Quoiromantic Pride Flag (2015, Cor / epochryphal)

Overview

To give the quoi cluster (quoiromantic, quoisexual, quoigender) a shared visual symbol for the shared position of stepping outside the relevant attraction or category framework rather than locating oneself within it. ^[1][2]

Cor proposed quoiromantic in December 2012 as a more pronounceable alternative to Sciatrix's 2011 coinage of wtfromantic. The original term was a half-joking, frustrated comment about the difficulty of fitting personal experience into the framework of romantic orientation. Cor's renaming kept the meaning but replaced the profanity with a French interrogative, making the term usable in everyday speech without losing its original anti-categorical force.

Three years later, on September 21, 2015, Cor designed a single flag intended to cover quoiromantic, quoisexual, and quoigender simultaneously. ^[1][2][3]

Identity & Context

Represented Identity

quoiromantic

Subcommunity

aromantic spectrum

Language Context

The term quoiromantic uses the French quoi ('what'). Cor's French-Canadian heritage is the documented reason for the choice. ^[2]

Creators

The Creators

Attribution notes

Cor is a trans ace writer and community member of French-Canadian heritage who posts on Tumblr under the handle epochryphal. Cor is the documented coiner of the term quoiromantic (December 2012) and the documented designer of the original 2015 quoiromantic flag. ^[1][2] The relationship between Cor and the wtfromantic term is one of inheritance rather than collaboration: Cor proposed quoiromantic in 2012 as a more pronounceable French-rooted alternative to the term wtfromantic, which had been coined a year earlier in a frustrated half-joke by WordPress blogger Sciatrix in a post titled 'Writhing in the Throes of Unrequited Like' (June 2011). ^[3] Cor has since spoken out against simplified redefinitions of the term, on the basis that flattening it into 'questioning' or 'uncertain about romance' undermines its specific meaning of active disidentification with the romantic orientation framework. ^[2]

Origin

Digital Origin

true

No verified physical origin location. Without a confirmed location, Indigenous land context cannot be attributed.

Originated on Tumblr. Cor is French-Canadian by heritage but no specific physical origin location is documented. ^[2]

Dates & Chronology

Year Created

2015

Exact date

September 21, 2015

First public use

September 21, 2015

Period in Use

2015–present

The 2015 design has been reproduced in aromantic and a-spec community spaces and in pride flag wikis. Several later simplified variants have been proposed, including a triangular three-question-mark version intended to be easier to physically reproduce. None have displaced the 2015 four-question-mark house-shape original as the primary version cited in secondary sources. ^[1][2]

The wtfromantic coinage is one of the rare cases in pride-flag and identity-label history of a frustrated half-joke becoming a stable identity term. Sciatrix's documented surprise at the term's uptake is preserved in secondary sources. The non-rectangular shape of Cor's 2015 flag is one of very few pride flags in the broader archive that breaks from the stripe-based convention; it sits alongside the intersex pride flag (2013) as a design that uses shape itself as part of the symbolism.

Lineage

Direct predecessors

Aromantic Pride Flag

Indirect influences

Intersex Pride Flag

Related flags

A-Spec Pride Flag, Aroace Pride Flag, Aroflux Accessible Flag (2020), Aroflux Pride Flag, Aromantic Pride Flag (Yellow Center, 2014), Frayromantic Pride Flag, Gender Questioning Pride Flag, Gender Questioning Pride Flag (Swocks, 2020), Lithromantic / Akoiromantic Pride Flag (2014), Unlabeled Pride Flag

Sibling flags

Aroflux Pride Flag, Demiromantic Pride Flag, Frayromantic Pride Flag, Lithromantic / Akoiromantic Pride Flag (2014), Reciproromantic Pride Flag (creator unknown)

The flag's closest comparative neighbors are not other aromantic-spectrum flags but flags whose form steps outside the stripe convention, particularly the intersex pride flag (2013) and the rabies-pride flag. ^[1]

Lineage tree

Every record reachable from this one through documented parent and child relationships: 3 records across 3 generations.

Ancestors -2

Aromantic Pride Flag (Yellow Center, 2014)

Ancestor

Aromantic Pride Flag

This record

Quoiromantic Pride Flag (2015, Cor / epochryphal)

Colors & Symbolism

The flag visually marks the experience of actively disidentifying with the romantic orientation framework. Cor describes the identity not as 'questioning' or 'uncertain about romance' but as feeling that romantic-orientation categories are 'inaccessible, inapplicable, non-sensical' for the person using the term. ^[2] The non-rectangular shape and the question-mark symbol step outside the striped-flag convention used by most identity flags, matching an identity defined by stepping outside the standard attraction-category framework. ^[1]

This flag has no official digital palette, and no documented color values have been located.

