Some people fall in love and get married. Not me, I don't want that. The whole romance thing is overrated anyways. I'd much rather eat pizza, watch movies and spend time with family and friends. Some people might think that is weird, but it's not. I...
So, I said in the previous chapter that I had an aromantic ring. So for this chapter, I'll go back to the bit more factual and focus on symbols and symbolism within the aromantic community.
The biggest symbol is probably the aromantic flag which is what is used as the cover of the book. Five stripes green, light green, white, grey and black from top to bottom. Although, this isn't the first flag that has been used to represent the community.
This was the first flag
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It's quite different to the one that is used now, but a lot of the symbolism has remained. The green stripe is used since green is the opposite colour of red, a colour associated with love. The yellow symbolises platonic love, because yellow roses symbolises friendship. Orange is the colour between red and yellow, and symbolises grey-romantics. Black, in this flag, symbolised alloromantics that reject the traditional ideas of romance.
The first flag was eventually changed since it resembled the Rastafarian flag as well as having a stripe for alloromantics. So they came with the second design.
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The green and light green are used for the same reason as the first flag and uses to colours to represent the aromantic spectrum. The yellow line has the same meaning as the first flag, symbolising platonic love. The grey and black lines symbolise the spectrum of sexual orientations within the community.
Eventually the yellow line was changed to white while keeping the same symbolism. And that is how the flag now looks.
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Since the aromantic community in large part came as a result of the asexual community it shares or mirrors a lot of asexual symbolism.
Ace of spades is a symbol used by both communities, especially aroaces. Arrows are also used among aromantics, since aromantic can be shortened to aro which is pronounced the same way as arrow. You have pizza which aromantics uses as something better that romance, mirroring the asexuals using cake as something better than sex. And let's be honest, a good homemade pizza is better than any girl/boyfriend. It doesn't judge you, it doesn't want anything, you don't need to appease it and pizza tastes great. Now, back to symbolism, you have the use of the colours of the aromantic flag in different ways. Clothing, necklaces, rings, pictures or bracelets, like this one I have.
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And lastly, I promised to talk about aromantic rings. They essentially mirror the asexual ring, which is a black ring worn on the right middle finger. So aromantics use a white ring on the left middle finger. Although, some use green or silver rings instead. The one I have I got from my grandparents for my 18th birthday and is made of white gold. I know, expensive stuff, I made the mistake of saying I liked it in front of my grandparents. There was no convincing them that it was too expensive. Anyways, here it is.
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The other ring is unrelated and doesn't symbolise anything. Just a gift I got for my confirmation.
Anyways that's pretty much it for symbolism. I hope you learned something new.
