Romantic orientation

As romantic orientation (of English. Romantic orientation ) in which it is sexology the preference of a person for the one sex referred to the representatives they romantic feel attracted, d. H. in which she is in love and with whom they love relationships is received.

Traditionally, sexual orientation is defined as "a person's erotic and emotional orientation towards members of the same sex or the opposite sex". However, some people feel emotionally (“romantically”) attracted to people of one sex while they are sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex . Asexuals, on the other hand, do not feel sexually attracted to anyone but often emotionally ("romantically") attracted to people of a certain gender . In order to do justice to these different modes of perception, some authors today distinguish between a sexual orientation on the one hand and a romantic orientation on the other. In this context, “sexual orientation” strictly means a person's preference for a gender with whose representatives they would like to perform sexual acts.

The concept of romantic orientation is based on the perspective that the presence of sexual attraction to others, or a desire for sexual interaction with others, is only one possible component of a greater dynamic. For example, a pansexual person may be sexually attracted to people of any gender, but may only have romantic feelings and love for one gender. For asexual people, romantic orientation is often a more useful system of measurement than sexual orientation.

For most people, romantic and sexual orientation coincide.

Romantic identities

Some people only get involved in purely sexual or purely emotional, romantic relationships . The main romantic identities are:

Aromantics : no romantic attraction to others (adjective: aromantic )

Aromantic flag
Heteroromantics : romantic attraction only towards people of the opposite sex (adjective: heteroromantic )
Homoromantics : romantic attraction only towards people of the same gender (adjective: homoromantic )

Biromantic : romantic attraction towards people of both sexes (adjective: biromantic )

Panromantic : romantic attraction towards everyone, regardless of gender (adjective: panromantic )

Demiromantic : romantic attraction to any of the above groups, but only after a strong emotional bond has been formed with the person / s (adjective: demiromantic ).

Relationship to sexuality and asexuality

The distinction between sexual and romantic orientation has not yet been fully recognized by society, nor has it been extensively researched and investigated. Sexual orientation is usually viewed as including components of both sexual and romantic attraction (or a romantic equivalent). In the same way, romantic love is mostly described as "love with strong components of sexuality and being in love". However, some sources contradict this statement and state that sexual and romantic attraction do not necessarily have to be interdependent.

Asexual people feel no sexual attraction or no desire for sexual interaction, but can still feel romantic attraction and want to enter into romantic (love) relationships. Likewise, aromatics are not necessarily asexual.

literature

Marshall Cavendish Corporation (Ed.): Asexuality in Sex and Society , Volume 2. Marshall Cavendish, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7614-7905-5, (accessed February 2, 2013).
Anthony F. Bogaert: Understanding Asexuality . Rowman & Littlefield, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4422-0099-9, (accessed April 12, 2015).

Individual evidence

↑ Janet Shibley Hyde, John D. DeLamater, E. Sandra Byers: Understanding Human Sexuality . McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2009, ISBN 978-0-07-803539-5 , pp. 431 .
^ Anthony F. Bogaert: Understanding Asexuality . Roman & Littlefield, Lanham et al. a. 2012, ISBN 978-1-4422-0099-9 , pp. 14 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
^ Julie Sondra Decker: The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality . Skyhorse, New York 2015, ISBN 978-1-63450-243-6 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).
↑ ^a ^b Christina Richards, Meg Barker: Sexuality and Gender for Mental Health Professionals: A Practical Guide . SAGE, 2013, ISBN 1-4462-9313-0 , pp. 124–127 (accessed July 3, 2014).
^ Sex and Society . P. 82
↑ ^a ^b Bogaert (2012); P. 14
^ King (2010); P. 450
^ Asexuality, Attraction, and Romantic Orientation . University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
↑ Karli June Cerankowski, Megan Milks: Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives . Routledge, 2014, ISBN 1-134-69253-6 , pp. 89-93 (accessed July 3, 2014).

[1] Janet Shibley Hyde, John D. DeLamater, E. Sandra Byers: Understanding Human Sexuality . McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2009, ISBN 978-0-07-803539-5 , pp. 431 .

[2] Anthony F. Bogaert: Understanding Asexuality . Roman & Littlefield, Lanham et al. a. 2012, ISBN 978-1-4422-0099-9 , pp. 14 ( limited preview in Google Book search).

[3] Julie Sondra Decker: The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality . Skyhorse, New York 2015, ISBN 978-1-63450-243-6 ( limited preview in Google Book Search).

[Richards_and_Barker-4] Christina Richards, Meg Barker: Sexuality and Gender for Mental Health Professionals: A Practical Guide . SAGE, 2013, ISBN 1-4462-9313-0 , pp. 124–127 (accessed July 3, 2014).

[5] Sex and Society . P. 82

[Bogaert-6] Bogaert (2012); P. 14

[7] King (2010); P. 450

[8] Asexuality, Attraction, and Romantic Orientation . University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Retrieved April 9, 2015.

[9] Karli June Cerankowski, Megan Milks: Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives . Routledge, 2014, ISBN 1-134-69253-6 , pp. 89-93 (accessed July 3, 2014).