Congrats Jaiden!! I’m so proud that she was able to come out publicly :0
And to anyone who found out about Aros and Aces through her video, Welcome!
The a-spectrum has been pretty looked over for a long time with many not even knowing we exist. It’s a very common story for aspecs, even I only discovered the identity a few years ago!
I’m so glad such a large youtuber (and one of my favourites) has been public with their aspec identity. Hopefully this will lead to many more aspecs discovering a refuge in this community. I mean the aromantic tag was in the top 5 for a while, everyone say thank you to Jaiden :P
The aspec community is here to welcome anyone who needs a refuge, even if you do find a different label later down the line.
There’s lots to discover and learn in this community so if you’re interested have a look around and learn something new :D
I want to say that such a big youtuber coming out as aroace is such a step forward in representation in general of course, but also specifically by using the rainbow flag and only ever portraying those two identities as unquestionably being part of the LGBTQ+ community in her video, a huge step forward for the general opinion to properly consider us part of the community since it’s unfortunately a “debate”. She really reaffirmed our belonging in the community and that is so impactful.
If you’re an “ally”, aka a decent cishet human being that isn’t intersex, then good for you, but you’re not a part of the LGBTQ+ community.
The A is for Aromantic, Asexual, and Agender, and I’m tired of the acephobia going around claiming that we’re not a part of the community/we just want to be special/we just want to be oppressed/we’re using up resources/etc when those same people think the A means Ally.
1) We are a part of the community.
2) We aren’t appropriating anything. We are not heterosexual, cis, and/or heteroromantic, so we belong in the community.
3) We don’t want to be oppressed. No one with sense wants to be oppressed. The acephobia you and society spouts is a form of oppression. The measures taken to “correct” asexuality is oppression. The fact that asexuality was considered a disorder not too long ago is oppression. The fact that it’s hard to be out as ace is oppression.
4) “Using up resources” my ass. If one ace person doesn’t need them, that’s great, and they won’t use them, obviously. If another ace person does, who are we to deny them? Why is it a problem because we’re ace? If a gay person doesn’t need resources and another gay person does, no one shits on gay people for “using up resources others need”. No one assumes a trans person is taking resources when they don’t need them just because they’re available. What’s with the idea that ace people would?
TL;DR Acephobia is disgusting, Asexual, Aromantic, and Agender people belong in the LGBTQ+ community, and the A in LGBTQ+ does NOT stand for Ally.
And yes, this was sparked by the rampant acephobia after Jaiden Animation’s video. Do better, be better.
Jaiden & Boyinaband - Empty (Official Music Video)
A song featuring Jaiden from Jaiden Animations made in collaboration with Boyinaband. Deals with self-esteem, body image, and some deep issues.
Check out Jaiden Animations on YouTube – very wholesome, very funny, pretty dorky animated videos about general topics, her experiences, and sometimes her bird Ari. I watch all her vids *gushes a little*
I want to talk more about this part of the jaiden video because it was the one that hit me the most
Is it not normal to think or meditate being with someone in a relationship? Shouldn’t it be the most important thing to be rational
DO PEOPLE DON’T ANALYZE THE PROS AND CONS OF WANTING TO BE WITH A PARTNER? WHY? Do people just jump into being in a relationship?
I understand that there must be a feeling but I always thought it was normal to think why you wanted to be with someone and the consequences of that ,its weird
YouTuber Jaiden Animations Comes Out as AroAce in Latest YouTube Video
On Sunday, animation-storytime YouTuber Jaiden Animations uploaded a video to her YouTube channel called “Being Not Straight.” In the video, which is #1 on YouTube’s trending page and as of the time of writing sits at just under 4 million views, Jaiden comes out as aromantic and asexual.
In the video, Jaiden shares her childhood story about growing up where she, like her fellow classmates, did not develop crushes and struggled feeling like she was falling behind her peers.
By the time I was going to college, I really felt like I had to find someone. Like I was falling behind the curve or if I was gonna find someone it was gonna have to happen now.
Jaiden goes on to define asexuality and aromanticism as the lack of experiencing sexual or romantic attraction, respectively. She also details the fluidity of the aro-ace spectrum to the audience.
Jaiden finally spoke of how finding the terms asexual and aromantic helped her feel more confident and sure of herself. However, it could be isolated from the rest of the LGBTQ+ community.
It can be really hard for other people to relate to or even understand. Everyone else and their orientations are able to bond and relate to the love and romance aspects and we’re over here like, ‘we don’t do that.’
The video ended with Jaiden confessing that she had not planned on making it and will likely not discuss her AroAce identity in the future, but that she thought she should talk about it at least once to help further these underrepresented identities, helping other people to become more aware of it.
I was confused as hell for a while and could have used something like this. It’s a real thing, you don’t have to feel any sort of romance or whatever to be considered a real person.
Jaiden Animations’ video received acclaim from her audience. Many artists flocked to Twitter to post fanart of Jaiden with AroAce flags. Furthermore, comments specifically mention that they relate to Jaiden’s experiences or may have some exploration themselves to do.
Having more creators and celebrities come out helps make LGBTQ+ identities more accepted and mainstream. Creating content around and about these identities can help viewers understand and relate to a variety of experiences and come to accept others and themselves.
I’d recommend watching Jaiden Animations newest video! It’s all about aromanticism and asexuality (mostly aromanticism) and I found myself relating to it an awful lot. It’s honestly so validating to see a person I’ve been watching content of for years come out as aroace and I feel seen for once. I think she explains the basics of it very well and tackles amatonormativity and some misconceptions. And I’m also really glad to see an aroace person clearly separate the aro from ace while validating both sides ngl. I hope all the allos watching her content will be educated lol
Day 5 of 30 days of tubers series Jaidan Animations.
