About

Cartoon image of farmland and rolling hills, overlaid with the dark green/light green/white/grey/black stripes of the aro pride flag. The text Aro Worlds About sits across the image in a black, antique handdrawn type.

Hello! This is the about page for the Tumblr blog @aroworlds, a place for aro creatives to find an aro audience–and aro audiences to find aromantic-centred fictional media. As an aro creator struggling to get my work out into the world, and as an aro reader who’d love to find more representation, I made this blog as a one-stop place to archive, celebrate and post aromantic creative media.

I take submissions and asks, and I track the Tumblr tags #aroworlds and #arospec creations. I absolutely encourage aro creatives to connect with us about their work!

The Tumblr blog collates fiction, fanfiction, original art, fanart, flag edits, poetry, comics, pride merch, pride crafts, music and a few general aromantic community discussion, creativity and representation posts. I post content for as many aro identities for which I can find or make pieces, and I make a deliberate effort to include more than general aro or aro-ace pride.

(This website hosts my fiction, my own essay and discussion posts, the Hallo, Aro series and my aro pride patch tutorials.)

For more information about content on the Tumblr blog, keep reading below:

The Blogger

I’m an abrosexual nebularomantic/idemromantic who identifies as allosexual aromantic. My personal fiction, discussion posts and creativity will more often focus on general aromanticism, aromanticism as shaped by autism, and allo-aro experiences. My works often contain casual or non-explicit sex references and intimacy between two or more characters.

My own community discussion posts frequently focus on allo-aro-specific needs and concerns, and for this reason I started posting them over at the Tumblr blog @alloaroworlds.

While my abrosexuality does include an asexual-spectrum identity, I don’t identify as part of the asexual community. While my blogs include aro-ace and any other combination of aro and ace umbrella content, they do not post, accept or allow solely-asexual content. My focus is on aromantic-umbrella identity, experience and representation.

Identity

I do not require that works be solely about being aro. People are welcome to provide works that aren’t really about aromanticism but just happen to have an aro protagonist or are no/low romance.

Aro folks of all aromantic, sexual orientation and gender identities are welcome. Works that depict QPRs and the romantic relationships and attractions experienced by folk who aren’t alloromantic (demiromantic or aroflux identities, for example) are absolutely welcome. Works that depict sexual experiences or contain sexual references are absolutely welcome. Low or no romance and low or no sexual content is not a requirement for inclusion. Being able to distinguish between romantic and platonic/alterous/queerplatonic/sexual attraction is not a requirement for inclusion.

Works recommended by aro folks do not have to be specifically aro; a lot of us relate to Word of God aromanticism or just no/low romance narratives, and these are absolutely worthy of discussion.

This blog will not take “how to write an aromantic character” questions, or asks about finding sensitivity readers, from alloromantic creators.

Safety

I do not have the spoons, as a disabled blogger, to check every single link and submission offered to this blog. I will be relying on the creators’ own willingness to advise for their works. For this reason, the following advisories apply:

  • Content reblogged or posted here does not mean an endorsement of the author, the author’s beliefs or the author’s approach to their subject.
  • Content reblogged or posted here does not mean it is considered safe for minors.
  • Content reblogged or posted here does not mean the passing of any quality checks, editing or vetting.
  • Content reblogged or posted here does not mean it is free of hateful, offensive or objectionable material.
  • Content reblogged or posted here does not mean it is free of or low romance.

If you see something that is unacceptable in a piece, send a polite message via ask or reblog. Please keep in mind that our creators are bravely posting their work, and we want to support, not discourage, their creativity. In no way is this to avoid the consequences of causing harm to others, but we all have privileges and we will all make mistakes. In a world where we aros are ignored and erased in wider society, we need to build a place where we feel safe to express ourselves. That means politeness when pointing out a problem and a willingness to learn, apologise to those hurt by it and do better next time.

Critique should help others improve and do better; it should not discourage or abuse. Bullying does not help creators make the media you wish to enjoy.

Please note that I am not engaged in any fandom beyond occasional ventures into Magic: the Gathering and Tamora Pierce. Please politely let me know if any piece or any author is a problem, but also keep in mind if a piece is appropriately tagged and/or advised for, and it depicts something harmful and its consequences without celebration, I am not likely to delete the post.

Please feel free to make use of Tumblr’s blacklisting feature by blocking the tags relating to formats, fandoms, authors and characters. I absolutely recommend blocking whatever it is you need in order to enjoy your time here.

For more information on what I do and don’t tag, please read my content advisory page.

Acceptable Content

Aro Worlds welcomes the following:

  • Original media submissions with aro protagonists, aro themes, aro storylines or low/no romance (poetry, prose, film, music, comics, artwork)
  • Fanfiction and fancontent (poetry, prose, comics, artwork)
  • Reviews, links, recommendations and discussions about aro fictional media (or media that appeals to aros)
  • Pride swag (aro creators will be prioritised)
  • Aro creators seeking to connect with other aros for editing, sensitivity reading, support as creators, promotion, advertising, networking, etc.

