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Aromanticism is a romantic orientation characterized by experiencing little to no romantic attraction. The term " aromantic", Colloquialism shortened to " aro", refers to a person whose romantic orientation is aromanticism. It is distinct from, though often confused with, asexuality, the lack of sexual attraction.
The opposite of aromanticism is , defined as a romantic orientation in which one experiences romantic love or romantic attraction to others. Some individuals who fall on the aromantic spectrum of identities describe themselves as having experienced romantic love or romantic attraction at some point. Such aromantics may adopt labels for more specific identities on the aromantic spectrum, such as "grayromantic" (romantic attraction rarely experienced or only weakly experienced) or "demiromantic" (only experiencing romantic attraction after a strong emotional bond has been formed with the target). As the experience of romantic attraction is subjective, some aromantic people may find it difficult to determine whether they experience romantic attraction. As such, those who are aromantic may have trouble distinguishing Platonic love affection from romantic affection.
Aromantic people may form non-romantic relationships of all types, and may be able to enjoy sexual relationships. They may also choose to have children, and studies indicate that aromantic individuals are no less likely to have children than alloromantic individuals. This is because aromanticism is independent of Human sexuality or libido, and while many aromantic people are Asexuality, many are also allosexual. Aromantic individuals who are allosexual are called aromantic allosexuals or aroallos.The Ace and Aro Advocacy Project (2023). 9781839976391, Jessica Kingsley Publishers. . ISBN 9781839976391 Due to this, aromantic people who are not asexual can also identify with other sexual orientations, such as "aromantic Bisexuality" or "aromantic Heterosexuality". (2025). 9781137567666, Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9781137567666 This split between romantic and sexual orientation is commonly explained as the split attraction model, which states that romantic and sexual attraction are not strictly linked for all people. Aromantic asexual people are colloquially known as "" or "aroace".
Aromantic individuals are also able to experience platonic love and may have committed , and some form intimate non-romantic partnerships called "queerplatonic relationships". Aromantic individuals may enter romantic relationships despite not feeling romantic attraction, and others under the aromantic spectrum such as those who identify as demiromantic may enter romantic relationships under limited circumstances. Individuals who do not experience platonic attraction are named as aplatonic. Aromantic individuals are also able to experience sensual attraction. Those who do not experience sensual attraction are called asensual. Of those who responded to the Aromantic Census 2020, 14.6% had been in a non-romantic partnership.
Some have argued that aromanticism is under-represented, under-researched, and frequently misunderstood.
In society at large, aromantic people are often stigmatized and stereotyped as being afraid of intimacy, heartless, or deluded. Amatonormativity, a neologism coined by philosopher and professor Elizabeth Brake, is defined as "the widespread assumption that everyone is better off in an exclusive, romantic, long-term coupled relationship, and that everyone is seeking such a relationship", can be particularly damaging to aromantics. Amatonormativity is said to be connected to devaluing Family, platonic, and queerplatonic friendships/relationships, and damaging to aromantics.
In the initialism LGBTQIA+, the A stands for aromanticism, alongside asexuality and agender.
Beyond the above listed commonly used terms that people on the aromantic spectrum may use to identify with, there are also a series of newer emerging terms that are not yet commonly used by the community.
Since then a dedicated online community centered around aromanticism has formed online on Arocalypse.com as well as other social media platforms.
In order to gain wider acceptance and recognition, a volunteer formed organization, the (AUREA), was formed to increase recognition of and education on aromanticism and help people on the aromantic spectrum gain wider acceptance by the general public. AUREA is also the leading organizer of the annual Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week held in February.
Another community organization, (TAAAP), focuses on providing resources around both asexuality and aromanticism to the public. They do so by creating and hosting workshops, developing educational materials, and engaging in outreach within the LGBTQ community and general public. The organization has also written a book titled Ace and Aro Journeys: A Guide to Embracing your Asexual or Aromantic Identity that was published in April 2023.The Ace and Aro Advocacy Project (2023). 9781839976384, Jessica Kingsley Publishers. . ISBN 9781839976384
A may be worn on one's left middle finger to indicate one's identity on the aromantic spectrum. This was chosen as the opposite of the ace ring which is a black ring worn on the right hand.
Another symbol often used by aromantic people is or an arrow, as the word arrow is a homophone to the shortened word "aro" used by aromantic people to refer to themselves.
The event was first recognized from November 10–17, 2014, and was subsequently moved to February in 2015 to be held the week after Valentine's Day. It is an awareness period that was created to celebrate, raise awareness of, and bring acceptance to aromantic spectrum identities and the issues people on the aromantic spectrum face. ASAW is led and organized by the Aromantic-spectrum Union for Recognition, Education, and Advocacy (AUREA) and members of the aromantic community.
ASAW has been officially recognized by a handful of states in the United States including Washington State.
Popular YouTube animator Jaiden Dittfach published a video in March 2022, coming out as aromantic asexual, also known as aro-ace.
