Making the Asexual Textual

Some people are sexually attracted to the opposite gender, some are attracted to the same gender, while others are attracted to more than one gender, and yet others are only sexually attracted under specific circumstances?

But, not all people are sexually attracted to someone. Those people? Identify as asexual.

Especially in Western culture, so many of our stories — be they folktales of yore, current tv shows, books, or movies — center around the main character’s relationship. Even if it’s not the main plot point.

For asexual people, they’ve had to read-between-the-lines to look for characters that represent them.

Is this character asexual? Or did the story just not cover a period of their life where they were in a relationship.

Is that character sexual? Or are they in a consensual sex-free romantic relationship?


At the titular panel, at WorldCon 77, Wendy Metcalfe, Darcie Little Badger, Dr. Edmund Schleussel, and Jasmine Gower discussed ways to make the asexual textual, without making it feel forced.

3 Reasons Not Making the Asexual Textual is a Problem
There is already a sparsity of asexual representation
Readers will project on the asexual characters and make assumptions
Many readers enjoy ‘shipping characters, and will mentally pair them up, or insist that there’s subtext
Shipping characters – Shipping is short for ‘relationship”, it’s when readers (and/or fanfic writers) decide they think two (or more characters) should be in a relationship.

Fanfic – is fiction written by fans about the characters from tv/movies/books that they want to see. Unofficial spin-offs. Like Paradise Lost is Biblical fanfic.

In fanfiction circles, “slash fiction” originated as stories pairing character A – slash – character B. A lot of the derivative stories have been traditionally homosexual pairings, but not always. And some of them, explicit erotica.

4 Approaches Making Asexual Characters Textual

Avoid the terms, but make it obvious in the plot
Make up terms in your story to represent asexual — or the reverse. Why not make a story where asexual is the default, and everything else must be defined?
Slip in the term
Worries it will feel dated
Have it as a small detail in a larger descriptive sentence

4 Overdone Asexual Tropes To Avoid
Having them focus on how their asexuality makes them weird or different. Asexual people typically don’t dwell on their lack of sexuality during their normal day-to-day lives.

Morgan question: What about thinking about how sexuality makes everyone ELSE weird?

Naivety – not understanding what sex is
Being repulsed by sex
Making the asexual character alien, or a robot, or inhumane in some way (very often Death itself).
Non-heterosexual characters being used as code for a ‘bad person’

How Being Asexual Affects A Person’s Life
No co-dependencies. Living alone is expensive and is easier with a profession.
Seen as naive or “just haven’t met the right person”
People trying to pair you up.
Seen as ‘frigid’ or ‘sexually dysfunctional’
Asexual people are normal people. They’ve always been out there.

For those looking for asexual stories:
Anything from the LessThan3Press (recently defunct)
Lesbian Reviews
Ancillary Justice (Anne Leckie)
Star Maker (Olaf Stapledon)
I’m not asexual. Let me know if I got anything wrong. Let me know if you have any suggestions for others trying to include asexual characters in their worlds.

Thank you for listening.