Glossary of Terms

Below is a list of some terms you will see throughout the posts on this blog. This is by no means an exhaustive list and will likely grow as I cover more topics. If anything is still unclear or I'm missing something from one of these definitions, feel free to leave a comment on this page or any of my posts.

Asexuality - A sexual orientation meaning one does not experience sexual attraction. It is different from celibacy, in that celibacy is a choice and asexuality is an orientation. People with this orientation will often describe themselves as asexual or "ace" for short. The opposite of "asexual" is "allosexual," a person who does experience sexual attraction.

Asexual Spectrum - The varying levels of sexual attraction or lack thereof that different asexual people experience, leading to various identities or descriptions. People on the asexual spectrum will often use the term "acespec" as an umbrella term to cover multiple identities.

Aspec - A term that can either be short for "asexual spectrum," or a term that can encompass both the asexual AND aromantic spectrums (see below). NOTE - On this blog, I will often use "aspec" to mean "asexual spectrum and/or aromantic spectrum".

Demisexuality - A sexual orientation meaning one experiences sexual attraction only after forming a deep emotional or romantic bond. People with this orientation will often describe themselves as demisexual or "demi" for short. A similar or related identity is grey asexuality, which can mean experiencing sexual attraction very rarely or in a small amount. Both demisexual and grey asexual people will sometimes use the term "grace" for short.

Romantic Orientation - Romantic orientations can be experienced separately from sexual attraction, just as sexual attraction can be experienced separately from romantic attraction. Some romantic orientations include, but are not limited to: 

• Heteroromantic - Romantically attracted to the opposite gender
• Homoromantic - Romantically attracted to the same gender
• Biromantic - Romantically attracted to either gender
• Panromantic - Romantically attracted to any gender
• Demiromantic - Developing romantic feelings only after forming a deep emotional bond. 
• Aromantic - Does not experience romantic attraction. Aromantic people will often describe themselves as "aro" for short. Aromanticism also has a spectrum, known as the "aromantic spectrum" or "arospec" for short.

Aphobia - A dislike of aspec people (asexual, aromantic, and otherwise) and/or discrimination against them because of their identity. Aphobia can also manifest as people believing asexuality, aromanticism, and related identities do not exist. (Sometimes individually referred to as "acephobia" and "arophobia")

Amatonormativity - A term coined by Arizona State University professor of philosophy Elizabeth Brake, which describes the societal pressure to make romance a priority in your life.

Erasure - Ignoring, invalidating, or glossing over the experiences/feelings of aspec people, characters, or historical figures by trying to explain them as something else. Can also dovetail with aphobia (see above) and be used to claim these identities don't exist/are invalid, or claim that they do not experience discrimination.

Non-sexual, Non-romantic, and "aspec vibes" - Most of the time I'm analyzing characters that are not explicitly described using any of the terms I've defined here. As such, I sometimes describe them as "non-sexual" and/or "non-romantic" or say that they have "aspec vibes." Please keep in mind that being asexual or aromantic does NOT automatically mean a person is "non-sexual" or "non-romantic," and these things should not be so easily conflated in real life situations. I use these descriptions on the blog only because I often have no other way of describing a character or their circumstances.

Fandom specific terms:

Canon - A term referring to the things that happen in a piece of media, as opposed to "headcanon," the things fans imagine about a piece of media. A more detailed breakdown of the terms can be found in this post.

Shipping - The act of rooting for characters to get together, usually romantically and/or sexually, in a piece of media. The pairing itself is called a ship and often given a portmanteau name. Fans tend to refer to their favorite ships as OTP's, or "one true pairing" (compare this to a BrOTP, a friendship or other strong platonic relationship a fan supports or favors).

Word of God - A term meaning that the creator of a piece of media has confirmed a fact about a character or situation that does not explicitly appear in the media itself.