Aromantic flag and symbols explained

Aromantic pride flag explained

The aromantic flag was created by Cameron Whimsy in 2014. Ever since, most aromantic people know this flag to be the aromantic pride flag. The color green was chosen to symbolize the aromanticism as the opposite of red, the color which is the most commonly associated with the romance. 

The different colors explained:
Dark + light green:  aromantic spectrum
White: platonic and aesthetic attractions
Grey + black: sexuality spectrum

Previous aromantic flag

The oldest aromantic flag, which is no longer used, is the one you see here. This flag was created around 2011, on the website of the National Coalition for Aromantic Visibility. The flag received a lot of criticism as it didn’t seem to include the full aromantic spectrum, yet included alloromantic people. This is why a new flag design was suggested.

The different colors explained:
Green: aromantics
Yellow: romantic friendships and dating
Orange: lithromantics
Black: romantics who reject traditional romantic culture

Aromantic arrow symbol

As aromantic people are often referred to as aros, the pun of ‘arrows’ was quickly made. Ever since, people within the aromantic community have been using arrows as a symbol for their orientation.

If you’d like to wear your aromantic orientation with pride, there are many creative designs out there with this symbol. For example, think of arrow earrings, buttons, and pins in the colors of the aromantic flag.

Source: DeviantArt user: Pride-Flags

Griffin symbol

One of the aromantic symbols that can be seen used within the community are griffins. They have been proposed as a mythical creature which is the equivalent for aros.

This too has a shared origin and meaning with asexuals as they have a mythical creature as their symbol as well. In their case it is a dragon.

These mythical creatures and the invisibility of the aro and ace community somewhat relate. In a sense that it sometimes can feel like you are not seen (this mythical being), as society still struggles to accept aromantic or asexual people.

Source drawing: reddit user Dragonstree

Green heart symbol

A completely green heart or a heart with the aromantic flag on it, is also often used a symbol for the community.

You can especially recognize this symbol when people on social media use the green heart emoji as this is used to indicate aromanticism. You will often see the green heart emoji given as a response in the comment section of videos about aromanticism.

Aromantic ring symbol

As with many of the aromantic symbols, you’ll find that they’re often similar to those of the ace symbols. This is because both the aromantic and asexual community are very similar to each other. Both do not experience a certain attraction (aromantic people do not experience romantic attraction, asexuals do not experience sexual attraction).

With that in mind, one of the symbols for aromantic people is a white ring. It is worn on the middle finger on the left hand. Which is the opposite of the black ring, worn on the middle finger of the right hand.

Yellow flowers symbol

The reason why yellow flowers have been chosen as a symbol for aromanticism is because in the world of flowers, the color yellow means friendship.

The yellow color has more meanings, but in general the main meaning would be friendship. Yellow flowers can also symbolize happiness, joy and new beginnings.

So instead of giving an aromantic person a red rose (which is often associated with romance), consider giving them a yellow rose instead.

Ice cream and pizza symbol

While not really a symbol, it is often said that pizza and ice cream are used as a way to say ‘I’d much rather have pizza and ice cream than romance’.

In a similar way, asexuals say they’d prefer cake over sex. The aromantic community adopted pizza and ice cream as their own food symbols.