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Todd comes out as ace on BoJack Horseman


bailzofhay

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I've been a long-time fan of BoJack Horseman (on Netflix) and my favourite character has been Todd for years. In the finale of season three, a girl he was once involved with—but was always uncomfortable when she wanted to have sex—asked him if he was gay, and he said, "I think I'm nothing." I took this to mean that he was asexual because that's how I've felt for ages.

The fourth season just came out a few hours ago and after a few episodes of Todd not knowing how he feels about labels, finally gathers up the courage to come out to his friend and attend an ace meetup. I had a good cry of happiness because I can't believe that an experience like this depicted on TV. So far, he's said things like, "I don't think I'm allowed to be in love."  There is just so much nuanced and complex self-actualization going on with this character that hits the nail on the head on what my experience has been like.

I'm eager to talk about this with someone—anyone—and hear their thoughts. I feel like this is groundbreaking in the way I see myself represented in media and I hope others who have seen this show will now see asexuals. It's so much more complicated than non aces can understand, but I think this show nails it. Thanks for reading!

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started watching season 4 today (only up to episode 5). I am honestly surprised they went so far with it. Like the fact that they actually said the word asexual (multiple times too!). and that "I don't think I'm allowed to be in love" line, made me so sad I wanted to hug the screen lol.

It feels like the creators of the show really made an effort with this, either way that episode made me so happy. I think I now understand why people make a big deal about being represented on TV.

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i've seen a few random episodes of this show with my brother, enjoyed it - really need to watch from start to finish though and i think this might have given me the cue

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Hell yeah, he did 8D (check my avatar) I was sitting on my bed watching it on my laptop and I was in SHOCK when he expressed that he "might be nothing" to the girl who was pursuing him. And I love how she immediately accepted him! Unfortunately, I wasn't (and still am not) out as ace so I couldn't really express my joy to friends/family, so I just casually texted friends and was like "I just watched a show where a character is canonically ace?? That's pretty cool whatever I don't care haha but it's cool to have representation of an underrepresented sexuality that has nothing to do with me whatsoever" (I'm exaggerating obviously but you get my point).

 

I haven't watched the new season yet but I am psyched to hear that they don't just forget about his being ace!!

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Oh man this makes me really want to start watching Bojack *_* Hm, hm, when am I gonna do it? XD

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I just finished the 4th season and his arc made me so happy. Just the use of the actual word asexual  meant so much to me. I will have to watch the big reveal episode again where i can properly soak it in and enjoy the feeling of being represented.

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Oh my gosh, I just finished watching the 4th season and this has made me SO happy ;U; The fact that there's multiple ace characters, the fact that they specified the difference between romantic aces and a-romantic aces, the struggle Todd had coming to terms with things <3 It seems like they really, really did their research and this is probably the best ace representation I've ever seen in TV. The show is great too and I loved it a lot before but now this just makes me like it even more :D

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NothingHereToSee

I was pretty shocked that they made it such a main thread all through the season, too. The only thing that kind of bothered me was they seemed to insinuate a couple of times that it was pretty easy to just to go out and find another asexual to date/marry. As it is, I get the impression that lots of even pretty progressive allosexuals think that it's just a matter of checking the asexual checkbox on OKCupid and we're good to go. Asexuals aplenty!

 

But... baby steps, I suppose. Baby steps.

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I think the fact that he was reluctant to use the word at first added so much depth to the story, and (as we well know here) the experience often can be like that. The ace meetup, where he learns that other aces are otherwise just normal people, was a brief moment that really helped paint it accurately, I think. As a character he's just so often gung-ho with new experiences until he faces his limits, so I'm glad that the way they incorporated his newfound asexuality into this season was still just the kind of thing that Todd would do.

 

Okay, but despite all of this...I'm sort of dreading what people are going to say or ask or assume they know about asexuality after watching this season. I'm not explicitly "out" to everyone (in that I haven't had a formal meeting about it, as I'm not hiding or disguising anything either), so I anticipate some people are going to ask if I've ever heard of asexuality, or they're going to talk about it like they know so much more than everyone else because of this show alone. This was an overall well-done inclusion of asexuality into a piece of quality entertainment, but I'm still going to find it painful for the topic to be brought up everywhere. <_<

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Knight of Cydonia

Just finished binging the fourth season. I was so happy with the representation. And they didn't just bring up asexuality, but being aromantic too! I was pleasantly surprised.

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I watched the first 6 episodes with my friend on Friday and this made me SOOO happy. I actually had trouble sleeping that night because I just kept thinking about ace Todd and smiling and being so fucking excited about how they handled it.

 

Someone in the writers room has to be ace because Todd's experience is too on-the-nose to have been written by an allo person. I wanna know who it is so I can bake them brownies :D 

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Someone in the writers room has to be ace because Todd's experience is too on-the-nose to have been written by an allo person. I wanna know who it is so I can bake them brownies :D 

According to my partner (whom I shared the clip with), it's probably Tim Gunn, who appeared in the credits at the end of the clip.  Not familiar with the show so I have no idea to the extent of his involvement, but apparently he is thought of by some as homoromantic ace (while another crowd insists it's just celibacy).  Regardless of which case it is, it's almost certain he knows about asexuality and had something to do with the inclusion/representation in this show.

