Sparkly don’t read

So I keep being bewildered that so many people apparently can’t imagine that ace/aro people might feel harmed or excluded by mainstream culture/heteronormativity.

I just had a thought. It’s probably a ND thing, isn’t it.

Pressure to show that you are heterosexual (as well as pressure not to show same-sex desire) is a part of homophobia, for sure. Which is what makes me think LGBQ people really should get it, if they would think about it from that angle.

But. Pressure to show that you like what’s normal to like? Judgment that if you don’t, you must be missing a fundamental part of what makes people human?
Even, more specifically, being judged on the maturity/childishness of your preferences and infantilized because of them?

Those are autistic & other neurodivergent experiences, and also asexual experiences.

I think the first part– “you have to like that, everyone likes that,” & the complete dismissiveness and lack of understanding that people can put on it, is really the point of comparison for me.

Eventually I’ll write a post about that. Because when it comes to things like hobbies, music, foods, that kind of judgment or pressure probably sounds completely trivial and unimportant, but it doesn’t always turn out that way.