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Asexuals In Fiction


Courtney

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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.

In some of the spin-off media, Time Lords don't reproduce sexually at all - new Time Lords are created on genetic "looms". So having a granddaughter may very well not have involved sex at all. (Has he ever mentioned a co-grandparent of Susan?)

My personal canon is that his sexuality (and romantic orientation) varies slightly with each new regeneration but stays generally somewhere around the asexual area of things.

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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.

Hmm, are you sure about that? I mean, he gets very affected by the television commercial with Misa in one of the episodes, and I remember him being very flustered about meeting her the first time. And he eats a lot of different deserts all the time to increase his brain function, not just cake. If I were to point out anyone asexual from the series, I would say Light, since he really doesn't seem to feel anything for neither Misa nor Kiome, and just exploits their love.

But I wouldt looooove it if L was asexual, since he is my favorite character in the series! ^^

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The feeling I got with Light was that he was just too...ummm...messed up? to actually love anyone (like Voldemort, right?). He did have sex with Misa and Kiyome. L does show interest in Misa, but I don't think it is necessarily attraction, it might just be because she's famous.

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Has anyone read the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins? Katniss? Definitely ace, or at least demi.

I think the series is geared toward young adults, but still, very good storyline. I'd recommend it.

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The feeling I got with Light was that he was just too...ummm...messed up? to actually love anyone (like Voldemort, right?). He did have sex with Misa and Kiyome. L does show interest in Misa, but I don't think it is necessarily attraction, it might just be because she's famous.

Haha yeah, regarding Light, that might also be the case, it's more probable. ;)

I'm not so sure about L, though, judging by this scene:

Sorry for me being a Death Note nerd!

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sara wisdom

I got a very ace vibe off Tom Ripley in The Talented Mr. Ripley - at least the book, although I haven't read the other books yet and he was played as more gay in the film (which was still very good!). I'd be interested to know what other people thought on the matter...

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Has anyone read the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins? Katniss? Definitely ace, or at least demi.

I'm currently addicted to it. I just finished Catching Fire and I can't wait for Mockingjay to come in for me at the library. I definitely get that vibe from Katniss, at least as far through the series as I've gone. Which is one of the reasons that I love the series so much. Sure there's love in it, and clinging, but there's no sex. And no worry about it, which usually kills young adult books for me (as much as I love them).

Haha yeah, regarding Light, that might also be the case, it's more probable. ;)

I'm not so sure about L, though, judging by this scene:

Sorry for me being a Death Note nerd!

Ohhh...I was talking about the manga. I never got through the whole anime. Could be a difference there. Haha, don't apologize; I love Death Note!

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  • 2 weeks later...

What about Sir Dinadan from the book "The Ballad of Sir Dinadan" by Gerald Morris? It is kind of hard to tell if he is asexual or just aromantic, plus the book is very aromantic (well actually antiromantic).

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Mona in Kurt Vonnegut's "Cats Cradle" explains her asexuality to protagonist towards the end.

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  • 1 month later...

From the Manga series The World God Only Knows, Keima Katsuragi may be asexual. Despite an addiction to dating sims, he shows basically no interest in any of the girls he encounters, and seems to be far more interested in the romance than anything sexual - he's only ever shown physical attraction whilst acting.

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MÃ¥skemigselvetsted
Has anyone read the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins? Katniss? Definitely ace, or at least demi.

I think the series is geared toward young adults, but still, very good storyline. I'd recommend it.

That's right! One more thing to love those books for :wub:

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This is nothing more than conjecture on my part, but Sue from Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy), and [to a lesser extent] Miriam from Sons and Lovers (D H Lawrence) struck me as being somewhat asexual, or at least Grey-A. The interesting thing here is that in both cases, Sue and Miriam's lack of interest in sexual pursuit is to be accounted for by an extreme sense of religiosity and spirituality - in other words, neither seems interested in physical love/passion because their thoughts are all too often pre-occupied with religious/transmundane matters.

Obviously that makes it harder for us Aces to isolate such characters as subjects we can relate to, since I'm pretty sure that Hardy and Lawrence, when developing the protagonists Sue and Miriam respectively, had in mind a kind of abstinence associated with 'moral purity', and entertained no notions of asexuality as part of the character's identity. Still, each is a beautiful novel, and defnitely worth a read.

