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Asexual Characters - Masterthread


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DesertRose
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This thread combines previous and future discussions about asexual characters in media aka books, series, films ecc.

 

Threads containing a collection of media with confirmed or potentially asexual characters and about asexuality itself are linked to below, if you have new recommendations to expand those lists feel free to post them there:

Asexuality and Asexual Characters in Films & Series - a Collection

Asexuality and Asexual Characters in Books & Comics - a Collection

 

Quasar.w

Moderator of World Watch and the Alternate Language Forum

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Unhidden Thread as a Move and Merge has been Completed to move Asexual Characters threads from World Watch, Asexual Musings and Rantings, Questions about Asexuality, Open Mic and Romantic and Aromantic Orientations

 

Janus DarkFox

Cover Welcome Lounge, Site Comments, Weekends Asexual Relationships, Current Questions about Asexuality, Asexual Musings and Rantings & Open Mic Moderator

p> :D I recently read a book by Stephenie Meyer. Called Twilight. It's about a Vampire named Edward who is inlove with a Human named Bella but they can't have any physical intimacy. it's a great book. that's what drew me to the book. I love Vampires. She has a series. Check it out, you may like it. :twisted:

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
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  • 2 weeks later...

"Can't have" physical intimacy is different than "not wanting". Or is that what you meant? More detail might be appreciated.

And on a totally unrelated note:

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Oh, my friend recommended me that book. :D

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My friend fangirled all over that book. *pokes it with a stick* Eewwww, fangirl jooce.

I dunno, I may be tempted to read it. I still need to finish that last Artemis Fowl book... >_>;;

Zeal- Awesome comic.

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I have heard of this book, and it seems to be popular, but I haven't read it. I'll be putting it on my ever so long "to read" list.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Possible Spoiler Warning Ahead for Eclipse!

Well you can kind of forget about them being asexual in any way, as the last book just came out recently and it is revealed that they would both gladly have sex with the other -_- And it's implied that they will sometime soon after the book is older.

Sorry if this is a spoiler for anyone.

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  • 4 weeks later...
La Romantica

Okay, ahem, I do not want to open the umpteenth "asexual character" thread only to tell you that I recently had to read David Lodge's Small World for a university course - and found the following description of one of the professors Lodge writes about:

"...Rudyard Parkinson. He is a bachelor, a celibate, a virgin. Not that you would guess that from the evidence of his innumerable books, articles and reviews, which are full of knowing and sometimes risqué references to the variations and vagaries of human sexual behaviour. But it is all sex in the head - or on the page. Rudyard Parkinson was never in love, nor wished to be, observing with amused disdain the disastrous effects of that condition on the work-rate of his peers and rivals. When he was thirty-five, alread secure and successful in his academic career, he considered the desirability of marrying - coolly, in the abstract, weighing the conveniences and drawbacks of the married state - and decided against it. Occasionally he would respond to the beauty of a young undergraduate to the extent of laying a timid hand on the young man's shoulder, but not further... Indeed it could be said that reading is his love and writing his sex. He is in love with literature...

Reading[...]is pure, selfless pleasure...

Writing, his own writing. is more like sex: an assertio of will, an exercise of power, a release of tension..." [David Lodge, Small Word, 1984]

So, I'm not entirely sure if Lodge has created an asexual character in this case. At the beginning he writes that Parkinson is a celibate - but then... if he has never been in love? Okay, it is said that he does not wish to for this reason or that, but the bit on reading bein his love and writing his sex seems to me like an asexual...The book was written in 1984, so there won't have been research on the topic...

What do you think?

And by the way - is it allowed to post this bit of a book here? Don't want to get in trouble for, ahem "publishing" it

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Okay, ahem, I do not want to open the umpteenth "asexual character" thread only to tell you that I recently had to read David Lodge's Small World for a university course - and found the following description of one of the professors Lodge writes about:

"...Rudyard Parkinson. He is a bachelor, a celibate, a virgin. Not that you would guess that from the evidence of his innumerable books, articles and reviews, which are full of knowing and sometimes risqué references to the variations and vagaries of human sexual behaviour. But it is all sex in the head - or on the page. Rudyard Parkinson was never in love, nor wished to be, observing with amused disdain the disastrous effects of that condition on the work-rate of his peers and rivals. When he was thirty-five, alread secure and successful in his academic career, he considered the desirability of marrying - coolly, in the abstract, weighing the conveniences and drawbacks of the married state - and decided against it. Occasionally he would respond to the beauty of a young undergraduate to the extent of laying a timid hand on the young man's shoulder, but not further... Indeed it could be said that reading is his love and writing his sex. He is in love with literature...

