#apothi

[antikosm]

Aro/Ace Terms Masterlist

Please let me know if I forgot anything

NOTE: There is a distinct difference between someone's personal orientation versus how they feel about sexuality/romanticism as a whole. Someone who's sex/romance repulsed may be in favour of open sexual/romantic expression or even vice versa (shoutout to @sowearecleariamhere for informing me of this!)

Types of attraction

Sexual - I wanna have sex with that

Romantic - I want to date that

Sensual - I want to hug that

Platonic - I want to be friends with that

Platonic crushes do exist. They are called “squishes”. You go through the same process of having a romantic or sexual crush but instead of landing them in bed, you’re on the floor at 2am with pizza rolls, Shrek in the background, talking about eldritch monstrosities (or whatever your shared interest is)

Aesthetic - that looks so heckin’ cool/pretty I love it

Intellectual - the desire to engage with another in an intellectual manner, i.e. having a conversation, picking their brain, and finding out how they think

Terms describing degree of attraction

Aromantic - lack of romantic attraction

Asexual - lack of sexual attraction

Aplatonic - lack of platonic attraction

Aroace - lack of both sexual and romantic attraction

Demi - attraction only forms once a strong emotional bond has been formed

Grey/gray - rarely/seldom experiences attraction

Allosexual - someone who experiences sexual attraction

I think I’ve also heard/seen it referred to as ‘arosexual’ but that’s honestly a bit confusing

Alloromantic - someone who experiences romantic attraction

I personally shorten both of those to “allo” (pronounced ‘aloe’)

Apothiosexual - sex-repulsed

Apothioromantic - romance-repulsed

Apothiaroace - often shortened to just ‘apothi’. In addition to being aroace, apothis are repulsed by romantic/sexual scenes, items, displays, etc. to varying degrees

Sex-neutral and sex-positive/favourable aces exist as well

Not all of us have the same level of comfort with sexual and romantic activities so please check. I mean that applies to everyone anyway, but please check and don’t assume that just because someone is aro/ace, that doesn’t mean they are sex/romance repulsed

Queerplatonic - Queerplatonic typically refers to a relationship that bends the lines between a romantic relationship and a non-romantic relationship. A queerplatonic relationship (QPR) often goes beyond what is socially acceptable for a platonic relationship but does not fit the typical notion of a romantic relationship.

Alterous attraction - a type of emotional attraction to someone that isn’t entirely romantic or platonic.

Chastity - actively refraining from sexual activities. This is NOT part of the ace/aro spectrum, though it is a common assumption when someone says they are ace/aro. Thankfully we’re getting a bit more representation in media now so it’s not as common of an assumption as it used to be, but it’s still there, especially in those communities.

An absolute FANTASTIC addition by @heyftinally in case anyone doesn't see the repost

Gonna expand on sex favorable/neutral/repulsed, since this is a masterlist after all: - Sex favorable - regardless of your sexual orientation, you personally want to engage in sexual activity with someone (significant other, one night stand, friends with benefits, etc) - Sex neutral - if you're with someone who wants to engage in sexual activities then you may or may not, depending on a variety of factors, but you have no strong inclinations for or against engaging in sex itself as an activity. Basically it's "alright" Sex repulsed/averse - the idea of personally engaging in sexual activities makes you want to hurl/cry/claw your skin off/spontaneously combust. If someone suggested doing sexual activities together, you would probably vehemently say "No!" before they even finished the question. You would rather do anything else - Sex positive - refers to your attitudes about sex in general. Regardless of where you fall in the above three terms, you recognize that other people want to, and should have the freedom and right to, engage in consensual sexual activities, even if you personally don't like or want those activities. Essentially shorthand for "I respect the right of other adults to have gay sex, have gender-weird sex, have sex with multiple people in and out of monogamous relationships/marriages, and have weird, wild, freaky kinky sex, so long as all participants and consenting adults". You can still personally want zero sex for yourself or think a particular kink is weird/ick, but you can, in tumblr speak, be normal about consenting adults doing consenting adult stuff - Sex negative - conservative purity culture, basically. You think nobody should have sex ever, or at least not until marriage, and when they do it should only be the "right" or "good" kind, as arbitrarily decided by you/society/some collective. You think badly of, look down on, and may even treat badly anyone who doesn't have the "right" kind of sex in your opinion. You are not normal about consenting adults doing consenting adult activities (even though they don't involve you in any way)

A wonderful addition from @overlord-of-chaos Sex aversion is not the same thing as sex repulsed.