Four lavender question marks rotated in a ring around a single shared center dot

The question marks reference the questioning and disidentifying basis of the quoi cluster. The single shared center dot binds the four marks together as a single device. The choice of four marks (rather than three or five) is deliberate but not formally explained in the located sources. ^[1][2]

House-shape silhouette (rectangle with peaked top)

Replaces the standard rectangular flag form. Cor proposed the non-rectangular shape deliberately, in line with the quoi cluster's broader resistance to fitting standard categories. ^[1]

Cool grey background

Cor specified the background as a cool grey deliberately chosen to be ambiguous, hard to definitively call either purple or grey. The ambiguity is part of the design's argument. ^[1]

Cor's documented design intent is preserved in secondary sources but the original 2015 epochryphal post has not been verbatim-recovered. A 2019 follow-up post by epochryphal at /post/187077916372 is the best secondary anchor for the design intent. Direct verbatim quotes ('web lavender, distinct from irl lavender'; the cool grey description) circulate in secondary sources but remain unconfirmed against the original post.

The flag's two colors (cool grey field, lavender glyphs) are documented in secondary sources by description rather than by hex specification. Cor's deliberate ambiguity about whether the field reads as purple or grey is part of the design and should not be resolved by picking a single hex without primary verification. Reproductions vary.

Design

Aspect Ratio

3:5 · standard

Orientation

non-rectangular

Stripe Count

0

Layout

non-stripe emblem

Center Symbol

Four lavender question marks rotated in a ring around a single shared center dot

The flag is a house-shape silhouette (a rectangle with a peaked top) rather than a standard rectangle. Inside the silhouette, four lavender question marks are arranged in a ring so that all four marks share a single center dot. The background of the silhouette is cool grey, deliberately chosen by Cor to resist being read as definitively either purple or grey. The lavender of the question marks is described in secondary sources as 'web lavender, distinct from irl lavender,' though the verbatim phrasing has not been independently verified against the original 2015 post. ^[1][2]

Non-rectangular. The house shape is integral. Any reproduction must preserve the non-rectangular silhouette, the four-question-mark ring sharing a single center dot, the cool grey field, and the lavender glyph color. A simple striped rectangle cannot stand in for this design without losing the features that distinguish it from other pride flags.

A non-rectangular pride flag for the quoi cluster (quoiromantic, quoisexual, quoigender). The silhouette is a house shape (a rectangle with a peaked top) on a transparent or white background. The field is filled in cool grey. Four lavender question marks are placed inside the house, rotated in a ring so that all four marks share a single dot at the center of the flag. Designed by Cor (Tumblr: epochryphal) and posted on September 21, 2015, as a single shared symbol for all three quoi-prefixed identities at once. ^[1][2]

Usage & Adoption

Online Usage

Reproduced in aromantic-spectrum and a-spec pride flag guides, the LGBTQIA+ Wiki, the Aromantics Wiki, and the MOGAI Wiki. ^[1][2]

Current Status

active

Used in aromantic-spectrum and a-spec community spaces but rarely reproduced in mainstream pride flag databases, in part because its non-rectangular form does not fit the standard layouts those databases use. ^[1]

Discourse & Debates

• Whether the term should be read as 'questioning' or 'uncertain about romance' versus Cor's narrower definition of active disidentification with the romantic-orientation framework. Cor has spoken out against the broader simplified readings on the basis that they undermine the term's specific point. ^[2]
• Whether later simplified variants of the flag (triangular three-question-mark versions) should be treated as the same flag or as distinct artifacts. The 2015 four-question-mark house-shape original remains the dominant version in secondary sources. ^[1]
• Whether a single shared flag for quoiromantic, quoisexual, and quoigender adequately serves all three identities, or whether each warrants a separate symbol. Cor's original framing was the shared design; later community designs have sometimes split the three apart. ^[1]

Common confusions

• Quoiromantic is sometimes flattened to mean 'questioning my romantic orientation,' which is not the term's documented meaning. Quoiromantic refers to the experience of feeling that the romantic-orientation framework itself does not apply, rather than to uncertainty within the framework.

Quoiromantic, wtfromantic, and whatromantic refer to the same identity. Cor proposed quoiromantic in December 2012 as a more pronounceable alternative to Sciatrix's 2011 wtfromantic; whatromantic occasionally appears as a softened form. All three remain in use; quoiromantic is now dominant. ^[1][2][3]

Footnotes & Citations

Image Sources

Rendering

Cor / epochryphal (September 21, 2015)