Monday, November 14, 2011

Asexual Lesbians/ Asexual Women in Fiction

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Asexual Flag & Triange Badge Pin by NewEnglandAces
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Asexual characters are rare and difficult to accurately identify, but they do exist in fiction. This is a list of all the female asexual characters and Asexual lesbians* in novels and other books, whether roaming singly or in a 'Boston Marriage' (a 19th century term for two women committed to each other in a non-sexual relationship).

*(Obviously romantic asexual female pairings are also all female asexual characters, it's just a bit tricky trying to define them without using a whole sentence!)

For the purposes of this list, only characters inside a sexual canon displaying asexual traits should be counted as asexual (i.e. they have to be presented with an opportunity to display sexuality, not just 'never have sex'). Some of these characters may generally be assumed to be 'lesbian', but often that's only because they're obviously 'not straight'.

Most of them are fantasy, and are usually asexual due to magic, oaths, or utter dedication to a cause. This may reflect a stereotype of sexless women - or it may simply be that these women are more likely to be forced to declare their lack of sexual interest (almost all the titles below are written by women, if that matters).


Tarma in the Vows and Honor series by Mercedes Lackey

If there is any one character who is absolutely and definitely asexual, it is Tarma.

Tarma was a normal young woman, but after a raid on her tribe she dedicated herself to her Goddess is an irrevocable oath of fealty that made her one of the Swordsworn - rare and respected and utterly sexless agents of justice amongst the tribal Shin'a'in. She travels with a beautiful and very heterosexual young mage called Kethry, and is her partner in all respects save the bedchamber (Kethry later marries and they all create a school together). Set in the world of Valdemar, the later books overlap with the Heralds.
The first two books follow Tarma and Kethry on their quest for vengeance on the bandits who destroyed Tarma's tribe, and the complicated requests of the magical sword Need, while the last is a collection of short stories about the two women.
Tarma and Kethry also appear in By The Sword, training Kerowyn, Kethry's granddaughter before she sets out on her adventures.

Chandra in The Fire's Stone by Tanya Huff

The Fire's Stone is a unique story that follows a three way relationship between the three very different main characters - a repressed gay male thief, the promiscuous bisexual prince and Chandra, the asexual mage-princess who has been betrothed to the prince.
Chandra is a sorceress, a teenager, very wilful and smart - and unfortunately, her father's heir. So she's not too impressed at being bartered into marriage. She's even less impressed at the idea of losing her magic when she has sex (it's based on virginity). As she expresses no interest whatsoever in man or woman, it's not much of a sacrifice to her.
They all get bound together in a politically arranged plot to go rescue the Fire's Stone, the only thing holding back the volcano in the middle of the city. Along the way, the two men fall in love and the girl gets over herself a bit and learns to care about them.
  • Note: There's slightly more focus on the romance between the men than on Chandra, this isn't really a 'romance/sex free book' 

Paks in The Deed of Paksenarrion by Elizabeth Moon  - Review
Paks (Paksenarrion) is often cited as for lesbian subtext, but really hasn't got any. She is a farmgirl turned mercenary, who pursues the path of justice and eventually becomes a Paladin. She is a kind, good person who has absolutely no interest in romance (and actually states this when pressed).

Emras in Banner of the Damned by Sherwood Smith
Emras is the viewpoint character and scribe to a princess in a world of politics and intrigue, and magic. Emras is a genuine asexual character, with no magical excuses, in a world full of positive female characters. A solid, if not mindblowing, epic fantasy that sits within an overarching series (but stands alone).

Science Fiction

Perceval in Dust by Elizabeth Bear (Book 1 of the Jacob's Ladder trilogy)
The main character Perceval is an asexual, female identified character who falls in love with Rien, a lesbian (also her half sister).
A last remnant of a once great society, a broken ship full of genetically engineered beings and competing AIs, replete with mythological imagery, religious allegory and feudalism; when a high class Angel is captured by an opposing house in a bid to start a way, she must escape with the half sister she discovers there. But of course, things only become more complicated from there. An epic science fiction mediaeval romance with lesbian and genderqueer characters.
Shortlisted for the 2008 Best Novel Gaylactic Spectrum Award 

Mary and Layla in A Mask for the General by Lisa Goldstein
Young Mary, who becomes apprenticed to Layla, a famous maskmaker (something that is rife with superstition and awe). A dystopian novel of the future that follows the love between two women, along with issues of sanity and medication, freedom and all the other things that come along with the collapse of modern society.
  • One woman has a sexual relationship with a man, though it comes secondary to the relationship between the women.  
  • A Mask for the General on Amazon

Young Adult

Shades of Gay by Stephanie Silberstein

Written by an asexual author, one of the major supporting characters, Emily, is a confirmed asexual. She is very active in the lives and romance of the main character, a gay teen, and his bisexual love interest. 