If you are sex adverse, you personally have no desire to partake in any of those actions but seeing or knowing other people partake in that doesn't bother you.

Sex repulsion is when you can't stand doing it yourself, seeing/hearing about/knowing that others partake in it, or even just the idea of it.

Microlabels/Terms describing flavour of attraction

Note: -sexual is used for many of these so we don't have to deal with duplicates confusing things. All of these prefixes can be used with -romantic, -sexual, -platonic, and I imagine -alterous as well

Abrosexual - orientation fluctuates between a variety of orientations

Aceflux - similar to abrosexual, but orientation is contained to asexual spectrum

Acespike - someone who is asexual but may experience intense, brief, and random bouts of sexual attraction

Aegosexual - disconnect between oneself and the target of arousal

Amicusromantic/sexual - only experiences romantic attraction to those who they have formed a platonic relationship with (subset of demi)

Angled aroace - the same as oriented, but for those who are demi, grey, flux, etc.

Anthrosexual - someone who is attracted to humans and alterhumans regardless of gender identity/expression

Bellussexual - has interest in the aesthetic/aspects/certain sexual actions, but does not experience sexual attraction or want a sexual relationship

Caedsexual - previously allo, but now ace due to past trauma

Cupiosexual - wanting a sexual relationship but not experiencing sexual attraction

Finsexual/gynesexual - attraction to femininity

Fraysexual - opposite of demi. Attraction dissipates once an emotional connection has been formed

Linsexual - attraction to androgyny

Lithosexual - experiencing sexual attraction but not wanting it to be reciprocated

Loveless Romantic/Lovelessromantic - those who cannot feel love or feel disconnected from love but can feel romantic attraction/don't feel disconnected from the concept of romance

Minsexual/androsexual - attraction to masculinity

Orchid - the opposite of cupio; experiences ____ attraction but has no desire for a relationship of that type

Placiosexual - not wanting to be on the receiving end of sexual activities but wishing to perform them on others

Quiosexual - unable to distinguish between sexual attraction and other forms of attraction

Qui(r)oromantic - inability to distinguish between platonic and romantic attraction

Reciprosexual - not experiencing sexual attraction towards someone until you discover they experience sexual attraction towards you

Requiessexual - similar to caedsexual, but rather than trauma, ace identity originates from a state of emotional exhaustion, usually from a past sexual experience

Oriented aroace -  an aromantic asexual (aroace) individual who experiences a form of tertiary attraction, that they feel is significant enough to warrant a place alongside their aroace orientation. (i.e. gay aroace, bi aroace)

Angled aroace - someone who is on the aroace spectrum (grey, demi, fray, etc) who experiences a type of attraction significant enough to stand alongside their aroace orientation

Examples of mixed orientations

Heteroromantic asexual biplatonic

Poly greyromantic pansexual

Apothi abroplatonic

Placiosexual aromantic finplatonic

Aroace cupioplatonic

Pan lithioromantic

Fraysexual biromantic aplatonic

You can get WAY more specific than what these cover, but just to give a general idea

Amatonormativity

Amatonormativity is the assumption that all human beings pursue love or romance, especially by means of a monogamous long-term relationship. The term was coined by Elizabeth Brake, in her book Minimizing Marriage: Marriage, Morality, and the Law (2011).

[acespec-ed]

I made a couple of flow charts for the ace and aro spectrums! Not meant to be taken 100% factual- you know yourself better than a basic flowchart. They’re mainly just for fun, though they can also be a good start for anyone questioning!

(Free to use as long as you keep my url on them and aren’t making money off it!)

[totally-italy]

question: what is an apothi? my smol rural farmer brain is struggling to understand (no offence)

- @definitelytherepublicofireland

Absolutely no offence was taken, don't worry! Apothisexual refers to someone who is both on the asexual spectrum and sex-repulsed, whereas someone who is apothiromantic refers to a person who is on the aromantic spectrum and is romance-repulsed. Generally speaking, the term apothi would refer to a person who is both romance and sex repulsed, but for me personally, I am more repulsed by sex than I am repulsed by romance.

