Mako Crab wrote:I have a friend that's asexual. She explained to me, that she literally feels no drive or desire for sex, but would still like to find someone to call her husband or soul-mate. She doesn't think she'll have much luck finding someone that doesn't want to procreate or have sex , and so she doesn't bother with romance at all. She doesn't even like the idea of making herself up for fear that she might attract the attention of someone that's attracted to her.
And yet, despite all this, she's one of the biggest pervs I know. She see sexual innuendo all throughout Transformers and Batman and all kinds of stuff. Blows me away. For someone not interested in sex, she certainly sees it everywhere.
Long story short- she's a cool friend.
Gomess wrote:This is almost *identical* to my old asexual friend. I think it might be because they've like... stepped back from the issue, so they can be truly objective about it.
But yeah, the best way to describe it would be a desire for devoted social or intellectual intimacy with a single person, just not physical. Twoo outta threee ain't baaad!
EDIT: Apologies in advance for turning this into the "Love Thread," I am reading through MTMTE thanks to O6 and will post relevant thoughts eventually. =3
This sounds like your friends are not in fact asexual, but are channeling their sexual desires into "safe" realms to avoid facing their sexual feelings - if true, that would obviously be quite different from what we're talking about here. That said, either way, asexual or afraid of sexuality, it doesn't surprise me that they'd want a "life partner", most people aren't hermits by nature, I've known a few sci-fi fangirls and fanwomen who are very much fitting into what you're describing here.
O6 wrote:I think the term would, taken literally, mean something like "eternal partner."
Yeah, and it was used originally to denote a husband or wife.
I'm just reminded of Jay and Silent Bob, though, when I think of this whole thing. "I'm Jay, and this is my hetero-life-mate Silent Bob."
Ha, yeah, that's awesomely on-point. Now it's "Aquaman gots mad sharks!!!!"
I still don't physically understand the asexual viewpoint. I mean, I "get" it, and I know for a fact there's people out there who experience that, but it's like...if you knew someone who didn't like bacon. Bacon is awesome. I love eating bacon. I don't understand why someone wouldn't want to eat bacon. And yet, there they are--they exist, and that's weird.
Bacon's easy, it's pork-belly, it looks weird, some people have an aversion to it. Some people find sex the same way, looks weird and scary and confusing to them. Others however simply have no desire at all, they are truly asexual because there is nothing that arouses them whatsoever, that's where bacon would have no reaction, it's not food in their eyes, it does nothing for them, it's not filling or fulfilling to them and they have no desire to partake, there's no craving or even interest, it's how they are.
anderson wrote:Some of the questions posed by JT and Shockwave are a little more personal that I really want to go, but I have read them and they're certainly food for thought. I may address a few of them when I've had time to mull over them a bit more.
Sorry about that, I am a little too used to people being as open as I am about such things.
I'll try to rephrase the concept so you can discuss easier... What about someone's grandparents, once their sex drives have retired but they're otherwise happy still being together, what are they? Totally sexless, yet still each other's "life partner". Does that frame it better for you?
You're reading into those relationships though because you're assuming a "gay space robots" perspective and applying that outward from that dubious starting position.
No, I’m not. Leave the gender or lack of it aside for the moment. The issue to me is what separates friendship, even “best friends” from relationships that go beyond friendship. Chromedome and Rewind’s relationship clearly goes beyond friendship, so what is it about that relationship that necessitates a special term, “Conjunx Endura”?
Chromedome and Rewind have referred to each other as their number one, Chromedome comments that he knows he's not Rewind's first number one, and others have mentioned that one is the other's number one. So it's beyond casual friendship, sure, they are each other's number one most cared about person, their friend, their family. Cybertronians don't show a lot of family connection because they don't reproduce as such, but they seem to have levels of friendships and loyalties, is it so hard to expand upon that idea upward to someone REALLY close to another that they treat each other as family, as merely a part of a two-person life as James Bond put it in On Her Majesty's Secret Service? You're the one applying the sexuality card to the issue here, you're saying that in order to be closer to someone than just best friends, they MUST be a sexual partner, that is the foundation for your perspective as far as I can tell, and that's why I'm saying it's flawed in this case since we already know A) they have close loved ones, life partners if you will; and B) they don't have sexuality whatsoever.
That example doesn’t quite hold up. When you think about family and about family relationships, many terms come to mind. Father, mother, cousin, daughter, grandmother, etc. All of those are blood relations, people who share common ancestry or the same parents, or whatever. Adoptions aside, none of those relationships occur by choice, they occur because we’re born into the family. There is only one family relationship that’s by choice, and it’s the life partner/spouse/husband/wife. And that’s the closest human analogy to what we see with Chromedome and Rewind, a relationship by choice, not by any other family tie, because Transformers don’t have those.
I guess I get a unique perspective on this, some of my family is not genetic blood relations, and some of my blood relations were adopted out and chose to return.
And again, you're forcing this analogy of life partner must mean husband/wife when, again, no sexuality in that group, and also in our society there are plenty of husbands and wives who aren't life partners to their spouses, they cheat or the divorce or other stuff like that.
Not every deep intimate relationship is based on sex.
