http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Asexuality

Oberyn: You did like boys? Before?

Varys: [shakes head]

Oberyn: Really? Girls? Hmm. I hope you won't be offended when I say I never would have guessed.

Varys: Not at all. But I was never interested in girls, either.

Oberyn: What then?

Varys: Nothing.

Oberyn: Everybody is interested in something.

Varys: Not me. Game of Thrones, "The Laws of Gods and Men" You did like boys? Before?[shakes head]Really? Girls? Hmm. I hope you won't be offended when I say I never would have guessed.Not at all. But I was never interested in girls, either.What then?Nothing.Everybody is interested in something.Not me.

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In fiction, you encounter tropes such as Everyone Is Gay, No Bisexuals, Everyone Is Bi, Anything That Moves, or even Extreme Omnisexual. You hear Silly Love Songs about Intercourse with You, and see Love Dodecahedrons, Kiss Kiss Slapping, Slap Slap Kissing, and oodles of Shipping. Well, This Is Not That Trope.

What you less often see are characters who are of an age or situation to get sexually attracted — but aren't.

It is difficult to showcase a lack of something, so it is understandable that this orientation is often ignored, especially in works with No Hugging, No Kissing. However, this also leads to the common assumption that everyone is interested in sex. This can lead to awkward feelings for the asexual audience.

Asexuality is something of a Cassandra Truth. Both in-universe and out, fans and fellow characters alike will often dismiss their sexual orientation as a side-effect of depression, mental sickness, Hollywood Autism, low hormone levels, abuse, immaturity, or even just plain old sour grapes.note "I can't get laid so I'll just pretend I didn't want to anyway." This criticism will not stop until they've succeeded in getting them to bed someone so they can live a "normal" life at last. They may also be Mistaken for Gay—especially if gayness is not expected to be expressed.

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In Real Life, asexuals don't feel sexual attraction, but they sometimes feel romantic attraction; many are comfortable with cuddling and kissing to express their feelings, and may be part of a Chastity Couple. Not feeling romantic attraction to another person is not the same thing — that would be aromanticism, which operates on a completely different scale from sexual orientation.

Note also that not feeling sexual attraction does not automatically equal a disgust for or aversion to sexual content. Some may read about it, write about it, or draw it.

Not to be confused with being genderless, nor with biological asexuality which means that an organism does not reproduce sexually. See Truly Single Parent for characters who reproduce asexually.

Many asexuals consider asexuality to be a spectrum, with "gray sexuality"/"gray asexuality" and "demisexuality"note see Asexuality for specific definitions residing somewhere between "fully" asexual (never feel sexual attraction) and "fully" allosexualnote The antonym to asexual, compare; heterosexual and cisgender, the antonyms to homosexual and transgender respectively. This trope is the direct opposite of Extreme Omnisexual, and frequently a victim of the belief that Good People Have Good Sex and Sex Equals Love. See also Chaste Hero — who might be asexual — and Celibate Hero, who usually isn't, but doesn't date all the same. A possible cause of Married to the Job. Meanwhile, someone in Holy Orders or a similar career might take a Vow of Celibacy and voluntarily adopt an asexual lifestyle, regardless of whatever their innate sexual feelings might be.

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This should not be confused with lacking sex appeal, where the person in question is not deemed sexually attractive by others. Likewise, some characters may be just too afraid of sex to actually seek it out. Some characters are afraid or uncomfortable with sex because of sexual abuse. This is not asexuality.

Note: Only include someone if they are explicitly asexual. They don't have to use the word asexual, but it needs to be pretty apparent. No Alternative Character Interpretation. Also remember that while they overlap frequently in fiction, asexuality and having No Social Skills are not the same thing. Finally, this shouldn't be confused with characters who physically Cannot Have Sex Ever - such characters may or may not still have sexual desires and/or romantic feelings, regardless of whether they can express them.

Super-Trope to Romantic Asexual and Villainous Aromantic Asexual. Although asexual is often shortened to "ace", this trope has nothing to do with The Ace.

Examples:

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Anime & Manga

Audio Plays

Comic Books

Comic Strips

Zonker in Doonesbury has consistently been portrayed as avoiding romantic or physical attachments to the opposite sex like the plague. He had one sustained platonic dating relationship with a woman who, in one strip, humorously demonstrated to Mike and J.J. how even her most blatant and obvious "come on" lines flew over Zonker's head and didn't even register. ("It's like dating an elf!")

