Week (!). It celebrates anyone under the aro umbrella, whether Aromantic, gray-romantic (like me :]), frayromantic, demiromantic, or any romantic orientation that falls under the umbrella.
    So, any other arospectrums here?
     
  2. Chip

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  3. Vav

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    How did I know Chip would show up?
     
  4. mychemromance99

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    *peeking in*
    I'm demiromantic/sexual probably.
    Still questioning.
     
  5. DougTheBicycle

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    I love it. Simple, elegant, yet with enough force to display all of the intended emotions.

    A beautiful reply, if ever there was one.
     
  6. Cauldron

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    Way to be supportive on a support site.. :confused:
     
    #6 Cauldron, Feb 15, 2016
    Last edited: Feb 15, 2016
  7. LakanLunti

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    What does this mean? I dont want to misinterpret this
     
  8. Chip

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    It means there's zero credible evidence anywhere in the scientific literature, or even among any credible professionals (therapists, counselors, etc) who work with LGBT populations to support the idea that there's a separation between romantic and sexual orientations.

    While people are absolutely free to label themselves with whatever label they choose that works for them, it's something totally different to advocate for, and represent as factual, something that, by all reasonable measures we have, is entirely made up of a tiny group of people that got together and decided that this existed, without any basis grounded in anything measurable.

    A good analogy is this: I can call myself unicornsexual (or unicornromantic). I can get 100 other people to discuss with me and we can mutually decide that we are all unicornsexual, that unicornsexuals exist, and that we deserve to be respected and nobody should be telling us who we are or aren't. And that's all completely valid. But there's absolutely no way to ground it to anything measurable or solid, because there's no other basis anywhere that unicornsexuality actually exists. Pretty much the same here.
     
  9. Chip

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    For the record, we're a support site. We also take seriously the commitment we've made to an evidence- and research-based approach to the information that's shared on EC.
     
  10. Michael

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    You made me laugh, Chip, thank you, thank you so much...

    Confirmed : EC is a support site
     
  11. Southern Stoic

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    Just dropping in to say I politely disagree with Chip and have more than one friend who is aro ace.

    Happy Awareness week. :slight_smile:
     
  12. DreamerBoy17

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    Happy awareness week! You are valid! :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:ride:
     
  13. Invidia

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    The queer movement is hijacked by white, cis, male, gay armchair generals nowadays. It isn't about free expression of suxuality and gender, as it used to be, but about the maintenance of the privilege over these other oppressed groups in society (trans, bi, female, POC people) that they have gained. From that point they cherry-pick their research to fit their narratives of how the world is and uphold their position.

    Call me old school, but I completely agree that there is not enough awareness on differing sexual and gender identities. Free expression of one's self is basically the point of social life, and oppression of that freedom is completely reactionary.

    Happy Arospectrum Awareness Week, and thank you for educating me on this event, OP. :slight_smile: xx
     
    #13 Invidia, Feb 17, 2016
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2016
  14. YinYang

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    This is not the first time you have personally made me feel extremely invalid and put down.


    On a slightly different note, I'm probably demiromantic, so yay! Hello fellow arospec people!
     
  15. KittensandCandy

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    Aw yiss! Go aros! I'll be celebrating all week!.... very quietly.... with minimal movement... in my bed...sleeping :frowning2:
     
  16. Cauldron

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    Hope you all have a great week. :grin:
     
    #16 Cauldron, Feb 17, 2016
    Last edited: Feb 17, 2016
  17. Libra Neko

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    I'm not sure what this is about, but I am biromantic and my sexuality is fluid. This is real. This is an accurate description of me that I have finally figured out at the age of 36.
     
  18. C P

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    While I fall under ace- rather than this, it's interesting to at least see some kind of awareness for those who don't fit the rigid views that surround sexual/romantic attraction.


    And does it really surprise anyone that a certain snack-named admin posted the way he did? -__- The guy is notorious for his anti-ace spectrum posts.

    Either way, have a good week.
     
  19. state-champs

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    :roflmao: ikr. i thought this was supposed to be a safe site for people of the LGBTQIA+ community to share their opinions and experiences without being judged. If this is supposed to be a support site then wouldn't it be more appropriate to NOT disprove peoples' sexuality and ignore it? It seems to me that in fact that their statement isn't completely true. Considering the fact that Chip just tried to use science in order to validate his opinon. But more importantly to reject their emotions and experiences. I remember reading an article somewhere that in the 1970s scientists tried to disprove the idea of homosexuality. YET HERE WE ARE TODAY. On that note, I'd like to say that there's a popular notion that bisexuals/pansexuals do not exist. If that were true then someone please explain to me why there was a bisexual trend in the 1920s. Even before that the ancient Greeks, Japanese and Native Americans believed it to be true? It is perfectly clear that the people who identify as a part of the "grey area between heterosexuality and homosexuality" are still considered unicorns and "don't exist." :eusa_doh:

    I hope that this makes sense because I'm not very good at putting my thoughts into words or turning them into physical objects.
     
    #19 state-champs, Feb 18, 2016
    Last edited: Feb 18, 2016
  20. Chip

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    ... and once again, someone trots out the old, tired, and irrelevant arguments about homosexuality being considered an illness. I believe I've already addressed that issue earlier in the same thread.

    In a nutshell, once sexual orientation became an area of broad study, which happened in earnest starting with Masters and Johnson, some 25 years after the first Kinsey study, we've been studying it pretty continuously, and our view of homosexuality changed very, very quickly. And in that time, there have been in the high hundreds at least, perhaps thousands, of studies looking at all aspects of attraction, arousal, orientation, sexual functioning, and just about everything else. So the whole argument about "well maybe this exists but hasn't been studied"... very hard to justify when one looks at the broad variance in areas of study.

    So I think it's pretty hard to credibly argue that things such as romantic orientation as separate from sexual orientation are "new" simply because nobody's looked at them. Topics in sexual attraction/arousal/orientation have been studied exhaustively.

    As for the notion of EC being a safe site for LGBT people to share... yes, it is, but we also have a responsibility to ensure that the information people get here is accurate and in keeping with current thinking by those who look at, study, work with, and treat issues related to sexual attraction, arousal, connection, and orientation.

    It would be a huge disservice to people who are just trying to figure themselves out to allow people to promote their "special label of the week" as it could end up further confusing those who are trying to figure themselves out. People need reliable information, not somebody's conjured up groupthink or wild fantasy that they made up and posted on Tumblr, to make sensible decisions about themselves.

    Now... once they've had facts to look at, if someone wants to then choose a label that has zero evidence, backing by credible professionals, or any other basis to indicate any validity, they are certainly welcomed to label themselves whatever they want. But it's not ok to represent that made-up label to other people as something that has some basis in reality, because it doesn't.

    And, for the record, I'm not anti-asexual. There's no question that asexuality exists. (There's also no question that bisexuality exists) Both of these have been studied, and both have been clearly addressed as far back as Kinsey's work in the 1940s. The difference is, I rely on credible definitions soundly grounded on something measurable. And there are sound, credible, research-based definitions of both that have been around for decades. The issue is with the "asexual community" that has, within the past few years, and fueled mostly by a tiny community on a couple of online sites, promoted a different definition that is so broad as to be undefinable, and in any case, is not grounded in anything credible, measurable, or replicable. That isn't science, that's opinion. And as opinion, again, people are welcomed to it, but don't label it something credible that others should attach themselves to.