Aesthetic Orientations?

[girltwink666]

I'm sure this exists because the obvious parallel is sexual attraction. My question to you is not whether this exists, but whether you have heard of different aesthetic attractions such as heteroaestheticism, homoaestheticism, panaestheticism, etc. I would think that there terms would be even more relevant than romantic orientations, because how do you define a romantic orientation anyway if romance is mostly based on a personality (rather than gender)?

Have you heard people discuss these? For example, someone who finds only men to be beautiful would be homoaesthetic and someone who thought nobody was aesthetically pleasing would be a-aesthetic (what the heck)

[mayve]

I don't see people using those terms.

For me, I just file it under my romantic attractions.

To me, it's more like a personal preference... like saprioromantic/sexual.

[Mad]

I could say that I'm panaesthetic, since anyone can look aesthetically pleasing to me. :)
But romatically, I'm attracted (to some degree) to girls.
I think those two doesn't have to be connected.

[Sydney142]

I find people beautiful like I find certain art or natural formations (like beautiful mountains and waterfalls) beautiful. I might see someone and it's almost like a material attraction. I am very aesthetically attracted to Allison Harvard from America's Next Top Model and David Pakman. I have a guy friend who I strongly believe is also asexual who is very aesthetically attracted to Joseph Gordon Levitt.

[Xenopsyche]

I describe myself as heteroaesthetic, I don't think it's an agreed term in any community though.

The way I would explain it, for myself anyway, would be the appreciation or attraction toward typical aspects of feminine beauty (what most people would probably describe as sexual characteristics as they're female specific) but without the additional feelings of sexual arousal or the desire for sex with that person. In fact, again this is just a personal preference, the more sexually explicit a woman dresses or appears in an image, the less aesthetically attracted I am. I don't get the same aesthetic attraction to men though, so on some level I guess there must be a sexual element.

[Guest]

I must be an anaesthetic asexual, then. Does this mean my presence alone puts people to sleep? :o

Actually, a more appropriate term would be sapioaesthetic. I find people aesthetically pleasing if I like their personality and intelligence, regardless of their biological sex and gender presentation.

[abacct]

I'm sure this exists because the obvious parallel is sexual attraction. My question to you is not whether this exists, but whether you have heard of different aesthetic attractions such as heteroaestheticism, homoaestheticism, panaestheticism, etc. I would think that there terms would be even more relevant than romantic orientations, because how do you define a romantic orientation anyway if romance is mostly based on a personality (rather than gender)?

Have you heard people discuss these? For example, someone who finds only men to be beautiful would be homoaesthetic and someone who thought nobody was aesthetically pleasing would be a-aesthetic (what the heck)

I use hetero-aesthetic because I only see cisgender males as attractive. I can acknowledge other people of other genders are attractive, but I tend to get stuck on a handful of cisgender men's looks. However, while I might flip out over how pretty they are, if they were right there and asked to be my boyfriend or whatever I would get so uncomfortable because I don't desire to be in a relationship with them. But because I'm only ever aesthetically attracted to men I threw that term in there for fun on my own, as a way to really figure myself out.

Going back to your thing about romantic attraction: it's no different than romantic and sexual orientations. You could be a panromantic, but just because you would be in a romantic relationship with everybody doesn't mean you'd want to have sex with people of all gender, which is why we have panromantic asexuals. In that case, you can find certain genders aesthetically attractive (such as me and cisgender men) but not have any desire to date them.

[girltwink666]

So is romantic attraction the desire to be in a romantic relationship with someone or finding someone "romantically attractive?" furthermore, is sexual attraction the desire to have sex with someone specific or just finding someone "sexy?"

I suppose aesthetic attraction doesn't go as well with those two because there isn't any action associated with it.

[5_♦♣]

I don't get the point of labeling aesthetic attraction. But then, it's nothing more than finding someone pretty/gorgeous/what have you, for me.

[qwair]

I'm with SylveonKitsune, in that I don't experience visual aesthetic attraction.

Plus, if we're already defining aesthetic attraction, why do it on gender expression lines? Why couldn't someone think that musculature, dark skin, or green eyes are aesthetically pleasing regardless of gender? Sexual and romantic attraction I understand, but could someone who experiences this aesthetic attraction thing please explain to me what it has to do with gender?

[Queer As Cat]

i briefly mentioned aesthetic attraction in the vlog i made on YouTube about romantic orientations, but i don't really reference my aesthetic attraction/orientation nearly as much as i do my romantic and sexual.

i agree with qwair, though. i think aesthetic attraction would involve much more than just someone's gender or sex.

[Guest]

I also think it would have less to do with gender than sexual/romantic attraction, but if I had to label myself I think I would be homo-aesthetic. I wouldn't refer to myself as that though, I feel it makes things unnecessarily complicated when explaining your orientation.

[abacct]

I'm with SylveonKitsune, in that I don't experience visual aesthetic attraction.

Plus, if we're already defining aesthetic attraction, why do it on gender expression lines? Why couldn't someone think that musculature, dark skin, or green eyes are aesthetically pleasing regardless of gender? Sexual and romantic attraction I understand, but could someone who experiences this aesthetic attraction thing please explain to me what it has to do with gender?

