Imagesexual

Not to be confused with imaginesexual.

Imagesexual is a sexual orientation on the asexual spectrum defined as the sexual attraction to all genders, while not wishing to engage in the action outside of one's own thoughts and fantasies. Imagesexual can be paired with any gender-specific sexual orientation.

The romantic counterpart is imageromantic.

History
Imagesexual was first coined on May 3rd, 2019 by tumblr user pop-pop-rockz as 'imaginesexual'. The user describes his experience as a collection of his sexual thoughts about his partners, or even people he has made up, that make acts such as masturbation easy and enjoyable, while he is afraid of engaging in sexual intercourse in real life. He states early on that he could never find a label that fit his experience, so he made one for himself. His definition of imagesexual was defined as the joy of imagining sexual thoughts and desires, but refusal to act upon them due to lack of interest or fear.

The original post was remade on May 29th, 2021 by pop-pop-rockz. While the definition of the sexuality was changed, the flag remained the same as the original post. The remade post describes imagesexual as the feeling and adoration of daydreaming about sexual encounters with a real or fictional person, but preferring the thought of the act over the act itself. The user states in his post that he identifies with imagesexual while also being attracted to men exclusively, describing himself as 'homoimaginesexual'. He describes his experience as imagining many real life sexual scenarios with men that he has made up, but he would never show a true interest in carrying out the act, even if he found his type.

The user pop-pop-rockz made a post to clarify the difference between imagesexual and other similar terms, stating that he included imageromantic and imagesexual as alternative names for the terms to prevent confusion.

Flag
The flag was created in 2019 by the user pop-pop-rockz, and consists of 5 stripes with a cloud decal in the center. The original post describes the flag's stripes as; pink for lust, orange[sic] for happy feelings, white for clouds and one's imagination, purple[sic] for fear of a confession, blue for the sky, and the white cloud decal for a thought bubble. In the revamped post, the flag's stripes are described as; pink for vanilla and sweet, yellow for sunshine and happiness, white for clouds and daydreams, magenta for sexual desire but shyness to carry out sexual acts, and blue for the sky as well as calmness. The revamp provides no description for the cloud decal. The original post describes blue representing the sky, as well as the cloud decal, being a reference to the phrase 'your head is in the clouds.'