Animator, artist who lives in the oven that is Arizona and makes entertaining cute videos on her opinions and experiences, as well as her embarrassing moments, she also has a dog called Ari.
A couple weeks ago, Jaiden Animations on YouTube released a video titled “Being Not Straight,” in which she came out as asexual and aromantic. Instantly, my social media feeds were flooded with people saying that thanks to this video, they had realized that they too were ace, aro, or both.
Now, examples of aro/ace people in media – both real people and fictional characters – are still few and far between. Our representation appears infrequently enough that I’ve noticed how this flood of realization always, without fail, follows. When Todd on Bojack Horseman realized he was ace, so did many Bojack Horseman viewers. Same with Florence on Sex Education. When we see someone on screen learn what asexuality or aromanticism is, and the response is an overwhelming, “I just realized – me, too!”
I love this response, but it also makes me a bit wistful. Because it means we’re not there yet. Most people still don’t know that aromanticism and asexuality exist. They only get the opportunity to learn when it shows up, rarely, on TV or the internet. If we didn’t have these examples of aro/ace media representation, they might never learn.
I think the fearmongers will look at this trend of “character talks about their identity, and then people come out as that identity” and say something like, “This means that if we talk about queer stuff, then it will make my kids decide to be queer!” It’s the supposed logic behind all that legislation that bans discussions of gender and sexuality from classrooms – if we don’t talk about it, then it won’t exist.
But that’s not true. Knowing that queer people exist doesn’t “make” you do anything. It reveals that there are options. Media representation of queer people doesn’t make straight people “decide” to be queer. It gives queer people the opportunity to realize that they are queer, and it gives straight people the opportunity to learn that queer people exist. That’s all. And that “all” can make a world of difference.
There’s a joke that goes, “Before Mount Everest was discovered, what was the tallest mountain in the world?” The answer is, “Mount Everest – we just didn’t know it yet.” It’s better when we know.
ok. so now that i have a tumblr blog. that means thAT I FINALLY HAVE A PLACE TO BE EXCITED ABOUT JAIDEN ANIMATIONS BEING AROACE OH MY GOD OH MY GOD
Okokok so I know this is old news to some of you and everyone else may not even know who JaidenAnimations is, but the tl;dr is they’re a youtube person who does animations about their little fun life stories. There are a bunch of people who do that sort of thing, but Jaiden has a real knack for telling engaging, fun, and relatable stories that I have fun watching. I don’t do youtube much, but I stumbled upon their videos a couple years ago and I ended up watching a bunch of their stuff and having a good time :]
ANYWAYS so pretty soon after I found them, Jaiden decided to livestream themselves playing a pokemon game that I played a ton when I was younger and have big nostalgia for. So obviously I gotta see this. No choice, I mean this is the most exciting thing since I discovered she-ra. While they’re playing, they just ramble a bit, and mention a few things that took me by surprise. Not just normal, “oh that’s new,” things. Things that were so unexpected that I even noted them down in a text file so I could save em for posterity. Here ya go:
06:30: Jaiden is technically gender neutral, but I never met any other girl jaiden so I always thought it was a boys name. I mean I don’t mind / I like having a boys name / makes people forget that I’m a girl
30:03: I was able to identify more with guys than girls even as a younger kid, doesn’t mean that I am a guy or like I identify as a guy that’s just how it was when I was younger
And I was like woah! This person, who I already thought was pretty neat, ALSO has Feelings about Gender??? THATS AWESOME!! WOAH!!! LIKE ME!!!!
I sorta hoped they’d do that sort of thing again, but it didn’t really happen, and after a few weeks I thought they’d kinda moved on from this genre of content. I didn’t forget about it though, I mean aaaaaathey’re just likemeeeeee and like how could I forget that :P
So, a year passes (nearly two actually), and then a new video appeared on their channel. “Being Not Straight“ by JaidenAnimations with a massive pride flag plastered across the background. oh shoot oH SHOOT OH SHOOT WHAT COULD IT BE. Push play. Some stuff about how respecting personal space is important. ‘Don’t read to much into anything’. ‘Don’t be creepy’. Ok go on…. … … ….and…and then “I’ve come to realize I’m aro/ace or ‘aromatic’ ‘asex–” ohmygodohmygod THEY’RE JUST LIKE ME. A COOL PERSON ON THE INTERNET WITH A MASSIVE PLATFORM IS JUST LIKE ME. AND THEY’RE NOW GOING TO BE TALKING ABOUT WHAT IT MEANS TO BE ASPEC TO LITERALLY MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. MOST OF WHOM HAVE PROBABLY NEVER HEARD OF “”AROACE”” BEFORE. WHAT THE HECK THIS IS GOING TO MAKE SO MANY PEOPLE SO HAPPY :DDDDD
I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this here, but since June 2018 I’ve been working for JaidenAnimations! The new video just came out, and, no joke, it’s literally the biggest video I’ve been involved with, and it came out INCREDIBLE thanks to everyone on her team. I storyboarded 17 shots for this particular vid, most of them being action scenes!
I’ll post a couple more scenes later today, but if you want to see ALL of the work I did for this and previous vids, I strongly urge you to check out Jaiden’s Patreon for full access to the animatic for this and other videos.
I just wanted to draw attention to this INCREDIBLE Among Us animation by Lizpatastic !! Genuinely has more dramatic tension than any film I’ve seen this year and its 3 minutes long
