ARCsexual is a general term for a person who feels Averse, Repulsed, or Conflicted (ARC) towards sex. ARCsexual is similar to apothisexual, however one can identify as ARCsexual without being asexual. Many people who experience sex repulsion are asexual, however there are some allosexual people who are sex repulsed.
ARC is also an umbrella term that encompasses several identities to more specifically describe one's attitude towards sex. The suffix -carnal is used in these terms to describe ARC feelings. Terms using terminology include:
- ARCflux: One's ARC feelings fluctuate.
- Acarnal: Sex indifferent.
- Anticarnal: Sex repulsed. Feels a strong visceral reaction of disgust, negativity, etc at the concept of sex.
- Procarnal: Sex favorable.
- Discarnal: Sex averse. Opposed to the idea of engaging in sex themselves, but are fine with sexual activity that does not involve them.
- Eriscarnal: Sex conflicted or sex ambivalent. Likely, coming from a disconnect between one's conscious desires and one's subconscious reactions. One may feel sex repulsion but still desires a sexual relationship. Or one may feel sexual attraction but be repulsed at one's own sexual thoughts.
History
The ARCsexual idea was originally created by a wordpress blogger, Kisten Sadi. They created a post about ARCsexual on December 14, 2014, which is the first record of the term. Kisten created a Tumblr blog to specifically discuss ARCsexual, ARC Resources, where they provided information about the term and its subcategories, as well as giving advice about asexual identity and ARCsexuality.
Flag
There have been multiple ideas for ARCsexual flags originating on the ARC Resources blog, which were modified until the community mostly settled on the most common flag used today. The official flag was released on the blog on March 10, 2015, and established to be the official flag on March 11, 2015.
The official flag's color scheme consists of diagonal stripes, symmetrical on the diagonal, with red, black, blue, and grey stripes.
The concept of the diagonal stripes was supposed to signify alignment with different MOGAI communities, while also setting them apart “since [it] isn’t a gender or a sexuality but [it] still needs visibility.” Red signifies association with sex, and the idea of not wanting sex and refusal and repulsion towards it. There isn’t a clear meaning for the blue, possibly added for higher contrast and aesthetics. In the creator's mind, black, white, and grey were associated with MOGAI, and also were associated with asexual and aromantic communities.
The other flags created are less used and less well known, and mostly used in the development process of the official flag. The theme of the flags is mostly the same, with the colors and aspects of the flag still representing the same things.
