Quoiromantic (also called WTFromantic or Whatromantic) is an alternative to a romantic orientation label. Quoiromantic can have many different meanings, and is an umbrella term for anyone who doesn't quite understand their romantic orientation. Quoiromantic experiences may include:
- Being unsure if one experiences romantic attraction or not.
- Finding the concept of romance to be inaccessible, inapplicable, or nonsensical.
- Disidentifying with the concept of romantic attraction- either as a social construct or as something potentially applicable to oneself.
- Questioning romanticism for such a long time that the questioning itself becomes the identity, rather than a path toward any other more stable identity.
Origin
As a consequence of the romantic orientation model becoming popular in the asexual community in the 2000s, some asexual people began to openly discuss why the model did not feel right for them.[1] For example, Kaz wrote that for zer, asking "so what's your romantic orientation?" is "the wrong question."[2] In 2011, in order to express frustration with the system, Sciatrix began half-jokingly referring to herself as "wtfromantic" (as in "what-the-fuck-romantic").[3][4] In her words, "it started as a flippant, honestly fairly sarcastic frustrated comment, not an attempt as a serious identity designation," one she did not expect to resonate with other people and begin to proliferate.[5]
As a more pronounceable alternative to wtfromantic, the term quoiromantic was first coined by Tumblr user Epochryphal (Cor) in 2012, based on quoi, the French word for "what."[6] Cor defines quoiromantic as "actively disidentifying" with romance, romantic attraction, or romantic orientation as "sensible/applicable categories" for oneself.[7]
Symbolism
In 2015, Cor proposed a flag design for the quoi identity: four lavender question marks rotated in a ring to share a single dot, overlaid on a cool grey background in a house-shape, instead of the traditional rectangular flag.[8] Other Flag design proposals have combined blue, green, black, and white or gray.[9] More recently, some simplified designs have been proposed inspired by the nontraditional flag shape idea, using a triangular flag shape instead.[10]
References
- ↑ Quoiro/WTFromantic: a brief timeline of disidentification with & personal rejection of romantic orientation
- ↑ A/romanticism
- ↑ Writhing in the Throes of Unrequited Like
- ↑ A Set of Affections Difficult to Characterize
- ↑ Ultraviolet
- ↑ A thought
- ↑ A Note On Quoi-
- ↑ Cor's Quoi Flag Proposal
- ↑ Quoiromantic Flag Designs
- ↑ Simplified Quoi Flag Proposals