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why i dislike the “we still feel love” argument


mordo

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honestly just my opinion not trying to speak for everyone but personally aro communities saying the whole “we still feel love even if it’s not romantic” feels like excluding the people who don’t necessarily feel “love” for other people. idk sometimes it feels like there isnt much community for the people who don’t feel strong/any alterous attraction, and it feels weird not feeling any attraction or desire for a close relationship even though it’s the “stereotypical” view of what aromantic is. kinda just a rant and no hate to aros who do feel strong forms of attraction or want a relationship i’m mostly just trying to find other people who relate lol

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i agree. i see the whole “we can still love” argument as an attempt to please alloros and fit into amatonormative standards…. while pushing loveless aros and aros who feel little to no attraction under the bus. 

no hate to aros who do love and feel other types of attraction, but that shouldn’t be our argument as to why aros are valid. a more apt argument might be smth along the lines of “some aros love, some don’t, either way we exist and we deserve space/respect”

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16 hours ago, mordo said:

honestly just my opinion not trying to speak for everyone but personally aro communities saying the whole “we still feel love even if it’s not romantic” feels like excluding the people who don’t necessarily feel “love” for other people. idk sometimes it feels like there isnt much community for the people who don’t feel strong/any alterous attraction, and it feels weird not feeling any attraction or desire for a close relationship even though it’s the “stereotypical” view of what aromantic is. kinda just a rant and no hate to aros who do feel strong forms of attraction or want a relationship i’m mostly just trying to find other people who relate lol

I loved this so much because when I clicked this I wasn't expecting such a powerful, persuasive argument and it really changed my mind on this subject. 

59 minutes ago, Confused Opossum said:

no hate to aros who do love and feel other types of attraction, but that shouldn’t be our argument as to why aros are valid. a more apt argument might be smth along the lines of “some aros love, some don’t, either way we exist and we deserve space/respect”

This is such a strong statement and I loved the way you phrased it.

 

Honestly, this subject should be more talked about as a whole and this thread is so significant.

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3 hours ago, Confused Opossum said:

i agree. i see the whole “we can still love” argument as an attempt to please alloros and fit into amatonormative standards…. while pushing loveless aros and aros who feel little to no attraction under the bus. 

  1. Yes, it's to please allos. Not sure if that's the most important factor, though.
  2. Some aros imagine the aro community being their perfect "platonic dating pool". Loveless aros disturb this romanticized 😄 view.
  3. The distinction between "loveless" and "empathyless" is not much explored, and the two get easily confused.
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On 10/4/2023 at 7:35 PM, mordo said:

no hate to aros who do feel strong forms of attraction

I feel strong familial/platonic love and the whole "aros can still feel love" thing pisses me off to no end. It feels like I'm being used as a shield against criticism of loveless antagonism (I'm curious if anyone else feels this way and/or aros who feel romantic love sense that with "aro people can still date"? or if it's more a me thing). And it feels like I'm expected to make up for my romantic attraction with it. AND it feels like alloros expect me to express platonic love the way they express romantic love even though it's not anywhere near similar to romantic love.

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4 hours ago, Neon said:

I feel strong familial/platonic love and the whole "aros can still feel love" thing pisses me off to no end. It feels like I'm being used as a shield against criticism of loveless antagonism (I'm curious if anyone else feels this way and/or aros who feel romantic love sense that with "aro people can still date"? or if it's more a me thing). And it feels like I'm expected to make up for my romantic attraction with it. AND it feels like alloros expect me to express platonic love the way they express romantic love even though it's not anywhere near similar to romantic love.

One of the first nice mainstream articles about aromanticism was titled "Aromantics just want to be your friend". LOL, that we went from there to "aros can still feel love" ...

It would still be exclusive, because some aros DO NOT, but at least it doesn't use that word love. Which nowadays means romantic love 98 % of the time.

 

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  • 3 months later...

As someone who may call themselves a loveless aro even when I don't always consciously identify as such, I always hated the argument that aros can "love in other ways." It's not that I'm trying to say that there aren't aros who do love in other ways, but it felt like the aro community was still trying to use love to humanize ourselves. It feels unnecessary to broaden the word "love" in the attempt to still be considered human when aphobes will not like us anyway nor consider that we exist in the first place. I didn't like it when some alloroaces used love to humanize themselves, but when I see fellow aro-specs get caught up in that as well, I oftentimes just want to be an ass and say that I don't love in other ways, and never will, even though I do; I know it'll look like I'm contradicting myself in saying that, but there are aros who don't love in other ways at all, and there are aros who do, but we shouldn't utilize that as some weapon to where we're just segregating ourselves from each other.

Edited by The Newest Fabled Creature
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