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Asexuality in Fiction and Films


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I know we have Sherlock and Shelton. But does anyone know of any other characters? I heard that the girl in Brave has an ambiguous sexuality.

My contribution: The Paksenarrion Books by Elizabeth Moon - Paks "just doesn't feel that way" and is a virgin. Note I haven't finished the series.

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The Great WTF

<.< While it can be argued that the original Doyle version of Sherlock Holmes is likely ace, we have no definitive evidence of it and it's just as likely that Doyle could have wanted him to be homosexual, but did not write him as such because it was technically illegal at the time. Moffat's version of Sherlock has been stated to NOT be asexual because Moffat believes an asexual character would not be interesting enough. :rolleyes: The debate is still on about Sheldon, but at one point I recall reading somewhere that his creators do not believe he is asexual. Merida's sexuality should not be speculated on, as she's a teenage girl who balked at the prospect of losing her freedom to marriage (to one of three equally undesirable suitors) against her will. Most girls would spaz out in her place.

Paks, however, is asexual. *has finished the books* Elizabeth Moon has another asexual character, too, but I just forgot her name.

There was a character in some Australian TV show that is asexual, but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called and it was only brought up once if I recall.

Verified asexual characters in fiction are rare, unfortunately, and I dislike the idea of guessing at a character's sexuality because, more often than not, we are wrong or we have no way of proving it.

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(I know nothing about either Sherlock or Big Bang, I googled it... :) I don't mind guessing at a character's sexuality because I firmly believe that the author has no authority over the character once the book is written. Dumbledore is at once gay, straight, whathaveyou because he was never defined, mainly due to being in a children's book (sort of like Sherlock apparently). So I don't think it's <i>wrong</i> to say that hey, Dumbledore's asexual, even though the author says otherwise. And I like reading books where it's ambiguous. But that's not what I'm looking for.

Thanks for the info about Paks, I was agonizing that she'd meet a tall and handsome.

Once I started looking for it I didn't realize how hard it would be to find. Even fan fiction offers no relief. Which is kind of weird, you'd think someone would have an asexuality kink at least. :)

ETA: I realize there's some fan fic in the Sherlock fandom...but I hate the new Sherlock. A lot. I found it misogynistic before I knew it was Moffat. And can't watch it.

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I think BBC Sherlock is asexual, Moffat just doesn't know what he's talking about :lol: Benedict either, apparently. Maybe if they were educated a bit they'd see what he really is.

If you watch Modern Family, the episode "Fizbo" has such a brief mention of asexuality but I love that moment. It's so casual, it's not made such a big deal out of, it's just there, gone, not questioned. It goes like this: Cam wants to be the clown for Luke's (his nephew) birthday party. Mitchel (his boyfriend) is trying to convince him otherwise. Mitchel says he will embarrass Luke, saying something along the lines of him being the gay clown uncle. Cam insists that "Fizbo (his clowns' name) is asexual. He is the least sexual being on the planet. His drive is making people happy and making them smile!" Mitchel then goes to argue that no one has clowns at parties anymore, etc. etc., and the scene switches (he does go as a clown in the end). But that was it, no big deal. I liked that it was no big deal ^_^

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Ian Fleming, James Bond, From Russia With Love, Donovan Grant. Unfortunately, bad guy, chief executioner for SMERSH, narcissist, maniac depressive and not at all nice. So, probably not the best example for asexual characters in literature.

On the Dumbledore thing, I don't think Rowling has much of an idea. She said he "became quite asexual".

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The Great WTF

(I know nothing about either Sherlock or Big Bang, I googled it... :) I don't mind guessing at a character's sexuality because I firmly believe that the author has no authority over the character once the book is written. Dumbledore is at once gay, straight, whathaveyou because he was never defined, mainly due to being in a children's book (sort of like Sherlock apparently). So I don't think it's <i>wrong</i> to say that hey, Dumbledore's asexual, even though the author says otherwise. And I like reading books where it's ambiguous. But that's not what I'm looking for.

Maybe it's just because I'm an aspiring author myself, but I dislike the idea that a character no longer belongs to the author after they're published. I'm all for shipping, alternate character interpretation, and fanfiction, but at the core authority over a character still belongs to the author and, while it's not always abided by within the fandom, it should be respected enough not to try to claim a character has a definite trait that the author has not verified. Theories are fun, of course, but I don't agree with them being treated as fact.

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On ABC Family there was this show "Huge" with an asexual character. It only lasted for one season, but there was an episode were the ace character (I forget her name) wonders what its like to have a crush on someone, and the guy she's talking to asks "but havent you had a crush?" and then she explains she's ace and doesnt get those feelings. It was really exciting to watch :)

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There was a character in some Australian TV show that is asexual, but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called and it was only brought up once if I recall.

