For this blog post, I want to focus on asexuality. What is asexuality? Asexuality is defined as a lack of sexual attraction or having a little bit of sexual attraction. Asexuality is a spectrum that has a wide range of varying identities. There is also aromanticism or a lack of romantic attraction or having a little bit of romantic attraction, like asexuality it is a spectrum too. Asexuality and aromanticism are both defined by their queer relationship to sex and romance. A thing to note is that people can identify as both, so the label used is aro/ace. If you want to know more about asexuality or aromanticism I would once again recommend the Trevor Project and the Oxford University LGBTQ+ Society for more information.

Why am I talking about this?

The reason why I am discussing this topic is that there is very little asexual or aromantic representation in television, and I don’t just mean cable television but also streaming as well. While there is little representation, let us go over one major example of asexual representation in television.

Bojack Horseman and Asexual Representation

The show that will be discussed is Bojack Horseman the hit Netflix show that ran from 2014 to 2020. In the show, we are introduced to the character Todd Chavez who is revealed to be asexual in season 3. The show throughout the third season hints at Todd being asexual and in season four he comes to terms with his asexuality and meets other asexuals throughout the show.
(P.S linked a video to the scene where Todd came notice the highligthed text)

Todd Chavez shown here.

Why am using Todd as an example for asexual representation?

Todd is used as a tool for the audience to understand what asexuality is and to help show what the journey is like in finding themselves. Todd for me was my first real exposure to asexuality in any form of media that have seen and think that we need more sympatic and more in-depth representation. Todd is a good starting point, but there needs to be more. Asexuality is a spectrum and audiences need to know that. There also should be a representation for aromantic people as well. Both deserve to be normalized and as someone who is asexual and aromantic, this needs to happen. Bojack Horseman in conclusion is a step in the right direction, but we need more media to be willing to represent asexuals and aromantics as a whole.

Here are the flags for the asexual and aromantic flags. On top is the asexual one while the one below it is the aromantic one.