Of course they can! No matter what attractions you do or don’t feel, you can always note those attractions in others. An important thing to remember is that attraction is not behaviour. Whether or not you feel a certain attraction has no bearing on your own actions or how you perceive others - so you can definitely ship people, and still be aromantic.

The same goes for romantic movies - your attractions have no concrete bearing on what you will or will not enjoy.

I hope this answers your questions.

pictured = a closeup of two hands clasped.

text = for me, aromantic doesn’t mean i don’t want that kind of relationship. it means i will never feel love that way, and i refuse to lie about it. i feel like the only aro who wants that kind of relationship, and the only aro who feels lacking in their ability to love.

[Image Description:White text on peach pink, texturised background. Text: I’m afraid of the things that I’ll be asked when I’m older, like “So are you married?” or “Why are you still single?” I’m afraid I’ll have to defend and explain what I am.”]

acesecrets:

[Text: I’m afraid of being openly aromantic and asexual because it might affect my desirability as an actor.]

Obviously I wouldn’t put it on my resume, but word gets around.  And I can’t play the naïve little girl forever.

“Because of the relative emptiness of the source site, it feels like something that was put together by a couple of people and not by a community. I like the ace flag because they at least attempted to get many peoples’ opinions and there is real thought behind it, real representation of the community.”

I’m actually one of the people who originally put together aromantic.org. At the time there were absolutely no resources for aromantics that were not exclusively asexual spaces. We made the site in the hopes that it would encourage a community, because we were sure we weren’t the only ones who felt the way we did.

And it worked! I was so excited when the aromantic community suddenly exploded on tumblr! 

We designed the flag to be as inclusive as possible and we used fairly basic color symbolism. Green, (being the opposite, complimentary color to red, which usually represents romance), represents aromanticism. Yellow, like the yellow rose which represents friendship, stands for various forms of queerplatonic love. Orange, being red once removed toward yellow, represents lithromantics. And black represents romantics who choose to reject traditional romance.

We decided to make a flag even though there were so few of us because having a rallying symbol, we felt, would help coalesce the community. And I think it worked!

That said, of course now that there is a large, active community we should reopen discussion of the flag and any other symbols.

- From detectivepunchymchitsthings:

[IMAGE: A woman wearing a strapless wedding dress]
[TEXT: It sounds silly, the hardest part of coming to terms with my aromanticism was accepting that I will never have a wedding.

I wish I could have a platonic marriage.]

I’ve been planning my wedding since I was a little girl, and it hurts to think that I will never get to experience it, that I will never get to put any of these plans in motion. I can’t even use my plans for any of my friends weddings, because a lot of it was symbolic and wouldn’t really apply to anyone else.

Maybe it will get easier someday, but right now it makes me want to cry.

To anon- I don’t have a definitive answer as to how many people are aromantic, since to my knowledge no survey has been done, and it needs to take account aromantics from all areas of the sexuality spectrum. But you are not alone :) 

As for advice, well I suppose it will depend on what you need guidance on, whether it is to have a better understanding on your feelings or to tell her how you feel. For starters though, I think a good idea is to ask yourself what you actually want? 

I think it is also important to consider that, contrary to what pop culture may tell you, ‘love’ and ‘relationship’ are not inherently romantic terms. So I think that needs to be thought out too whilst you are still in the stages of figuring out what words you like best

Hey guys! :)

Just a friendly hi from the new admin of this blog. (though fret not, the old mod will most likely be lurking/sticking around)  I will do my best to keep it running as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Since the old format seemed to work, I will use the same template as the previous mod.

So yes, wherever you may happen to be on the aromantic spectrum, if you have a secret you wish to share, submit away :)

Mod doesn’t have the time or energy or drive anymore to keep arosecret going (as you can tell from the general decay of this tumblr) so I’m offering the URL to any people who feel they have what it takes to get it running and successful. If you’re interested, send an ask or a submission into this tumblr.

A note, I will only give the URL to someone who will keep the blog open to anyone on the aromantic spectrum.

Aromantic Aardvark has been asked that question before, they don’t know. The person who made the original meme image probably had an idea for the colours, but nobody knows what that meaning was.

Then I think this is a discussion the community needs to have.

Continued:

“(cont) before (assuming that’s what the icon is) and do you know where it came from? And if you do, this sounds a bit stupid, but the colors are just so odd and I was wondering if they represent vegetables (referring to queerplatonic partners like “zucchini” or whatever and then black for those who desire no partnerships [they just seem very vege-colored])? Thank you for your time, and sorry for so many questions.”

The flag came from here.

They state that the colours mean:

“Green is for aromantics, who do not naturally experience romantic attachment. Yellow represents romantic friendship, friends with benefits, and friendship dating. Orange stands for lithromantics, individuals who experience romantic love but do not wish it returned. And finally, the black stripe is for romantics who consciously choose to reject traditional romantic culture.”

Now, I will state … I don’t like the flag. It’s missing the aromantic spectrum, I think it looks a little ugly, and it was made by people I have never had any contact with ever.

I used it because it is the only aromantic symbol I know of, and in that, I answer your question. Ace of spades is indeed a potential icon, but then what do we use to talk about the aromantics who aren’t ace or who don’t identify with the ace community? Unfortunately, the aro community is so inactive that I think a lot of the symbols and dare I say it, “culture” have yet to form. I don’t know if they’ll ever form.

Unless you guys think we should be making our own flag?

The thing I like about the ace flag, which, if you don’t know has colours in this order; black, grey, white, purple. The black stands for asexuals, the grey for anyone on the asexual spectrum, the white for people who experience sexual attraction and the purple stands for community. That’s a nice flag, it represents everyone.

The aro flag seems to be a bit random, imo.

hernameishelen:

acesecrets:

[Text: I’m aromantic. (but I have so much love to give)]

Reminds me of the song, “I Have Forgiven Jesus,” by Morrissey.

[Image Description: An image of holding hands. Text: I wish that touching wasn’t seen as such a romantic thing because sometimes I just want somebody, anybody, to hold my hand. (without having to be a couple)]

[Image Description: White and black text on golden yellow, texturised background. Text: I’m ace and aro. I’m out and active with my ace identity. But I’m terrified of coming out as aro. WHY?!”]