It doesn’t matter if you are professionally published, self-published or a hobbyist creator. It doesn’t matter if your work is flawless or a messy first draft you just want someone to read. It is all welcome here.

If you need some inspiration, please check out my list of creative post prompts!

Unacceptable Interactions

Aro Worlds will not accept the following:

  • Anti a-spec discourse, conversations, artworks and narratives. If you have exclusionist leanings and you decide to follow, note that this blog will lean inclusive. I will block anyone who tries to start anti-aro, anti-ace or anti-a-spec discourse on my posts, no matter how polite this discourse might be.
  • Anti-queer, truscum, transmedicalist, “dysphoria is required to be trans”, anti-multi-spec, “a-spec is an autism term”, “you can’t headcanon marginalised characters as ace/aro”, anti-kink, radfem and gender-critical discourse, conversations, artworks and narratives.
  • Ship wars. You may happen across a ship you dislike, disapprove of or cannot tolerate. Unless the content is violating the list of unacceptable inclusions below, please just scroll past (or blacklist the appropriate tags).
  • Anti/anti-anti debates. I am uninterested in holding this conversation, but please know that I am for content advisories and appropriate tagging to protect audiences, that I don’t wish to interact with work that romanticises many harm-causing things, and that I do not believe that depicting something by definition romanticises it. I object to philosophies held by and behaviours normalised on both sides.
  • Fandom discourse in general, especially conversations on which fandom properties or fandoms are and aren’t “acceptable” to engage in or which characters are unacceptable to enjoy or headcanon as aro. This blog takes a neutral stance on all such conversations.
  • Questions on being aro, different aro identities, aro 101, QPRs, definitions. This isn’t an advice blog.
  • Questions on how to write aromantic characters from alloromantic creatives. We are here to centre the needs of aromantic, not alloromantic, people. Please check out other aro blogs for this resource.
  • Stories that have heavy allosexual and alloromantic storylines without an aro protagonist.
  • Stories that have heavy asexual and alloromantic storylines without an aro protagonist.
  • Works that are about asexuality alone, not aromanticism and aromantic identities, unless they are low romance.
  • Works using romance negative language (as distinct from romance alienation and romance repulsion) as this harms too many of our own aromantics. This doesn’t apply to works examining why this language is a problem or showing the impact on those subjected to it.
  • Works using sex negative language (as distinct from sex alienation and sex repulsion) as this harms far too many allo-aros. This doesn’t apply to works examining why this language is a problem or showing the impact on those subjected to it.
  • Content that perpetuates the amatonormativity of assuming that all aros must love in some way, just not romantically.
  • Content with the phrase “no romo” as this both reflects a heterosexist saying and erroneously implies that romance has no place in aromantic spaces.
  • Sexually explicit artwork and imagery (no longer permitted on Tumblr).
  • Sexually explicit prose/text that isn’t under a cut or behind a link and advised for or tagged.

Please note that this list is put together as a personal expression of the content and interactions I don’t consent to seeing on my blog. (Some of the above content is welcomed in other aro spaces!) This list isn’t an invitation to discourse over acceptable or non-acceptable ways of being engaged in fandom, creative media and social justice conversations.

You are not allowed to screencap content on this blog to vague post about it elsewhere. If there’s something you want to discuss, reblog the post.

Unacceptable Content

Works that promote, romanticise or celebrate:

  • Racism, Islamomisia, antisemitism
  • Cissexism, exorsexism, transmisogyny, intersexism
  • Ableism
  • Acemisia, aromisia, amatonormativity, monosexism, heterosexism, queer antagonism
  • Misogyny, rape, rape culture, whoremisia
  • Pro-ana and fatmisia
  • Abuse, violence, bullying
  • Incest, paedophilia
  • Hate speech not otherwise listed here

Works that include or depict these things (with the appropriate advisories) as a way of indicating the damaging impact they have on the target are always acceptable (and I object to any argument otherwise). Works that glorify these things or treat them in a pornographic way are not.

I will always reserve the right to not post anything I think unsuitable, even if it doesn’t quite fit the above limitations.

Please note that I don’t support the idea that all characters needs must be “pure” to be good representation. I want stories about good aros, bad aros and human aros with a lot of grey. I don’t want story after story of sweet, sugary can-do-no-wrong cinnamon-roll aro characters. This means acknowledging that creators can depict aro characters doing all sorts of things we do not approve of in real life. If your narrative depicts the consequences for bad behaviours and doesn’t glorify them or treat them in a pornographic way–abuse happening simply for the audience’s enjoyment of a character being abused, for example–I won’t find your work to be a problem.

Again, please consider this a personal expression of content I choose to include and exclude on my blogs/communities. It is not commentary or critique on the content included or excluded by other bloggers or creators.

Thanks for reading, and I look forward to seeing you around!