/u/EtienneTruong on How do i write a asexuell character correctly?

It sure seems easy to write an asexual character, the only thing you have to do is not making your character feel sexual attraction, it shouldn't be too difficult in theory but the real problem isn't how you will write your character, but how you will represent asexuality. Many people don't understand asexuality, and they love to imagine things involving their favorite characters. To the point that if you play on ambiguity in your story, they will not accept the asexuality of your character.

For example, Peridot in Steven Universe doesn't understand the concept of fusing (having sex) for fun, even if she's curious about it, she doesn't want to actually do it. But since she's a very close friend of another character, Lapis Lazuli, everyone wants them to fuck fuse. So when it was officially confirmed that she was asexual and aromantic, some people were really disappointed because it meant no fusion. And their disappointment turned into hatred towards asexuality and aromanticism.

Technically it's not the author's fault, Peridot is a wonderful character, it's just that some people are dumb. But since it happened, you can avoid it. So my advice would be : just be clear about asexuality, playing on ambiguity is fun, but sadly the majority of people will not choose to see your character as asexual if you don't mention it clearly.

Sherlock Holmes, in the BBC series, declared that he was "married to his work", when John asked about his orientation. He's one of us, but the ambiguity of his relationship with his partner makes everyone think he's gay, and people will always prefer to think that he's gay rather than asexual.

February 17, 2021 at 11:32PM