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UK soap opera "Emmerdale" has ace character


SiTargaryen

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After hinting at it a few months ago, UK soap opera Emmerdale have confirmed that one of their teen characters, Liv Flaherty, will come out as asexual this week.

 

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/emmerdale/news/a849517/emmerdale-spoilers-liv-flaherty-asexual-comes-out-gabby-thomas/

 

Probably won't mean much to those outside the UK, but for UK aces this is quite a big deal as Emmerdale is in the top 10 most watched shows here, so this is some pretty high-profile ace representation. Emmerdale are also well known for researching their issue-based storylines well.

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LadyWallflower

I've never watched Emmerdale before, but this seems quite interesting! I'm excited! :) 

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Weirdly New Zealand's version of Emmerdale (called Shortland Street - our most popular soap) had an asexual character about a decade ago :o I still have no idea what got them onto that haha but it's great to see that the UK has finally caught up :D

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23 minutes ago, FictoVore. said:

Weirdly New Zealand's version of Emmerdale (called Shortland Street - our most popular soap) had an asexual character about a decade ago :o I still have no idea what got them onto that haha but it's great to see that the UK has finally caught up :D

Funnily enough, it was through Shortland Street's asexuality storyline that I first learnt what asexuality meant. But yes, this is a first for a UK soap.

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I recorded tonights episode to see what happened, and you can find it below in the spoilers (cause spoilers)

Spoiler

So Liv (the ace character) asks out a boy Jacob for her friend Gabby, but in a sort of mysterious way (e.g. "Would you like to spend valentines day with someone?" "Who?" "Who do you think?". This leads Jacob to think it's Liv that wants to go out with him.

 

While waiting for Jacob Liv and Gabby chat, and Gabby ends up asking about who Liv fancies. She repeats the stuff about not fancying any boys or girls but gets told that she's too picky and is overthinking stuff. Liv asks about what attraction feels like and is told to more or less keep on trying until she gets it. It leads to Liv kissing Gabby, getting embarrsed but also saying it meant nothing then running off.

 

On her way home, she bumps into Jacob, who is trying to give Liv a Valentines card, but Liv doesn't notice it, and just excuses herself and walks off.

 

It looks like it's trying to tackle a) The confusion aces experience and b) Sort of invalidation\stigma they may face.

 

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This is amazing news! I remember seeing it a few months ago and we didn't know that point if it would materialise into an asexuality storyline and I'm so thrilled it did! 

I also watched shorthand street with Gerald the asexual character :)

im from the uk and this is an incredible breakthrough! I have wanted a storyline in a uk soup for ages and am delighted that it finally is :) 

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3 hours ago, Sandra B said:

Usually the other soaps Coronation Street and Eastenders follow suit - so maybe they will cover other asexuals on the spectrum too, as at the moment it looks as though Liv is aromantic - but of course that could change for dramatic shock purposes!!

Isn't Emerdale the same soap that had a gay man's sexual orientation spontaneously change for dramatic shock purposes?

 

I hope they don't ever end up writing a shock "the spinster found the right person and isn't ace anymore" storyline for either her romantic or sexual orientation - not because demisexuals don't deserve representation too, just because doing it that way with the first introduction most of the audience will have to the phenomenon of a person self-identifying as asexual would leave them with the impression all aces are demi or hyposexual or repressed or late bloomers or whatever other explanation people tend to explain asexuals away with when they first hear about us.

 

I think until the general public is very familiar with the concept of asexuality, demisexual or hyposexual characters should be introduced at a time in their life when already know when and how often they experience sexual attraction, as opposed to being presented as aces and later revealed to have not been.

 

In fact both could be introduced skillfully in this sort of storyline. In real life, when one person, especially a teenager, comes out as ace, often older people try to be helpful by explaining, without knowing the terminology, that they themselves are demisexual or hyposexual and thought they had no interest at all once, and therefore the young person is probably going to "find the right person" one day just like they did. Showing that sort of discussion would introduce the audience to asexuality and demisexuality without accidentally erasing the existence of either.

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On ‎10‎/‎02‎/‎2018 at 12:27 PM, SiTargaryen said:

After hinting at it a few months ago, UK soap opera Emmerdale have confirmed that one of their teen characters, Liv Flaherty, will come out as asexual this week.

 

http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/emmerdale/news/a849517/emmerdale-spoilers-liv-flaherty-asexual-comes-out-gabby-thomas/

 

Probably won't mean much to those outside the UK, but for UK aces this is quite a big deal as Emmerdale is in the top 10 most watched shows here, so this is some pretty high-profile ace representation. Emmerdale are also well known for researching their issue-based storylines well.

Let's hope she's representing asexuality well then, and not like some outrageous stereotype akin to how they represented homosexuality in the past. Are you being served anyone?

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5 hours ago, Acing It said:

Let's hope she's representing asexuality well then, and not like some outrageous stereotype akin to how they represented homosexuality in the past. Are you being served anyone?