 

Here's another thing he did, so he's probably a pretty cool dude:

 

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Ooh yeah so good!  (I've only seen the first three so far, so squinted through the above spoilers!) and so refreshing to see! That 'I'm not allowed to be in love' line was interesting and quite resonant. I don't feel I've ever been in love either, but never thought about it being an ace 'thing.'  Any comments welcome on this.  

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I've been very happy with how they've handled Todd being ace on the show.

 

Of course, now it annoys me even more that Jughead can't be ace on Riverdale because of excuses while the show about the cartoon horse is doing the best asexual representation of all time.

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Just finished and loved it especially when Todd used the word and went to that asexual meet up.  Also loved how Bojack said he sometīmes wished he were asexual in that way people who try to understand sometimes do. 

I do agree that the whole meet another asexual in real life and starts dating is a bit unrealistic and also asexuals can date non asexuals but it's the best asexual representation I have seen.

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20 hours ago, Philip027 said:

According to my partner (whom I shared the clip with), it's probably Tim Gunn, who appeared in the credits at the end of the clip.  Not familiar with the show so I have no idea to the extent of his involvement, but apparently he is thought of by some as homoromantic ace (while another crowd insists it's just celibacy).  Regardless of which case it is, it's almost certain he knows about asexuality and had something to do with the inclusion/representation in this show.

 

Here's another thing he did, so he's probably a pretty cool dude:

 

Unfortunately I'm pretty sure it's not him. He voiced himself as the guy watching the fashion show and I think that's the first time he's ever been involved with the show.

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I still think you should bake him brownies.

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Ruru+Saphhy=Garnet
On 9/8/2017 at 1:46 PM, Maks9090 said:

Oh man this makes me really want to start watching Bojack *_* Hm, hm, when am I gonna do it? XD

Same here! XD

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On 9/10/2017 at 11:14 PM, emma-can said:

I watched the first 6 episodes with my friend on Friday and this made me SOOO happy. I actually had trouble sleeping that night because I just kept thinking about ace Todd and smiling and being so fucking excited about how they handled it.

 

Someone in the writers room has to be ace because Todd's experience is too on-the-nose to have been written by an allo person. I wanna know who it is so I can bake them brownies :D 

I completely agree, it's way too accurate to be written by an allo person. Another person in this thread said they also appreciated BoJack's response of "sometimes I wish I was asexual." It's something I've definitely heard more than once from well-meaning friends trying to sympathize with me. I want to personally write a letter to the writers to thank them. There is one of us aces working in Hollywoo!

@James596 , I connected to the "I don't think I'm allowed to be in love" line because as a romantic asexual, I feel like love isn't going to work out for me. I have been in love twice before (both allo), but here are the complications: 1) Allosexuals would most times rather be with other allosexuals. 2) Meeting other aces is hard, let alone meeting one you end up seriously attracted to and end up loving. I've kind of accepted that love might not happen for me, but I've made my peace with it being a very independant person. While I've accepted it now, the journey was not the easiest.

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That's awesome! I think it shows the importance of having networks and visibility, and establishing a community that's approachable for things like this. It sets a high bar for how asexuality is written into other entertainment, and that's been influenced by real asexual participation and consultation. Organizing ourselves as a community gives the outside world a contact point, so relationships like this can be formed for everyone's benefit.

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Hermit Advocate

I've seen clips of the show and it didn't really appeal to me, but I think I'll watch the parts in relation to Tod's asexuality online. It makes me happy that we're finally getting some media representation. Especially after Riverdale.

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That's a big step in the right direction. Not my kind of show by gratz to them for this. :cake:

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I came back (not that I formally left, just distracted) to see what everyone said about Bojack. It was a great season and love that a character like Todd (the anti-Sheldon Cooper) is out in the world now. His story reflects a lot of the doubt and confusion I can relate.

 

As for how easy it was for Todd to find another ace, the show does place in the most populous city in the most populous state, second overall only to New York. I've randomly identified and spoken to people wearing rings in front of me in line at the grocery store. I recall being disappointed by a nurse talking to me about his girlfriend after I saw we were buying the same kind of Sun Chips (hint hint if you're out there). I've not spoken to photographers and such because we were at work. It's not easy, but it does happen.

 

I think not using entirely new characters for Todd's meetup group was a nice touch. For big fans of the show, you can recognize some as repeated background characters, which shows anyone can be ace. 

 

I was disappointed by Vox's review of the season calling the meetup group a "support group," as anyone who has been to an ace meetup knows it's very much not like Alcoholics Anonymous. 

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Miss Anne Thrope

The writers of Bojack Horseman did an amazing job portraying asexuality. I actually shocked myself by bursting into tears after watching episode 3. I wish that I could get all of my loved ones to watch this show so that I could go "hey, you know Todd's whole thing about being asexual? That's me!"

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On 9/17/2017 at 0:17 PM, Miss Anne Thrope said:

The writers of Bojack Horseman did an amazing job portraying asexuality. I actually shocked myself by bursting into tears after watching episode 3. I wish that I could get all of my loved ones to watch this show so that I could go "hey, you know Todd's whole thing about being asexual? That's me!"

You took the words right out of my mouth. I'm slowly persuading people.

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