Fan Works

Films — Animation

Sawada from Tekkonkinkreet states his lack of interest in women, and has commented "I'm frigid" and "never had an orgasm".

Frozen: Elsa. While the first movie is ambiguous about it, the sequel is more straightforward. When Elsa reaches Ahtohallan, she sings a love song, Show Yourself, to what she assumes is the person she was looking for, only to realize the person she's been searching for is herself.

Films — Live-Action

In A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia (the TV movie sequel to Lawrence of Arabia) T.E. Lawrence (who despite some homoerotic passages in his writing always insisted he never had sex voluntarily with anyone in his life) first refuses a beautiful woman that has come to seduce him , saying with a despairing laugh that he literally CAN'T do what she wants from him (not even for the direly needed political favor she could do him in return). Then in a scene shortly after that, he also refuses the more subtle advances of a male friend of his and talks disparagingly about sex in general. Despite this, he seems to have a rather intense emotional bond with prince Feisal and the movie uses a few tropes of classic romantic movies between them (like lighting the other's cigarette), implying a homoromantic orientation. There is some implication that Lawrence's behaviour is the result of trauma, but the movie thankfully doesn't make any mention of the fact that the real T.E. Lawrence was raped as well.

, saying with a despairing laugh that he literally CAN'T do what she wants from him (not even for the direly needed political favor she could do him in return). Then in a scene shortly after that, he also refuses the more subtle advances of a male friend of his and talks disparagingly about sex in general. Despite this, he seems to have a rather intense emotional bond with prince Feisal and the movie uses a few tropes of classic romantic movies between them (like lighting the other's cigarette), implying a homoromantic orientation. There is some implication that Lawrence's behaviour is the result of trauma, but the movie thankfully doesn't make any mention of the fact that the real T.E. Lawrence was raped as well. From Russia with Love: Red Grant is portrayed as an essentially asexual man.

The Hangover: Alan is asexual, according to Word of God. He gets married in the third film, but this doesn't contradict him being asexual, as asexual and aromantic are two different things.

in the third film, but this doesn't contradict him being asexual, as asexual and aromantic are two different things. The Living Wake: Although he never comments on it himself, Mills, according to his best friend K. Roth, "abhors sex", and unlike K. Roth, expresses absolutely zero interest in sex or even romance. (Unless his Tragic Bromance with K. Roth counts.) While Mills' obvious discomfort with K. Roth having sex with a prostitute while Mills is still standing right there is understandable and would be a reasonable reaction from anyone of any orientation, the fact that he reacts to nudity in general in the same way one might react to watching paint dry does lend credence to the idea. And if anyone would know what Mills' "deal" is, it's K. Roth.

The Dutch drama Love Life (also known as Stricken) has a serial womanizer named Stijn as its lead. Stijn narrates the film, and when introducing his best friend, Frank, notes that Frank's libido is exactly the opposite to his: "He's not interested in fucking. It exists."

Mysterious Skin: Brian Lackey shows no interest in sex or romance, and seems repulsed when a female character abruptly tries to kiss, touch and undress him. Another character describes his "vibe" as "kinda weirdly asexual." His memories of the childhood sexual abuse possibly responsible for this are strongly repressed until the end of the movie, as he believes he was abducted by aliens and not sexually abused.

In Perfume, the Villain Protagonist is obsessed with the scents of nubile virgins, though he has no sexual interest in them, or anyone else. He hires a prostitute solely for the purpose of an experiment to capture her scent.

Herbert West from Re-Animator scoffs at the sex drives of his fellow scientists (he even tells Dan in the second film to not "let the little head rule the big head"), and actor Jeffrey Combs explicitly describes him as asexual in an interview in the 1996 book "Shockmasters".

Literature

Live-Action TV

Music

Will Jay's 2017 song Never Been In Love became extremely popular among aromantic and asexual communities online.

became extremely popular among aromantic and asexual communities online. Victoria Wood's song "Pam" is about a woman who "couldn't give a beggar on the whole sex front," despite the best efforts of various lovers (of both genders).

Moses Sumney dedicated his whole debut studio album, Aromanticism , to "seeking to interrogate the idea that romance is normative and necessary".

, to "seeking to interrogate the idea that romance is normative and necessary". Sun Ra was asexual, and his music reflects this fact.

