The current aromantic flag
Aromantic (often shorted to aro) is term that describes people who cannot and/or do not experience any -or only experience a small amount of- romantic attraction. Aromantic people can experience no romantic attraction at all, though that is not always the case, some people either feel little romantic attraction or have attraction that fluctuates. While aromantic itself can be used as a stand alone term and identity, there is a spectrum of other identities used for those experiencing attraction under specific circumstances/differently to the norm. Many aromantic people experience things like; an aversion to romance, disinterest in romantic relationships/what they consider romantic affection or little to no understanding of romantic relationships.
Aromantic people can experience other forms of attraction besides romantic, like, aesthetic, platonic, queerplatonic, sensual, sexual and more. Some aromantic people desire relationships while some are extremely romance/relationship adverse, some like affection while some are touch adverse, some want platonic/queerplatonic partner while some don't, some experience sexual attraction while others don't; there is no correct way to aromantic.
Aromantic Terms[]
Aromanticism, like many other orientations, is a spectrum. There are many other, more specific terms, that people prefer to identify with. These include:
- Demiromantic
- Greyromantic/Grey-aromantic
- Apothiromantic
- Aroflux
- Arospike
- Nebularomantic
- Cupioromantic
- Lithromantic
- Quoiromantic/WTFromantic
Non orientation based terms used by aromantic people include (keep in mind that not every aromantic person will use these terms):
- Amatonormativity - The widespread assumption that everyone is better off in an exclusive, romantic, long-term coupled relationship, and that everyone is seeking such a relationship.[1][2]
- SAM/Split Attraction Model - A model used to make a distinction between experiences of attraction depending on certain characteristics, conceptualizing them as different types of attraction. A person who uses the SAM to describe themselves may experience different types of attraction as distinctive and decide to label the attractions separately.[2]
- Squish - The platonic version of a crush and sometimes used a catch-all term for other types of non-romantic non-sexual crushes.[2]
- Swish - The aesthetic version of a crush.
- Smush - The sexual version of crush.
- Plush/Squash - The queerplatonic version of a crush.
- Mesh - The alterous version of a crush.
- Lush - The sensual version of a crush.
- Queerplatonic/QPR - A committed non-romantic relationship that goes beyond what is the subjective cultural norm for a friendship. Some QPRs can include sex and elements that are generally considered romantic. No QPR will ever be exactly the same.[2]
- Allromantic - Anyone who is not on the aro spectrum.
- Arospec/Aro Spectrum - The term for the entire spectrum of aromantic identities.
History[]
The term aromantic seems to have started usage around the early 2000s and one of the first documented uses of the term is from an AVEN forum in 2005[3]. Before aromantic became common usage it seems many people described themselves as 'asexual-asexual'. Unlike other queer identities, aromantic people don't really have that long of a documented history. This isn't to say aromantic people didn't exist before the 2000s, it mostly just went unnoticed to history's eyes and/or written off as being a loner.
Flag[]
There has been two previous iterations of the aromantic flag before the current one/most well known one.
First aromantic flag
First Flag[]
The first flag was proposed around 2011 by the now defunct website, National Coalition for Aromantic Visibility[4] According to the site the flags means are as follows; "Green is for aromantics, who do not naturally experience romantic attachment. Yellow represents romantic friendship, friends with benefits, and friendship dating. Orange stands for lithromantics, individuals who experience romantic love but do not wish it returned. And finally, the black stripe is for romantics who consciously choose to reject traditional romantic culture."
Second Flag[]
The second flag
The second flag was proposed by Tumblr user cameronwhimsy in 2014. They kept the yellow and green of the first flag while adding more of a gradient design. The "original" meaning of this flag was; dark green for aromantic, light green for the aromantic spectrum, yellow for lithromantic, grey for demiromantic & greyromantic and black for wtfromantic[5] Cameron later changed the meanings to; green & light green for the aromantic spectrum- thus including every identity possible-, yellow for platonic attraction and grey & black for the sexuality spectrum, quote "acknowledging aro-aces, aromantic allosexuals, and everything in between."[6]
Current Flag[]
The current flag was made again by Cameron later in 2014 after some people took issue with their first design. The meaning remains the same and has since grown largely in popularity as the flag for the aromantic community. [7]