Elizabeth Brake coined the term amatonormativity in the book Minimizing Marriage, meaning "the pressure or desire for monogamy, romance, and/or marriage". As aromanticism is directly counter to many western societal expectations, aromantic people face continued pressure and prejudice to conform to the "social norms" and form permanent romantic relationships.
Although aromantics and asexuals have existed for as long as humans have, the terminology and openness has only gone mainstream more recently.
Aromantic people are often left out of discussions and representations, including within the LGBTQIA+ community itself. This extends to some people's and media organizations misuse of the expanded LGBTQ acronym itself wherein some people mistakenly claim that A in LGBTQIA+ stands for ally. In actuality, the A in LGBTQIA+ represents aromanticism, asexuality and agender.
This erasure extends into modern TV media, including that of the character Jughead Jones, who is asexual and aromantic: in the 2017 television show Riverdale, the writers chose to depict Jughead as a heterosexual despite pleas from both fans and Jughead actor Cole Sprouse to retain Jughead's asexual aromantic identity to allow the community to be represented.
Aromantic heterosexual men face the challenge of being labeled a womanizer by those ignorant of aromanticism. Sociologist Hannah Tessler writes:
To counteract the stigma and discrimination against aromantic people, various community and health and wellness organizations have published articles and educational materials to educate the public. One of the misunderstandings about aromanticism is that it hinders one from living a fulfilling life. Academic Michael Paramo writes:
The English aromantic and asexual activist Yasmin Benoit called out that this erasure expands to official government offices, such as the Government Equalities Office not yet acknowledging aromanticism in their latest LGBT Survey and people having to label themselves under "other" instead.
It is worth noting that sometimes this erasure of aromantic identities even happens within the aspec community itself, with people equating aromanticism and asexuality although many aromantic people do not identify as asexual.
In the Aromantic Census 2020, 82.43% of respondents reported not being taken seriously, being ignored, or being dismissed by others. 48.34% reported having experienced attempts or suggestions to "fix" or "cure" them. 70.51% of respondents indicated some impact of discrimination against their aromantic identity.
In April 2023 two University of Toronto professors launched the Asexuality and Aromanticism Bibliography to better collect and track academic articles on asexuality and aromanticism.
The concept that there is a distinction between romantic and sexual orientation has not been studied extensively yet, but the diversity of attraction has been progressively recognized in newer studies.
A 2022 study on concordance between romantic orientation and sexual attitudes found that while there is some concordance between romantic orientation and sexual orientation, the two were not a complete match, suggesting that the experience of split attraction between romantic and sexual orientation exists both in allosexual as well in asexual people. The authors also note that they were surprised that out of their sample population, as compared to asexual participants, only few allosexual people self-identified as aromantic and hypothesize that this may be due to the unfamiliarity with the concept and term.
According to Debra Laino, an AASECT-certified clinical sexologist and relationship coach, one of the most common misconceptions around aromantic people is that they do not want to have sex. She explains that "aromantic people can still feel sexual attraction, but they might not identify with the way romance is often present in current media and culture."
A research article from 2021 discusses zines and their role within the aromantic and asexual community to help people navigate their identity and the authors note that aromanticism is "too often explored as a tag-on to asexuality".
One study of 414 American adults found that about 1% of participants indicated that they were not romantically attracted to either sex (i.e. aromantic). The study also found that about 10.6% of participants had discordant (different) romantic and sexual orientations.
One population-based survey of sexuality in Japan found that 1.6% of participants did not report either romantic attraction or sexual attraction and 0.8% of participants have sexual attraction but do not have romantic attraction.
Calls for more research around aromanticism and asexuality are highlighted by a recent study centered on the thematic analysis of online communications within the aromantic and asexual community, which highlights that allonormativity is prevalent in the field of communication studies and needs to be combated in order to provide qualitative academic work around aromanticism and asexuality.
In January 2024, PRIDEnet, a project of Stanford University School of Medicine, published a report as a result of a series of research community listening sessions with members of the aromantic community held in 2023 in recognition of the need for more affirming research related to the aromantic community to "address the lack of information surrounding the social, mental, and physical health of aromantic people and help us understand the challenges faced by and the resilience of the aromantic community".
A census was performed by AUREA in 2020 to gather information of the aromantic community. The census received 9,758 responses from aromantics around the world. Of the respondents, a majority identified as asexual, but about a third of respondents did not identify as asexual, highlighting that aromanticism is not strictly a subset of asexuality and should not simply be categorized as such. The census authors acknowledged that the respondent participant pool was overrepresented by people identifying as asexual as well as other geographic, demographic and linguistic skews as the census was only available in English and due to the predominantly online recruitment method. The organization is planning to repeat the census on a semi-annual basis, but has not yet released the 2022 census.
Another community survey was performed in 2021 within the aromantic community specifically targeting the allosexual aromantic community to highlight the existence of aromantic people that are not asexual. The survey had 647 responses; the majority of respondents identified as queer at 43% and only 8.8% as heterosexual.
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