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Asexuals In Fiction


Courtney

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Didn't know where else to put this, but I thought it might be interesting if we could make a list of asexuals in movies, books, tv ect.

It's difficult to define if a character is asexual or not because in a story you can just skip their orientation altogether.

Like many cartoon characters are devoid of sex or sexuality unless otherwise stated.

Sci-fi is full or 'real' asexuals, in which some species are able to reproduce by themselves. Enemey Mine or even the symbiotes from Spider-Man spring to mind, but we aren't including them here.

For some reason all of examples I can think of come from Britain.

Doctor Who has had many companions over the years of either gender and although he's developed strong platonic relationships, he's never been intimate with any of them. Well unless you count the time Jack Harkness kissed him, he didn't seem to react either way.

Sherlock Holmes never had any relationships beyond his friendship with Watson, which seems just like a bromance.

And the final example I can think of, and one I'm not entirely sure of is Ozymandias from Watchmen.

Rorschach wrote in his diary that he suspected him of being a homosexual, but we are never shown evidence of any kind of sexual orientation.

He seems happier by himself, although this may stem from narcissism more than anything.

It's a shame I forgot to ask Dave Gibbons when I met him last year.

Also I kind of want to add Vulcans to the list. I know they have sex, but to them it's merely a way of reproduction. Like us they do not actively seek sex, nor do they feel any satisfaction from it.

Any other suggestions?

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Alice Munro, in a recent short story collection, wrote a novella that contained a minor asexual character. He is a close friend of the main character and, in her thoughts, she thinks of him as "probably asexual."

Holden Caulfield from _Catcher in the Rye_ may be asexual. His experience with the prostitute is similar to the one I had at age 17 (minus the immature rant and getting punched out by the pimp, which didn't happen to me).

Interestingly, Ancient Roman and other ancient eunuchs, who were without genitals, were often written about as having colorful sex lives. They were definitely sexual even if they couldn't have penile intercourse.

Michael

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I know John Irving has some asexual characters. Jenny Fields from The World According to Garp and Dr. Larch from The Cider House Rules come to mind, but there might even be more.

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I know John Irving has some asexual characters. Jenny Fields from The World According to Garp and Dr. Larch from The Cider House Rules come to mind, but there might even be more.

Also Piggy Sneed from "Trying to Save Piggy Sneed," a short story from an eponymous anthology.

Michael

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Interestingly, Ancient Roman and other ancient eunuchs, who were without genitals, were often written about as having colorful sex lives. They were definitely sexual even if they couldn't have penile intercourse.

Eunuchs were only castrated, they still had a penis with which to have intercouse.

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AgentMooncalf

Another John Irving - the main character in A Prayer for Owen Meany (I forget his name, I think it might be John?) is described by another character as a 'non-practicing homosexual', which I interpret now as asexual, especially since he doesn't have any sexual desires or encounters, homo or hetero. Since 'bachelor' was code for 'homosexual', maybe 'non-practicing' is just another euphemism?

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Another John Irving - the main character in A Prayer for Owen Meany (I forget his name, I think it might be John?) is described by another character as a 'non-practicing homosexual', which I interpret now as asexual, especially since he doesn't have any sexual desires or encounters, homo or hetero. Since 'bachelor' was code for 'homosexual', maybe 'non-practicing' is just another euphemism?

Yeah, I think you're right. I've found that in John Irving books, the asexual characters often get called nonpracticing homosexuals by another character. So if someone called John that, it probably means he's asexual.

Also, I thought of this earlier: there's a show called Metalocalypse(look it up and watch it, even if you don't like death metal), and the band manager, Charles Ofdensen, is almost definitely ace.

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Another John Irving - the main character in A Prayer for Owen Meany (I forget his name, I think it might be John?) is described by another character as a 'non-practicing homosexual', which I interpret now as asexual, especially since he doesn't have any sexual desires or encounters, homo or hetero. Since 'bachelor' was code for 'homosexual', maybe 'non-practicing' is just another euphemism?

Yeah, I think you're right. I've found that in John Irving books, the asexual characters often get called nonpracticing homosexuals by another character. So if someone called John that, it probably means he's asexual.

