Awareness
This year, Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week (ASAW) takes place from February 16th to 22nd. Aromantic people are an inextricable and wonderful part of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, the ‘A’ represents Aromantic people along with Asexual and Agender folks! Every year, we take these days to learn about Aromantic experiences, uplift Aromantic folks and fiercely reaffirm our commitment to supporting the Aromantic community.
Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week was first celebrated from November 10th to 17th in 2014, before being moved to the week after Valentine’s Day the following year. That timing is intentional—the hyper-romanticism of Valentine’s Day can be tricky for Aromantic people to navigate, and so ASAW was moved to that time to provide space for Aromantic folks to celebrate their own experiences. ASAW is recognized across the world and is organized by volunteers from Aromantic-Official, AUREA, and other members of the community, who offer events, prompts and challenges for creators, and education on the Aromantic community and the struggles Aromantic people face.
In essence, Aromantic’ describes someone who experiences little to no romantic attraction. Romantic attraction is a specific variety of attractions that can best be explained as a desire to enter a romantic relationship with someone and is distinct from other forms of attraction such as platonic, intellectual, aesthetic, and sexual. These varying types of attraction can intersect, overlap, and be both tied together or completely separated from one another, and identifying as Aromantic does not say anything about how someone relates to any other sort of attraction.
The experiences of Aromantic folks (sometimes referred to as ‘Aros’) are incredibly diverse, hence the ‘spectrum’ in Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week. Some Aromantic people feel absolutely no romantic attraction whatsoever, whereas some only experience it under specific circumstances, such as if an emotional connection has already been formed. Many Aromantic folks have no desire to be in a romantic relationship, yet many others find themselves quite happy in such dynamics. Even attitudes towards depictions or certain aspects of ‘romance’ vary immensely across the community—some Aromantic folks are repulsed by the idea of kissing, for instance, but others enjoy such an activity. There is no ‘one size fits all’ Aromantic experience—there are as many Aromantic experiences as there are Aromantic folks in the world—which is further exemplified by the number of identities that fall under the Aromantic spectrum, such as Demiromantic, Greyromantic, Quoiromantic, Lithromantic, and many more besides.
One extremely important distinction to make is the difference between Aromanticism and Asexuality, which are distinct and whole identities in themselves. While the two labels can go together, there are also a great number of Allosexual Aromantic and Asexual Alloromantic people in both communities, with Allo referring to the ability to experience a sort of attraction. Many folks on either or both spectrums like to use the Split Attraction Model to explain this distinction, which classifies each sort of attraction as something that can be felt independently of any other. Aromantic people might also identify with another label to describe another sort of attraction they feel, including but by no means limited to Heterosexual/Straight, Homosexual/Gay/Lesbian, Bisexual, or Asexual. People who do identify as both Asexual and Aromantic might see these labels as separate facets of their identity, as a single whole, or something in between. Regardless, one should never assume that every Aromantic person is Asexual, or vice versa. The Aromantic and Asexual communities do tend to be close thanks to shared experiences and support each other fiercely.
The modern Aromantic flag was designed in November 2014 by Cameron Whimsy following a discussion on Tumblr and replaced two flags that had previously been in use. The first and oldest featured four stripes—light green, yellow, orange, and black—and unfortunately, its designer is unknown. The second was Whimsy’s original design, from February of the same year, and featured five stripes of dark green, light green, yellow, grey, and black; Whimsy would redesign it following reports of sensory issues and cultural misunderstandings. The modern version of the flag follows in the footsteps of Whimsy’s first design: five colours, with dark green, light green, white, grey, and black stripes. Both green stripes represent Aromantic identities as a whole—green, on the colour wheel, is opposite red, which is the colour most traditionally associated with romance—while the white stripe represents the validity of relationships not based on romantic attraction, such as friendships. The grey and black stripes represent the sexuality spectrum and acknowledge the variety of different experiences Aromantic folks have with sexuality, such as Aroace experiences, Alloaro experiences, and anything in between.
Aromantic people do face several challenges, and those can even come from other members of the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. A number of these challenges can be summed up as the result of amatonormativity, or the belief that every person should be in an exclusive, long-term, romantic relationship and that every person is seeking such a relationship. This belief can lead to dismissal of Aromantic identity, disparaging remarks, (such as assuming Aromantic people ‘can’t feel love’) attempts to ‘fix’ Aromantic folks, and even exclusion from events that by all rights should be welcoming—such as those hosted for the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, of which Aromantic people are a crucial part.
Aromantic erasure and lack of representation are also a large problem, although there has been progress in recent years. Celebrities such as Michaela Coel, Yasmin Benoit, Alice Oseman, and Jaiden Dittfach of Jaiden Animations have all proudly declared who they are, and characters such as Dusa from the video game Hades, Gwenpool from Marvel Comics, Issac Henderson from Heartstopper, and Lilith Clawthorne from The Owl House have likewise provided crucial representation for Aromantic people and proof that they’re not alone.
This Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week, and every other week besides, it’s our duty to commit ourselves to supporting the Aromantic community however we can. Aromantic people have always and will always exist as their unique, authentic selves, and it’s important to take this week to not only raise awareness but also to celebrate their resilience and vibrancy both as individuals and as a community.
