Romantic orientation

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Romantic orientation, also called affectional orientation, is the classification of the

For example, although a pansexual person may feel sexually attracted to people regardless of gender, the person may experience romantic attraction and intimacy with women only.

For asexual people, romantic orientation is often considered a more useful measure of attraction than sexual orientation.^[2][3]

The relationship between sexual attraction and romantic attraction is still under debate.^[4][5] Sexual and romantic attractions are often studied in conjunction. Even though studies of sexual and romantic spectrums are shedding light onto this under-researched subject, much is still not fully understood.^[6]

Romantic identities

People may or may not engage in purely emotional romantic relationships. The main identities relating to this are:^[2][3][7][8]

• Aromantic
  , meaning someone who experiences little to no romantic attraction (aromanticism).
  • For identities within the aromantic spectrum, see Aromanticism § Sub-identities on the aromantic spectrum.
• Alloromantic or zedromantic:^[9][10] Not aromantic (alloromanticism or zedromanticism).^[11][12][13]
  • Monoromantic: Romantic attraction towards person(s) of only one gender (monoromanticism).[14]^[15][10]
    • Androromantic: Romantic attraction towards men or masculinity (androromanticism).^[16][17][18]
    • Gyneromantic or gynoromantic: Romantic attraction towards women or femininity (gyneromanticism or gynoromanticism).^[19][20][21]
    • Heteroromantic: Romantic attraction towards person(s) of the opposite gender (heteroromanticism).[22]
    • Homoromantic: Romantic attraction towards person(s) of the same gender (homoromanticism).
  • Multiromantic or pluriromantic: Romantic attraction towards person(s) of multiple genders (multiromanticism or pluriromanticism).^[23][24][25]
    • Biromantic or ambiromantic: Romantic attraction towards two genders, or person(s) of the same and other genders (biromanticism or ambiromanticism).^[16][26] Sometimes used the same way as panromantic or multiromantic.^{[27][8][28][29]}
    • Panromantic or omniromantic:^[28] Romantic attraction towards person(s) regardless of gender or of any, every, and all genders (panromanticism or omniromanticism).^[28][30][31]
    • Polyromantic: Romantic attraction towards person(s) of various, but not all, genders (polyromanticism).^[32]
  • non-binary person(s) (skolioromanticism or ceteroromanticism).^[26][33][10]
• Pomoromantic: Rejecting preexisting romantic labels (pomoromanticism).^[26][16]

Relationship with sexual orientation and asexuality

Main article: Split attraction model

The implications of the distinction between romantic and sexual orientations have not been fully recognized, nor have they been studied extensively.^[34] It is common for sources to describe sexual orientation as including components of both sexual and romantic (or romantic equivalent) attractions.^[5][34] Publications investigating the relationship between sexual orientation and romantic orientation are limited. Challenges in collecting information result from survey participants having difficulty identifying or distinguishing between sexual and romantic attractions.^[5][35][36] Asexual individuals experience little to no sexual attraction (see gray asexuality); however, they may still experience romantic attraction.^[37][38] Lisa M. Diamond states that a person's romantic orientation can differ from whom the person is sexually attracted to.^[4] While there is limited research on the discordance between sexual attraction and romantic attraction in individuals, the possibility of fluidity and diversity in attractions have been progressively recognized.^[39][40] Researchers Bulmer and Izuma found that people who identify as aromantic often have more negative attitudes in relation to romance. While roughly 1% of the population identifies as asexual, 74% of those people reported having some form of romantic attraction.^[29]

A concept commonly used by people that experience discordant romantic and sexual attraction is the split attraction model, which tries to explain that romantic and sexual attractions are not exclusively tied together and is often used by people of the asexual and aromantic community to explain their differing romantic versus sexual orientations.

Aromanticism

Main article: Aromanticism

Aromanticism is a romantic orientation characterized by experiencing little to no

romantic attraction.^[41][42][43] The term "aromantic", colloquially shortened to "aro", refers to a person who identifies their romantic orientation as aromanticism.^[44][45]

As a romantic minority, it is included in the initialism

agender.^[46]

See also

• Bromance
• Cross-sex friendship
• Emotional affair
• Heterosociality
• Homosociality
• Queerplatonic relationship
• Romantic friendship
• Womance

References

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8. ^ ^{a b} "Asexuality, Attraction, and Romantic Orientation". LGBTQ Center. July 1, 2021. Archived from the original on December 3, 2021. Retrieved March 11, 2022.
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27. ^ "What Does Biromantic Mean?". WebMD. Archived from the original on December 3, 2021. Retrieved December 3, 2021.
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31. ^ "Panromantic Asexuality: What Is It?". WebMD. Archived from the original on December 1, 2021. Retrieved December 1, 2021.
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42. ^ "5 things you should know about aromantic people". Stonewall. February 18, 2022. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
43. ^ "Never Been Interested in Romance? You Could Be Aromantic". Psych Central. October 29, 2021. Archived from the original on March 25, 2023. Retrieved February 26, 2022.
44. ^ Josh Salisbury. "Meet the aromantics: 'I'm not cold – I just don't have any romantic feelings' | Life and style". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 7, 2021. Retrieved April 15, 2018.
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Further reading

• King, Laura (2010). The Science of Psychology: An Appreciative View. McGraw Hill Professional.
  ISBN 978-0-07-353206-6
  .
• Marshall Cavendish Corporation, ed. (2009). "Asexuality". Sex and Society. Vol. 1.
  ISBN 978-0-7614-7905-5
  . Retrieved April 24, 2020.
• Wells, J. W. (1989). "Teaching about Gay and Lesbian Sexual and Affectional Orientation Using Explicit Films to Reduce Homophobia". Journal of Humanistic Education and Development. 28 (1): 18–34.
  doi:10.1002/j.2164-4683.1989.tb00179.x
  .