/// Discussions of allonormativity, amatonormativity, aphobia, arophobia, asexual stereotypes, fatphobia, and sexual assualt
I haven't been in the community for a while. So pardon me if someone already made these critiques, but can we just point out how awful the asexual rep is in relation to sex?
Two of the three asexual characters are sex repulsed or sex ambivalent. This isn't a Vivziepop exlcusive issue, most media portrayals of asexuals still struggle in representing the diverse spectrum of asexuality.
I actually do like this keychain of Alastor because we're included, since most of the time, people exclude us from conversations or acts because they don't want to accommodate or understand a-spec nuances to sex and love. However, then there's the show. Alastor is constantly sexual harassed, primary by Vox, and was sexually assaulted by him. Which was treated as a joke.
Octavia is up next. It's been widely speculated that the reason why the crew made her asexual was to avoid sexualizing her when she still an underage character. There is a misconception that being sex abstinence or celibate is the same as being asexual when it's not. Asexuality is about experiencing a lack of or low sexual attraction, and while it can influence a person's ability and desire for sexual interactions, the two aren't mutually exclusion.
Outside of that, it's weird if that's true. It comes from a place of deep rooted allonormativity where asexuals are inherently seen as less desirable and not their own autonomous sexual beings because of their asexuality. Many allosexuals tend to feel a guilt or even disgust for liking asexuals sexually because of our differences. It why allopeople will be more likely to enjoy (aro)asexual coded characters who are serial killers or morally bad people because from the characters' lack of morals, it creates s disconnect from the audience. Their guilt becomes absolve. Although that in and of itself is a problem. It dehumanizes the (aro)asexual coded characters and re-enforces the stereotypes of the evil loveless/sexless and robotic aromantics and asexuals. It's still equates experiencing human sexual intimacy and allo attraction as the right forms of love, and anything deviating is wrong and inherently inhuman.
Also it shouldn't take making a character or finding out a person is asexual to stop sexualizing them. Asexuals aren't the exception to sexualizing people. You should be seeing everyone as human beings, not walking flesh bags. (And if that's a problem for you, you need to unpack a few things). If they really didn't feel comfortable with exploring Octavia's sexuality as a teenager, then I don't know why they couldn't have written her to be waiting for a better time to explore herself or being simply disinterested. There's are many allo teenagers who wait till adulthood because it's smarter and safer for them, just as there are many aspec teenagers exploring themselves sexually.
To my knowledge Helluva Boss never explores Octavia's relationship with sex. The closest we get is in Loo Loo Land where Stolas openly sext with Blizto with her in the room. I know many people were upset with this scene in discovering Octavia is asexual because it re-enforces the stereotype that people are asexual because of trauma or negative experiences, instead being asexual naturally. I think it's complicated because unfortunately many teenagers do find themselves in unwanted sexual scenarios, and with aro-spec and apsec folks, it's higher because of the lack of education on both identifies, respect, and boundaries in general. Also there are many asexuals, aromantics, and even queer people who's identities are shaped by their experiences. I just wished they wrote the scene with more consideration for Octavia's asexuality for these reasons. Though, they probably didn't make her asexual yet in the beginning of the show's run.
Octavia's Valentine merch is cute, although there's one thing that makes me a bit iffy towards it. It seems that the crew is still uncomfortable with exploring her sexuality, even as an adult. Again like with the Alastor's merch, I do like it because of the inclusion and ace portrayal of topics. I just wish as an aroace person I could fully enjoyed these merch pieces without the biases of the crew bleeding through.
Both shows have a big issue with purity, and in Hazbin Hotel it's more prominent with Charlie and Chaggie. The MLM ships and queer male characters can be depicted as devious and overly sexual while the WLW ship and sapphics aren't. It's really only implied for the WLW characters (Chaggie couldn't even get a proper sex scene, when the show portrayed several graphic rape scenes) and within that there is a correlation between purity and sex. Charlie and Vicky are positioned to be the purer and morally better characters out of the cast. Charlie is more native and modest about sex while morally grey characters like Cherri Bomb and Angel Dust aren't. I'm afraid with Octavia, it's the same.
Again the merch is really cute and I appreciate the ace portrayal of topics like love and sex. It's just that outside of the lack of diverse aspec rep within both shows and their merch, the crew's biases is an issue. I feel it's very apparent that they still treat adult Octavia as soft is relation to her asexuality. Again, that in and of itself is a problem. It infantilizes asexuality, re-enforce the stereotype of "the innocent/pure asexual", and removes asexuals' sexual autonomy.
Sally Mae had Valentine merch when she was only an one-off character for a few minutes at the time and she wasn't even depicted as promiscuous during her screen-time either. It would have been nice to see if Octavia as an adult was allowed to be silly regarding sex or just be casual about it. Hell, she could still keep the softness from her Valentine merch, by portraying the more emotional or sensual side to sex, that coincidentally is an appeal for many sex-indifferent and sex-favorable asexuals. There are asexuals who partake in sexual activities, whether for themselves or others. Some like the pleasure it brings, while others like the emotional intimacy and joy it brings to their partners.
And then there's Mammon....
The only sex-favorable asexual who is also one of the few fat characters. He's depicted as an unattracted, selfish, greedy slob who's attempts at flirting is treated a joke for this reason.
I'm going to be honest this is the most blatant the crew has been about their aphobia (and fatphobia too), outside of Alastor's sexual assault.
When his first Valentine merch came out, he was the only character fully clothed.
And even now, the most they'll reveal are his limbs while the other characters are nearly naked or revealing.
It's unfortunate because as a repulsed aroace I do like the asexual portrayal of the merch. However I can't fully enjoy or even support it because the shows themselves and people behind them are terribly aphobic.
They didn't hire any aspec people as writers or sensitivity readers for the few asexual characters. There's an obvious lack of consideration for the characters' asexualities, just by the stereotyping alone. And constantly their "abnormity" from being asexual are the butts of many jokes. Not to mentioned they made a joke out of a black aroace man being assaulted by a white allo man.