See, with me, I honestly only find cisgender men aesthetically attractive. I may acknowledge others are physically more appealing, but I'm only aesthetically drawn to cisgender men.

So in that case I don't lump it with my romantic/sexual orientation because I'm still an aro-ace. I just tend to become infatuated with looking at pictures of men I find are really attractive. But in any case, to each their own on whether or not to use a gender specific label.

[girltwink666]

By qwair's logic,why would sexual attraction and romantic attraction be based on gender either? If someone was pansexual and only attracted to gingers for example, isn't it more precise to define them by their hair preference, because their sexual preference is the encompassing term?

Of course I say all this hypothetically, because we all know that nothing is absolute!

[Arcovia]

I don't usually talk or think about aesthetic attraction as an orientation, because I really don't see the point as experiencing it/not experiencing it doesn't really affect any other aspect of life. That said, I did sit down a few months a go just to figure out, if I was to use a label, what label it would be. I'm poly-aesthetic, as I'm attracted to people who appear to be men, women, or anywhere in between, but not those outside of that spectrum, like neutrois and agender individuals. Of course, it doesn't really depend on the person's actual gender or sex, just what they're presenting as.

But, like I said, it doesn't really matter to me. The most affect it might have on my life is if I gush over someone's looks and someone I know mistakenly believes my attraction is romantically or sexually toned.

[Xenopsyche]

I'm with SylveonKitsune, in that I don't experience visual aesthetic attraction.

Plus, if we're already defining aesthetic attraction, why do it on gender expression lines? Why couldn't someone think that musculature, dark skin, or green eyes are aesthetically pleasing regardless of gender? Sexual and romantic attraction I understand, but could someone who experiences this aesthetic attraction thing please explain to me what it has to do with gender?

I can't really explain it, it's just how my brain works. I suppose in a way it must have some kind of sexual basis, some part of my brain is telling me that I'm attracted to a feminine appearance, but whichever part that is it's not linked to the part that would otherwise be telling me to want sex.

For example, I can find both women and (if it's done well) men in drag or male-to-female transexuals equally aesthetically appealing, what they have between their legs doesn't concern me because I'm not interested in that.

Also, it's not a universal attraction, I won't find someone attractive just because she's female, there has to be something about her that catches my eye. So in that way I'd describe it like walking around an art gallery and being drawn to a piece of art you find especially beautiful.

And it's not really specific things like eye or skin colour, two women could have the same type of skin, hair, eyes, even clothing but I might find one attractive and one not - again like a piece of art it's not the individual colours and shapes that matter so much as the way they all come together as a whole.

[Guest]

See, with me, I honestly only find cisgender men aesthetically attractive. I may acknowledge others are physically more appealing, but I'm only aesthetically drawn to cisgender men.

How can you tell if someone is cisgender just by seeing them? They might be a non-cis biological male, or a fully transitioned FtM, or even intersex.

[WhenSummersGone]

So is romantic attraction the desire to be in a romantic relationship with someone or finding someone "romantically attractive?" furthermore, is sexual attraction the desire to have sex with someone specific or just finding someone "sexy?"

I think romantic can be both for me, attraction and desire. There are guys who I find out are jerks so I don't want to date them, but they are still romantically attractive to me. I'm not sure about sexual attraction as I don't have attraction or desire.

I'm with SylveonKitsune, in that I don't experience visual aesthetic attraction.

Plus, if we're already defining aesthetic attraction, why do it on gender expression lines? Why couldn't someone think that musculature, dark skin, or green eyes are aesthetically pleasing regardless of gender? Sexual and romantic attraction I understand, but could someone who experiences this aesthetic attraction thing please explain to me what it has to do with gender?

I believe there could be some Physical/Sensual Attraction involved that is different from Sexual Attraction. I'm just drawn more to the Male body and that isn't sexual at all for me, I just really like the shape and how it looks. I like Male hands and arms for cuddling and such. I'm also sensually attracted to Males where I want to kiss them and touch them. I just could never see myself doing those things with a girl, they just don't attract me in that way. However I think if I met a person who was born a girl but really looked Male, where I could believe it and be attracted to them, then I probably could date them. I'm just attracted to a certain look.

[Alice(AKA)Selene]

I'm sure this exists because the obvious parallel is sexual attraction. My question to you is not whether this exists, but whether you have heard of different aesthetic attractions such as heteroaestheticism, homoaestheticism, panaestheticism, etc. I would think that there terms would be even more relevant than romantic orientations, because how do you define a romantic orientation anyway if romance is mostly based on a personality (rather than gender)?

Have you heard people discuss these? For example, someone who finds only men to be beautiful would be homoaesthetic and someone who thought nobody was aesthetically pleasing would be a-aesthetic (what the heck)

To the original question, no one I know has used (__)aestheticism when describing themselves but the concept makes a lot of sense to me.

For me personally, "biaestheticism aromantic asexual" is just too long for me to say so I use "aromantic bi-asexual" instead :)

[abacct]

See, with me, I honestly only find cisgender men aesthetically attractive. I may acknowledge others are physically more appealing, but I'm only aesthetically drawn to cisgender men.

