/u/ace_probably on Better understanding of asexuality

I feel like an important place to start is thinking about their character as who they are outside of being ace. Very often a lot of people tend to fall into a trap when it comes to representation by making the representation the character counts as half their personality. In my opinion, your character should be able to function as a character perfectly well even without their sexuality added in. Someone's sexuality, while being a part of who they are, does not, and should not, in my opinion, define them. A good example would be Todd Chavez from Bojack Horseman, who functioned perfectly well as a lovable and dorky guy who had just as much personality even before he realized he was asexual.

In addition, I personally believe the way Bojack Horseman handles asexuality is great, especially in a case where your main character isn't ace, so studying the way it does so would be a good place to start once it comes to handling the asexuality of your character (this is once you've already planned out the other aspects of said character). If I had to say what Bojack did well, it would probably boil down to two things:

1. Todd not being the sole representation of asexuality in the show. We meet other, more minor ace characters who have their own perspectives on asexuality who converse with each other, giving the audience a better idea of the different aspects asexuality might encompass.
2. The other relatively minor characters, while being minor, still aren't defined by their asexuality alone and really do possess their own personalities, different to that of Todd's (implicitly showing that not all aces are the same type of person. It sounds stupid to say it out loud, but showing that in media can really go a long way towards de-stigmatization). I honestly do think this is the most important point here. People have distinct and diverse traits long before sexuality comes into play when it comes to defining who they are.

August 28, 2021 at 11:50PM