I'm Free :P

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@OptimisticPessimist I am mesmerized by your avatar/icon. I keep watching it, haha!

 

It's very exciting to see more ace characters. OH boy, the internal dialogue of being a younger ace ; it will be cool to see them tackle it.

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1 minute ago, OptimisticPessimist said:

@spazzticsoda:D Their from Bangtan/BTS (Kpop group). Feel free to join our thread in chatterbox! 

 

So far their doing it really well, i think their moving at a good pace. I think she'll get a lot of support from her brother.

From the plot line @Scott1989 shared, do you think

Spoiler

that the girl has feelings for her friend she is confused about? Maybe she has romantic feelings, but she could be aromantic and is not sure if her platonic feelings are just that or not?  Either way it sounds really interesting.

 

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2 minutes ago, OptimisticPessimist said:

@spazzticsoda I think at this point she's confused, i don't think she has feelings for her friends, either one of them. She's stated several times she isn't Gay, and has also said several times she doesn't like her male friend. It's still possible she could experience romantic feelings though for others, and it's possible she is Aromantic, and is unsure on things, they really need to delver further in and explain. 

Awwww I feel for her and I haven't even watched it ; - ; .

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Yeah I've kept an eye on it (just for her story).

 Looks like it ended up a mistaken love triangle ,as in female friend thinks Liv is trying to steal the boy who she wants to date. While the boy fancys Liv, is a bit gutted she doesn't fancy him back but wants to be a good friend which leads to a platonic hug that the female friend sees without context. She then plots against Liv, ruins her 16th Birthday which lead to Liv being humiliated with an online video of her with a  Henna tattoo saying "Skank" (Liv thought it said "Sixteen" and wanted to prank her older brother into thinking it was a permament one) and Liv being outted for stealing boyfriends (which she didn't do) and for kissing her.

 

Obviously that friendship is gone now, all mutual friends seem to be taking Livs side as they think it's not right about how she was treated and outed. And now Livs Gay brother is trying to get Liv to trust him enough to help her through it all. Asexual is yet to be mentioned but it seems like it's more of none of the characters knows the term so it's still a bit of Liv learning about herself. Defo not a "She's straight or gay all along" storyline (yet).

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Quintus Crinis

Great to hear - I don't tend to watch Emmerdale, but might just start to see how this storyline plays out. Hope the other soaps catch on eventually as well, I thought Eastenders might be about to at one point.

From the developments mentioned above though, it kind of makes sense that they're dealing with the confusion first - "I'm not straight so presumably I'm gay". Hopefully though she'll start to talk to her brother and realise that she's not gay either, which seems like the obvious way of bringing up asexuality - she realises that she's not experiencing the same things as him so starts looking for other explanations, stumbling across something about asexuality on the web?

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Oh I've been missing out it seems. I've been skipping on Aaron's storyline because it just goes from one bad thing to another. Recapping the things he's been through seems just excessive even for a soap and I don't like Robert so even the gay aspect of it is not fun. He just hurts my baby Aaron. :( I'll go back to watching his old storyline but Jackson is not making it easy either.

 

But Liv's so lovely, she's been a big help for Aaron, I hope she lets him help her as well.

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  • 3 weeks later...
On 2/21/2018 at 8:20 AM, muddled said:

I think until the general public is very familiar with the concept of asexuality, demisexual or hyposexual characters should be introduced at a time in their life when already know when and how often they experience sexual attraction, as opposed to being presented as aces and later revealed to have not been.

 

This is a good point. I've noticed that we often come as "confused" in our media representation.

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  • 10 months later...

I read on the newspaper today that the ace storyline will be back again on the show. I don't watch the show but I am thankful for the ace visibility and education of Liv's character.

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Thanks for the update. I did wonder what was happening with this storyline as nobody mentioned anything about it again. I thought maybe she'd just decided she wasn't asexual after all.

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Quintus Crinis

Been watching ever since first seeing this thread and can confirm that they finally put this storyline back in the limelight this evening. Liv is very much in the "don't understand why I don't get it" and "wanting to be 'normal'" phase at the moment. Don't think the show has even mentioned "asexuality" directly yet but looked like they were going down the road of a squish on her best male friend this evening.

 

This is a clip from the 'date' they were on with the scene continuing to confirm that she was happy with cuddling but not "the rest of it":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2aq3PmTPW4

 

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Yeah, I was slightly concerned after the first scene talking to him about it tonight she'd go "yeah, not ace" but no, she still is (although she doesn't seem to know the term yet still).

That felt a bit weird actually, given they were dropping little mentions of it before it was made clear she was the asexual character, but I guess it's not realistic.

Still not sure about Jacob given how he treated her (and Gabby) in November/December but then maybe I've been downplaying how much of that's down to Maya.

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banana monkey

so, yesterday I did wonder if they were bringing this storyline back but I wasnt sure how it would play out (ie didnt know whether liv was going to be asexual or just a teen who wants to take things slow) but after her description to aaron which pretty much is romantic asexual to a tee, i'm now excitied to see where this storyline goes. 

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