Tutelary Attraction

Tutelary Attraction, also known as Protective Attraction or Dominant Attraction, is a form of tertiary attraction that revolves around a strong desire to take care, protect, and support a certain individual. It is the counterpart and opposite of cedural attraction. With tutelary attraction when one sees someone in a sad or defenseless situation one feels not just sympathy but also a sense of attraction that gets them involved with that individual and their needs. It is also based on a feeling of feeling needed or necessary. This is the attraction one might feel towards a child, younger sibling, a pet, or a vulnerable individual one is favorably disposed toward.

A relationship between a protective(s) and a protected individual(s) can be labeled as guardianship, wardship, or tutelage. An individual in that relationship who takes on the protective role could be called a comate, cherish, ward, or grace. A tutelary crush could be possibly be called a mush.

This relationship is not to be confused with dependent personality disorder (DPD), protectors in systems, or with BDSM and kink related power play sometimes seen in sexual/romantic relationships.

The system version is templatonic.

History
The concept of tutelary attraction was introduced on December 23, 2014 on the Spanish language version of AVEN by the user Arya. It was known as atracción de protección and was explicitly distinguished it from the kink related power play (known as atracción de rol), encompassed by atracción potencial (potential attraction). The post was translated by Tumblr user Neutrois-Maverique on March 16, 2018. Atracción de protección was translated as "protective attraction". The term dominant attraction was brought by DeviantArt user SilenceTheFox on April 11, 2018. The term tutelary was coined by beyond-mogai-pride-flags on August 16, 2018.

The alternate flag was designed by Tumblr user gennerflooid on October 12, 2022.