Aroflux is a romantic orientation on the aromantic spectrum. It is defined as someone whose romantic orientation fluctuates.
An aroflux individual may fluctuate between experiencing aromanticism, grayromanticism, and alloromanticism.
Aroflux may be used as an orientation on its own, or may be paired with another orientation term that describes the experienced attraction. For example, some may choose to use it alongside Arospike as a way to fully describe how their fluctuation in attraction may work.
Aroflux may overlap with abroromantic, however someone who is abroromantic experiences changes in what orientation of romantic attraction they experience. Generally, for aroflux individuals, when they feel attraction, the gender(s) they're attracted to are always the same. It is only how they're attracted to them or how intensely they're attracted to them that changes.
Aromantic individuals who rarely feel spikes of attraction may use the term arospike. Alloromantic individuals who rarely jump to a lack of romantic attraction may use the term aro-jump.
The sexual counterpart to aroflux is aceflux.
History
The term was first coined on an unknown date by Tumblr user ngc2068, whose blog has since been wiped.[3] The earliest that the flag can be traced back to is August 28th, 2015, where it was posted to DeviantArt by user Pride-Flags.[4]
Flag and Symbol
The aroflux flag consists of five stripes making a gradient between red and green. Red represents alloromantics and green represents aromantics. The gradient represents how those who are aroflux can move from feeling strongly aromantic to strongly alloromantic.
An alternative flag was created by Tumblr user the-circus on February 16, 2020.[5] It features similar colours and keeps the original flag's meaning but aims to remove the eyestrain that the original flag caused for some.
Another alternative flag was created by Fandom user Starri-Niqht on January 14, 2021.[1] It uses pink to represent feeling strongly alloromantic, black to represent lack of romantic attraction, and grey to represent a middle ground between the two.
The symbol was created by Wiki user WiiFyneLM on October 28, 2021, for an LGBT+ poster.
Etymology
Aro- is short for aromantic and -flux is a suffix used for orientations or genders that change in intensity, and is short for fluctuating.
References
- ↑ [https://web.archive.org/web/https://www.deviantart.com/pride-flags/art/Aroflux-3-617510982 Aroflux (3) by Pride-Flags on DeviantArt ]
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/https://www.deviantart.com/pride-flags/art/Aroflux-4-617510992
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20240803062004/https://aromanticaardvark.tumblr.com/post/92742126325/mogai-archive-aceflux-similar-to-genderflux-in
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20231021232630/https://www.deviantart.com/pride-flags/art/Aroflux-2-556657299
- ↑ Alternative Aroflux flag created by Tumblr user the-circus: https://web.archive.org/web/https://the-circus.tumblr.com/post/190862700045/happy-aromantic-spectrum-awareness-week-heres-a