How can you tell if someone is cisgender just by seeing them? They might be a non-cis biological male, or a fully transitioned FtM, or even intersex.

That's a good point. I guess that's because I've only ever been aesthetically attracted to people who end up being cisgender. Who knows, maybe I'll find a transgender man I'm aesthetically attracted too.

[girltwink666]

I'm sure this exists because the obvious parallel is sexual attraction. My question to you is not whether this exists, but whether you have heard of different aesthetic attractions such as heteroaestheticism, homoaestheticism, panaestheticism, etc. I would think that there terms would be even more relevant than romantic orientations, because how do you define a romantic orientation anyway if romance is mostly based on a personality (rather than gender)?

Have you heard people discuss these? For example, someone who finds only men to be beautiful would be homoaesthetic and someone who thought nobody was aesthetically pleasing would be a-aesthetic (what the heck)

To the original question, no one I know has used (__)aestheticism when describing themselves but the concept makes a lot of sense to me.

For me personally, "biaestheticism aromantic asexual" is just too long for me to say so I use "aromantic bi-asexual" instead :)

you're right, that is ridiculously long. I just wanted to know if these terms exist so that someone could use them selectively given a context.

[qwair]

you're right, that is ridiculously long. I just wanted to know if these terms exist so that someone could use them selectively given a context.

If you think people understand you, you can use whatever terms you like, it doesn't really matter if they've existed before. Especially here on AVEN, with an open text field, you could go wild if you wanted to! :D

[abacct]

you're right, that is ridiculously long. I just wanted to know if these terms exist so that someone could use them selectively given a context.

If you think people understand you, you can use whatever terms you like, it doesn't really matter if they've existed before. Especially here on AVEN, with an open text field, you could go wild if you wanted to! :D

Agreed!

I only use hetero-aesthetic for fun because that seems to apply a lot better to me. :)

[Zash]

I would say I would be hetero-aesthetic, because I see more girls that I would consider pretty than guys... But, that might be just because girls put more effort into it because of society? I have thought some guys are pretty too, so maybe bi? Though, the guys are often the effeminate type. So, might just be hetero. At least "People who look like women, regardless of if they actually are"? I dunno.

And I am just limiting this to my thoughts on humans, because there are a lot of other pretty things out there too.

[Purnkin Spurce]

I guess that would make me panaesthetic.?

[crucis]

Nope I haven't heard of anyone labelling aesthetic attraction like that. I think doing so would be taking the labelling business too far.

There isn't a semantic difference between aesthetic attraction and aesthetic preference. Do we really want to start labelling aesthetic preference? If I think lavendar is aesthetically-pleasing and roses aren't, am I lavendar-aesthetic?

But what if - and this is a big likelihood - I come across a rose I like? The last rose of summer glowing softly red in halcyon twilight? Would I start getting vexed about my flower orientation? Wouldn't my musical orientation be hopelessly messed up then?

The aesthetic orientation thing seems to presume an ability on our parts to predict with near certainty whatever we'll find aesthetically pleasing. I don't think anyone is that predictable. I doubt the human aesthetic experience can be boxed up like that, and would be worried if people start committing to define themselves so extensively.

[Keels]

I personally like the term panaesthetic, as it seems to describe me to a T. In fact, that is arguably my primary sexual orientation!

I spent about 20 years believing I was bisexual, as that seemed to be the only way to make sense of the fact that the people I found attractive weren't distinguished by gender. But now I'm getting more and more skeptical that I was ever feeling sexual attraction; aesthetic attraction (and possibly romantic attraction) is a way closer fit, and does a much better job of explaining how I've felt and acted over the years.

So bisexual doesn't get it. Bi-aesthetic, then? Dunno, that just seems too, well, binary; I seem to find people with all sorts of gender expression beautiful. So "panaesthetic" really works for me.

[Guest]

This thread! You guys! You're defining yourself based on what things you think look good now? What, pray tell, is the purpose of that... what benefit could that label possibly serve?!

And, shouldn't pretty much everyone be panaesthetic? If not, I think ya'lls are using that word wrong.

[Keels]

Skullery Maid,

Um... There are plenty of people on here who are testifying they're only/mainly aesthetically attracted to people of the opposite gender. So, no, I don't think pretty much everyone should be panaesthetic.

At any rate, this site's conceit that a person's sexual, sensual, romantic, and aesthetic attractions don't necessarily match up with each other, and that it can be helpful for some people to analyze and evaluate them separately, is a really powerful and useful concept for me as I try to understand myself. Perhaps it's not useful for you. Very well then, carry on. Just know that it *is* helpful for some of us.

[Satin]

Happy to see I'm not the only one having difficulties with the idea of aesthetic (as well as sensual) orientations. I suppose I should consider myself pan-aesthetic by the standards here but I never saw the point of it if I can "experience aesthetic attraction" to non-humans, too. Like, that vase over there looks awesome, does this make me vase-aesthetic? If I feel really drawn towards it?

Romantic and sexual orientations make sense to me because they're geared towards humans. But aesthetic and sensual? I can expand that to pretty much anything on the planet and beyond.