MulticulturalFarmer

Democratized art then? Or some sort of "open art" (not open AI art as that's different) So, you mean that artists will be out of a job due to the capitalist system or something? Just making sure I get the comment.

Alcohol

Also am somewhat on the dyslexia spectrum and I wish I could just talk more verbally on these sites as opposed to in the written form, oh well.

Kinda tangential, but I also think that many aro people (primarily but not exclusively folks who are interested in QPRs) get married too for a variety of reasons such as personal safety, ease of combining finances, health insurance (i'm sure this is more of a USA thing though).

That would be legit when you do find it for sure though :D

Well, I'd like to talk about the intersection of being intersex and aromantic, I mean, there's trans people on here who talk about the intersection of the two, but it's not the same as all intersex people aren't trans (some people consensually get on hormones and surgeries, and I say consensually as there's a history of nonconsensual surgeries on intersex infants). I haven't seen much discourse/dialogue on it, but I know that discrimination is still rampant against us in LGBTQ+ spaces in general, so that could be a part of it.

If I can ask, did you do applied/engineering physics or a more pure physics degree? I've heard this can make a bit of a difference, but that depends on where you are though. Engineering physics in Canada and some European countries seems to be kinda applicable to industry because of the emphasis on engineering concepts as well as using physics to improve stuff in engineering (to give a very rough and general explanation). Are housing co-ops common in your country?

I wish I could tell you to come on over to (one) of my countries... but depending on the health condition you have and how much it'd cost the government (there's a literal amount listed on the website!) they may not even let you in even if you had a business or job skills and experience in a field on the "shortlist" though refugees are exempt.

It's like the good old saying, you can have the thought, but how (and whether) you act on it matters. I don't think any one famous said anything about this it's just a saying I heard a lot growing up.

If you're open to reddit, you could try the subreddit progressive muslims and lgbt muslims, there's been some decent conversations there. If you want in person and you think you could make it to Marseille, there's this mosque in France that has an LGBTQ imam in it: https://www.marianne.net/societe/progressiste-militante-et-surtout-discrete-bienvenue-a-la-mosquee-lgbt-de-marseille (not sure if this is necessarily a 'good' newspaper but this one has the most details). There's an even more active one in Berlin if you can make it there.

Oh lordy another can of worms lol. Well, first of all, I'm guessing you're American? Well I'm not Swedish at all (and I"m referring to this in terms of nationality, not heritage or something like that ) I might add. I'm just moderately familiar with the language and the history. Yeah every country has its flaws for sure, I wasn't trying to imply that Sweden is perfect by any stretch of the imagination just because I critcized the United States, not to mention that the USA has a moral superiority complex too as well as naive trust in politicians (not so much institutions, but that's hardly better), rise of the far right, lack of privacy laws, and many western countries have that same issues too. Despite these issues, the laws and society don't make it that easy to get an AR-15 military style rifle and shoot a whole bunch of people you don't like that easily. Despite all those cons I'm sure many Americans if they had the chance would give living in Sweden a try due to the generous social benefits network, though that's not possible for the average US citizen due to immigration fees and the need for a college education which costs a ridiculous amount of money. A ton of US citizens living in the USA are currently living paycheck to paycheck. I don't believe in any type of nationalism or exceptionalism myself, but I do believe in people learning from other countries that have implemented systems and perhaps laws that are better than the country they currently live in, wherever in the world that may be.

Yeah that's fair about the aro identified people not thinking they belong in the lgbtq community. I also think they shouldn't be used as pawns to bring down the legitimacy of the LGBTQ+ community. And yeah isn't matt walsh as far right as ben shapiro? Weirdly enough they both have a global following of right wing extremists. Why is AVEN like that, saying that asexuals aren't part of the LGBTQIA+ acronym? I used to be on AVEN back when there weren't as many users, but dang, the website has seemed different since the end of the 2010s.

Hi there everyone, it's been ages since I've asked anything and I've been thinking about this, so why not?. I guess the main question is in the title but I'm curious, is aromanticism really considered a part of the LGBTQ+ community? I know historically it has focused on seuxality and gender but does it encompass romantic orientation as well? Does anyone here use the term "queer" to describe their romantic orientation? Thanks for reading :)

