Romantic orientation

Template:Distinguish Romantic orientation, also called affectional orientation, is the classification of the sex or gender which a person experiences romantic attraction towards or is likely to have a romantic relationship with. The term is used alongside the term "sexual orientation", as well as being used alternatively to it, based upon the perspective that sexual attraction is only a single component of a larger concept.<ref>Crethar, H. C. & Vargas, L. A. (2007). Multicultural intricacies in professional counseling. In J. Gregoire & C. Jungers (Eds.), The counselor’s companion: What every beginning counselor needs to know. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Template:ISBN. p.61.</ref>

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

For asexual people, romantic orientation is often considered a more useful measure of attraction than sexual orientation.<ref name="Richards and Barker">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Cerankowski and Milks">Template:Cite book</ref>

The relationship between sexual attraction and romantic attraction is still under debate.<ref name=":0"/><ref name=":1">Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

Romantic identities

People may or may not engage in purely emotional romantic relationships. The main identities relating to this are:<ref name="Richards and Barker" /><ref name="Cerankowski and Milks" /><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name=":10">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Aromantic, meaning someone who experiences little to no romantic attraction (aromanticism).<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• • For identities within the aromantic spectrum, see Aromantic spectrum.
• Alloromantic or zedromantic:<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":6" /> Not aromantic (alloromanticism or zedromanticism).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Monoromantic: Romantic attraction towards person(s) of only one gender (monoromanticism).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref name=":6">Template:Cite book</ref>
    • Androromantic: Romantic attraction towards men or masculinity (androromanticism).<ref name=":3" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
    • Gyneromantic or gynoromantic: Romantic attraction towards women or femininity (gyneromanticism or gynoromanticism).<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
    • Template:Visible anchor: Romantic attraction towards person(s) of the opposite gender (heteroromanticism).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
    • Template:Visible anchor: Romantic attraction towards person(s) of the same gender (homoromanticism).
  • Template:AnchorMultiromantic or pluriromantic: Romantic attraction towards person(s) of multiple genders (multiromanticism or pluriromanticism).<ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
    • Template:Visible anchor or ambiromantic: Romantic attraction towards two genders, or person(s) of the same and other genders (biromanticism or ambiromanticism).<ref name=":3">Template:Cite bookTemplate:Pn</ref><ref name=":4">Template:Cite thesis</ref> Sometimes used the same way as panromantic or multiromantic.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• • • Template:Visible anchor or omniromantic:<ref name=":03"/> Romantic attraction towards person(s) regardless of gender or of any, every, and all genders (panromanticism or omniromanticism).<ref name=":03" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• • • Template:Vanchor: Romantic attraction towards person(s) of various, but not all, genders (polyromanticism).<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
  • Template:Anchor Skolioromantic or ceteroromantic: Romantic attraction towards genderqueer or non-binary person(s) (skolioromanticism or ceteroromanticism).<ref name=":4" /><ref>Template:Cite thesis</ref><ref name=":6" />
• Abroromantic: Fluid between romantic identities or in romantic attraction (abroromanticism).<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

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• Pomoromantic: Rejecting preexisting romantic labels (pomoromanticism).<ref name=":4" /><ref name=":3" />

Relationship with sexual orientation and asexuality

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The implications of the distinction between romantic and sexual orientations have not been fully recognized, nor have they been studied extensively.<ref name=":2">Template:Cite book</ref> It is common for sources to describe sexual orientation as including components of both sexual and romantic (or romantic equivalent) attractions.<ref name=":1"/><ref name=":2"/> 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.<ref name=":1" /><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Asexual individuals experience little to no sexual attraction (see gray asexuality); however, they may still experience romantic attraction.<ref name="Helm">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="Fischer">Template:Cite book</ref> Lisa M. Diamond states that a person's romantic orientation can differ from whom the person is sexually attracted to.<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref name=":5">Template:Cite journal</ref>

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. The abbreviation aroace (or aro-ace) can be used for someone who is both aromantic ('aro') and asexual ('ace').<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See also

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

Further reading

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