Asexuality in fiction

This list is for fictional portrayals of asexual or suspected-asexual characters.

Please expand this list!

Books

Novels

• Kate Atkinson - Case Histories: A Novel (Amelia, Philip)

• Pearl S. Buck - The Pavilion of Women (Madam Wu)

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - Sherlock Holmes Mysteries (Sherlock Holmes)

• Kathrine Dunn - Geek Love (Miss Lick)

• Henry Fielding - Tom Jones (Blifil)

• Emma Forest - Namedropper: A Novel (Viva Cohen?)

• E.M. Forster - A Room With a View (Mr. Beebe and Cecil Vyse)

• Thomas Hardy - Jude The Obscure (Sue Bridehead)

• Keri Hulme - The Bone People (Kerewin Holmes)

• John Irving - The World According to Garp (Jenny Fields)

• Susan Isaacs - Lily White (main characters lead asexual relationship)

• Caren Lissner - Carrie Pilby (Carrie Pilby)

• Caren Lissner et al. - Scenes From A Holiday (Carrie Pilby, see novella titled "Carrie Pilby's New Year's Resolution")

• Tim O'Brien - July, July (Marla Dempsey)

• George Orwell - A Clergyman's Daughter (Dorothy Hare)

• Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman - Herland (the women)

• Fernando Pessoa - The Book of Disquiet (Bernardo Soares)

• Barbara Pym - Crampton Hodnet (Barbara Bird)

• Bill Richardson - The Bachelor Brothers' Bed and Breakfast (Virgil)

• Willy Russell - The Wrong Boy (Raymond Marks)

• Michael Bilka - Operation Hurdler, and Operation Outside Hitter (Faye and Linda Cooper)

• Virginia Woolf - To The Lighthouse (Lily Briscoe) (described as asexual by Market Drabble in the introduction to the Oxford University Press edition and also here)

Science fiction and fantasy

• Brian W. Aldiss - White Mars (Cang Hai)

• Isaac Asimov - I, Robot (Dr. Susan Calvin)

• Greg Egan - Diaspora

• Greg Egan - Distress

• Robin Hobb - Fool's Errand, Golden Fool, Fool's Fate (Amber/Lord Golden)

• Tanya Huff - The Fire's Stone (Chandra)

• Alexandro Jodorowsky - The Metabarons: Aghora the Father-Mother & Immaculate Conception (Aghora)

• Mercedes Lackey - The Oathbound (Tarma)

• Mercedes Lackey - Oathbreakers (Tarma)

• Mercedes Lackey - Oathblood (Tarma)

• Patricia A. McKillip - Ombria in Shadow (Mag the Waxling)

• Elizabeth Moon - The Deed of Paksenarrion: A Novel (Paks)

• Caroline Stevermer - When the King Comes Home (Hail Rosamer)

• Kurt Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle (Mona Aamons Monzano)

• Kurt Vonnegut - Deadeye Dick (Rudy Waltz)

• Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman - Rose of the Prophet Trilogy: The Will of the Wanderer, The Paladin of the Night, The Prophet of Akhran (Azriel)

Short Stories

• Samuel R. Delaney - Aye, and Gomorrah

• Theodore Sturgeon - The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff

Movies

• Once (2006) Directed by John Carey, Best song (Oscar) 2006

• Withnail and I (1987) Directed by Bruce Robinson - the film ends with Withnail saying "Man delights not me, no, nor women neither, nor women neither."[1] (These words are in fact originally taken from a quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet, act 2, scene 2.[2])

• Sherlock Holmes (Most versions) Sherlock Holmes is generally considered asexual.

Television Shows

• Dexter - The title character, a serial killer, feels emotionally divorced from the rest of humanity and has no interest in romance or sex. [3]

• Doctor Who - The Doctor's sexuality is ambiguous; his relationship with Rose Tyler has been described as "a love story without the shagging". [4]

• Ouran High School Host Club - Haruhi Fujioka, the main character, has no interest in romance and prefers platonic relationships despite being surrounded by attractive males and females. [5]

• Shortland street - New Zealand TV Show - character Gerald is asexual.[6][7]

• The Big Bang Theory - American sitcom, character Sheldon Cooper expresses asexual tendencies.

• The Golden Girls - American sitcom, character Rose never thought about sex before she was married and when her husband wanted to have sex for the first time she didn't really understand sexual desire. She has never orgasmed.

• The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya - One known asexual character, Yuki Nagato, and an anti-romantic character (titular). The show doesn't feature any relationships except for platonic ones, although the narrator character does experience some sexual attraction himself. [8]

• Sherlock (2010 series) Holmes says having a girlfriend is "not really my area", he considers himself "married to my job", and tells Watson, I am flattered by your interest, [but] I am really not looking for anyone." Steven Moffat said in an interview 'He's happy being Sherlock Holmes... other people might have a problem with him being asexual, he doesn't have any problem with it, he's fine.' [9]

• Huge - American show, 2010. Poppy (played by Zoe Jarman) is the girl's cabin leader. She self-identifies as asexual in season 1, episode 5. [10] [11]

See Also

• Media in Video Form for television documentaries that focus on asexuality.

• the Reading list for books, stories, and other reading material that may be of special interest to asexuals.

External Links

• TV Tropes article on asexuality