Fictosexuality
Attraction to fictional characters From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fictosexuality is sexual attraction towards fictional characters.[1][2][3][4][5] Romantic attraction towards fictional characters is called fictoromantic attraction.[4][6]
 | This article has been flagged as possibly containing fringe theories without giving appropriate weight to mainstream views. (April 2024) |
| Definition | Attraction to fictional characters |
|---|---|
| Classification | Sexual identity |
| Parent category | Asexuality |
| Other terms | |
| Associated terms | |
The term fictosexuality describes the desire to engage in sexual relationships with fictional characters, or the experience of desire for fictional sexual material distinct from desire for flesh-and-blood people.[1][7] Fictoromance is romantic attraction to fictional characters. The asexual community has used the term to describe people who experience sexual attraction to fictional characters and not to real people.[1][4][5]
Fictosexual individuals may face discrimination and marginalization due to human-oriented sexualism and humanogenderism.[8][9] As a result, social movements exist to promote the acceptance of fictosexuality and the relativization of human-oriented sexualism and humanogenderism. In 2019, the world's first advocacy group for fictosexuals was established in Taiwan.[7][9]
Terms in different languages
In Chinese, the term zhǐxìngliàn (simplified Chinese: 纸性恋; traditional Chinese: 紙性戀; lit. 'paper sexuality') refers to sexual attraction towards two-dimensional characters only.[3]
In Japanese, nijikon is typically used to describe a sexual attraction towards two-dimensional anime, manga, and light novel characters, as opposed to attraction towards flesh-and-blood humans.[10][11] However, the term fikutosekushuaru is distinct from nijikon and specifically pertains to a sexual identity.[1][7]
Research
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Perspective
Demographic research
According to the "8th National Survey of Adolescent Sexual Behavior" conducted by the Japanese Association for Sex Education in 2017, the percentage of respondents who reported "having had romantic feelings for a game or anime character" was as follows: 13.1% of male junior high school students, 16.0% of female junior high school students, 13.6% of male high school students, 15.4% of female high school students, 14.4% of male university students, and 17.1% of female university students.[12]
Relationship with fictional characters
Fictosexuality and fictoromance are occasionally regarded as a form of parasocial relationship in media studies and game studies.[13][14] Hsi-wen Liao claims that research on parasocial relationships often centers on unidirectional attachment from the audience to the character, thereby overlooking the intricate and diverse relationships between fictosexuals or fictoromantics, and fictional characters.[3] According to a research by Yuu Matsuura, some aegosexual individuals identify as fictosexuality to emphasize their preference for fictional objects of attraction.[1]
Queer studies
Several studies on asexuality and introductory books on sexual minorities refer to fictosexuality.[5][15][16] Elizabeth Miles and Yuu Matsuura conduct research on people who are sexually attracted only to fictional characters and argue that such sexuality, like asexuality, prompts reconsideration of dominant ideas about sexuality.[11][17]
Sociologist and queer theorist Yuu Matsuura has theorized how fictosexuals who love two-dimensional sexual creations, such as manga and anime, engage in a subversion of dominant norms in a manner distinct from Butlerian performativity. Matsuura draws on Teri Silvio's concept of "animation," Hiroki Azuma's interpretation of Derrida, and Karen Barad's theory of posthumanist performativity. This subversion is described as "transforming modes of perception and forms of desire by constructing beings of a previously nonexistent category through animation."[8] Such subversion arises from "the materialization of gender in a way that differs from the live human body."[8]
Human-oriented sexualism and humanogenderism
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Perspective
The term used to describe the marginalization of fictosexuality is human-oriented sexualism (ja:対人性愛中心主義 (taijin-seiai-chūshin-shugi)) and humanogenderism.[8][9] Human-oriented sexualism is the norm that sexual attraction towards flesh-and-blood human is "normal" sexuality.[1][2] Humanogenderism is "the idea that legitimate gender is instantiated or materialized by humans as a biological species"[8] and is "the assumption that genders instantiated by non-human beings are 'less material' or 'mere representations'."[2] While these concept is raised from fictosexuality studies in Japan, it is now being discussed in research outside of Japan[3][9] and in areas other than fictosexuality studies.[18][19][20]
Human-oriented sexuality (対人性愛 (taijin-seiai) is the term referring to the sexual majority attracted to flesh-and-blood people.[1][21] This term emerged from grassroots usage among those who prefer two-dimensional sexual creations like manga and anime, yet lack sexual attraction to flesh-and-blood individuals.[1][2] Based on this premise, the term human-oriented sexualism was coined, prompting inquiries into institutions, customs, and value judgments rooted in human-oriented sexuality.
