Aromanticism

[3][4][5][6] The term "aromantic", colloquially shortened to "aro", refers to a person whose romantic orientation is aromanticism.

[22] Aromantic individuals are also able to experience platonic love and may have committed friendships, and some form intimate non-romantic partnerships called "queerplatonic relationships".

[27] In society at large, aromantic people are often stigmatized and stereotyped as being afraid of intimacy, heartless, or deluded.

[40][41][42] AUREA is also the leading organizer of the annual Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week held in February.

[43][44] Another community organization, The Ace and Aro Advocacy Project (TAAAP), focuses on providing resources around both asexuality and aromanticism to the public.

[45] They do so by creating and hosting workshops, developing educational materials, and engaging in outreach within the LGBTQIA+ 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 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.

[44] ASAW is led and organized by the Aromantic-spectrum Union for Recognition, Education, and Advocacy (AUREA) and members of the aromantic community.

It was organized by a call to action on Twitter to give visibility to people on the aromantic spectrum using the Hashtag #AromanticVisibilityDay and spread across social media including Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, reddit and various online forums and a cover interview by Hello!

[failed verification][56] As aromanticism is slowly becoming more widely recognized and accepted, additional literature about it is being published.

TAAAP created a list of book recommendations as part of the Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week 2022.

[58] A series of non-fiction books concerning aromanticism have been published since 2023: The interdisciplinary journal known as AZE, created by Michael Paramo in 2016, showcases the works and experiences of aromantic, asexual and agender people.

[62][63][64] The podcast Sounds Fake but Okay by Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca focuses on aromanticism and asexuality and has been credited with helping increase public representation of the aspec (aromantic and asexual) community and has won the 2020 Discover Pods Award for best LGBTQ+ Culture Podcast.

[66][67] Popular YouTube animator Jaiden Dittfach published a video in March 2022, coming out as aromantic asexual, also known as aro-ace.

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.

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.

[87] 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.

[89] Aromanticism as its own term originated within the asexual community online, but newer research is acknowledging that romantic and sexual orientation are not one and the same and attitudes towards recognition of this separation and difference are changing.

Simplified diagram of the aromantic and asexual spectra
Michael Paramo was referred to as "one of the globe's leading aro academics" by ITV 's Woo and published a non-fiction book on the subject in 2024. [ 57 ]
Popular YouTube animator Jaiden Dittfach published a video on coming out as aro-ace in 2022. [ 65 ]