Asexual disruptions in Netflix’s BoJack Horseman

Abstract

This article uses the character Todd Chavez (voiced by Aaron Paul) from the adult animation BoJack Horseman (2014‐20, Netflix) as a launch point for exploring on-screen queerness that exists outside of the confines of compulsory (hetero)sexuality. Sex and sexuality, I argue, provide a limiting framework for the expression of queerness. Using key episodes such as ‘Hooray, Todd Episode!’ (2017), ‘Planned Obsolescence’ (2018) and ‘Ancient History’ (2018) I argue that the use of hyperbolic eroticism in BoJack works to frame Todd’s asexuality as distinctly queer. Through the mobilization of asexuality as a theoretical advancement for queer studies, this article considers how non-sexual identity formations work to destabilize and queer the institutions of the relationship and attraction. It is, I argue, reductive and limiting to view queerness exclusively through the lens of sex and sexuality.