Why I Ship: My Life as an AroAce Fangirl Who Still Enjoys Romance
Image description: Mary and Matthew from Downton Abbey share a dance together. Mary and Matthew are one of my ultimate OTPs (short for "one true pairing") and they serve as a great conversation starter when it comes to a question I've been asking myself for a while: why do I ship characters when I don't want romance for myself in real life? What do I gain from it? Today, I'm going to unpack that question, explore some answers, and discuss why that question even matters in the first place. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you likely know two facts about me that might, at first glance, seem somewhat at odds with each other. The first is that I identify as an aromantic asexual ; the second is that I’m often a sucker for a good romance and that I deeply appreciate certain romantic tropes in media. Those two things are not actually as diametrically opposed as they may sound, since my own identity and lack of romantic desire do not inherently have to dictate...
