Asexual Representation In Mainstream Media Analysis

In mainstream media, asexuality is rarely represented and much less accepted as a sexual orientation. Usually, asexual individuals are portrayed as having either a mental or biological problem that makes them asexual (Jankowski, 2015). Asexual women are shown as the innocent, kind “figure of purity" or as a “masculine woman” that cannot express her true desires or she will “lose her strength” (Engelman, 2008). Asexual men are shown as extremely intelligent and rational (Engelman, 2008). Other problems of asexual representation in mainstream media are as follows:

1. The asexual character can be sexualized and be “turned.”

2. Everyone is interested in sex and if they are not, then there is something wrong with them.

3. Asexuality is a “lack”

(Shore, 2012). In the beginning of the episode an asexual couple come in because the wife is experiencing bladder issues. When the doctors want to do a pregnancy test she explains that it is not necessary because both she and her husband are asexuals who do not engage in sexual intercourse. While Dr. Watson accepts this as an explanation, Dr. House does not and becomes determined to “debunk” this. Therefore, hormone tests are conducted on the wife, but when the results come back normal Dr. House decides to run tests on the husband. Dr. House finds a tumor near the pituitary gland that he explains has decreased the husband’s desires. Then the audience finds out that the wife was lying the whole time about her asexuality for the sake of her husband (“Synopsis for ‘House M.D.’: Better Half,” 2012). By presenting medical reasons behind asexuality, the episode shows it as a problem and thus perpetuates the misconception that asexuality is a medical disorder or a form of psychopathology. Sadly, the episode denies the existence of asexuality through the husband’s tumor and the wife’s lie (Fedtke,

This is problematic and misleading to the audience because romantic attraction cannot magically turn into sexual attraction for asexual individuals. Though there are instances in which romantic attraction can lead to sexual desires (like in demisexuals), it does not occur as often as media portrays it. Also, this trope guides the audience into thinking that asexuality can be “fixed” (Jankowski, 2015). This is not so because much like a heterosexual individual cannot be “turned” gay, an asexual individual cannot be “turned” into a sexual