According to Yuu Matsuura, human-oriented sexualism and humanogenderism are linked to heteronormativity and cisgenderism.[8] In terms of queer theory, they are components that constitute what Judith Butler calls "literalizing fantasy" and are an example of what Karen Barad terms "representationalism."[8] Human-oriented sexualism forecloses the possibility of articulating sexuality in ways other than the heterosexual/homosexual distinction, and in that sense, it is a precondition for the exclusion of homosexuality.[8][10] Furthermore, humanogenderism is a kind of biological essentialism that seeks to ground gender in the "anatomical" body and is connected to ideologies that exclude transgender people.[8]
Kazuki Fujitaka, associate professor of feminist/queer studies at Kyoto Sangyo University, highly appreciated Matsuura's theory about critique against human-oriented sexualism and described the theory as "a practice of healing those who get hurt by a normative society and of defamiliarizing the world," akin to what bell hooks calls "theory as liberatory practice."[22]
Marginalization, discrimination, and stigmatization
Fictosexuals have been marginalized or concealed in societies that adhere to the norm of sexual attraction to human beings. They are occasionally stigmatized or pathologized.[1][9] Through interviews with fictosexual individuals, Matsuura discovered that they face similar forms of oppression due to compulsory sexuality as asexual individuals.[11] Furthermore, it was observed that sexual desire does not always entail a desire for sexual intercourse.[11] Just as not all allosexuals desire sexual contact, some fictosexual individuals do not desire interactive relationships with fictional characters.[1][11] Matsuura's research indicates that these individuals are rendered invisible under amatonormativity.[11] Interview surveys suggest that the practices of fictosexual individuals offer possibilities to challenge compulsory sexuality and human-oriented sexualism.[3][11]
Community and activism
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Perspective
Online communities and forums about fictosexuality exist.[1][3] The Taiwan Entrepot of Fictosexuality, a fictosexual activist organization, has been established in Taiwan, aligning with feminist bookstores and LGBTQ activists.[23][3][7] Some activists have labeled the sexuality only attracted to manga/anime fictional characters as a "third sexual orientation," and Miles argues that "it is the criticism of non-real-world sex, sex outside a flesh-and-blood relationship, which drives much contemporary anti-pornography criticism and activism".[17] Matsuura criticizes accusations that ACG pornography sexualizes women and children, arguing that these claims presuppose human-oriented sexualism and humanogenderism.[8][10] According to Matsuura, these two concepts are structural problems that enable the sexualization of women and children by ACG pornography while simultaneously erasing the existence of fictosexuaity.[8] Therefore, Matsuura suggests that fictosexuals and feminists should unite in solidarity to criticize human-oriented sexualism and humanogenderism.[8]
In June 2023, Japanese school administrator Akihiko Kondo, who identifies as a fictosexual,[24][25] founded the General Incorporated Association of Fictosexuality[26][27] to provide comfort to fictosexuals, hold meetings with people that have similar views, and improve the understanding of the subject.[28] Izumi Tsuji, secretary of the Japan Youth Study Group at Chuo University, where he is a sociology of culture professor, described Kondo as "a pioneer for the fictosexual movement".[29]
In 2024, Yuu Matsuura founded the awareness organization "Fictosexual Perspective" in Japan to archive experiences and thoughts of fictosexual individuals.[9][30]
Cultural representation
The symbolic marriage of Akihiko Kondo to Hatsune Miku in 2018 was widely covered by various media outlets worldwide.[24][31] In 2025, Japanese novelist Sayaka Murata publicly stated, "fictosexuality is very strong in me."[32]
See also
References
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