Oh! This is one of my favorite panels in the comics. Archie’s line here cuts deep, as any aromantic person who’s had close friends and family invalidate their experiences like that could tell you. But what really shines here in my opinion is actually Jughead’s reaction–that expression, the obvious hurt, anger, and betrayal (shoutout to artist Derek Charm). A lot of stories, even without an aro character, would drop lines like Archie’s; very few would so deliberately and clearly place him in the wrong. It’s not shown here, but Archie apologizes immediately after this, and Jughead brushes it off. That apology really matters to me. The writers (someone correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure this is one of Ryan North’s chapters!) clearly put some thought into this.
This entire chapter is actually one of my favorites. The plot, to be brief for those who don’t know, is Jughead and Archie getting lost in the woods–it’s supposed to be a chance for the two of them to hang out, but Archie’s using it as a chance to pick up girls at camp, which is what leads to their argument. What I like about this chapter is that Jughead’s disappointment and frustration with Archie, his best friend who barely spends any time with him that isn’t somehow related to his crushes, is treated seriously–it’s Archie who’s in the wrong here, and I think so many aros relate to this situation.
Sorry for jumping on your post! I just think that if Jughead is one of the only aro characters we’ve got, we should talk about him whenever we get the chance!
people talk about gay coding villains all the time but never about aro coding villains and it’s honestly everywhere it’s like “oh this terrible guy cannot feel love and it makes them a horrible person”
and before someone tries to debunk this with “oh but theyre not actuallyaro theyre cant feel anykind of love theyre a psychopath” that’s like saying buffallo bill from silence of the lambs isnt a transphobic caricature because he’s not actuallya trans woman
also. “No don’t worry, this isn’t arophobic, it’s just saying mentally ill/neurodivergent people are monsters.” is NOT the argument you think it is. like yall understand why that isn’t better, right?
in addition to just being blatant ableism, it’s entirely ignoring that queerphobic stereotypes go hand in hand with ableist ones, because being gay/trans/aspec/etc is pathologized. “they have this orientation because they’re mentally ill, and mentally ill people are terrible” isn’t refuting anything, it’s literally the thing the creators were going for. the response to being grouped in with another minority shouldn’t be “oh i see, you meant to pick on them, not me, carry on.”
Acting like the presence of ableist stereotypes somehow precludes the presence of queerphobic ones is shitty to literally everyone involved.
the response to being grouped in with another minority shouldn’t be “oh i see, you meant to pick on them, not me, carry on.”
I’m going to say something not a lot of people will like to hear but fuck it. discrimination towards ace and aro ppl - and those adjacent - is 99% of the time just blatant ableism disguised as “discourse”.
neurodivergent - and specifically autistic - ppl tend to make up a large portion of the aspec community since we tend to experience attraction differently than nt ppl, and I’m just saying that the perception of aspec people in the eyes of people who disagree w our existence being that we’re “childish and immature whiny people who are deeply obsessed with childish things and are too infantile to be taken seriously” being not far off at all from a very ableist stereotype of autistic people? yeah no way in hell that’s not a coincidence. when aphobia and arophobia were at their peak, discriminatory allo people LOVED to be like “ace/aro people are so cringe lmao!!!,!, all they do is obsess (insert ‘childish’ media here) but they still want to be TREATED WITH RESPECT?? how dumb lol unlike us REAL lgbts who care about the REAL world and don’t live in some FANTASY LAND they give US a bad name and need to be removed from our community!” and like…. You’re not gonna take a step back and read back what you’re saying? not at all? you’re not gonna do that huh. you do realize you’re falling eerily in line with a verryyyy specific type of ideology that’s also used against nd people here right?
and the thing that blows the most is that a majority of people engaging in “ace/aro discourse” at its peak WERE neurodivergent - but the thing is back then neurodivergence wasn’t NEARLY as recognized or treated with respect as it is in the current time, back when openly admitting you were autistic and being proud of it was unheard of. so instead, neurodivergent allo people with shitty mentalities chose to go after nd aspec/arospec people because the internet had reduced autism to such a drastic punchline that a lot of autistic people internalized that ableism, and so whenever they saw people being open about their neurodivergency they saw it as “cringe” and would make up any reason they could to justify harassment against them. and since a lot of aspec communities are made up of autistic people that those w internalized ableism saw as “infantile” or “threats to their reputation” - its unfortunately no wonder why so many allo nd lgbt people became so obsessed with attacking them for years on end.
and I know this because I (an ace lesbian) used to be in a lot of friend groups who WERE composed of these allo nd lgbt people who would just say the most vile shit about ace and aro people to make themselves feel more “valid” as “true members of the lgbt community” but these were also literally the only out lgbt friends I had. i kept my ace status closeted from them for years and never engaged in any conversations centering around “ace discourse” because I was afraid of the things that they’d do to me - I had seen them turn on their former friends who confessed they were aro or ace overnight because they were “embarrassing to be around”and i didn’t want to lose the only people in my life who’d “cared” about me. I eventually came to my senses and left them and found friends who knew all the gatekeeping was total meaningless bullshit and thank god I did because it damn near saved my life.
people who say that ace, aro, or any group of people who don’t have a “typical” means of attraction “don’t experience oppression at all” are fucking lying. they’re trying to remove any means of accountability from themselves because people who say that ARE the reason why we face the shit we do. THEY’RE the ones perpetuating it. they’re the reason why harassment against us isn’t as taken seriously because they’ve spread the belief that we are making shit up when we continue to call out the harm they’vedone.
so this pride month please just. fucking take a step back and really think about how many exclus talking points just so happen to coincide with ableist talking points. because I guarantee you there’s a lot of them, and in a climate where neurodivergency is actually able to be discussed and handled with respect now, it’s shocking that more people haven’t caught onto this yet.