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BØØM

Sheldon from Big Bang Theory, obviously

I think DI Chandler from Whitechapel probably is too

I think Sheldon's asexuality comes from his lack of knowlegde on social interaction. But he is an awesome character. 8)

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osiris8siriso

From the Manga series The World God Only Knows, Keima Katsuragi may be asexual. Despite an addiction to dating sims, he shows basically no interest in any of the girls he encounters, and seems to be far more interested in the romance than anything sexual - he's only ever shown physical attraction whilst acting.

I thought this too! Recently he's started to get a little flustered around girls but it doesn't seem to be sexual at all. Also I love this manga and Keima very much... :wub:

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What about Sir Dinadan from the book "The Ballad of Sir Dinadan" by Gerald Morris? It is kind of hard to tell if he is asexual or just aromantic, plus the book is very aromantic (well actually antiromantic).

Hmmm...I think I got this from the library once but never managed to read it. Is it good?

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I really liked it, but if you love the legend of Tristian and Isolde then you might not like it as much as I did. ;)

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Pagemaster

Prior Phillip from Pillars of the Earth. Ken Follett himself mentioned in the introduction of the book that Phillip is the only character he has created that is happy to be celibate. The character himself has mentioned that he no drive for sex.

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I really liked it, but if you love the legend of Tristian and Isolde then you might not like it as much as I did. ;)

Why is that? I know that legend, don't particularly have any feelings towards it, unless you're including the James Franco movie which I'm sick of cause I've seen it too much cause a friend is obsessed with Franco.

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Because Tristian and Isolde are shown to be low down in the IQ chain, that they are self obsessed and none too scrupulous.

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Pallas Athena

Abed from Community is an interesting case...he's kissed people on the show, but this seems to be more from him pretending to be someone else instead of actually wanting to. For example, in one episode he was playing Han Solo, and kissed another character simply because it seemed like the appropriate thing for Han Solo to do at that point. At another point, he pretends to seduce Annie by playing Don Draper from Mad Men. In both cases, when the moment is done, he just breaks character and walks away, having no interest in it now that he's no longer playing the role.

In one episode, a guy tried to pick him up at a bar. Abed was aware of this, but ignored it because he really, really wanted to talk about Farscape with the guy. In another episode, there's a girl that apparently has a crush on Abed, and the rest of the group tries to get him to go talk to her, and he says he wouldn't go over there. They ask how he knows, and he responds "a life time of observation." When they ask if there's a version of him that would talk to her, he says yes, and then approaches her as a freaking vampire. He later said he was happy being who he was: he wasn't interested in the girl, but he pretended to be because the group wanted him to be and he was comfortable enough with himself to change to make them happy.

Here's a video for the Vampire scene, because it's hilarious

http://youtu.be/-s7wKD24heE

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Now that I have a better understanding of asexuality, going back and reading the Harry Potter series keeping in mind things that J.K. Rowling has said makes me think of Dumbledore as asexual.

I know that she had revealed years ago that he was homosexual and that people got all up in arms over it, and then it was never really addressed again. I felt like this is another case of someone confusing romantic affection for sexual attraction. I know she addressed the fact that the only person that Dumbledore ever loved with Grindelwald, but there is 1) no indication that those affections were ever genuinely returned and 2) that their relationship was ever anything beyond extreme admiration that turned into romantic feelings. Even in the hypothetical scenario in which J.K. decided not to include sexual details about their relationship, I'd say that it would make him demisexual at most.

I have some LGBT friends who have "staked claim" in Dumbledore, and I don't mean to take their hero from them, but for me I'm never going to see Dumbledore as anything but a homoromantic (maybe even demiromantic given his interest being solely in Grindelwald) asexual.

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Now that I have a better understanding of asexuality, going back and reading the Harry Potter series keeping in mind things that J.K. Rowling has said makes me think of Dumbledore as asexual.

This makes me happy. One of my biggest pet peeves is that even though Rowling never says explicitly in the book that he is gay, because she said it in real life, it makes it fact and everyone accepts that. In my opinion, authors have no control over their book after it is published, so I get really annoyed that I, according to popular belief, have to believe he is gay. In my opinion, there is no proof that he is gay in the book. I myself tend to believe he is asexual, but it really has no bearing on the book at all. If people want to believe Dumbledore is gay, that's fine with me, I just get annoyed when I'm told that he is gay because J.K. says so. I feel like people try to take away my own interpretation of the book. I feel like talking about Dumbledore being gay is in the same class as talking about Remus and Sirius being in a relationship. Sure, evidence can be given for both, but that doesn't mean that everyone believes in that interpretation.

