He’s Maynard Krebs.
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also Johnny Slash
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Archie comics have always dabbled in semi trendy topics but what concerns me here is how ugly the art is, just completely without charm.
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But he doesn’t have to be exclusive.
Some people like sex, some people like food, and sometime when mommy and daddy go and play in bed, they are having sex and earing food.
The two don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
George handled this once on “Seinfeld”, where he met a woman who enjoyed sex , food and tv, all at the same time. And with him.
As someone said, the characters were all asexual, that sort of thing wasn’t discussed. Given that they are all teenagers, still, why can’t Jughead just be slow? People develop at different rates, and he just might be a “late bloomer”. Why put a label on someone prematurely? If it was bad in the past, it’s still bad.
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How do we know he didn’t choose that label himself? I’ll be curious to see if it’s brought up again in future storylines.
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all good points (especially the last one), but to me it’s always seemed like he’s a special case. he’s turned on by food, not people. he understands being attracted to other people, but it just doesn’t work for him.
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See, that’s the interesting thing about being non-default(*). If you declare “I am gay / genderqueer / asexual / whatever,” you’ll often have someone make a statement similar to this, especially if you’re young. Somehow this almost never comes up with a teenager says they’re straight or identify as the gender they were assigned at birth. Perhaps Jughead has yet to develop a sexual interest, but maybe he simply knows his own feelings and is expressing this.
(* - Just in case it’s not obvious, I don’t actually mean to imply that cis heterosexual etc is actually a default, but rather it is the assumption in so much of our media and indeed, in most people’s perceptions of those around them.)
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Great point! Thank you for the clarification. Norms can be truly insidious.
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This is what fan-fiction and large corners of this internet, are for.
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I look forward to the very special issue where Jughead fissions into two, smaller Jugheads.
What?
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It’s just this one comic title, the Jughead reboot, where he’s asexual. Zdarsky himself even said it’s only in his own stories. They can’t make him asexual in the classic Archie stories written for kids because he’s fallen for too many girls already. Besides, we DO need Jughead slash.
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#STATION!
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I’m totally with you when you point out that sexualizing all teenagers equally makes no sense when they are still developing physically, mentally, and emotionally, and all of those at different rates. But then you say:
It was bad in the past for blacks to be free humans with full civil rights. It was bad in the past for women to have paying jobs other than those that could be accomplished at home or on the family farm. It was bad in the past for American citizens of Japanese descent (but not German descent) to live in their own homes instead of being rounded up and shipped off to a form of POW camps.
I could continue the examples for a very long time. Why do you assume that the past has a lock on ethical stances?
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so, asexual being defined as a person who has no sexual feelings or desires…this makes perfect sense. Jughead is attracted to food, sleep, and utter laziness.
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[quote=“Michael_Black, post:24, topic:73494”]Given that they are all teenagers, still, why can’t Jughead just be slow? People develop at different rates, and he just might be a “late bloomer”. Why put a label on someone prematurely? If it was bad in the past, it’s still bad.[/quote]Is there a label yet for people who have decided that an integral component of their identity is centered on a conscious decision to disdain the personal adoption of labels? (Seriously.)
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I remember watching an Archie-themed softcore (i.e. R-rated) movie on cable during my adolescence (1984 or so). To this day, I’ve been unable to find anything about it on the internet (I recall some false positives that are decidedly non-R and couldn’t possibly be licensed). Interesting in that Jughead was the narrator, giving his uninvolved, 3rd person account of Archie, Betty, Veronica, and Reggie(? Moose?) (but not Jughead) havin’ thangs.
Well, to be clear, someone who’s asexual can have a libido. Many people do. And romantic attraction isn’t ruled out either. 
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naughty
