You Know, The Ace Character... Oh Wait.
*Trigger warning
You Know, The Ace Character… Oh Wait
Ever been out to lunch with a friend and started talking about a relatable character or adorable relationship from your
favorites TV show? Or how about a crush you had from a childhood book series? How does these characters
identify? Are they explicitly heterosexual? Are they in a sexual relationship or looking for one?
Since the 1950s, forms of media have been being released, whether through television, books, or songs, that have
focused solely on heterosexual characters. Furthermore, when media does have characters that are not explicitly
stated as straight, they are often a mockery of non-heterosexual identities.
For the past several decades, asexuality has either been unrepresented or gravely misrepresented in the media.
Today we will be discussing in what ways it has been poorly portrayed in fictional television shows and how the
inaccurate representation affects both society’s understanding of asexuality and the asexuality community,
especially youth.
DESEXUALIZATING ASEXUALITY IN FICTIONAL TV SHOWS
When you think about an asexual character from a TV show, who do you think of? How about Sherlock Holmes from
BBC’s Sherlock, The 11th Doctor from Doctor Who, or Sheldon from Big Bang? Have those characters ever
self-identified as asexual? (The ones I listed haven't!)
Most “asexual” people in media are in fact just desexualized characters. Media has been mapping asexuality onto
non-normative bodies and identities, connecting asexuality to sexually unappealing qualities like fatness, disability,
and nerdiness. This not only makes asexuality something determined by peoples’ opinion of another’s sexual
attraction and desirability, completely disregarding asexuality as one’s lack of sexual attraction and desire, but it
encourages heteronormative binary standards and ‘others’ asexuality.
Examples of fatness being desexualized as a non-normative body can be seen from Norm on “Cheers” or Bonnie
Grape from “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape.” Neither of these characters have relationships nor are they seen as
sexually desirable. This forms a connection between fatness and asexuality, stigmatizing both of them as derogatory
for not fitting within the heteronormative expectations of the body.
Even though some contemporary shows do represent fatness with culturally desirable bodies, the characters focus on
male approval and their desirability in relation to heteronormative desire, excluding asexuality from this validation
and neglecting the non-heteroromantic forms of asexuality.
Example from “Hairspray” with Tracy Turnbald having a crush on and trying to win over the character Link Larkin.
Source: https://www.fanpop.com/clubs/hairspray/picks/show/91025/best-hairspray-couple
Disabled peoples are also often constructed as asexual in media, with heteronormativity and ableism defining both
the sexual and the sexualized body in this case. And the few shows that do sexualize and validate disabled characters,
“Friday Night Lights” for example, only do this with normative gendered and attractive bodies.
Media has also turned asexuality into a fictional idea, perceiving it as inhuman and unrealistic. The Doctor from
“Doctor Who” uses his physicality as an alien to explain his lack of sexual attraction or desire, turning asexuality into
a fictional, dehumanized idea. And in BBC’s “Sherlock”, the creators see Sherlock as “asexual for a purpose” and
claim that an “asexual… would [have] no tension… [that] it’s someone who abstains who’s interesting.” This not
only invalidates asexuality, but shows blatant disdain for it from the creator’s, turning the beloved character into a
declaration of asexual erasure and homophobia.
PATHOLOGIZING ASEXUALITY IN FICTIONAL TV SHOWS
Some TV shows have gingerly brushed aside asexuality by having a diseased character, in just one episode, be
confronted with a lack of sexual attraction, discover they have an illness, get cured, and become “normal” by desiring
sex. This has been done in both “Grey’s Anatomy,” with an asexual character having no sex drive because of a brain
tumor, and “House M.D,” with a husband’s asexuality as the result of a pituitary tumor, which diminished his sex
drive, and his wife’s as a lie in order to please him.
Another case of asexuality being directly linked to mental illness and disease was in the TV show “Dexter.”
In the show, Dexter is a serial killer who claims that his lack of sexual attraction and desire are directly linked
to his pathology and psychosis, linking asexuality with his status as a psychopath and murder. The show’s emphasis
on him needing to fake sexual attraction and desire further contributes to the binary concept that sexual desire is a
necessity for normal people.
Source: https://www.etbscreenwriting.com/dexter-finale-vs-the-breaking-bad-finale/
The show “Mysterious Skin,” however, spreads one of the most offensive and counterproductive misconceptions of
asexuality.* The show uses childhood rape as a way to make Brian, the main character, traumatized of sex. This makes
his asexuality a cause of a mental illness. This also contributes to the misconception of asexuality actually being
celibacy or triggered by rape or sexual assult. It assumes asexuality as a natural response to trauma rather than
regarding asexuality as an identity.