If you're talking about the show Shortland Street, the storyline took 86 episodes, the asexual extracts can be all found on this youtube channel.

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Great Thief Yatagarasu

Monkey D. Luffy - the creator of One Piece has said that there's going to be no romance in his series (because his target audience of teenage boys apparently aren't interested), and there's been plenty of hints that he's just not interested. The biggest hint being that Boa Hancock, who's known for being the most beautiful woman in the world, is in love with him and he barely notices. She has a power that can turn anyone who lusts after her into stone (and it seems to work on women just as well as it works on men, because literally everyone else loves her), and it just does not work on him. She tries to seduce him and his only reaction is "Huh, you're not wearing anything. How come you're not wearing anything?". It is GLORIOUS.

Miles Edgeworth - it's implied that he's either asexual or gay, and the fandom keep debating this. I really wonder why he can't be asexual and homoromantic for Phoenix Wright, but it's pretty obvious that he has no interest in the ladies either way. The creator himself has merely stated that Edgeworth "does not like women", so it could go either way.

Bill Weasley - is the only member of the Weasley family to remain unmarried, and Rowling claims that it's because he's "more interested in taming dragons than dating women". Make of that what you will.

There was a character in some Australian TV show that is asexual, but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called and it was only brought up once if I recall.

If you're talking about the show Shortland Street, the storyline took 86 episodes, the asexual extracts can be all found on this youtube channel.

I thought it was New Zealand?

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Bill Weasley - is the only member of the Weasley family to remain unmarried, and Rowling claims that it's because he's "more interested in taming dragons than dating women". Make of that what you will.

Small correction, it's Charlie Weasley that works with dragons and is speculated to be ace. Also this website has some very interesting "Ace Manifestos".

http://asexual-fandom.dreamwidth.org/tag/ace+manifestos+project

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Great Thief Yatagarasu

(I know nothing about either Sherlock or Big Bang, I googled it... :) I don't mind guessing at a character's sexuality because I firmly believe that the author has no authority over the character once the book is written. Dumbledore is at once gay, straight, whathaveyou because he was never defined, mainly due to being in a children's book (sort of like Sherlock apparently). So I don't think it's <i>wrong</i> to say that hey, Dumbledore's asexual, even though the author says otherwise. And I like reading books where it's ambiguous. But that's not what I'm looking for.

Maybe it's just because I'm an aspiring author myself, but I dislike the idea that a character no longer belongs to the author after they're published. I'm all for shipping, alternate character interpretation, and fanfiction, but at the core authority over a character still belongs to the author and, while it's not always abided by within the fandom, it should be respected enough not to try to claim a character has a definite trait that the author has not verified. Theories are fun, of course, but I don't agree with them being treated as fact.

THIS. I mean, I admit it - I seriously ship yaoi like no one's business. However, even if it's a non-canon ship, it's all light-hearted fun - I'd never stand up in court, hand on heart, and go "This character is most definitely gay, and I don't care what the author says about it." I don't have the authority to do that. So while I can theorise, and mess around with the concept, I don't think I can literally say otherwise if the author goes "no, they're not gay."

Bill Weasley - is the only member of the Weasley family to remain unmarried, and Rowling claims that it's because he's "more interested in taming dragons than dating women". Make of that what you will.

Small correction, it's Charlie Weasley that works with dragons and is speculated to be ace. Also this website has some very interesting "Ace Manifestos".

http://asexual-fandom.dreamwidth.org/tag/ace+manifestos+project

You're right, yeah. Shit, sorry - I was trying to remember their names off the top of my head.

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chelseagirl84

I know we have Sherlock and Shelton. But does anyone know of any other characters? I heard that the girl in Brave has an ambiguous sexuality.

My contribution: The Paksenarrion Books by Elizabeth Moon - Paks "just doesn't feel that way" and is a virgin. Note I haven't finished the series.

Thank you for not mentioning a certain someone. He's proving himself to be less and less asexual and simply himself. I would have gone Barty Crouch, Jr, on you if you did.

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I think Piccolo from Dragonball was basically the only male character who did not drool for anyone in the whole anime (nor had a mate of any kind)

Miles Edgeworth - it's implied that he's either asexual or gay, and the fandom keep debating this. I really wonder why he can't be asexual and homoromantic for Phoenix Wright, but it's pretty obvious that he has no interest in the ladies either way. The creator himself has merely stated that Edgeworth "does not like women", so it could go either way.

