Sexual & Romantic Attraction

By Hollie

There's a lot of terms being thrown around these days linked with sexuality, and at first it may be very puzzling to anyone – whether you're somebody investigating what they may identify as, or a straight ally trying to educate themselves. A common question I've come across from most people is the difference between sexual attraction and romantic attraction.

It's a very simple definition with a more complex explanation. To experience sexual attraction is to feel an attraction to a person/s with sexual feelings and perhaps a desire to have sexual relationships with them. This creates the difference with romantic attraction. Romantic attraction is experiencing romantic feelings towards a person/s and perhaps a desire to have a romantic relationship with them. It is possible to experience both of these attractions, or only one of them. When it comes to displaying this, romantic acts usually involve kissing and cuddling (romantic, almost “cute” or “tame” acts) whilst sexual involves – you guessed it, sex!

The way this ties into people's sexuality is the way they do (or do not) experience the two attractions. For example, a male could be a biromantic homosexual: they experience romantic attraction to two genders (it could be male and female, or perhaps a different gender! Remember “bi” involves two genders, not just limited to males and females!) but only experiences sexual attraction to his gender only. Another example is that a woman may be homoromantic homosexual – experiencing sexual and romantic attraction to her gender only. Others may even not experience romantic or sexual attraction at all! This is known as aromatic and asexual.