Also, I thought of this earlier: there's a show called Metalocalypse(look it up and watch it, even if you don't like death metal), and the band manager, Charles Ofdensen, is almost definitely ace.

I love Metalocalypse. Now tha you mention it, I think that you are right about Ofdensen. I can't imagine him as anything other than ace. Toki might be ace, too, actually.

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Another John Irving - the main character in A Prayer for Owen Meany (I forget his name, I think it might be John?) is described by another character as a 'non-practicing homosexual', which I interpret now as asexual, especially since he doesn't have any sexual desires or encounters, homo or hetero. Since 'bachelor' was code for 'homosexual', maybe 'non-practicing' is just another euphemism?

Yeah, I think you're right. I've found that in John Irving books, the asexual characters often get called nonpracticing homosexuals by another character. So if someone called John that, it probably means he's asexual.

Also, I thought of this earlier: there's a show called Metalocalypse(look it up and watch it, even if you don't like death metal), and the band manager, Charles Ofdensen, is almost definitely ace.

I love Metalocalypse. Now tha you mention it, I think that you are right about Ofdensen. I can't imagine him as anything other than ace. Toki might be ace, too, actually.

Yeah, I can picture Toki as an ace. In comparison to the rest of the band, he's definitely much less sexual, and in one of the more recent episodes, he definitely seems more romantic than anything else. (I so hope he's ace, along with Ofdensen)

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There's a long list on the AVENwiki, though some of the examples seem questionable. If you have new examples, perhaps you should edit the wiki!

For more examples, also try tvtropes.

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Frontier_Rhesus

I just finished reading Don Quixote, and I'm convinced that the flower and mirror of knight-errantry is a very romantic asexual.

He's in his 50's and unmarried, he's fine saying he's in love with Dulcinea without ever actually being with her, and when beautiful women are throwing themselves at him in the Duke and Duchess's castle he stands his ground and tells them all that he's already taken, even going so far as to hide inside a blanket to make sure a duenna doesn't "ravish" him.

Furthermore, in one of Cervantes' short stories "The Glass Graduate," the graduate is a verified asexual: when a woman tries to gain his affections he is described as being "in love with books" and doesn't notice her advances. So we know Cervantes was at least aware of the concept.

I know that old chivalric love was very desexualized, and it's possible that DQ was just copying the knights in his books again, but I think that his lack of family life before he became a knight, his fear of dealing with other women, and Cervantes' other asexual characters prove that Don Quixote is romantic asexual.

Does anyone else who has read the book agree or disagree?

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I have a feeling that Seymour, who is mentioned in several of J.D. Salinger's short stories (A Perfect Day for Bananafish, Franny & Zooey, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, Seymour - an Introduction and Hapworth 16, 1924) is asexual. Now, I could most definitely be wrong, and I haven't re-read the books after I became more informed about asexuality.

But, to quote from "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters":

[...] "From what M. says, however, this doesn't bother her mother nearly enough as a couple of other things. Three other things. One, I withdraw from and fail to relate to people. Two, apparently there is something 'wrong' with me because I haven't seduced Muriel. [...]

I think she feels a mixed maternal and sexual drive in my general direction. But on the whole I don't make her really happy. Oh God, help me. My one terrible consolation is that my beloved has an undying, basically undeviating love for the institution of marriage itself. She has a primal urge to play house permanently."

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I think Mary, one of Elizabeth's sisters in Pride and Prejudice might be. She has no interest in the officers and says she'd much prefer to read a book than flirt with them at one point.

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It recently occured to me that Link could be asexual. He usually seems aromantic too, though not so much in Twilight Princess.

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surprisingly for a character from a BL manga, the character Mitsuya in the one of the extras from Migite ni Juu, Hidarite ni Ai is one of the most clearly asexual characters I've seen. On this page and the following one, he practically comes out as asexual:

"I have never done it, you know...besides kissing you, everything else...even if I was in that sort of situation, I wouldn't really feel anything.....if I'm not straight, I'm not gay, then what am I? I really hate not knowing that about myself"

I happened to stumble upon this right when I was first coming out as asexual, and it just really resonated with me.

