Go Todd for Maude  Chapter 1: The Ace App Date [BoJack Horseman post-6x7, pre-6x9; Todd Chavez/ace-arospec!Maude] 727 words (18.6/19.6.2020)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/24258388/chapters/58460932

me pretending I’m experienced with sex when drawing porn

"i'm not gay. i mean, i don't think i am, but... i don't think i'm straight either. i don't know what i am. i think i might be nothing." 💓💓💓💓💓

seeing a character being uncomfortable with sex on my screen, and not being made fun of, or it being portrayed at something he needs to get over i'm.... oof wow

It’s Asexual Awareness Week which means I get to hop on my soapbox for a hot second. Skip the rant if you want, I won’t blame you.

There’s an excellent documentary from the 90s called “The Celluloid Closet” that’s about queer representation in film throughout the 20th century. It’s really, really good (watch it on Amazon Prime) but one of the things that’s always struck a chord with me in particular was one of the interviewee’s talking about the difference in audience experience with explicit queer representation.

He describes it as “translating”. With queer representation on screen, he doesn’t have to “translate” what he’s seeing to fit with his own experience; it’s not a matter of a “universal love story”, it’s a matter of “I don’t have to twist this narrative to make it fit me”.

With the advent of so much positive, explicit queer rep out there, especially TV, this is me reminding every single allo who might read this that I don’t get to have that.

I still have to translate almost everything I watch.

It is WONDERFUL that there is so much more available now, and I’m not trying to make anyone feel bad or make light of a very important trend in media. And I also know that aces are not alone in this, there are plenty of others who have the same problem at the moment. But this is my party and I’ll cry if I want to.

The queer experience so often on our screens is the allo experience. Not the ace experience. And those are vastly different things. I have been translating all my life, to the point where I’m pretty much fluent in allo. But it’s not my first language, and I’ve been having to speak it like it is for so long that sometimes it feels like I don’t know how to speak ace at all. Because it is rare I get to speak it and it is rarer still to hear it spoken by others. Even then, when I hear it on screen it’s usually with a noticeable allo accent.

There have been maybe two pieces of media with explicit ace representation I have seen that felt like it fit me. There have been other characters and storylines, but they were written in such a way it would be easy for others to tell me I was hearing things if I said they spoke allo with an ace accent. 

It’s just. Sometimes I’m so, so tired. Translating takes effort. It’s exhausting and it leaves marks on you where you had to force yourself to fit into something that wasn’t made with you in mind. But if I don’t translate, I don’t get entertainment. So I watch the next episode, I pick the next movie, I turn on the next song, and I read the next book. And I let the allo river wear away at the unique edges of my ace rock.

This is your reminder that we’re here. Speaking our own language, waiting to be heard and understood. Waiting for the day we don’t have to translate. Happy Asexual Awareness Week.

i binged all of it in two weeks and planned on drawing all faves but this post is fine the way it is

Todd 🖤

Thanks for coming to my TedTalk

You know what I like about Bojack suggesting Maude the Cinnabunny join Todd's dating app? When he tells her about it Todd is the only person on the app and Bojack knows so of course he knows the two will be matched. Here's the thing though unlike Yolanda we actually see ways Maude might be compatible with Todd outside of just being asexual! She makes a big crying scene over giving change to Bojack which rings true to Todd's character of either taking things too far with a joke or getting serious attachments over small things (she does a similar thing with the actual cinnabuns themselves as well) and we see her telling her mom but a wacky idea to make Cinnebungalows so people can live inside a food they love. These things are subtle but they tell us about her as a person. Bojack recognizes she is possibly asexual but he recognizes her personality matches Todd as well!

I hope we get to see them together because it is a great evolution in his romantic life. Going from Emily who he likes but is incompatible with sexually due to him being ace to Yolanda who shares his sexuality but pretty much nothing else to Maude who both shares his sexuality and might work with him on a personality level as well is a great subtle journey to see unfold for Todd.

BoJack Horseman | Season 6 Trailer. The final two-part season will stream on October 25, 2019 and January 31, 2020 on Netflix.

Mrs Buenaventura: Asexualize me like one of your French girls, Todd.

Something small for ace awareness month!