Aromantic Awareness Week 2024
February 18 - 24 is Aromantic Awareness Week in 2024!
What is aromanticism?
A spectrum relating to a person’s romantic attraction to others.
Alloromantic people fully experience romantic attraction, demiromantic people can experience it in certain circumstances, and aromantic people rarely or never experience romantic attraction.
Other terms exist between allo-, demi-, and aromantic for more specificity.
Why not just say you don’t want sex?
Romantic attraction is separate from sexual attraction. For many people, both exist together and at a similar level (e.g. an alloromantic allosexual, or an aromantic asexual).
Separating the romantic and sexual spectrums can be difficult as they are often intertwined.
Romance does not require sex.
Sex does not require romance.
What even is romantic attraction?
Romantic attraction is more difficult to explain than sexual attraction, because it can be so much more subjective.
Some examples include a desire to spend time with another person; share emotions, experiences, and gifts; give another person a kind (romantic) gesture of affection; non-sexually touching another person, like holding hands, cuddling, or small kisses.
Can aromantic people feel love?
Yes.
Love comes in many forms, romantic love being only one. Aromantic people love their families, their friends, their pets, the things they’ve created and done, and more.
Romantic love is one of the most visible forms of love in our world, but that does not mean it is required to live a fulfilling life.
Can aromantic people have relationships?
Can they? Yes.
Do they all? No.
A person can be aromantic and still have sexual attraction, like someone who is aromantic bisexual or demiromantic heterosexual.
Some aromantic people do have relationships and even marriages. some enter queer-platonic relationships, which are like deep friendships with heightened levels of commitment. And some aromantics want nothing more than friendship.
Learn more about aromanticism at:
The Ace and Aro Advocacy Project: TAAAP.org