fonsfaq sub

[ex_pippin880]

Hey guys! I'm doing asexuality/aromanticism for the Frequently (or Not So Frequently) Asked Questions project and I've been asked something that I can't answer. Would anyone like to take it?

The question is:
What's your favourite and least favourite thing to read about asexuality in fiction?

And I... can't think of a single example of or reference to (textual/canon) asexuality in books/fiction I've read. :|

Comments

[pyrofennec]

Heh, I'm writing something where an entire species is asexual and treat being sexual as something non-default and strange. I'm asexual and this, basically, was my answer to the average better-and-sexier-than-thou fantasy race--you know how a lot of people find escapism in pointy-eared white supremacists Mary Sues elves? Mine is "ungendered, asexual, and not white, lol fuck you Tolkien." It didn't occur to me back then that associating asexuality with the non-human was problematic. :/

I do have a human asexual character in the same story, though.

[themistoklis]

:P I'm also agender.

I love fantasy fiction. It's probably my favorite genre ever, and it's the majority of what I write (in original fiction). But I hesitate at giving aces magical powers or making them a part of a magical race (unless there are also lots of non-ace people with magic, or non-ace members of the magical race). I mean, if there was an entire race of aliens who were all gay, or all bisexual, I would imagine that it would be equally problematic.

Not having read your stuff I don't want to judge. If I'd come across the race in a novel written by a sexual person, I'd have put it down immediately. If you have a prominent human asexual character, I think that helps balance it out.

I would just be very wary of approaching it as a reader, because the majority of characters interpreted as asexual are also cast in some way as not human, or at least treated as somehow not human in the "right" way. And while I love aliens and fantasy races, I'm also tired of that being nearly the only way that people like me can exist.