Sexuality and gender are widely explored in television, film and other mediums, but what about romantic orientation? I feel this is an under-represented area (at least in my viewing experience) that would otherwise add complexity to representations of sexuality, gender and relationships overall in stories. I’ve seen characters have sexuality crises because they happen to like someone of the same sex, without considering that they could be biromantic. Why the lack of focus in clearly defining or exploring characters’ romantic orientation? Is it difficult to represent people being romantically attracted to someone they’re not sexually attracted to?
I would agree that there is not very much representation of biromantics. It does carry the same potential problems as LGBTQWXYZ+'s for Biblical-thinking audiences and other people who prefer heteronormativity for whatever reason.
To answer your question, though: yeah, it's hard to portray romantic orientation without sexuality. You'd have to make the character explain "Yeah, I like you, but it doesn't mean I want to, like, touch you. At all." Then you'd have to put the entire discussion about what romantic orientation is in the script, and someone would cry "Minority Agenda Propaganda" and you're back to the LGBTQWXYZ+ brouhaha.
I know very little about the logistics of this sort of thing, but I imagine one could look to representation of asexuality for ideas. I'm guessing the same sort of discussions happen there. – noahspud6 years ago