I'm a bit confused by what you said, in the first sentence, and it seems a bit contradictory. Sure, there's some of that (sex shaming) in hollywood, but I think that hollywood is a representation of corporate interests and not necessarily what the average American thinks or feels, not to mention they don't particularly care about health or wellbeing of people, as long as there's a market for sex shaming scenes corporate film industries will continue to make those films. There is some of the sex shaming in the general population for sure, but such attitudes on the topic probably vary widely on who you're talking to, and tend to come from religious influences from older generations. I also think some of the sex shaming comes from like I said earlier, the poor state of sex education and lack of reproductive access in many areas, so the idea is that if a woman has sex they could get pregnant the whole life can get derailed and of course it's the woman's fault for putting herself in that situation, as opposed to misogynistic ideas from men playing a big role. Not to mention there are loads of "niche films", and young generations especially in the queer community in the USA have their own film industry to get influence from and thanks to the Internet one doesn't have to rely on mainstream films and TV for representation. American culture is certainly individualistic, maybe a little less than Sweden perhaps. But it's especially individualistic in the areas where it's pretty inconvenient like healthcare and education. But also in general too. I think that just because people tend to talk a lot to strangers doesn't mean they are necessarily community oriented.

Yup! I have that for nearly every aspect of my life, "are you really autistic?" "are you sure you don't like the idea of marriage?" "are you sure you're intersex even though all scientific evidence points to that?"and of course "are you really aromantic?"

Yeah, idk why Sweden is so influenced by USA media lol. From what I've seen in the USA, and as a general (but not absolute) rule in the USA the red states have much less sex-education so people get really influenced by what they see in the media regarding sex and think it's just like what they see in the media which promotes all sorts of unhealthy attitudes regarding sex. Sex is put on a pedestal in the USA, especially by cis men because it's seen as something you obtain and seen as a man's worth, while cis women are shamed for being a virgin and slut shamed simulteneously though to some extent cis women do also think that sexual experiences are important despite the contradictory views that cis men have. Some of this mentality has sadly shifted into the LGBTQ community where gay, trans, and other peope with various identities in the LGBTQ+ measure their worthiness and social acceptance by how much casual sex they can have. I don't think casual sex in itself is bad, but the general idea about coercion and lack of consent seems to have carried from the cis het population for some weird reason. This next statement is certainly a touchy topic and needs to be discussed in a nuanced way for sure. I do think that having sex just for the sake of that can lead to people making some unsafe and potentially unsafe choices for sure, however, I think that victim blaming people isn't right either, as people make varieties of irrational choices due to lack of knowledge, peer pressure, and ignorance, amongst other things. Definitely waiting for when someone is comfortable with another person such that they have discussed openly about their sexual health. boundaries, and consent and that is a thing that should never be rushed, or in the case of ace people never having sex shouldn't be seen as weird. Ah, good old public health training for sure :)

Yup, I know what you mean, I'm also part time/freelance worker in multiple fields as well. But the big problems in my country are the healthcare costs and the lack of rent controls/subsidized housing, there are some areas that are so bad that even people with master's and PhD degrees need subsidized housing from the government but the waiting list for that is several years long, so there's a huge amount of anxiety for people who can't make more than the monthly amount required for rent, especially for an apartment in an area that doesn't have gunshots and stabbings all the time. There's of course student debt crisis, lack of worker's rights, and the list goes on... but in terms of rent, I'm quite lucky that I can live with my parents, though we really don't get along at all. I grew up in rural areas in two countries, and the first thing I was asked by friends and family, both where I grew up in and by some people in rural areas was why I didn't pick a vocational degree (you know, the degrees that have a linear path to the jobs, like engineering, nursing, medicine (medical doctors), healthcare professions. It's like eh, yeah society can't run if everyone became engineering and doctors, not to mention that those fields would become saturated pretty fast and would drive down the wages dramatically, which is already happening to an extent. For me, I choose a dual degree option, a natural science (generally pretty theoretical field, as it focuses on artificial intelligence, mathematics, and statistics) another field, public health, which is mostly a social science, with a bit of literature and history mixed as well as some biology given the relvance to health. I finished the public health program but am still doing the coursework for the natural sciences. And I also am a freelancer of sorts, as a substitute teacher who fills in for sick teacher or teachers who just couldn't make it to school that day. I'm planning on being a Pre-K or some other sort of elementary school teacher once I'm done with school due to short work days, usually just from 7 to 12 or 13 to 18 hour (basically 1 to 5 PM) though the pay for that is atrocious in many countries, and especially in the one that I live in, but some urban areas pay just enough to live on, but only if one works in a government school, and that's in the country that i'm right now. Though the pay sucks I sure do like the flexibility to not have to live at work, and staying with family I could save for an apartment or something if I want to do that in the future, but it sure would take a long time to get the money for that, no doubt. I'm looking into tutoring or working in research institutes if I need more money in the summer. But people sure do wonder why someone who likes difficult science concepts would ever want to spend time chasing kids around in a classroom and trying to get them to learn how to read and write. I really hate hearing the whole, become a doctor, you still have time to make it happen, or you know, you could make a master's degree in engineering, have you heard of nursing? Blah blah blah. I guess it's that after doing internships in the industries I wasn't happy with the stability (kinda like what you mentioned, downsizing can happen any time), the lack of any type of free time, very little vacation time (unless one is freelance there's little guarantee of any time to travel around, and employers as well as government are not required to offer any paid vacation either). Also, unlike many science oriented people I know of (I can't generalize, I can only speak for the people I went to university with so far), I quite enjoy literature, art, and music even if I'm not an expert at those things, and certainly do not think those majors are useless, I mean heck, I have one degree already in a field that utilized history and sociology (not sure if I even want to complete the other degree, but I'll see). I sure like to dabble in liberal arts and humanities, and I very much want the full breadth of human experience, I don't want to see myself as a robot doing repetitive tasks all day without getting to interact with people, just machines and abstract entities I guess. I do want things like promote 'good' mental health, good character, and all the other things that come with learning and with being a functional and 'good' (at least to me) human being. Education has a lot of issues in the country I'm living in, and they are too numerous to mention here, but I do feel good knowing that I wasn't working to just make some corporation better, not to mention if this school sucks in terms of administration there's literally so many other options to choose from that it won't matter much to me.

