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Androsexual is a word for attraction to masculinity, masculine expression or men, depending on how the person using it defines their orientation, which is exactly why the term is useful and occasionally confusing as hell.
Unlike labels that define attraction primarily through your own gender, androsexual puts the focus on what you are attracted to. A woman can be androsexual. A man can be androsexual. A non-binary person can be androsexual. The object of attraction is doing the grammatical heavy lifting.
That can be particularly useful for non-binary people, people whose own gender shifts, or anyone who wants to describe attraction to masculinity without forcing themselves into a label built around a binary relationship between two genders.
Androsexual generally describes sexual or romantic attraction to men, masculinity or masculine-presenting people.
There is variation in how individuals use the term. Some mean attraction specifically to men. Others mean attraction to masculine qualities regardless of the person's gender.
That distinction matters. A masculine woman, masculine non-binary person and masculine man do not share a gender simply because somebody finds all three attractive.
The prefix andro- comes from Greek language associated with man or male. You will recognise the same root in words such as androgen.
Modern sexuality terminology uses androsexual to move the description toward the gender or presentation somebody finds attractive rather than defining orientation through the speaker's own gender.
Anyone can use the label if it accurately describes their attraction.
A non-binary person attracted to men may find androsexual more comfortable than straight or gay. A genderfluid person may prefer a label that does not need recalculating as their own gender changes. Somebody may simply find “attracted to masculinity” more precise.
Sexuality labels are tools. You are allowed to choose the tool that actually fits the job.
Not necessarily.
A gay man can be attracted to men and masculinity, but “gay” also describes the relationship between his own gender and the gender of the people he is attracted to. Androsexual does not require the person using it to be a man.
A non-binary androsexual person therefore does not become a gay man by vocabulary osmosis.
Again, no.
A woman exclusively attracted to men might accurately describe herself as straight and could also find androsexual technically descriptive. Most heterosexual women will simply use straight because it is familiar and already communicates what they need.
The value of androsexual becomes clearer when conventional binary labels do not fit neatly.
For some people, yes, when the attraction is to masculinity rather than exclusively to men.
An androsexual person who defines their orientation around masculine expression might be attracted to butch women, masculine non-binary people and men. Another androsexual person may use the word specifically for attraction to men.
This is why asking somebody what their label means to them is more useful than arriving with a laminated definition card.
Not automatically.
Masculinity can involve presentation, energy, social role, clothing, behaviour or other qualities. It is not reducible to muscles, body hair, a penis or any particular anatomy.
A trans man is a man regardless of whether he meets somebody else's checklist of masculine physical traits. A butch woman can be highly masculine without becoming a man.
This is one reason the term exists in queer vocabulary.
Traditional labels such as heterosexual and homosexual were built around assumptions about the speaker's gender. When your gender is outside the binary, describing attraction as “toward masculinity” can avoid making your own gender the reference point.
It is not the only solution. Non-binary people also use gay, lesbian, bi, queer, straight and plenty of other labels.
Minsexual is another microlabel associated with attraction to people who are masculine in nature, or MIN, regardless of gender.
For people who use androsexual specifically to mean attraction to men, minsexual can more clearly communicate attraction to masculinity across genders. For people who already use androsexual that way, the concepts overlap considerably.
Queer terminology contains synonyms, contested definitions and words invented to solve very specific linguistic problems. This is normal.
Toric is commonly used by non-binary people to describe attraction to men, either exclusively or alongside attraction to other genders depending on usage.
The difference is perspective. Toric specifically centres a non-binary person's attraction. Androsexual can be used by people of any gender.
Bisexual generally describes attraction to more than one gender, or attraction to one's own and other genders, depending on the individual's preferred definition.
An androsexual person attracted to masculine people of several genders might also identify as bisexual. Another androsexual person attracted only to men might not.
Labels can overlap. They are not mutually exclusive Pokémon types.
Pansexual commonly describes attraction where gender is not a limiting factor or is not central to attraction.
Androsexuality, by contrast, explicitly identifies masculinity or men as relevant to the attraction. Someone can use both labels if that combination makes sense to them, but they communicate different emphasis.
This is where things become less tidy than a corporate Pride infographic would like.
Multiple androsexual flag designs circulate online, and there is no central LGBTQ+ authority that officially approves one. A commonly seen design uses blue, brown and purple tones, while other variants also exist.
Our Androsexual Pride Flag reflects one recognised community design. That does not make the flag's history more settled than it is.
Colour explanations online vary alongside the flag variants themselves.
That means we should be cautious about presenting one viral infographic's interpretation as historical fact. Pride flags often emerge through decentralised online communities, and attribution or symbolism can become muddled as designs spread.
If you see a precise colour meaning attached to an androsexual flag, check whether the source identifies the design and creator rather than copying another unsourced chart.
Because queer communities do not have a Department of Flag Approval.
People create designs, communities adopt some of them, alternatives appear, older designs fall out of use and social media strips away attribution at industrial speed.
This happens with lesbian, gay men's, genderqueer and numerous microlabel flags too. A flag can be meaningful without having one universally agreed canonical version.
No. You also do not need to know the hexadecimal colour values, own a pin or pass a terminology quiz.
A Pride flag is a community symbol, not a membership credential.
It is considerably less familiar than gay, lesbian, bisexual, pansexual or asexual.
That does not make it fake or newly invented in a dismissive sense. All orientation terminology was invented because people needed words for experiences. Some words become widespread; others remain useful to smaller groups.
The androsexual flag remains something people actively look for, so somebody is certainly asking.
It can sit within LGBTQ+ and queer umbrella communities, particularly when somebody uses it because conventional heterosexual or homosexual labels do not describe their experience.
But context matters. A cisgender heterosexual woman could technically describe attraction to men using androsexual without necessarily considering herself LGBTQ+.
The word describes attraction. It does not automatically issue a community membership card.
No.
A person's current partner does not reveal the full structure of their attraction. This is true for bisexuality, pansexuality and basically every orientation that people keep trying to reverse-engineer from couples photographs.
If somebody wants you to know their orientation, they can tell you.
Then use something else.
People learn more about themselves. Attraction changes or becomes clearer. Language changes. A label that gave somebody enormous relief at 19 may feel unnecessary at 29.
That does not mean they were lying before. Identity language is allowed to have a version history.
At its broadest, it tells us somebody's attraction is oriented toward men, masculinity or masculine presentation.
To know exactly which of those they mean, you may need to listen to the actual person rather than interrogating the flag.
That is less satisfying than a perfect one-line definition. It is also considerably more queer.
Explore our LGBTQ+ Pride Flags or read what the major Pride flags mean.
Explore the full Queer Guides hub.
