Fictosexuality is
sexual attraction
Sexual attraction is attraction on the basis of sexual desire or the quality of arousing such interest. Sexual attractiveness or sex appeal is an individual's ability to attract other people sexually, and is a factor in sexual selection or m ...
towards
fictional characters
In fiction, a character is a person or being in a narrative (such as a novel, play, radio or television series, music, film, or video game). The character may be entirely fictional or based on a real-life person, in which case the distinction o ...
.
Romantic attraction towards fictional characters is called ''fictoromantic attraction''.
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.
''Fictoromance'' is romantic attraction to fictional characters. The
asexual
Asexual or Asexuals may refer to:
*Asexual reproduction
**Asexual reproduction in starfish
*Asexuality, the lack of sexual attraction to anyone or lack of interest in or desire for sexual activity.
**Gray asexuality, the spectrum between asexualit ...
community has used the term to describe people who experience sexual attraction to fictional characters and not to real people.
Fictosexual individuals may face
discrimination
Discrimination is the process of making unfair or prejudicial distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong, such as race, gender, age, class, religion, or sex ...
and
marginalization
Social exclusion or social marginalisation is the social disadvantage and relegation to the fringe of society. It is a term that has been used widely in Europe and was first used in France in the late 20th century. In the EU context, the Euro ...
due to ''human-oriented sexualism'' and ''humanogenderism''.
As a result,
social movements
A social movement is either a loosely or carefully organized effort by a large group of people to achieve a particular goal, typically a social or political one. This may be to carry out a social change, or to resist or undo one. It is a type of ...
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
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...
.
Terms in different languages
In
Chinese
Chinese may refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China.
**'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...
, the term ''zhǐxìngliàn'' () refers to sexual attraction towards two-dimensional characters only.
In
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
, ''
nijikon
or , from the English phrase "2D complex", is a sexual or affective attraction towards two-dimensional anime, manga, and light novel characters, as opposed to an attraction towards real human beings. It has been interpreted by some observers ...
'' 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
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.
Relationship with fictional characters
Fictosexuality and fictoromance are occasionally regarded as a form of
parasocial relationship in media studies and game studies. 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.
According to a research by Yuu Matsuura, some
aegosexual
Aegosexuality is a term used to describe individuals who may experience sexual arousal, enjoy sexual content, masturbation, or sexual fantasies, but do not desire sexual activity with another person or wish to form sexual relationships with othe ...
individuals identify as fictosexuality to emphasize their preference for fictional objects of attraction.
Queer studies
Several studies on asexuality and introductory books on sexual minorities refer to fictosexuality.
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.
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
Performativity is the concept that language can function as a form of social action and have the effect of change. The concept has multiple applications in diverse fields such as anthropology, social and cultural geography, economics, gender stu ...
. Matsuura draws on Teri Silvio's concept of "animation,"
Hiroki Azuma
(born May 9, 1971) is a Japanese cultural critic, novelist, and philosopher. He is the co-founder and former director of Genron, an independent institute in Tokyo, Japan.
Biography
Azuma was born in Mitaka, Tokyo. Azuma received his PhD in ...
's interpretation of
Derrida
Jacques Derrida (; ; born Jackie Élie Derrida;Peeters (2013), pp. 12–13. See also 15 July 1930 – 9 October 2004) was a French Algerian philosopher. He developed the philosophy of deconstruction, which he utilized in a number of his texts, ...
, 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."
Such subversion arises from "the materialization of gender in a way that differs from the live human body."
Human-oriented sexualism and humanogenderism
The term used to describe the marginalization of fictosexuality is human-oriented sexualism (
:ja:対人性愛中心主義 ()) and humanogenderism.
Human-oriented sexualism is the norm that sexual attraction towards flesh-and-blood human is
"normal" sexuality.
Humanogenderism is "the idea that legitimate gender is instantiated or materialized by humans as a biological species"
and is "the assumption that genders instantiated by non-human beings are 'less material' or 'mere representations'."
While these 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'' ( () is the term referring to the