Friday, September 21, 2007

From the Hypothetical Mailbag

Q: Is Dexter [the title character from Showtime's TV series] batting for the A-Team?

A: That's an interesting question. As those with cable (and now that Season 1 is out on DVD, the rest of us) know, Dexter is a functioning serial killer. Sure, he only kills people that "deserve" it, like murderers who go unpunished, but that's beside the point. And the point? That even though Dexter's sexuality is ambiguous, that's really the least of his problems.

I've seen 4 episodes of the show, and I'm liking it so far, even though it has lots of flashbacks. (If there's one thing that annoys me, it's flashbacks.) Oddly enough, Dexter's (so far, non-sexual) relationship with his girlfriend, Rita, and her kids is extremely cute and sweet. Since Rita is recovering from a domestic abuse situation, she doesn't feel comfortable having sex. And since Dexter is a sociopath, this doesn't seem to bother him. However, there was one episode where Dexter was helping Rita plant a tree in her yard, and I was thinking, "Oh gosh, this is the cutest thing ever, I want a boyfriend to help me plant a tree and then not want to have sex! Eee!" That's right, folks. Our only pop-culture model for a good asexual relationship is with a serial killer. Wow, that's kind of messed up.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I may be asexual, but I'm not adexual!

Ily said...

Ha, me neither. Thanks for your comment!

Anonymous said...

I don't know how different the show is from the books, but in the books he's definitely not interested in sex at all--and sees Rita as a good person to go out with partly because she's not interested in sex, either (although she eventually does want to have sex with him, and he kind of... goes along to maintain his cover).

Ily said...

Interesting-- I haven't read the books, but maybe I should, as I like the show so much!