Saturday, August 1, 2009

Tintin, Watchmen

I found an interesting website called TV Tropes. It's a sort of wiki that records various themes in TV, film, anime, comic books, and literature. One of these is asexuality, and the length of the anime section makes me realize that I really need to watch more anime. They really did a good job of describing asexuality and some of the issues that we contend with in terms of fictional portrayals (did someone we know write this page?). A potentially asexual character that never occurred to me before:

Tintin! TV Tropes says, "...even compared to the (very chaste) standards of the other characters of the series. It's even difficult to remember him talking to a girl." Indeed. All I remember is some guys ransacking his apartment and chloroforming him. Oh, childhood memories. And another character whose sexuality (or lack thereof) I have pondered:

Rorschach! From Watchmen (book and movie). He was my favorite character in Watchmen, which is saying a lot, since he's a misogynistic right-wing nutcase. He's repelled by anything sexual, although this probably has to do to his past; his mother was a prostitute and in the book, we're shown Rorschach as a child walking in on his mother with a client. Much like Dexter (of the books and TV show), the irregularities of these characters' minds and their antisocial behaviors obscure any real knowledge of their sexualities. TV Tropes brought up another Watchmen character that I had never considered as possibly ace. The site says, "Of all the characters in Watchmen, Ozymandias is the best reflection of real life asexuality. In a graphic novel which features the sexualities of all the major and several of the minor characters, Ozymandias's is not ever mentioned or displayed in any way. Rorschach, on the other hand, comes across as repressed a sexual/emotional train wreck, but not truly asexual in the sense of the sexual orientation" [Cross-out is theirs].

Ozymandias is not a reflection of real-life anything-- he's just as bizarre as Rorschach, albeit in a different way. However, he could come across as a really physically fit, technologically skilled version of Sherlock Holmes. Ozymandias is billed as the smartest man in the world, and thinks the world of himself as well. Like Holmes, another man who is way too smart (and knows it), Ozymandias found intellectual pursuits more stimulating than sex or romance.

It's worth noting that on the TV Tropes page of potentially asexual characters, men outnumber women at about 10:1. This seems in keeping with my own observations of pop culture, however, we all know that there are more women than men on AVEN. As always, media lags behind real life, if it isn't ignoring it entirely. And again, I'm left asking where my fictional girls are at.

6 comments:

KC the MoUsY spell-checker said...

Hmm, TV Tropes... So addictive. xD

All those asexual men, and they missed the obvious example. Gerald on Shortland Street, of course.

Other than that... at least they acknowledge asexuality as an orientation.

Cosmia said...

I can't remember if it was it the comic or not, but in the film it's hinted that Ozy is gay- there is a pink triangle motif in his office building and one of only a few files on his computer is titled "Boys" Anyway, TV tropes eh? Addictive!

Ily said...

Eenteresting...did a quick skim for pink triangles in the book, and didn't see any. Although there were definitely some purple pyramids. And yeah, there are so many hyperlinks on those pages you could really get lost for a long time!

Noskcaj Llahsram said...

It's a purple triangle, and the triangle is a thickened V for "Veidt", and the purple is because, in antiquity (Which Ozy has an unhealthy obsession with) was very rare and difficult to obtain, thus relegated to royalty.
Also Rorschach is an insane, delusional, Sociopath (which I dressed up as for the premiere), who is probably straight, but simple hates people, like a serial killer,
And Ozy also (whether or not deservedly) a narcissist, and was 'very busy' during those course of events.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I just thought I'd tell you that I found your blog through that TVTropes article. ^^ I had never heard of asexuality before, amazingly enough, so I talked to some people and they sent me to AVEN, which led me here. So hi!

Ily said...

That's very cool! Yep, a lot of people have never heard of us, but we're working on changing that. :-)