Sex sells. That's what they say, anyway. Whether bemoaning it as a sad part of our reality, or celebrating it for its commercial utility, we seem convinced that everyone wants sex, and, moreover, everyone wants to see sex. So what about people who don't want sex? What about asexuals? Do they view movies differently from the rest of us? I decided to head over to AVEN (www.asexuality.org) and ask them.
The answer is that there are probably as many movie buffs among asexuals as any other population. Respondents were fans of all kinds of genres: fantasy, sci-fi, animation, action, comedy, horror, drama, and even romance. One poster, Androgyny, even speculates, "maybe I put more emphasis on [movies] because sexuals are like 'movies? when i could be having sex?'."
There were, however, some scathing comments made about sex and romance in movies. According to Seabirdicat, "I really dont care for romance much at all, and I'm always crossing my fingers on certain movies hoping against hope they'll for once cut the pointless coupling out." Osmosis says, "I think often sex is used to sell the movie and cover up weak script points or lack of ideas, as some sort of a substitute." Some posters trashed romantic story-lines; others seemed to think they were okay, as long as they didn't involve sex. Lady Heartilly is a fan of romance, but says, "when I watch a movie in which the main character starts having sex and enjoys it, my ability to relate to him or her goes waaaaaaaaaaaaay down." There were even sex-positive comments such as Ily's, "I usually think sex scenes in movies are interesting; I think it might be because they are always shot really attractively and don't seem like real life."
Although there are no known examples of human asexuality in movies, many posters suggested films that seem to contain asexual themes. Amélie was cited for the protagonist's largely non-sexual lifestyle, and her ability to derive pleasure from other sources. Other suggestions were Finding Nerverland, Lost in Translation, fantasy movies such as The Lord of the Rings, Narnia, or the Harry Potter films, some kinds of anime, and children's films. Opinions were split over The 40 Year-Old Virgin. Morgan Underhill also cites the asexuality of the angel in Dogma, and a strange Alan Rickman obsession apparently shared by many asexuals.
In some cases, an asexual's enjoyment of a movie simply means interpreting it differently from sexual people. According to WheresMyCow, "I find that I tend to assume characters that show no sexual attraction or interest are asexual, [...] maybe like a heterosexual person would assume all characters to be heterosexual unless they show sexual interest in the same sex." Nakama makes a similar statement, but adds, "I also know that many of my sexual friends see [lack of overt attraction] completely differently - often interpreting it as homosexuality."
The same poster goes on to make the interesting observation: "One thing that annoys me is how many sexuals completely ignore the possibility of a close platonic friendship. For example, I know people who would argue endlessly that Frodo and Sam are gay, because they obviously mean so much to each other. To me, that's exactly what it is - they mean much to each other. That doesn't mean they have sex... why should it?" Perhaps if asexuals are less in tune with sexuality, they are more in tune with other themes, such as friendship. In the words of WheresMyCow, "I love stories of close friendship as much as I guess most sexual people love romance. Unfortunately they are rare."
For now, it seems that asexuals must resort to reading asexual themes into mainstream cinema. Or perhaps, in some cases, it is they who refuse to read in sexual subtext that doesn't really belong. Hopefully, movies will soon begin to deal with asexuality more openly, the way they are currently dealing with other forms of sexual diversity. Some posters expressed interest in making such movies, and doubtless many asexuals would be interested in seeing the results. As Hallucigenia comments, "I guess we all want to see ourselves reflected on the screen in some way..."