Quoiromantic is an alternative to a romantic orientation label, originally known as wtfromantic.
The coiner of the quoi- prefix, Cor (epochryphal), defines being quoiromantic as 1) actively disidentifying with romance/romantic attraction/romantic orientation as sensible/applicable categories for you, or 2) feeling that these categories are personally inaccessible, inapplicable, or non-sensical.[1] The premise of the quoi- identity challenges the idea that these concepts are universally applicable and relevant.[2]
Quoiromanticism was first named as such in 2012. Before that, the original term was Wtfromantic, introduced by Sciatrix in 2011.[3]
Quoiromantic experiences may include:
- Being unsure if you experience romantic attraction or not
- Being unable to understand attraction as a concept or feeling
- Finding the concept of attraction to be inaccessible, inapplicable, or nonsensical
- Being unable to pin down a clear understanding of romantic attraction, so being unable to say whether or not you experience it
- Having a difficulty distinguishing romantic attraction from other types of attraction, or being unable to distinguish them at all
- Questioning romanticism for such a long time that the questioning itself becomes the identity, rather than a path toward any other more stable identity
- Struggling with romanticism because it feels to complicated
- Simply not feeling that any other romantic orientation label is applicable
Other terms that are similar to quoiromantic include gray-romantic, idemromantic, platoniromantic, and quasiromantic.
Symbolism
Cor's original flag design, edited to add the intended transparency
In 2015, Cor proposed a flag design for the quoi identity: four lavender question marks rotated in a ring to share a single dot, overlaid on a cool grey background in a house-shape, instead of the traditional rectangular flag.[4] Other flag design proposals have combined blue, green, black, and white or gray.[5] More recently, some simplified designs have been proposed inspired by the nontraditional flag shape idea, using a triangular flag shape instead.[6]
Spiral Q
Other symbols for the quoi identity have been created as well. For example, in 2019 Coyote created a non-flag symbol: a Spiral Q, combining a capital-letter "Q" with a dot (as in a question mark), a turquoise gradient, and a spiral. As traditional symbols of confusion, the question mark and the spiral represent ambiguity, but so does the color turquoise, which can straddle the line between blue and green or be interpreted as either one.[7]