Canvassing the Internet: Platonic Admiration

[tealin]

I know I was behind the door when hormones were handed out, but surely I am not the only one who finds it possible to respect and admire someone – or even just like a fictional character – without being sexually attracted to them. In high school the response to a statement of such admiration was usually full of conspiratorial innuendo, accompanied by a virtual 'wink wink nudge nudge.' I thought that when I joined the grownup world that mindset had been left behind, but I've encountered it a few times recently and it's got me wondering. Anyone out there know what I'm talking about? Opinions? Insights? Observations? Advice, even?

Comments

[infiniteviking]

With you all the way. (And not in any innuendo-ish fashion, either.)

Generally, I get attached to characters if I relate to them, want to be like them in some way, or find something they've done or something they stand for unutterably awesome. Physical attractiveness usually turns me off, because it seems like whenever the PTBs make a Thing of the character's sexiness the rest of their characterization goes down the drain. Far more interesting are the murky depths of their mind, especially the bits that actually help them cope with life (or that they fight down in order to cope anyway). Vimes and his inner Watchman are a case in point.