Sorry for the rant! I really tried to not go on too long! Like I said, it's a big pet peeve of mine. And the fact that you have a similar opinion makes me happy.

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In my opinion, authors have no control over their book after it is published, so I get really annoyed that I, according to popular belief, have to believe he is gay. In my opinion, there is no proof that he is gay in the book. I myself tend to believe he is asexual, but it really has no bearing on the book at all. If people want to believe Dumbledore is gay, that's fine with me, I just get annoyed when I'm told that he is gay because J.K. says so.

I feel like you've basically just summed up all the reasons that I never really like talking with friends who accept everything like J.K. says as absolute canon-- no exceptions, no interpretations other than what Jo has said. It's nice to hear her motivations for writing him, as a writer I admire really knowing your character, but I remember being comforted by Dumbledore when I was younger. Even if I didn't identify as asexual when I was 11-13, I remember thinking that if someone as awesome as Dumbledore didn't have to get married, then it wasn't weird if maybe I didn't either.

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In my opinion, authors have no control over their book after it is published, so I get really annoyed that I, according to popular belief, have to believe he is gay. In my opinion, there is no proof that he is gay in the book. I myself tend to believe he is asexual, but it really has no bearing on the book at all. If people want to believe Dumbledore is gay, that's fine with me, I just get annoyed when I'm told that he is gay because J.K. says so.

I feel like you've basically just summed up all the reasons that I never really like talking with friends who accept everything like J.K. says as absolute canon-- no exceptions, no interpretations other than what Jo has said. It's nice to hear her motivations for writing him, as a writer I admire really knowing your character, but I remember being comforted by Dumbledore when I was younger. Even if I didn't identify as asexual when I was 11-13, I remember thinking that if someone as awesome as Dumbledore didn't have to get married, then it wasn't weird if maybe I didn't either.

Yup. I know exactly what you mean. *grins*

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Pallas Athena

I think Aziraphale and Crowley from the book "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett would qualify.

Aziraphale is an angel, and most people assume he's gay when they meet him. The book explains he's not, because angels are genderless and not interested in sex. Interestingly, they can change these things, but only if they try really, really hard. Like human asexuals, they're capable of having sex, they just don't care too.

Crowley is a demon. We don't get a description of demon sex lives, but the book says that demons are "of angel stock," so it's safe to assume they're similar when it comes to sex and gender. Crowley certainly never shows any interest in sex or romance in the book. He's much more interested in taking care of his car.

It's very easy to view them as an asexual couple by the end of the book. They're not mushy or overly romantic, but by the end of the book it's pretty clear how close they've become over the course of 6000 years. One of the authors even said they shared a cottage together after the book ended.

Oh, and they both love to use the word "ineffable."

It's a very good, very funny book and you all should read it. ^_^

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  • 5 weeks later...

I think Aziraphale and Crowley from the book "Good Omens" by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett would qualify.

Aziraphale is an angel, and most people assume he's gay when they meet him. The book explains he's not, because angels are genderless and not interested in sex. Interestingly, they can change these things, but only if they try really, really hard. Like human asexuals, they're capable of having sex, they just don't care too.

Crowley is a demon. We don't get a description of demon sex lives, but the book says that demons are "of angel stock," so it's safe to assume they're similar when it comes to sex and gender. Crowley certainly never shows any interest in sex or romance in the book. He's much more interested in taking care of his car.

It's very easy to view them as an asexual couple by the end of the book. They're not mushy or overly romantic, but by the end of the book it's pretty clear how close they've become over the course of 6000 years. One of the authors even said they shared a cottage together after the book ended.

Oh, and they both love to use the word "ineffable."

It's a very good, very funny book and you all should read it. ^_^

I love this book! And I really agree with your ideas of them.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I believe that Orual, the main character in "Till We Have Faces" by C.S. Lewis, may be asexual, though it has been awhile since I read it. She never marries, but it may not be so much from choice as from having no suitors due to being "ugly." Though, I don't think she ever mentions an interest in men. Also, she is obsessed with her younger sister but more from a "mothering" aspect. Plus, she has a platonic relationship with one of her soldiers - his wife gets jealous (because of the time away and the possibility of an "affair") but Orual is just interested in the companionship and in learning swordplay better. If anyone else here has read it, let me know what you think!

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Blood Angel

Abed from Community is an interesting case...

I love Community, can't wait for season 3!

You're right, he probably is asexual. I know that community plays on stereotypes and I wasn't sure if Abed is meant to have aspergers or not, but without a doubt he comes across as an asexual.

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