Edge~!

actually six of them :D

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I don't care what Moffat says, he wrote an asexual character when he wrote Sherlock. There are several lines that are textbook ace.

Which brings me to this: The two best known characters who appear to be asexual ( Sherlock and Sheldon) have some mental disorder. Sherlock says he is a sociopath. Sheldon's claim to sanity is "my mom had me tested".

It concerns me that the image of asexuality is not a normal, healthy one. Instead it is two super intelligent and bizarre, socially awkward men. I love them both dearly, but when a friend explained my sexuality as "she's never had a crush" I really didn't appreciate the reaction of " oh, so like Sheldon".

In my case the two are somewhat like me (I do very well in school without significant effort, I am moderately shy, I'm a bit nerdy, I appearantly scare people or at least used to. :/) although I'm more like Sherlock. It just bothers me that our most prominent presence is associated with emotional damage and mental illness.

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  • 4 weeks later...

OK I have no idea where this goes or if something like this already exists, because... I'm still new. ^^; I did look to see if a thread like this already existed but I might not have been looking correctly?

Anyway, what I was hoping for with this thread was... headcanons mostly! What characters do you think are asexual?

I'm going to go ahead and start it off with Tavros from Homestuck.

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My reasoning being that he seems altogether very nonchalant about/oblivious to romance and sort of short-circuits when people hit on him. (Mostly thinking of these two pages). When a very close friend of his admits romantic interest, this is is response. Not to mention he's more or less incapable of hatred, which is an entire subdivision of romance in troll culture.

He's only admitted a crush once and his reason for that was "wE TALKED ABOUT LOTS OF THINGS, aND WE HAD SOME THINGS IN COMMON, aND IT WAS NICE," and he seems to have completely left it alone since she turned him down. Granted, he did die soon after, but...

Anyway, who do you guys think of?

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The two that spring to mind for me are Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory (no coincidence I have him on my avatar ;)), and Lt.Cdr. Data from Star Trek (the latter being an android, it's not too surprising he doesn't have a sex drive... but he does have two quotes over the course of the show saying "I'm fully functional, programmed in multiple techniques" (explicitly talking about sex, while being seduced by a crewmate) and "but I have no sexual desire" (talking to a holographic version of Sigmund Freud, no less)... so, put those two together, and it sounds ace enough. :P)

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I like to think that Miles Edgeworth from the Ace Attorney games is aromantic and asexual, since he never seems to show interest in any woman that's thrown themselves at him, and he doesn't really take a general interest in men either. He also seems to be too focused on his work to take special interest in a lot of people outside of it.

Other than that, ever notice that there are certain Pokemon out there that refuse to breed? Even the gendered legendaries (like Latias and Latios) won't do anything at the daycare center.

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The thread 'Asexuality in fiction' has been merged into this one.

Qutenkuddly,

Asexuality Musings and Rantings Moderator

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  • 1 month later...

With regards to the author owning the character. To clarify. It's not that I think people can make up things about the character and have them be fact. I just don't think that after the text is printed that the author can say give undocumented background on the character. Dumbledore isn't gay, because he wasn't gay in the books. Even though JK Rowling said he's gay, until she writes another book he isn't. I firmly believe that the character is separate from the authors opinion, the only control the author has over the character is in the book itself.

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What about Ned and Chuck from Pushing Daisies? I wouldn't go so far as to say that they're asexual, since they're sexually attracted to each other, but it's implied that they've only ever been interested in each other. With Chuck, she and Ned kiss when they're 10, and that was both her first and last kiss, so I think it's safe to say that she's never gone any further. And with Ned, Emerson says that, before Chuck came along, he had no idea what Ned's deal was, because he never showed interest in anyone. I think they both could be in the gray area of things. Additionally, they're both celibate, they can't ever touch, let alone have sex, but they're still together and happy. I thought it was a really nice, little romance they had going on, because they do manage to be so romantically involved, without the physical aspect that always seems to be so important.

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What about Ned and Chuck from Pushing Daisies?

I don't think so ... They didn't have sex just because if Ned would touch her, she would die. So it wasn't due to the lack of desire. And Ned hasn't been interested in anyone mainly because of his "ability" to kill people with a touch, so he rather avoided people as much as he could. Doesn't mean he would be the same if he wouldn't have this power.

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Great Thief Yatagarasu

With regards to the author owning the character. To clarify. It's not that I think people can make up things about the character and have them be fact. I just don't think that after the text is printed that the author can say give undocumented background on the character. Dumbledore isn't gay, because he wasn't gay in the books. Even though JK Rowling said he's gay, until she writes another book he isn't. I firmly believe that the character is separate from the authors opinion, the only control the author has over the character is in the book itself.