Ultraviolet and Quicksilver by R.J. Anderson
A science fiction story that takes some definite twists and turns, this series follows two girls, Alison and Tori. Each gets their own 'book', and asexual Tori is the narrator of the second book, Quicksilver (her asexuality is not really known or discussed in the first book). Based on reviews, it is highly recommended (as a good book!). We've read the first book, though it doesn't fit on this site, so it's not reviewed and it's pretty good (definitely a YA novel).


Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg
A much cited classic of lesbian literature, this novel revolved around two women who set up a home together, at the Whistle Stop Cafe in Alabama in the 1920s.

The Bostonians by Henry James
Written in 1886, this classic piece of literature follows the lives of two nineteenth century women in Boston. Verena Tarrant is an astonishing orator for women's rights, and Olive is a passionate feminist, who sees in Verena a soul mate. But where she desires Verena's mind and abilities, a man is busy desiring her body. A satire on possession, and the struggle to 'own' the spirited Verena, as well as an insightful study of women's rights. While it certainly hints at lesbianism, it doesn't really go any further, openly. 


Boston Marriages: Romantic but Asexual Relationships Among Contemporary Lesbians by Esther D. Rothblum and Kathleen A. Brehony (1993)
The only book out there that really examines the 'Boston Marriage', (asexual yet loving relationships between women). A collection of essays and personal stories.

The Hite Report on Women Loving Women by Shere Hite (republished 2009)
A study of relationships between women, including familal, sexual and 'intimate but not sexual'. The author is internationally recognised for her work on gender relations and psychosexuality. You may also be interested in The Hite Report: A National Study of Female Sexuality (2003), which is an in-depth and somewhat graphic look at women and sex.

Webcomics can be a bit tricky, because unless they're finished, or deliberately mentioning labels, you can't ever be quite sure the characters won't evolve. There's also the whole spoilers issue, or the 'making you read four years of backstory for a character that suddenly starts showing up later'. That said, webcomics are a very, very good place to find non-mainstream characters.
Mundane Nirvana - one of the two female protagonists in this awesome, random, geeky and now complete webcomic is asexual. The other is bisexual.
Girls With Slingshots - began pretty heterosexually, but over the years has picked up an increasing number of lesbians. The main character's best friend/co-protagonist is in an established, officially asexual, lesbian relationship which was stable for a very long time (more so than most of the other relationships). Her asexual partner doesn't show up much, but she's certainly an important character. Later in the comic, they move into open relationship territory (while remaining very much together) to address the differing sexual needs of each woman.
Go Get A Roomie - a fantastically lovely webcomic following a very promiscuous and freespirited lesbian, Roomie, and the girl who she sort of accidentally ends up being adopted by. Lillian is possible asexual, and has a whole bunch of other possible issues (the artist is being understandably non-committal), but has never expressed sexual interest in anything. Whether it becomes a story of her opening up and discovering herself, or she remains the nonsexual counter to the very sexual Roomie, it starts out very well. I reviewed it ages ago in early 2011, when it was still starting out (before it was obvious that Lillian was somewhere in the asexual scale), and you can read that review here.
Gunnerkrigg Court - I don't want to read too much in this, but the main character of this extremely fantastic, beautiful webcomic (weird boarding school with magic, growing up and science and a whole bunch of mythos woven in) has never expressed romantic/sexual interest in another person  (the one time she did, it was very notable and she didn't actually mean it). She's very femme, and still growing up (and there are canon reasons for her possibly never reproducing). There is also, eventually, lesbianfluffawesomeness, but you have to read about five books worth to get there, and you really don't want to skip ahead. These are kids growing up into teens, and I can guarantee many, many pages of asexy main female character goodness.

Shoujo-ai/subtext manga/anime
Some of the characters in manga can be considered asexual, especially if one assumes that the lesbian subtext is in fact the full 'text' and the reason characters never made it to full yuri status is not because they were straight, but because they were asexual. 

Titles that contain characters that are a good example of this include:
Note: currently all links to anime
There are definitely a few more possible characters that could be included, but asexuals in fiction are tricky, so we need to double check them first! 

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  1. Just reblogged this on tumblr, but I thought I'd mention it here too: Banner of the Damned by Sherwood Smith is written from an asexual female's POV.

    1. Thank you for that! We did see the Tumblr comment and gleefully stole the suggestion.

  2. Aaauuuuugh, I am so very happy to see The Deed of Paksenarrion on this list! Paks is forever my favourite, particularly for the fact that she is never pushed into the whole "female character = romance storyline"-bullshit. She is awkward about it, she has no interest in romance or in sex, and she doesn't really understand it in general.
    Thank you!

  3. Thanks for these reading suggestions - I've added some to my TBR list!