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Fictosexuality is sexual attraction towards fictional characters. Romantic attraction towards fictional characters is called fictoromantic.

The term fictosexuality describes the desire to engage in sexual or romantic relationships with a fictional character, or the experience of desire for fictional sexual material distinct from desire for flesh-and-blood people. The asexual community has used the term to describe people who experience sexual attraction to fictional characters and not to real people.

Fictosexuality has been used as a term for sexual identity since the 2010s, and online communities and activist organizations now exist. The term "human-oriented sexualism" has also been coined to describe the social norms that marginalize fictosexuality.

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.

In Japanese, fikutosekushuaru (フィクトセクシュアル), an English loanword, is associated with nijikon, which 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. However, the term fikutosekushuaru is distinct from nijikon and specifically pertains to a sexual identity.

Research

Relationship with fictional characters

Fictosexuality and fictromance are occasionally regarded as a form of parasocial relationship in media studies and game studies. Xiwen 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 fictromantics, and fictional characters.

Queer studies

Several studies on asexuality and introductory books on sexual minorities refer to fictosexuality. Elizabeth Miles and Matsuura Yuu 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.

Sociologist and queer theorist Yuu Matsuura argues that sexual attraction to fictional characters subverts established norms in a different manner from Judith Butler's performativity. The subversion is "transforming the method of perception or the way of desire through animation constructing the beings of a category that did not exist before."

Human-oriented sexualism

The term used to describe the marginalization of fictosexuality is human-oriented sexualism (対人性愛中心主義 (taijin-seiai-chūshin-shugi)). This is the concept that sexual attraction towards flesh-and-blood human is "normal" sexuality. While the concept is raised from fictosexuality studies in Japan, it is now being discussed in research outside of Japan and in areas other than fictosexuality studies.

Human-oriented sexuality (対人性愛 (taijin-seiai) is the term used to describe the sexual majority attracted to flesh-and-blood people. 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. 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 queer theorist Yuu Matsuura, human-oriented sexualism is closely related to heteronormativity. Human-oriented sexualism erases the possibility of segmenting sexuality in ways other than the "heterosexual/homosexual" category, thus serving as a precondition for the exclusion of homosexuality. Heteronormativity is positioned as a combination of gender binarism and human-oriented sexualism. Furthermore, it has been observed that human-oriented sexualism shares roots with transphobia, operating within the same structural framework.

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."

Marginalization, discrimination, and stigmatization

According to Matsuura, 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.

Through interviews with fictosexual individuals, Matsuura discovered that they face similar forms of oppression due to compulsory sexuality as asexual individuals. Furthermore, it was observed that sexual desire does not always entail a desire for sexual intercourse. Just as not all allosexuals desire sexual contact, some fictosexual individuals do not desire interactive relationships with fictional characters. Matsuura's research indicates that these individuals are rendered invisible under amatonormativity. Interview surveys suggest that the practices of fictosexual individuals offer possibilities to challenge compulsory sexuality and human-oriented sexualism.

Community and activism

Online communities and forums about fictosexuality exist. The Taiwan Entrepot of Fictosexuality, a fictosexual activist organization, has been established in Taiwan, aligning with feminist bookstores and LGBTQ activists. 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". Criticism of human-oriented sexualism rebuts the assumption that ACG pornography sexualizes real women and promotes pedophilia.

Japanese school administrator Akihiko Kondo, who identifies as a fictosexual, symbolically married Hatsune Miku in 2018. In June 2023, he founded the General Incorporated Association of Fictosexuality to provide comfort to fictosexuals, hold meetings with people that have similar views, and improve the understanding of the subject. 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".

See also

• Nijikon
• Demisexuality
• Tumblr sexyman
• Rule 34
• Cartoon pornography
• Clop
• Shipping (fandom)

References

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• Sexual attraction
• Sexuality and society
• Sexuality in fiction
• Asexuality