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Love:can you develop feelings for a fictional character?

The question may seem absurd. Yet we have heard it a lot. More than it seems. Which suggests that we are many to have developed feelings in love or in any case a strong attraction for a character series or film. Most often, standard, since we learn to "discover" it throughout the seasons . Yes, it's weird saying that. To tell you the truth, I was on the train with my best friend when she asked me THE question:“but you think we can really be in love of a guy in a series? » . I kicked into touch. And then I thought good question but why" ? Turns out she's completely in love by Brad Simon (Adam Demos) in Sex/Life . So much so that she wants to unfollow Sarah Shahi, his companion, because she can no longer bear to see them so in love . In short, she is jealous. And that it would be this feeling of jealousy if it was not the result of feelings in love ?

And it is at this moment precise that I said to myself that love absolutely broke all the rules . Finally, the feeling of love goes through attraction , personality and recurrence . Everything you can find by watching a series . First, we find it beautiful . Then we get to know her. We discover his personality . Its charm too. Because some actors did not please us at the start. I recently had this feeling with Guzman, in Elite . So not my type. And yet, his role makes him so sexy . And finally, we become almost obsessed . The only difference ? You can neither see it nor touch it. Which certainly reinforces this obsession .

The roles are shaped so that we fall in love

After this discussion with my best friend, I first thought to myself "she's just a little disconnected ". Sometimes she can be a bit quirky. And then I asked the question at the office . The answers confirmed what I thought. It is possible to fall in love of a fictional character . Three of them chant the name Chuck Bass . One explains that she dreamed of him. "I was dreaming about it like I was waking up really bad not being his girl , like cold sweats" . Another, a little ashamed, tells us that she was in love by Stiles Stilinsky in Teen Wolf. And then, it had to fall, another told me that she had a real love for Lucas, in the Scott Brothers .

For my part, I was a little crazy about Jesse McCartney in Summerland and lately, I developed real feelings for Jamie (Michael Ward) in Top Boy. So much so that I'm looking for the same guy in everyday life. Sadness , frustration, desperation . He does not exist. This is also the most obvious reason for our fictitious loves :they have all the qualities what you look for in a man. All, in their own way, act as one would expect from the common mortals. There is the ultra romantic guy who writes letters to his dear and tender or the ultra badass guy but who could give everything for his girlfriend. Some even wanted to fall in love with a vampire (hello Edward Cullen). Boys, ask yourself the right questions because getting to prefer a drinker of blood to a water drinker, you made a mistake somewhere.

Being in love with a fictional character has a name:fictosexuality

This term appeared on discussion forums but would encompass sexual orientation fully fledged. “The fictosexuality is a sexual attraction to fictional characters" says Tanja Valisalo, researcher at Jyvaskyla University , Finland.“The object of desire can be a book, comic, television character , cinema, games, etc. Fictosexuality does not necessarily exclude other forms of sexuality or attraction to real people", she describes in her bookFictosexuality, fictoromance, and fictophilia:a study of love and desire for fictional characters , published in January 2021.

On forums, fictosexuals question the "normality" of their desire for characters fictitious and some even think they would be unable to fall in love of a real person. “I realized that I would never be interested in people 'real' in adolescence. There was this girl in high school that I thought was phenomenal . I tried it because we liked each other, but as soon as we started spending time together, I felt a disappointment huge inside of me. All of a sudden she got too real “, confides Candi, to our colleagues from Néon . A phenomenon that we hear little about outside the Web but which nevertheless takes on importance.

Obviously, in the majority of cases, crusher on a serial character does not make you a fictosexual . If not, all fans of the Duke of Hasting (coucou René-Jean Page, coucou Magali) would be fictosexual . And that would be a lot. And there's no shame or risk in falling in love for them. They make us dream and excite us. At worst you are frustrated of not being able to meet them in real life, at best, you masturbate thinking of them. Finally, falling in love with a fictional character is fantasy . And if you ever wondered:no, being in love with Thomas Shelby doesn't make you a cheating inveterate. In the meantime, I can't wait to find my little Jamie Tovell in the new season of Top Boy.