SOURCE: THEINDIANEXPRESS
Recently, when I was going through one of the sections in the newspaper, I came across the term fictosexual and its rise in the recent times. A Japanese man was attracted to a virtual character, Hatsune Miku, who is kind of a phenomenon. This attraction resulted in him tying a knot with the fictional popstar. The 41-year-old man, Akihiko Kondo commemorated 6 years of his marriage on November the 4th.
The South China Morning Post has reported on the same. This incidence has brought the term fictosexuality into limelight. To understand it better, we have all been guilty of fawning over characters we connect with. I remember in my college days; we were hooked to the character Darcy. This romantic attraction to fictional characters is termed as fictosexuality. Kondo found that emotional connect with Miku, though virtual. Being a victim of bullying and abuse, his emotional distress found shelter and comfort in Miku. Psychologists weigh in saying that the rise in this kind of bond results from the lack of fulfilment and connect with the people in real life. The unconventional wedding ceremony was held in 2018. The character created through vocaloid technology appeared in the wedding ceremony through a hologram device.
Experts haven’t categorized fictosexuality under the wider gamut of human sexuality. It is still a grey area and it can’t be even put under heterosexual or LGBTQ+ identities. However, how a person chooses to identify is his own choice. Even fictosexuality comes with its own cultural difference. In Japan, virtual relationships are more common. In other cultures, like India where majority have conservative attitude to relationship and marriage might dub it as a profligacy of humankind. There is a section in India that is euphoric of BTS and seek solace in the ARMY. Similarly, a virtual relationship as such might strike a chord with the audience who might not be a stranger to parasocial relationships.
We are so digitally connected that we are moving away from interactions. Lack of it has harmed interconnectedness giving way to the inability to form real-world relationships. Virtual relationship sets unrealistic standards and impacts our sense of reality.
IMAGE SOURCE: FINDMYMETHOD