Of course not, but again, go back to my first question. What is the dividing line between friendship and something more? In the case of Rewind and Chromedone, is it just the sharing of deepest thoughts and feelings? Spending time together because they can’t bear to be apart? Going out on deck to look at the stars? It doesn’t seem like any of these are enough to earn a special and apparently very rare (according to Brainstorm) title for their relationship. No other Transformers, those not in a relationship, ever have heart to heart conversations? Enjoy each other’s company on a regular basis?
What elevates this relationship to something rare and unique among Transformers? Feelings? Emotions? Informal commitment? Is "Conjunx Endura" nothing more than the equivalent of "girlfriend" or "boyfriend"? Does it not even rise to the level of "spouse" or any equivalent? Maybe it doesn't, but it certainly seems like Roberts intends it to have a similar connotation.
This is why I am saying your foundation is flawed, you are looking for a direct parallel to connect to human life as your starting point, rather than exploring the idea of what a "life partner" means when sex is entirely alien to the equation.
No, I’m not concerned that I’m about to find some robo-porn on the page, but it wouldn’t surprise me to find other relationships between other characters that go beyond friendship. Not at this point.
Well, it
is a small ship...
Seriously though, there's no foundation for anybody else except MAYBE Cyclonus and Tailgate, and even that isn't remotely close to that level right now, to fall into that with anyone else would be shoddy writing not because of the overuse of the idea but because it's pulled out of the ether.
There’s a mental image I didn’t need.
It's the sounds that you have to worry about imagining.
Does Rodimus even know what Chromedome’s involvement was? My impression was that he didn’t, though I could be wrong.
I guess not, I thought Drift would have filled him in or someone else would have been around in the corridors while Chromedome and Drift were talking about the breach, but no. Drift taking the blame for this is wrong too though, reading over issue 13 it's clear Prowl is helming the idea even if Drift came up with it, the only people who knew were Prowl, Drift, Brainstorm, Chromedome, and Shock & Ore, and all of them are taking orders from Prowl there.
How many times did the Doctor kiss someone on the old show? How many women flirted with him? Zero and zero. Compare that with the new show. I mean, second episode and the tree-lady is flirting with him! So does Lynda with a Y. So does Reinette. Three examples off the top of my head in just the first two seasons, and there were more. That’s more than the entire classic series combined. Not that I mind a television show with some romance, and in fact there are times when shipping is the reason to watch something. But it just seems to me that if the Doctor is going to be distant and mysterious and alien that making him a chick magnet isn’t the way to go.
The old show was a serialized children's show, the new show is an all-ages show, as was the Fox TV movie. Just because he's an alien doesn't mean he's dead in the pants, and again, he's got a granddaughter AND parents.
Same here. I tend to wonder how long the modern show will keep going? I can’t imagine it running for 26 years like the original, but the ratings are still pretty strong. We may get a few more years out of it.
I've heard the BBC ratings have been tumbling since Moffat's run got underway, the show isn't renewed yet for next series.
Dom wrote: Do that many of us really believe sex is an inherent part of romance...?
Not "inherent", but "reasonably assumed"? They can exist apart from each other. But, where there is one, there is likely to be the other.
For fertile humans like us? Perhaps so. For asexual robot alien life forms? No. For your grandparents, assuming they stayed married (I don't know anything about your grandparents, just using the concept of married, sexless grandparents)...?
Frankly, I am impressed with "my girlfriend for 10 years". That not only outlasts a statistically significant number of marriages, but implies that you have avoided making that dreaded legal commitment. Good man Gomess. What is your secret?
That brings a phrase to mind, something quite intellectually appropriate for that comment, what was it... oh yeah, "haters gonna hate."
I slightly dislike the way Roberts has all the little guys feeling like they aren't measuring up, they're wasting their lives compared to other Autobots. The G1 cartoon had Brawn who was utterly badass, there weren't a lot of inferiority complexes there despite plenty of small guy characters.
Tailgate and Swerve are both fuck-ups. But, they are not the only fuck-ups.
Look at LSOTW, same thing there, the little guys don't feel like they're measuring up.
Rodimus is generally a larger toy, and he is a complete sack of shit in this book. (Starscream would be a better leader.) I would not assume too much significance between Tailgate's and Swerve's pricepoint and characterization.
Roddy is a success at striving to be what he wants to be, he doesn't question who he is, he knows he's measuring up even when he's wrong.
I just feel bad for the pig. (Pigs are as smart as dogs, so I feel guilty eating them.)
I eat Morningstar Farms veggie bacon at least once a week, it's not half as good but it has the key things I need, the salty to smoky flavor, the floppiness and mixed fat to meat toothsomeness (I like undercooked bacon over the crisp variety, though it handles that well too), and it's pretty cheap and healthy compared to real belly bacon. If you really want to feel guilty, think about the fact that cows when left to their own devices show signs of love for their calves - we kill things that express love simply for food and clothing we could easily get through non-murderous methods. Heavy is the head that eats the meats, it's a burden I carry to this day. Mmm, burger.
Sideswipe does refer to Sunstreaker as "my brother" in "All Hail Megatron". Make of that what you will.
Ill-defined and you, captain play-the-meta-card, have some balls using it here knowing WHY they're "brothers". Arbitrary, thy screenname is Dominic Guglieme.
Gomess wrote:It is interesting to be at what's clearly the tumultuous *beginning* of Gay Space Robots. Strange to think that it'll probably be commonplace in another decade, and we'll all be debating whether or not it's appropriate for TFs to do whatever the heck it is people do in 2025.
"Bender, are you jacking on in there???"