[demiro-allosexual-culture-is]

what does atertiary and apothitertiary mean? sorry for my ignorance

Here is a link that has more of an explanation but basically atertiary is when you experience little to no tertiary/nonrose attraction (attraction thats not romantic or sexual) (such as alterous, platonic, sensual, queerplatonic, cedural, etc.). I dont like this atertiary flag though so I made my own design of it (thats from main blog). Atertiary spectrum is also sometimes shortened to aterspec.

The apothi- prefix in aspec terms means you are repulsed by that relationship type, so here it means little to no nonrose/tertiary attraction and being repulsed by nonrose/atertiary relationships. There doesnt seem to be a wiki page for it yet but there are pages for other apothi- aspec terms like apothiromantic, apothiplatonic, etc.

[warriors-pride]

May I request goregender feralthing apothiaroace scourge, ambonec jellyfishthing audhd isogender (the purple, blue and grey one) sapphillean cloudtail with warriorprojects art (both characters)

[aspec-identities]

Apothiromantic

[Id. Image on the top of it is written apothiromantic in bold black text. On the left is the apothiromantic flag. It has 5 horisontal stripes. The outer two stripes are slightly wider than the inner three. The colours are from top to bottom green, white, black, white and red. A large black ‘X’ is centered over the flag. On the right is written someone whos aromantic and romance-repulsed. End id]

[beyond-mogai-pride-flags]

Apothiflexible Pride Flag

Apothiflexibility: identifying predominantly as apothi- but flexible in its identity.

Similar to apothiflux, but this label indicates one is mostly/generally apothi- with occasional exceptions (for example, being apothisexual most of the time but rarely sex-indifferent (apa-) or sex-favorable (icula-)).

[thepokedexisgay]

Could I get Apothisexual + Alloace Houndoom, Neutrois Zygarde 10%, Queerplatonic + Libramasculine Silvally, and Stellian + Angled Aroace Arcanine

[a-romantic--aromantic]

i miss community interactions and community conversations. the culture here has shifted a lot but i still strongly suggest having full conversations and interactions and commenting on posts and including your experiences and opinions and other terms and communities.

[pride-hearts]

Apothiplatonic Hearts

[scholarofgloom]

[antikosm]

do y'know if there's a suffix that combines sexual and romantic? saying something like "homosexual homoromantic" for example, is a bit of a mouthful

I do not unfortunately

For me, that's where I'll just use the prefix. Instead of saying apothi aroace aplatonic, I'll just say apothi. If you're demisexual-demiromantic, I'd just say demi. It covers pretty much anything that prefix applies to in the context it's used. You may have to clarify what you mean, but it works for short-hand with those who are already aware.

[kala-mies]

The lizard is a worthy ally.

[totally-italy]

so apothi folks are hardline aro and/or ace? cool, thank you for the explanation!

It's not so much that they are hardline about it; some arospec people are romance favourable or romance neutral, whereas some or romance-repulsed. The fact that they experience little to no romantic attraction is what makes them arospec, but the term apothiromantic would specify that their stance towards romance is that they are repulsed by it. Similarly, there are some people who are asexual who, whilst experiencing little to no sexual attraction, might be neutral about sex or might enjoy it, whereas there are others who are sex-repulsed.

[eclaire-went-bam]

i'm convinced allos pretend they enjoy romance & sex more than they actually do bcs the amt some of y'all joke & talk abt it is literally unreal. how is that stuff on ur mind THAT often. it feels physically impossible ??? do y'all just say stuff to get along w the other allos orrrr

[warriors-pride]

Could I get Apothisexual + Gaybian + Alterous Juniperclaw and Nightheart,

Omni-gay + Asexual + Transmasculine + Genderqueer Puddleshine,

Maverique + Apothisexual + Angled Aroace + Gaybian Flametail,

Asexual + Maverique + Trans + Queerplatonic Beetlewhisker,

And Angled Aroace + He/him lesbian (original flag if possible, the one that’s kinda pastel-y with the light purple at the top) + Alterous + Aroflux Rootspring?

Thank you!!