CONTEMPORARY ASEXUAL MEDIA
As we moved into the late 2010s, some accurate and respectable asexual characters where introduced into television.
In the show “Bojack Horseman”, the character Todd Chavez came out as asexual and attended an asexual community
gathering. This was one of the first, accurate representations of asexuality that combated heteronormative standards
of sex. Another character is Raphael Santiago from “Shadowhunters” who rejects the sexual advances of his romantic
interest and emphasizes his lack of sexual attraction predating his vampirism, denying the pathologization of
asexuality.
Todd Chavez at the Asexual Meet-Up
Source: https://twitter.com/azejournal/status/962325279418081280
Even with contemporary advancements, there are popular tv shows that are erasing asexual characters. In the Netflix
show, “Riverdale,” based off of a comic series, one of the main characters, Jughead, was re-written as straight. This
completely erased one of the most well known asexual characters in pop culture from current media. This denies this
shows audience, which is primarily youth-based, the chance to see how asexuality fits into common social settings and
combats the toxic heteronormative sexual agenda most western teenagers live in.
IMPACT ON YOUTH
In this day in age, media is a form of socialization for youth. They rely heavily on media images as a source of
validation and as a gauge for how they themselves are perceived by the larger society. So, the desexualized and
pathologized asexuals on tv only help to isolate and confuse asexual youth by making it impossible for them to
relate to most people in reality and in fiction. In turn, causing youth to struggle in creating positive self-evaluations
and locating themselves within society.
Additionally, most current asexual represenation in media is geared towards adults and are only specific examples of
the spectrum, risking the continued universalization of the asexual community. For example, neither Chadd or Raphael
are a sexual person or are in a queerplatonic relationship, neglecting and invalidating those parts of the asexual
community to their audience. They are also both male and able-bodied, excluding inclusive representation. And as of
2020, there was a single asexual character, which was on Netflix’s “BoJack Horseman,” an adult television show that
has since been cancelled. There will be one asexual character on a cable series airing in spring of 2021, but the
character’s identity is currently under embargo. This makes it mere impossible for youth to find a modern, fictional
character that they can relate to and use to validate themselves in our heteronormative society. YouTube does have
short stories of asexuality and asexual people which introduce modern, relatable, and accurate representation, but
because those characters are not well-known or recurring, it cannot validate or comfort someone who is looking to
belong for an extended period of time.
The Asexual Couple from the Short Film “Asexual Story”
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZemGK6cEUOE&ab_channel=hammegandcheese
Most western media invalidates, pathologizes, and fictionalizes the asexual community. It is our job as human beings
to not only acknowledge the different discrimination that people experience, but make an effort to make our world
equitable so they no longer have to suffer. Take this new found knowledge and find a way to challenge the
heteronormative system we all live in. Call out a friend next time they assume someone’s sexuality or promote an
accurate form of media that validates the asexual community!
🖤🤍♡💜Thank you so much for reading! Now go show the world what you know! 🖤🤍♡💜
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Sources:
AZE. “Creating Ace Space in the Media.” Accessed March 3, 2021.
https://azejournal.com/article/2018/6/29/creating-ace-space-in-the-media.
AZE. “Why I Need Asexual Representation.” Accessed March 3, 2021.
https://azejournal.com/article/2018/6/29/why-i-need-asexual-representation.
Baugh, Selena. “Impact of Compulsory Sexuality on LGB and Asexual Media Consumers.” Perceptions 5,
no. 1 (February 13, 2019). https://doi.org/10.15367/pj.v5i1.147.
Cerankowski, Karli June, and Megan Milks. Asexualities: Feminist and Queer Perspectives, 2016.
http://www.vlebooks.com/vleweb/product/openreader?id=none&isbn=9781134692460.
GLAAD. “Where We Are on TV Report - 2020,” January 8, 2021.
https://www.glaad.org/whereweareontv20.
Rothblum, Esther D., Kyra Heimann, and Kylie Carpenter. "The lives of asexual individuals outside of
sexual and romantic relationships: Education, occupation, religion and community." Psychology &
Sexuality 10, no. 1 (2019): 83-93.
More Information:
Ace and Anxious | Short Film. Accessed March 6, 2021.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeWUrTz91SI.
Asexual: A Love Story. Accessed March 6, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XkhsD1C9MA.
Asexual Story. Accessed March 6, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZemGK6cEUOE.
Przybylo, Ela. Asexual Erotics: Intimate Readings of Compulsory Sexuality. Abnormativities:
Queer/Gender/Embodiment. Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2019.
Przybylo, E., and D. Cooper. “Asexual Resonances: Tracing a Queerly Asexual Archive.”
GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 20, no. 3 (January 1, 2014): 297–318.
https://doi.org/10.1215/10642684-2422683.
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