Reading[...]is pure, selfless pleasure...

Writing, his own writing. is more like sex: an assertio of will, an exercise of power, a release of tension..." [David Lodge, Small Word, 1984]

So, I'm not entirely sure if Lodge has created an asexual character in this case. At the beginning he writes that Parkinson is a celibate - but then... if he has never been in love? Okay, it is said that he does not wish to for this reason or that, but the bit on reading bein his love and writing his sex seems to me like an asexual...The book was written in 1984, so there won't have been research on the topic...

What do you think?

And by the way - is it allowed to post this bit of a book here? Don't want to get in trouble for, ahem "publishing" it

Great reference, thanks for sharing!

And, as long as that's no more than 10% of the book, I believe you're good.

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Okay, ahem, I do not want to open the umpteenth "asexual character" thread only to tell you that I recently had to read David Lodge's Small World for a university course - and found the following description of one of the professors Lodge writes about:

"...Rudyard Parkinson. He is a bachelor, a celibate, a virgin. Not that you would guess that from the evidence of his innumerable books, articles and reviews, which are full of knowing and sometimes risqué references to the variations and vagaries of human sexual behaviour. But it is all sex in the head - or on the page. Rudyard Parkinson was never in love, nor wished to be, observing with amused disdain the disastrous effects of that condition on the work-rate of his peers and rivals. When he was thirty-five, alread secure and successful in his academic career, he considered the desirability of marrying - coolly, in the abstract, weighing the conveniences and drawbacks of the married state - and decided against it. Occasionally he would respond to the beauty of a young undergraduate to the extent of laying a timid hand on the young man's shoulder, but not further... Indeed it could be said that reading is his love and writing his sex. He is in love with literature...

Reading[...]is pure, selfless pleasure...

Writing, his own writing. is more like sex: an assertio of will, an exercise of power, a release of tension..." [David Lodge, Small Word, 1984]

So, I'm not entirely sure if Lodge has created an asexual character in this case. At the beginning he writes that Parkinson is a celibate - but then... if he has never been in love? Okay, it is said that he does not wish to for this reason or that, but the bit on reading bein his love and writing his sex seems to me like an asexual...The book was written in 1984, so there won't have been research on the topic...

What do you think?

And by the way - is it allowed to post this bit of a book here? Don't want to get in trouble for, ahem "publishing" it

Wow, that's really cool. It's certainly possible that, there not being a term for "asexuality" back then, the word celibate was just the closest description the author could find. Perhaps he based this character on someone he knew. Sounds like a character I would like.

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La Romantica

copy fox - I doubt you would!

in the run of the book Parkinson is ridiculed that much!

For me it's very interesting because I'm writing a term paper on the book, topic is the creation of sexuality in literature - let's see what my prof is going to say when I do not write only about the single homosexual couple, but also about a non-sexual/asexual character :wink: ...

and @ sonofzeal - It was half a page from a threehundred-page-book - even though I'm the great loser in Maths, there shouldn't be problems then :wink:

greetz

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copy fox - I doubt you would!

in the run of the book Parkinson is ridiculed that much!

What do you mean? I just meant I'd probably agree with the guy on a lot of things, and therefore like the character. Doesn't mean I'd want to be friends or anything :? :lol:

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La Romantica

hej copyfox,

well, there is no clear description of Parkinson and his ideas, he doesn't play a great role in the book - it rather is that Lodge ridiculed him a lot: he is South African and therefore sticks to his old(-fashioned) habits: using a chamber pot instead of the toilet and paying a student for cleaning that chamber pot afterwards... things like that :wink:

Nice idea, being friends with him, no? :lol: no, only joking!

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hej copyfox,

well, there is no clear description of Parkinson and his ideas, he doesn't play a great role in the book - it rather is that Lodge ridiculed him a lot: he is South African and therefore sticks to his old(-fashioned) habits: using a chamber pot instead of the toilet and paying a student for cleaning that chamber pot afterwards... things like that :wink:

Nice idea, being friends with him, no? :lol: no, only joking!

Oh.

.....

That is kind of weird.

