enough stories about how someone learns to truely be happy through love. i want a story where someone is desperately seeking out love thinking it's the only way to be happy only for them to learn by the end that happiness is what they make of it and they don't need love at all to make it.

love the concept of <2 as an aromantic symbol/emoticon because not only is it a spin on the <3 heart (typically romantic) symbol, but it literally is written "less than 2" and idk as a non-partnering aroace that just speaks to me

[ID: meme with two panels.

Top panel: two red buttons one is labeled with: "supporting nonpartnering aros" the other is labeled with: "supporting partnering aros". There's a hand reaching out, with two fingers going to press both buttons.

Bottom panel: image of an illustrated person sticking their thumb up and smiling approvingly.

End]

Often when aromantic people express a fear of loneliness after their friends partner up and have less time for them, people's solution is to encourage us to partner too, just platonically/queerplatonically. And that works for some, but it kind of misses the point. I don't want one person to spend most of my time with. I want several people who have the amount of time for me that single friends do. Not someone to live with, but someone to meet up with for a few hours on a fairly regular basis. Someone who'll be there for me in times of trouble (and vice versa), but isn't part of my major life decisions.

I know most alloromantic people aren't jerks who completely forget their friends when they get into relationships (I have friends who are married, and they haven't ditched me), but time is a finite resource, and someone else getting more of it inevitably means you get less. I don't blame my allo friends for that - it just isn't pleasant to experience.

The fact is that some people need to balance their emotional connection between multiple people, not concentrate most of it on just one. I'm a 'one or two eggs in each basket' kind of person (polyamorous people will know what I'm on about - we're fighting the same war on different fronts).

I mean, I'm not 100% sure that platonic partnership isn't for me. Maybe it'll appeal to me more later in life, maybe not. But it's annoying to have it presented to me as the ideal aro lifestyle. It feels like Amatonormativity Lite.

really wish that aroaces who don't want a partner of ANY kind were included more and not thrown under the bus constantly

"we need weirder queers" you guys cant even handle nonpartnering aros, or nonpartnering people in general

95% happily single, 5% but it seems nice

BEHOLD! THE SEQUEL TO THIS POST!!

flags in order: aroace (2 variants) | greyrose (combined and split) | nonamorous (2 variants)

this is just a joke btw, (saying this cause some of you are taking it seriously, like an actual psa about these identites) this is not here to educate aphobes 👍

More nonamorous content

You agree

not wanting relationships is really cool, actually

relationships aren't essential <2

alloros already have such a hard time understanding aromantic people. but when it comes to nonamorous/non-partering aros, their heads fuckin explode

you'll say like "the idea of soulmates excludes people like me"

and they'll say "it's okay! your soulmate can be queerplatonic" (y'know, if they're at least semi accepting of aros and our relationships; a lot of them don't even get to this point)

and you'll say "no, i don't want a partner like that either. i don't want any kind of partner" and they just fuckin bluescreen. or look at you with pity (if they weren't *already* lookin at you with pity for being aro)

and hell! that kind of thing is insulting to aros in qprs too! because it treats a queerplatonic relationship as a REPLACEMENT for a romantic relationship— just tries to shove it into the alleged "void" that they think we have that romance "should" fill otherwise. treats em like off-brand substitutes instead of their own special and unique type of thing

Hey... Hey if you say you support aspec people that means you also need to respect repulsed aspecs. Non-partnering aspecs. Loveless aspecs. Platonic aspecs. Other a-attraction aspecs. Old aspecs. Young aspecs. Aspecs who use labels you don't understand. Non-sam aspecs. Traumatized aspecs. Dysphoric aspecs.

You cannot only support part of the community. It's either all of us or none of us. You can't play favorites because one kind of aspec makes you feel more comfortable than others.

the word "amatonormativity" is used a lot in aromantic circles, as it should be. But how many people have actually read the book it's introduced in? (you don't have to be aro to respond to this poll, but maybe skip it if you haven't heard of the term)

[ID: A person holding up a cardboard sign that has been edited to read, "Non partnering people are valid". End ID.]

I'm non-partnering because I only commit to the bit.

y'all remember how Emma Watson said she was "self-partnered" in like, 2017, and everybody had an opinion on it. She got mocked so much. In contrast, Miley Cyrus won a Grammy this month for a song that's essentially about being self-partnered. I mean, I still know people who mock others for doing traditionally couples-exclusive things for/with themself, but there clearly has been some improvement in society overall and that's awesome to realize.

Shoutout to people who are autoromantic and people who are self-partnered or solo/autogamous for any other reason, especially those who are aro, this Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week! And a related shoutout to those who are non-partnering, nonamorous, choosing to be single, and anyone else rejecting the societal expectation to partnered! <2