Romanticity, or romantic identity, is a term referring to the way an individual experiences their identity in relation to romantic activity, romantic thoughts, and romantic relationships. This is a multifaceted concept that include factors such as romantic orientation, romance stance, romance drive, and relational alignment. Romanticity is often influenced by factors relating to gender identity, such as gender alignment.
The sexual equivalent to this term is sexuality and the tertiary equivalent is tertiality.
Romantic Orientation
Romantic orientation is a term that refers to the gender(s) or gender alignments that an individual feels romantic attraction towards and how that romantic attraction is experienced.
Typically, romantic orientation labels are derived using a prefix combined with the suffix "-romantic." Biromantic, heteroromantic, and demiromantic are all examples of romantic orientations. Other labels that do not use the "-romantic" suffix, such as gay, lesbian, and trixic, can also be used to describe one's romantic orientation.
An individual who experiences no romantic attraction, or only experiences it rarely or weakly, may consider themselves aromantic.
Romance Stance
Romance stances are interaction stance terms describing an individual’s feelings towards romantic interaction. This can include feelings towards romance, towards other romantic activities, or towards romantic interaction as a concept. These terms are commonly used by aromantic spectrum individuals, but are not exclusive to this community or romantic orientation.
Romance Drive
Romance drive is a term referring to the experience of romantic urges or desires.
Romance drive is a separate concept from romantic attraction. While romantic attraction is directed at a target individual, romance drive is a general, untargeted experience.
Relational Alignment
Relational alignment is a category of terms that describe the number of individuals one wants to be in a relationship with at the same time. The most commonly known relational alignments are polyamorous and monogamous.
Romantic Preferences
Some individuals may experience preferences in regards to what kinds of individuals they are attracted to or are interested in forming romantic relationships with. These are referred to as romantic preferences.
The Influence of Gender on Romanticity
Romanticity may be influenced by an individual’s gender identity or gender alignment. Gender can affect how an individual perceives themselves and others, as well as how an individual interacts with others. This can impact how an individual perceives their romantic identity. For example a genderfluid individual may feel different about their romanticity depending on what gender they are experiencing at the time. The term novoromantic may be used to describe this (see novosexual).
History
This concept has existed within the queer community with no clear first coining for many years. The term was recoined for the purpose of providing a concrete source by AnonymousHermitCrab on the subreddit r/lgbt on May 9th, 2022.[1]