media representation of sexual aromanticism
(If the creator of this community wants to make a welcoming post first, feel free to push this to a later date.)
As a creative person striving for inclusiveness, I have some questions regarding the media representation of sexual aromanticism. Now, I'm asexual myself (and I prefer the term "nonlimerent", because romantic attraction is too vaguely defined), so I don't have the most immediate connection to this, but from where I'm standing, it looks like the current favouring of romantic love in stories of all kinds has led to a rather appalling stigmatisation of aromanticism. I mean, if you're asexual aromantic, the media thinks you're a freak or an alien, but if you don't fall in love ever but still want sex, you're a sociopath who's just using people and breaking hearts for sport. It's like the general opinion is that really okay, consensual sex is primarily about love, not about care. (Which is kind of creepy, if you think about it. Sort of like the question "If you don't believe in God, how can you be a good person?") The chronic 'player' is humanised by eventually falling in love; potentially mutually satisfying one-night-stands are depicted as a game of 'conquest' (as if it's about aggression and violence); poly relationships are viewed with distrust and sometimes even edited out of history if the people involved are supposed to be seen as the good guys; people seeking out the services of prostitutes are considered somewhat pathetic at best, even if the prostitute is doing the job really, truly voluntarily and without economic pressures; 'loveless' marriages are always bad and considered abnormal; people are supposed to "keep the romance alive", because mutual affection and support somehow aren't good enough.
It's all a load of BS, of course. Longterm sexual relationships weren't based on romantic love for the majority of human history. And even today you still find marriages that are more partnerships and not about romance. In fact, those marriages seem to be more stable in the long run. (There are even theories that romantic love as a hormonal state is only supposed to last as long as it takes for a child to be born and nursed, based on the high divorce rate once the first few years have passed. But that's a bit doubtful - there is such a thing as homoromanticism, after all.)
Since my own exposure to the sexual viewpoint on aromanticism is severely limited, I wanted to start by asking what people who are sexual aromantics would like to see in a sexual aromantic character, especially a modern one. And what are the stereotypes to avoid? (other than implying sociopathy or any other emotional defect, obviously) Have there been any positive representations in well-known media in the last decade or two?