Meaning
What does Quoiromantic mean?
Quoiromantic, sometimes called “WTFromantic”, is a romantic orientation in which a person cannot differentiate between romantic and platonic feelings.
Sometimes, they aren’t sure whether they can experience romantic attraction, or if their current emotions are romantic or not.
“Quoiromantics” technically belong on the aromantic spectrum, and it can also be used about other orientations in which the person experiencing it are not sure about their feelings, or what counts as attraction and what does not.
Origin
What's the origin of Quoiromantic?
During the 2000’s, the romantic orientation model became protruding in the asexual community. However, “romantic orientation” can be quite misleading when your orientation is not romantic.
It is even more misleading when the concept of romance and attraction is not sensible to you.
Therefore, in 2012, Tumblr user Epochryphal coined the term “quoiromantic”, made up of the French word “quoi” meaning “what”, and “romantic”. Epochryphal himself defined the term as someone who does not identify with ‘with romance, romantic attraction, or romantic orientation as “sensible/applicable categories” for oneself’.
Spread & Usage
How did Quoiromantic spread?
The first proposed pride flag for “quoiromantics” is made up of horisontal lines in the colors black, white, green, blue and gray, the earliest one being dated back to 2014.
Another version was suggested by the same person who coined the term, Epochryphal in 2015. Different from the majority of other pride flags, this flag is made up of a house-shape in the color lavender, and four question marks circled around the same dot.
However, the earliest flag is still the most used, for example by the r/quoiromantic subreddit created in 2015, currently consisting of 223 members.
In 2016, a survey was completed by the asexual community, showing that about 9.5% of aromantics identify as “quoiromantics”.
External resources
- Aromantics Wiki – Quoiromantic