Just saying that the Dumbledore example may not be the best one. Dumbledore WAS defined as being gay by the author outside of the novels...because at what point would it have seemed appropriate or relevant in the story for Dumbledore to have mentioned that he was gay, or for anyone else to reveal that he was gay? Name me a time and place where that revelation would have felt natural and not at all awkward or forced, and you may have a point, but otherwise, I don't see why her not having it in the text itself makes it not true. And even then, Rita Skeeter heavily implied that Dumbledore was in love with Grindalwald, which definitely places him as being gay for everyone who picked up on the subtext. Another thing that you have to bear in mind is that the way Rowling wrote the books was that she amassed a giant set of notes on characters, plot details and the wizarding world itself, and she edited them into a coherent plotline and a set of novels - Pottermore is, as we speak, revealing backstories for people like McGonnagal and Quirrel purely because she couldn't fit it all in the books. She'd written and planned it all, she just couldn't fit it all in without making the books read poorly. So I don't think Dumbledore is ambiguous at all - he's a gay dude, and why is that even an issue?

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I like to think that Daria Morgendorffer was a romantic asexual. She clearly had crushes on guys in the show, but showed no interest in having sex or even going very far with guys. One of my friends in the Daria fandom had said to me (I think jokingly) that she wouldn't have kissed Tom so passionately if she were asexual, but who knows. :lol: On that note, Quinn sorta came off as the same, the way she loved getting men's attention but had no interest in even kissing them.

Also: Spock, perhaps? Although in the 2009 movie, he and Uhura had a thing going on, but wasn't he pretty asexual in the original show? I wish I could remember more clearly, but I haven't seen the show in ages.

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Also: Spock, perhaps? Although in the 2009 movie, he and Uhura had a thing going on, but wasn't he pretty asexual in the original show? I wish I could remember more clearly, but I haven't seen the show in ages.

Nah, I wouldn't count Spock. In Trek canon (at least before the reboot movie), Vulcans, including Spock, do have a strong sex drive, it's just that all of them firmly suppress most of the time and just experience it flaring up explosively in a mating cycle every seven years, called the pon farr. To see Spock, himself, in the throes of this sexual "blood fever", watch the classic episode "Amok Time" (surprising enough that an episode with such a sexual theme, even if it's not in any way handled explicitly, made it past the TV networks' radar back in the 60s... ;)). It's also at least sttongly implied in the 3rd movie (ST III - The Search for Spock) that fastly-maturing reborn/resurrected Spock experiences pon farr several times while alone on the Genesis planet with Saavik (a small scene with Saavik stating she's pregnant with Spock's child due to this allegedly was in the early script of "ST IV - The Voyage Home", but cut from later versions and thus not present in the finished movie).

(This post managed to more strongly cement my conflation with Sheldon Cooper, right? :lol: )

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Am I the only one who doesn't care I understand about raising awareness of asexuality but why do people feel the need to have to stick a label to someone maybe it's just me 😕

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Am I the only one who doesn't care I understand about raising awareness of asexuality but why do people feel the need to have to stick a label to someone maybe it's just me 😕

Because seeing yourself reflected in fiction is incredibly vaildating.

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Am I the only one who doesn't care I understand about raising awareness of asexuality but why do people feel the need to have to stick a label to someone maybe it's just me 😕

Because seeing yourself reflected in fiction is incredibly vaildating.

Good point! I hadn't considered that.

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Miss Behavin'

So far, Sherlock Holmes in Elementary has stated outright that he's sex-repulsed, although with a libido, but he hasn't attempted to describe his sexuality with an orientation. It'll be interesting to see where this goes, but he definitely has potential to be openly asexual.

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So far, Sherlock Holmes in Elementary has stated outright that he's sex-repulsed, although with a libido, but he hasn't attempted to describe his sexuality with an orientation. It'll be interesting to see where this goes, but he definitely has potential to be openly asexual.

Honestly, with Moffat at the helm, my hopes are pretty low right now, he's just a bit of a dick really. Maybe Mark Gatiss will have a moderating influence!

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I think Tintin is a textbook example of an aromantic ace.

The guys in charge of Studios Hergé have said he is "straight" but we never see him romantically intrested in any female or male characters.

In my opinion, he doesn't want romance to tie him down, he wants to be out there, where the action is, any form of romance would tie him down, so it makes perfect sence for him to be an ace.

And sure, he IS friends with Captain Haddock and they do live in the same house, but that doesn't mean there is anything more than friendship going on, just like Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

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