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I had to read the short story "Ivan Fyodorovich Shponka and His Aunt" for one of my classes, and I made all sorts of happy squealing noises when I got to the end, because I'm convinced cute little Ivan Fyodorovich is asexual and aromantic.

"Listen, Ivan Fyodorovich! I want to talk seriously with you. You are, thank God, in your thirty-eighth year...It's time to think about children! You absolutely must have a wife..."

"What, auntie?" Ivan Fyodorovich cried out, frightened. "What, a wife? No, auntie, for pity's sake...You make me completely ashamed...I've never been married before...I absolutely wouldn't know what to do with her!"

True, Marya Grigorievna was a very nice young lady; but to get married!...that seemed to him so strange, so odd, that he was simply unable to think of it without fear. To live with a wife!...incomprehensible! He wouldn't be alone in his room, there'd be two of them everywhere!...Sweat broke out on his face and he fell to pondering more deeply.

Then he has a weird dream where his "wives" are all scary goose-creatures. ^^

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I hate Twilight with passion. I hate Bella, all she does is swoon over that idiot of a vampire. I hate romance novels. Even if I wasn't asexual I would hate them.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Erik from Phantom of the Opera is totally asexual. If you ever read the book (which is very good) he is. He does kiss her, but only on the forehead. Honestly, throughout it, he doesn't seem that sexual. He just seems lonely, and really loves her- but not sexually.

This is what pisses me off so much when all the other artists make him into some sex god and why I like the 1925 one, he loves her but he doesn't really try anything. Considering the time- it makes sense he'd want a wife. But the others... kErik: "The way he spoke, the way he moved, he was so sensual that she had to have him" gErik: "[insert one, long, fangirl squeel.] And he so raped Christine"

Also, do we have any browncoats here? I think Jubal Early, from Firefly, was asexual.

He threatens to rape Kaylee but says "Now, I'll take no pleasure from it". It was just the best threat to use on her so she'd comply with what he wanted. Which wasn't sex.

With Inara he doesn't take advantage of the fact she's a whore (The term is companion! Yeah, but the job is whore), he actually doesn't seem to want to go in because he says "let's check this shuttle first, then we'll pay her a visit" and when they do check her shuttle he just locks her in. No untoward comments or sign of desire or anything.

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The more I think about it, the more I wonder if Hazel Motes from Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood might be asexual. He has a few sexual encounters in the novel, but seeks them out more as an expression of his nihilism than as a result of any attraction or desire.

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Also, do we have any browncoats here? I think Jubal Early, from Firefly, was asexual.

He threatens to rape Kaylee but says "Now, I'll take no pleasure from it". It was just the best threat to use on her so she'd comply with what he wanted. Which wasn't sex.

Hey, good spot. *browncoat*

In that same line of thinking, I suppose the Operative coulda been asexual as well, simply because he sublimated everything in his entire life into what he was doing for the Alliance, so I don't really picture him having a girlfriend or anything. But I don't know if that sort of thing actually counts. (And I could be forgetting something about him, I guess?)

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Also, do we have any browncoats here? I think Jubal Early, from Firefly, was asexual.

He threatens to rape Kaylee but says "Now, I'll take no pleasure from it". It was just the best threat to use on her so she'd comply with what he wanted. Which wasn't sex.

Hey, good spot. *browncoat*

In that same line of thinking, I suppose the Operative coulda been asexual as well, simply because he sublimated everything in his entire life into what he was doing for the Alliance, so I don't really picture him having a girlfriend or anything. But I don't know if that sort of thing actually counts. (And I could be forgetting something about him, I guess?)

I think that sort of thing would just be called obsession, and while it may be easier to follow if you're asexual, it doesn't make you asexual.

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I just watched "Into the Wild", and I'm 90% sure that the main character is played as asexual, and may well have been one irl too. At no point in the movie does he show any interest in romance or sex, despite plenty of interest in him from at least one of the characters, and at one point living very near a "free love" nudist colony.

The movie is brilliant in any case, I definitely plan on watching it again and/or buying it. Highly recommended.

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I think most characters written before, say, the 1950s could be construed as asexual, simply due to the fact that sex wasn't something you talked about back then.

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Dammit, now I'm going to have to see Into the Wild. I've been hearing it's good, but I wasn't sure about going to see it.

As for Twilight, I haven't read it yet... but I'm not allowed to buy anymore books before Christmas.

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