Ah okay kimchi cuddles is a webcomic, eh? I shall check it out. Wait a minute, you can host webcomics on Tumblr? Wild stuff. Never thought that that would be a thing.

I've also fallen into the trap of "dating" in order to get more emotional intimacy. I try to be upfront but then I have to admit, it was a bit daunting if the other person wasn't upfront about what they were looking for or didn't want to say what they were looking for. So sometimes I wasn't as upfront as I should have been. When I used OkCupid or other dating sites, like subreddits (yikes!) people were turned off I said I was aro and acted like the only option was to be their friend and they weren't looking for a friend.

Does Autism count? I'm probably mildly on the spectrum of autism lol. That's probably why I hyperfixate on topics, though I've worked people facing jobs and gotten a lot better in dealing with people. I will say I don't do well in cultures where people say "let's hang out" and then it's just a nicety and they didn't actually mean it. Not to mention I was raised to find that incredibly rude too.

Hi there everyone. I'm doing okay-ish working right now. I just am wondering if anyone is anxious about finding a decent paying job with the way the econom(ies). I just worry that every field is kinda saturated, and I won't get paid enough relative to all the years I spent in school. I do believe in learning for the sake of learning, it's just that it sure would be nice to find a job related to what I studied. I also have anxiety that I'll have to settle for a job that doesn't even require my degree or any degree at all, apart from teaching since I'll keep facing rejections for jobs related to my field. And in one of the countries that I'm in, teaching sucks big time, since you have to deal with kids that are horribly behaved and the pay honestly sucks. Not to mention becuase of certain geopolitical events the cost of living keeps rising and rising all the time. In the other country, teaching is a lot better, but I'd have to brush up on my French, as I rarely have to use it, and I'm honestly trash at it, and unless they can accept English or German in the areas that are looking for teachers I doubt I can get a position for K-12, though after I do my master's degree I'd have a better chance with teaching at a college. I know this sounds depressing, but I need to let it out, partly because believe it or not my situation is a bit related to aromanticism. You see, people keep telling me (mostly my family but also friends from secondary/high school tell me that if I had a boyfriend worrying about cost of living increases wouldn't be such a big deal and I wouldn't have to live with family, who tend to be complicated in general since they are your parents and tend to want different things than their (adult) children.

Silly question, but when is aro week? Is there a notification for this on the website that I somehow missed?

engineering

Oh okay that makes sense, it seems like in history there's always a technicality in a seemingly progressive law that ultimately deprives people of their rights. And yeah a lot of times the laws seem to also be quite a bit about money too, like being rich can give one an advantage when it comes to not having to deal with the brunt of problematic laws. Very interesting stuff for sure, thanks for sharing and clarifying.

I think Sweden is more "social democratic" as opposed to say, socialism that leads to Marxism though, from what I gather (although it seems like there are democratic socialist and Marxist parties in Sweden)? I know there's a debate in general from political scientists about whether social democracy truly is a form of socialism or not. Yeah I can see the role that socialism played in such movements; I also think that tying the feminist movement to socialism (or various derivations thereof) perhaps made it easier for such ideals to be accepted in the society, I guess that's the benefit of coalition building in politics. So, would you say this article (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminism_in_Sweden) is accurate or is just leaving out a lot of the negative aspects of the status of women in Sweden historically (and is thus biased)? I'm certainly not an expert in this topic at all to be able to say much about it though.