Newsletter

Redefining Connection: Centering Aromantic Voices

By Ava Garcia

February 25, 2026

On February 18th, GSU and CIF collaborated for Aromantic Awareness Week to explore Relationship Anarchy 101, an interactive discussion unpacking the norms that shape how we think about love, commitment, and intimacy. Co-President of GSU Kamya Malhotra’28 opened up the event with a thought experiment: when you hear terms like polyamory, friends with benefits, casual sex, queerplatonic relationships, or committed platonic partnerships, what is your immediate reaction? Do any of these provoke discomfort or skepticism? Students reflected on how our responses often reveal internalized assumptions about what relationships are “supposed” to look like.

The conversation then centered on aromantic identity, defined as experiencing little to no romantic attraction. GSU educated attendees on how aromanticism exists on a spectrum, and it is distinct from asexuality; someone can experience sexual attraction without romantic attraction, even though that reality remains highly stigmatized. Many of these stigmas are rooted in amatonormativity, a term coined by philosopher Elizabeth Brake, which describes the assumption that everyone seeks a central, exclusive, romantic partnership as a universal life goal. 

Students also examined how amatonormativity operates beyond culture and into legal and economic systems. Marriage functions as an institution, offering tax benefits, immigration pathways, and social legitimacy, reinforcing the idea that coupling is tied to stability and productivity. Participants noted the anxiety around a so-called “relationship recession,” while also acknowledging shifting economic realities that make traditional family structures less accessible. As Kamya Malhotra ’28 reminded us, “It’s not something that is natural, it is something that is socially constructed.” 

The event closed by turning to relationship anarchy, a concept introduced by Andie Nordgren in The Short Instructional Manifesto for Relationship Anarchy. Nordgren explains that relationship anarchy is not about avoiding commitment, but about intentionally designing commitments free from hierarchical norms that privilege romance above all else. Students reflected on how we are taught that friendships can never be as fulfilling as romantic partnerships, and how that belief quietly devalues platonic love. Aromantic Awareness Week ultimately invited attendees to imagine relationships beyond a single script and to consider how we might build a campus culture that honors the full complexity of how we care for one another.

Later in the week, that reflection moved from theory to art. At “Aro Art: Aromanticism & Zine-Build,” GSU and FCC hosted a collaborative, low-pressure creative space. The gathering began with a shared reading and discussion of an essay on aromantic identity, followed by a group discussion of the album’s themes and cultural impact. The conversation expanded beyond music. One attendee observed, “We have very hard and strict boundaries of who can exist,” pointing to the ways exclusion operates even within queer communities. Students discussed the disappointment of witnessing arophobic and queerphobic rhetoric echoed by queer people themselves, and the importance of solidarity that does not replicate the hierarchies it seeks to dismantle.

Relationship Anarchy 101 offered the language and critical framework to question dominant narratives, while Aro Art transformed those questions into tangible, creative practice. By pairing theory with art, Aromantic Awareness Week not only critiqued the scripts we inherit, it empowered students to begin rewriting them.