Was doing research for an Aromantic Awareness Month post, and I compiled some info on Aromantic History. Thought I should post it here too
13th century - Beguinage: to house religious women who lived in community without taking vows or retiring from the world Qing dynasty (17th century) - The Golden Orchid Society: included women who married other women and women who did not wish to marry, have romantic, or sexual partnership Late 19th century - early 20th century - Boston marriages: the cohabitation of two women who were independent of financial support from a man. Some of these relationships were romantic in nature; others were not 1979 - Dorothy Tennov spoke of “non-limerant” people in her book Love and Limerence: The Experience of Being in Love, and recognized that romantic and sexual love were not necessarily linked 2002 - Possibly the first use of the word “aromantic” on Haven for the Human Amoeba 2005 - Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz discussed that historically marriage wasn’t originally about a relationship between a man and a woman, but about making ideal relationships such as having desirable in-laws, strong alliances, and increasing that family labor force. 2006 - the word "aromantic" used on the AVEN forums 2010 - The term "queerplatonic" was coined by S. E. Smith and Kaz 2011 - National Coalition for Aromantic Visibility founded 2011 - First flag proposal 2012 - Professor Elizabeth Brake defined amatonormativity as "the widespread assumption that everyone is better off in an exclusive, romantic, long-term coupled relationship, and that everyone is seeking such a relationship" in her book Minimizing Marriage 2014 - Aromantic Awareness Week suggested (later becomes Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Week) 2014 - Second and third (current) flag proposal 2016 - Arocalypse created 2017 - Aromantics Wiki created 2018 - “Aromantic” added to the Oxford English Dictionary 2019 - Aromantic-Spectrum Union for Recognition, Education, and Advocacy created 2021 - Aromantic Awareness Month first observed 2023 - Aromantic Awareness Day and Aromantic Spectrum Awareness Day first observed
Collected the info from: Wikipedia, AUREA, sennkestra on Arocalypse