Myths & Religion

Jesus' teachings in the Gospels about those resurrected will "neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be like the angels in heaven", possibly indicating that resurrected believers would not only be unable to reproduce, but will also not even have the desire for sexual intercourse. This is sometimes used by Bible students to argue the case that the "sons of God" in Genesis chapter 6 could not be angels, but rather be the children of Seth's lineage marrying those of Cain's lineage (the "daughters of men"). It could also be a reference to the idea that each and every angel was created as a unique act of creation by God. So likewise those who are worthy of resurrection will also each be a unique act of (re)creation by God. The arrangement of marriage was given to Adam and Eve and their descendants. These recreated humans are not really Adam's descendants in the biological sense as they were given life directly by God, not through Adam.

Paul of Tarsus was also asexual apparently, given that in one of his letters he wishes that all people were like he was, lacking sexual desire, and lauding the arrangement after the resurrection laid out above. He recognized the reality of things, however, and said that if people could not control their sexual desires it was best that they married. Second best to celibacy, mind you.

Classical Mythology: Artemis, goddess of hunting and patron of virgin girls, Does Not Like Men and thus asked her father, Zeus, to let her remain a virgin; her followers, mostly female, are likewise chaste. One legend says that Artemis fell in love with Orion and was considering abandoning her vow, which is why her twin brother, Apollo, arranged his death. Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, just seems disinterested; unlike the above, there aren't even any myths where she considers romance. Hestia, goddess of the hearth, is described as having no interest in "Aphrodite's works." When Apollo and Poseidon both tried to marry her, she instead swore an Intrinsic Vow to remain a maiden, for which Zeus granted her the honor of receiving the first offering at every mortal household sacrifice.

In How Culhwch Won Olwen, an early Welsh legend about King Arthur, Culhwch gets cursed by his stepmother to never be able to love a woman until he gets Olwen, daughter of Ysbaddaden Bencawr.

Podcasts

Wooden Overcoats: Rudyard is heavily coded as aromantic and asexual, being the only character who shows no interest in romance or sex whatsoever. He finds reading erotica to be a boring waste of time, doesn't notice flirting or someone pulling an Operation: Jealousy unless someone spells it out for him (and even then, he might not believe them), and is never even referenced as having had a crush on someone in the past.

Roleplay

Dawn of a New Age: Oldport Blues: Abby has been described as not having interest in anyone, and probably never will, putting her somewhere on the ace spectrum. A member of Nadine's gang, Tamasin, is asexual but not aromantic. She desires a sex-free relationship with an honest, supportive partner, hence her crush on local Nice Guy Ciro.

Several over the past seasons of Survival of the Fittest: Kristey Burrowell, Adrian Staib, Remi Pierce, and Aston Bennett are all the most notable examples.

Tabletop Games

BattleTech Clan warriors either live by this or indulge in sexuality as a hobby. For them a proper warrior is a Trueborn warrior who is artificially grown in an iron womb; they mostly consider sex as a mere pastime thing, and romantic relationships mean little to them. For them, a regular Freeborn is worth less than a Trueborn who are only fit for civilian roles, or filling out the lower ranks of their armies at best. In the novels, Clan members from the same "sibko roster"—implied to be brothers and sisters, although technically related only by growing up in the same "batch"—do have non-reproductive sex as routine bonding. The first human mercenary Phelan Kell captured in battle against the Clans falls in love with a Clanwoman, and is horrified to discover that she is sleeping with his most vitriolic rival Vlad Ward , on both the sibling-squick angle as well as the cheating angle. Anastasius Focht tries objecting that the Clans' culture has diverged for hundreds of years from that of the rest of humanity and, somehow, that this makes it fine.

The Argent Adept from Sentinels of the Multiverse. Originally, this was just the nature of the comics of his era. Nowadays, it's been established that he is indeed both asexual and aromantic.

Occasionally Pathfinder puts in an asexual NPC: Skywin Freeling during the Strange Aeons adventure path, for example.

Theatre

Freddie Trumper/The American from Chess is more interested in chess than sex, according to "One Night in Bangkok" Get Thai-ed, you're talking to a tourist

Whose every move's among the purest

I get my kicks above the waistline, sunshine!

In the Mrs. Hawking play series, titular character Victoria Hawking is, according to Word of God, an aromantic asexual .

Video Games

Visual Novels

Webcomics

Web Original

Web Video

Western Animation