Confused (confuzzled) as to romantic orientation

[demacrux]

I suppose this is maybe a question or not or I don't know but I felt like putting this out somewhere but I'm really don't know whether I'm romantic or not..I've seen this word demiromantic but I really am not sure whether I'm actually interested in a relationship..When I was younger I would get painful crushes on people but I've noted that as I grew older, the crushes would only occur on fictional characters and while I still find some people in meatspace attractive I really am not exactly itching for romantic relationship (though a romantic friendship would be grand in my opinion) I just thought I'd get this out because I really don't know how to feel about this.

[siggy]

Hi,
I think that even the long-time members of the asexual community agree that romantic orientation is confusing. There's a significant minority of people who don't identify in the romantic/aromantic binary, though there are no universally accepted labels or descriptions of this. It's a topic that gets a lot of discussion in all parts of the asexual community, I think the blogosphere especially.

There are a lot of different ways to be outside the binary. For instance, I don't get crushes, but I've still had functional romantic relationships... not really sure how. Other people do get crushes, but they aren't strong enough to motivate them to seek out romantic relationships (especially with the ace dating scene being as bad as it is). Still others get crushes, or even form close relationships, but they aren't clearly romantic in nature.

I'm only giving a few examples, but I hope that gives you an idea for the range of different experiences going on here.

[you*hear*but*do*you*listen]

I fit disturbingly well into the romantic side of the hypothetical romantic/aromantic binary (or, in a better way to describe it, I'm waaaaaaaaaaaay on the end of the romantic side of the a/romantic spectrum), so I'm afraid I won't be much help.

[demacrux]

totally understandable

[you*hear*but*do*you*listen]

You might look at some of the links Sciatrix posted in the "Musirants on sexual/romantic orientation labels" thread. They're full of people who are also confused (confuzzled) as to romantic orientation.

[ocelotofdoom]

I have the same thing of only having feelings that may be described as "romantic" for fictional characters so far. Also, I've really only come across the relationship dynamic I'd like to see in a fictional context, which may have something to do with it. I'm still trying to figure it out myself. Message me if you'd like to talk.