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Mitchell Hundred from Ex Machina by Brian K. Vaughan seems extremely ace. He never explicitly states his sexuality, but there's no indication that he has any desire to be in a relationship/have sex with anyone. The series kind of dances around his orientation, as he performs a gay marriage at one point and it's speculated by many that he himself is homosexual, but he never gives a definite answer. I'd like to think he's asexual, anyway.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Do any of these characters outright say they are asexual? Or are there any others that do? I feel like the list of characters that could be asexual is extremely long considering that sexuality and even romance are often not brought up for side-characters. Course, there are characters that outright say they are not interested in dating or something, and that would make them seem like they are asexual, but do any actually say they are asexual?

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L from the manga and anime "Death Note" is very asexual. It help that he eats only dessert, his favorite of which is strawberry cake. :cake: He is also a world-renowned genius.

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Do any of these characters outright say they are asexual? Or are there any others that do? I feel like the list of characters that could be asexual is extremely long considering that sexuality and even romance are often not brought up for side-characters. Course, there are characters that outright say they are not interested in dating or something, and that would make them seem like they are asexual, but do any actually say they are asexual?

It seems like most of these characters don't actually say that they are asexual. Still, it's fun to imagine.

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  • 1 month later...

I can't think of an actual character who is considered decidedly asexual on tv! Anyone know?

There's Gerald Tippett from the New Zealand soap opera "Shortland Street."

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I also like to bring up Adrian Monk. It's clear he had no interest in sex in his relationship with Trudy, though it's not clear whether this is entirely due to his germaphobia.

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Mechanism Unknown - I'm going to go look up that New Zealand soap opera on youtube now ;)

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Mechanism Unknown - I'm going to go look up that New Zealand soap opera on youtube now ;)

Great! sootmouthnz has a good amount of vids, though unfortunately they haven't updated in a long time.

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I submit....

This one-off character from the series Bones.

A subplot in that episode involved the other characters trying to determine whether this person was male or female. The character turned out to be male (only discovered when the character Angela gave him a slightly-too-close hug and felt 'movement'), although he is in fact played by a woman actor.

Actually there was a similar subplot once in the British TV series Jonathan Creek, involving a police officer of ambiguous gender.

the show is the UK version of the show SKINS.

I had to watch all the latest series just to see more of that character. She's amazing! I've never been interested in Skins before (although now you've got my interest I must say I'm pleasantly surprised by the writing and acting quality. I was expecting a slightly raunchier Hollyoaks or something).

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I vaguely remember that episode, wasn't there a line that went something like this, "uh, a lot of people like my shirt". The characters were trying to figure out the sex of the person and were staring at the person's chest and when they got caught they would say, "I like your shirt" and the response was, "a lot of people like my shirt", at least I think it was that show. :blink::wacko:

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I think the Doctor in Doctor Who isn't necessarily asexual, and not only because his half-human clone skipped off into the parallel sunset with Rose (a note to all non-Whovians... the series is better than I'm making it sound). He's not really human, so maybe he just doesn't date outside his species. However, he is humanoid and not averse to inter-species romance in general, so maybe the fact that he doesn't seem anything more than slightly flattered by the attentions of attractive young women (and Captain Jack) does indicate asexuality. The Fourth Doctor did say to a female character something like 'You're a beautiful woman, probably'. He never flirts, except jocularly. There are some hints that he does have sex, however (not least of which is that the whole series began with his companion being his granddaughter... I wonder what happened to her?), although that doesn't mean much. I like to think of him as asexual, and not just so we can claim him as one of our own.

Any fantasy fans on board? What do we think of The Fool, in the 'Realm of the Elderlings' stories by Robin Hobb? I would say that (s)he's another tricky one by dint of not being human. I do like to think of his and Fitz's story as being like an asexual romantic love story, though. It has all the components of a love story, minus the tally-whacking. He describes his feelings for Fitz as being no different to the feelings a human might have for a beloved animal, although he does clearly love him and perhaps comes across as a little bit wistful sometimes. By the way, I'm using the male pronoun because that's how he seems to identify even himself in six books out of nine.

ETA: was that one-off character in Bones (can't remember his name, sorry) really asexual? I thought the indication given was that he fancied Angela. I'm not male so I don't know how rapidly your little soldier stands to attention, but would an asexual bloke get a boner from a hug?

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