Asexuality 'House'

Greetings, everyone!

You might already have heard about this situation, but I thought I'd write a journal about it so anyone who hasn't can be up to date.

Most of you probably have at least some passing familiarity with a TV show called 'House'. It's a popular American medical drama, with a main character loosely inspired by Sherlock Holmes --though much more snarky-- who spends each episode 'solving' the mysterious-disease-of-the-week.

A few weeks ago, word started to spread among various ace communities that asexuality would be featured in an upcoming episode of the show. A promo video had been released that featured Dr. Wilson (another character) talking to Dr. House (the main character, of course) about a patient he had who claimed to be asexual. Not only that: the patient was conventionally attractive, well-adjusted, and even happily married to another ace (how's that for defying stereotypes?).  House was extremely skeptical--okay, that's a bit of an understatement--and bet Wilson $100 that he could prove there was a 'reason' for the couple's asexuality.

Another promo, released just last week, featured the patient herself, explaining her and her husband's orientation to Dr. Wilson. Whereas the initial promo made a lot of people feel nervous (betting on disproving asexuality? ), this clip was very reassuring, and really made it sound like the writer had done their research, as opposed to just pulling the word 'asexual' out of the air. Some of the things the asexual patient character said in this promo (like when she explained the difference between asexuality and celibacy) sounded like they could have been direct quotes from an ace forum! Maybe, then, there would finally be an 'out' asexual character, on a well-known show, that we could point to and say, 'see? Asexuality exists!'. Imagine what something like that could do for awareness! Hopes were tentatively raised, and the days to the episode's premiere ticked down.

This past Monday night, the episode finally aired.

The asexuality storyline was the secondary plot (the main story was about Alzheimer's) and was handled pretty well through most of the episode. But then, at the eleventh hour, it took a nosedive...

You see, House always has to be right. And as House always has to be right, he had to find a medical cause for the couple's asexuality. He couldn't find an excuse for the patient herself, so he conned her husband into coming in for tests by offering him a free flu shot. Eventually, he found a tumour on the husband's pituitary that was blocking his hormones. (Oh, did I mention? Asexuality was being represented as the lack of a sex drive rather than the lack of sexual attraction. )

Asexuality could still escape the episode unscathed, though: the wife still had no medical reason for being asexual. Surely she couldn't be pathologized, right?

Not pathologized maybe, but delegitimized all the same: she, upon discovering that her husband wasn't truly asexual, immediately confessed that neither was she: she had been lying to him for their entire marriage so that they could be together.

So, the show could have portrayed that not only does asexuality exist, but that we're capable of being just as 'normal' as anybody else. But instead, 40 minutes was spent building up asexuality as something 'real', and then it was all defenestrated at the moment that both adamantly-self-identifying aces were revealed as actually being sick/deceptive heterosexuals. Which of course implies that other self-identified asexuals might also be sick and/or lying.

The response to the episode on AVEN and other sites was immediate,  with people wanting to know who they could contact to voice their concerns. FOX (the channel that airs 'House' ) doesn't seem to want people to contact them _{(I can't imagine why...)}, as no comment section or email addresses are apparent on their website. I was able to look up the Twitter of the episode's writer, Kath Lingenfelter, and I and several other people tweeted her our feelings about the show. She invited each of us to direct message (Twitter's version of a 'note' or 'private message') her to discuss it. Her response to AVEN member cleuchtturm follows:

I did a lot of research on asexuality for the episode. My original intent was to introduce it and legitimize it, because I was struck by the response most of you experience, which is similar to the prejudice the homosexual community has received. People hear you’re asexual and they immediately think, ‘What’s wrong with you, how do I fix you?’ I wanted to write against that. Unfortunately, we are a medical mystery show. Time & again, my notes came back that House needed to solve a mystery and not be wrong. So in THIS CASE, with THESE patients, it was a tumor near the pituitary. But I hoped I could (now it seems unsuccessfully) introduce asexuality to the general public and get them asking questions. All they need to do is one google search and they can see for themselves it’s a real community of great people. Originally, part of my dialog included thoughts about whether as a species we’ve grown past sex. Any time we tackle a subject, we risk the possibility of not doing it justice. I apologize that you feel I did you a disservice. It was not my intent. Asexuality is a new topic for me and definitely one I find fascinating. It is a subject I would like to continue to explore here or on future shows I write for. I think it speaks to where humans are now and where we are going. I will do my best in the future to do it justice.”

And here's what she said to me:

I appreciate your frustration. I can only say to you that through my research (Which included long visits to http://asexuality.org), I have my eyes opened to your community & if I did you a disservice here, I will try again in the future because I think your community is one that is growing and says a lot about what it is to be human today (tho historically there have been aces a plenty). Again, I’m sorry to do your community I disservice. I wanted to get a dialog going w/the public about asexuality but there are many masters to please in TV. I am open to any and all comments, suggestions, critiques. (This does remind me a a frustration for a writer for the CW who vented that they could never cast African American characters as criminals because the network was too afraid of offending them. Not a direct corollary, but perhaps speaks to the day when ppl respect asexuality as an orientation enough that we can do a story with the medical condition and it won’t discredit it all).

It's clear that she didn't intend to cause anyone offense, and was trying to raise awareness (she tweeted the AVEN link on her main Twitter after someone else made the suggestion to her), but there are still some things in her statements (and in the episode, re:the conflation of 'sex drive' and 'sexual attraction') that make it apparent that, for all her research, there are still things about asexuality that she hasn't grasped (like that we're not the next step in man's evolution or whatever ). That she wasn't trying to hurt anyone, is clear; but that doesn't mean that this show magically won't have any negative effects.

If you've ever seen an 'ace bingo card', or have ever come out to a skeptical acquaintance, the phrases "Maybe there's something wrong with your hormones?" and "You're just lying about being asexual" are probably things you've heard before. How much more often do you think we're going to be getting those questions now, after millions of people have seen this episode? Some aces have already gotten phonecalls from concerned friends and family members (ones who'd already had asexuality explained to them!), asking if they might have tumours. Plus, for many people, this will have been their first-ever exposure to the concept of asexuality, and you know what they say about first impressions... Awareness may have been raised by this episode, but it's certainly not the kind we need.

You might say, "Whatever. It's just a TV show." The thing is, though, that while the plots of 'House' and other similar shows may be acknowledged as obviously fiction, people expect the medical information in such programs to be fairly accurate. I remember a few years ago, the promotion for 'House'  was even playing up the fact that they had doctors consulting the writing staff to make sure it was as realistic as possible. If Dr. House says "the only people who don't want [sex] are sick, dead, or lying"*, there will be people who believe him, whether you think they're ignorant for doing so or not.
_{*Yes, that's a direct quote}

Some other aces have started a petition to be sent to 'House' 's director & executive producer, Greg Yaitanes, to let him know how the asexual community feels about being misrepresented so badly, and appeal to him and the other producers to reconsider their treatment of asexuality in future episodes. Hopefully if enough people sign it, we'll be able to send the message that, although we're a small community, we're also a strong one, and we won't sit by and let our orientation be pathologized in public opinion.


So, if you'd like to sign the petition, click here.

If you have a Twitter account and would like to tweet the director with your feelings, click here

If you have contact information for any higher-ups at FOX, please post them here, on AVEN, or anywhere else they'll be useful!

And please, comment here with your opinions about this portrayal of asexuality, and the writer's responses! If you haven't seen the episode, it'll be (legally) posted to watch for free on Hulu.com in the next several days.

Thanks for reading!