Barnaby as asexual
Dec. 14th, 2011 03:58 pmAnother T&B fandom post.
I've seen a lot of people who want Barnaby as a virgin, Barnaby as a secret rape victim (this one is the one that makes me the most 'aw, come on, man'), and people who want Barnaby either asexual or against non-penetrative sex, and basically my problem with all of that is that Barnaby just doesn't strike me as someone we have any real info on, in that sense. If anything, wouldn't it be fair to say he must either find exhibitionism or the act of trying to keep sex secret to be sexy? Because he's totally fine with the photoshoots and glamming it up all over the place, but somehow I don't think you feel that way unless you like it at least a little bit.
Personally, I can't help feeling like people are projecting when they want Barnaby to be more fucked up than he already is. Honestly, I think being relatively socially isolated, both by your own early life trauma and by your legal guardian, is plenty emotionally damaging enough. He doesn't NEED extra bells and whistles to be a tragic figure in this situation. There doesn't have to be secret rape, he doesn't have to be incapable of connecting to people on a physical level, etc., to be an interesting and complex guy. And I feel like a lot of the fandom is pretty strongly for the idea that for Barnaby, being sexually Weird with a capital W (in SOME way) is some kind of prerequisite for his character. I'd like to think that this is not so-- he's not, though we used to joke about it on /a/, going out and killing hookers all the time because he's so twisted, or whatever.
I also take issue with the 'asexual because he doesn't bother with it' stereotype, though. Personally, I think Barnaby either has had sexual experience and doesn't dislike it, but doesn't prioritize sex in his life OR he simply hasn't had time for it yet and, now that he's kind of moving on with his life, he might actually start to have that time.
I've seen a lot of people who want Barnaby as a virgin, Barnaby as a secret rape victim (this one is the one that makes me the most 'aw, come on, man'), and people who want Barnaby either asexual or against non-penetrative sex, and basically my problem with all of that is that Barnaby just doesn't strike me as someone we have any real info on, in that sense. If anything, wouldn't it be fair to say he must either find exhibitionism or the act of trying to keep sex secret to be sexy? Because he's totally fine with the photoshoots and glamming it up all over the place, but somehow I don't think you feel that way unless you like it at least a little bit.
Personally, I can't help feeling like people are projecting when they want Barnaby to be more fucked up than he already is. Honestly, I think being relatively socially isolated, both by your own early life trauma and by your legal guardian, is plenty emotionally damaging enough. He doesn't NEED extra bells and whistles to be a tragic figure in this situation. There doesn't have to be secret rape, he doesn't have to be incapable of connecting to people on a physical level, etc., to be an interesting and complex guy. And I feel like a lot of the fandom is pretty strongly for the idea that for Barnaby, being sexually Weird with a capital W (in SOME way) is some kind of prerequisite for his character. I'd like to think that this is not so-- he's not, though we used to joke about it on /a/, going out and killing hookers all the time because he's so twisted, or whatever.
I also take issue with the 'asexual because he doesn't bother with it' stereotype, though. Personally, I think Barnaby either has had sexual experience and doesn't dislike it, but doesn't prioritize sex in his life OR he simply hasn't had time for it yet and, now that he's kind of moving on with his life, he might actually start to have that time.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}