Written for Asexual Awareness Week 2021
“The information is there, Shiny, but so few want to know about it, or assume that everyone experiences the same things they do,”
This was the main issue that plagued the asexual community. Being swept under the rug, ignored, or treated as less than the thinking, feeling individuals they were. The misconceptions were rampant, misinformation widespread, and many, many people would rather condemn others than try to understand the nuance and differences that made them who they were.
So, Princess Cadance, openly vocal and proud about her asexuality, to the point of wearing clothes that matched the colours of the asexual flag, takes the first of many steps to try and educate ponydom and create a place where her and others like her can feel safe and accepted.
While set in the Mothling AU, this was written as a stand alone piece that does not require you to read the others in the series.
What's the Mothling AU?
11023787
The Mothling AU is an MLP/Hollow Knight Crossover series I'm doing. The series starts with Kindler if you want to give it a read.
Hm. That would make me Demisexual, not Asexual. Thanks for clearing that up and bringing attention to this issue.
11023933
I'm glad this was able to help.
Nice story. Very informative
me = ?
11024047
Thank you.
Very based.
Long time aroace reporting. This was a nice little read and quite an effective way to go over the immediate questions and assumptions we're so often presented with. I always appreciate an effort to raise ace awareness!
11024189
Thank you, I am glad you like it. I feel like it's a bit clunky and I could do better, but I'm happy with how it turned out.
This piece dumps a lot of information using Cadance as a mouthpiece, but I don't think it's a story. It does nothing to personalize anyone's lived experience, look at the wider meaning of how this impacts life, or anything else to create a set of stakes and payoffs to engage readers. I'm left feeling like I've been handed a pamphlet, not like I was given something with the power to draw me in and create an investment.
That's a perennial problem with these kinds of educational / informational pieces, and an easy trap to fall into, but it really does a disservice to both the concept being explained and to the audience. The concept is reduced to something distant and unrelatable because it's not explored in terms of personal impact, and the audience is betrayed in their expectation that a story should have something personally impactful to say.
I'm wary of critique being made prescriptive (ie., offering "this is what you should do instead" advice) because ultimately it's authors who have to create stories and the readership usually shouldn't be trying to direct. That said: a story about asexuality using Cadance as the main character could be much better accomplished by writing something about how it affects her life in terms of, say, the adventures it must have caused her in figuring out and reconciling her relationship with Shining Armor. That would be much more interesting and personal.
I was thinking about looking up more on this. Thanks for including sources of more info too.
11024533
No problem.
11024444
I admit, I could have done it better and it is clunky. But this was good practice. My focus was on making sure I had the right information, and I didn't have time to a longer, more engaging piece.
I am working on a fic that features a demisexual character that's going to be more engaging. While the focus won't be on demisexuality itself, it will have an impact on the character's life and how they perceive or interact with others. Something more subtle.
My Mothling AU has better integration of aroace themes and this was written mostly to get my confidence back up after I doubted their inclusion in the series. This is a niche topic and I know it isn't going to garner as much interest as my other works. But there will be improvements in the future,
11024559
Wouldn't it be better to spell out the link to asexuality.org and tell people to read from there?
By making it into a story you could have a theater with different roles, giving "practical" examples in a EQG setting (for a more relateable human world since ponies never discuss sex anyway).
But instead you chose verbose dialogue that ended up less efficient at conveying information than the website mentioned. Seems inefficient?
11028244
And I did mention that I didn't have time to write a better piece, among other things. I have already aditted that I could have done better were circumstances better and I plan to do better in the future.
What more do you want me to do?
11028389
It was more of a heads-up and suggestions for improvement for your planned take on demisexuality.
As far as asexuality goes, it has come with a lot of different brands and labels throughout the last 2000 years, with "chaste" and "virtuous" having a positive note, and "frigid/impotent" are often interpreted in a negative way, while asexuality tries to be a neutral label in the middle.
Of course there are also other things to ponder. Nobody expects two elderly seniors to have the same sexual passion as newly weds, but at what age is asexuality normal and at what age is it uncommon?
11028649
I have a better handle on Demisexuality than the broader asexual spectrum by being able to draw on my own experiences as a demi and translating that to a character (writing original characters is one of my writing strengths) and I have a character in a larger project that reflects that. It won't be the main point of said of character, because that's not good character writing, but it is something I'm going to work on.
Hell, pretty much all my self-insert OC's are demisexual/demiromantic by default because that's how I thought everyone was until I figured out I was demi and that learned lust/love at first sight was not just media shorthand for a romance plot or a trope in fiction. The best I can do when it comes writing allo characters is by simply taking cues from what I've read in fanfics and seen in various forms of media.
I appreciate the criticism but I do wonder if I did anything right in this given that the main focus of your advice is towards the presentation of everything.
11028704
What you did right, was to bring an entirely new point of view to present it. Using an icon the fandom associates with sexual passion (if you judge a character's fandom reputation from art with explicit themes). This bold move broke a lot of headcanons, and it may explain why some didn't like it? (Using Moondancer would've been easier.)
Doing asexual sex-ed material in Equestria is quite a challenge, and I've spent time thinking about how I would tackle such a difficult challenge. So your work has also been inspirational.
11028720
Thank you. And if you're inspired to write something, I wouldn't mind giving it a read. More ace rep is always good to see.
Honestly I came up with the Ace Cadance headcanon on a whim for the Mothling AU as a way to better distinguish her role as god of empathy and bonds, since sex and sexual attraction is tied so closely to passion, which is covered by another character in the series. So far the reception has been positive and the headcanon in one I'll keep using whenever I include Cadance in a fic in the future.
This fic was such a rush job because I found out about ace awareness week a few days prior, had the first scene already done and sitting on the backburner, and finished the rest of it in about two-three days. But, it won't be the only time I'll be covering asexuality in my fics anyway, and my major rule when working with these sorts of topics is to bring them up through the lens of character interactions. Small moments between characters, an issue cropping up between friends due to a misunderstanding or assumption, sheer demisexual confusion because How are they attractive? You don't know them?, that sort of thing.
So you can see where I dropped the ball with this one.