The Love Hypothesis was released on Prime Video a few days ago, and there was a lot of conversation about it right away. There were discussions about the merits of the movie within the pantheon of great romcoms, and a lot of analysis of the legacy of fanfic-turned-books-turned-movies. There was even discourse about Reylo (again!) and what the movie’s music choices say about Rey and Kylo’s legacy. What there wasn’t enough talk about was the movie’s decision to explicitly label its main character, Olive, as demisexual.
Yet, it’s that decision that might end up being the most groundbreaking thing about the movie.
It’s not a big moment, or at least, it doesn’t seem like one within the context of a rom-com that does a pretty great job with the fake-dating trope and features two actors with a pretty fun, awkward chemistry. That, in some ways, makes it even better. Olive doesn’t get a big identity crisis; she just has a conversation with her roommate Malcolm, who points out that she is demisexual. She asks if what she feels isn’t just the way everyone feels. Malcolm tells her it’s not. She seems to accept it, and we move on.
Olive Smith is demisexual.
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But what is demisexuality? The term itself is pretty new, with its origins traced to around 2006 on the Asexual Visibility and Education Network (AVEN) forums. In fact, the term was only officially added to the Oxford English Dictionary in March 2022. It basically describes people who only experience sexual attraction after forming a strong emotional bond with someone.
Demisexual people can be queer or straight; demisexuality describes how attraction forms rather than to whom a person is attracted. However, demisexuality is widely considered part of the LGBTQIA+ community because it falls under the asexual spectrum.
Was that more information than you’ve ever heard before about the term? That’s not a surprising thing, because demisexual representation is rare in entertainment of all kinds, even though there are a lot of characters we can probably point to and say, “hey, maybe this fits.” And part of the problem is that entertainment often shies away from saying these things out loud.
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And by these things, I basically mean anything related to sexual orientation. We know characters are gay or straight because of who they sleep with, not because they say it out loud. Famous bisexual characters, like Oliver Stark’s Buck on 9-1-1 or Carina DeLuca on Station 19, are labeled as bisexual because of the sexual partners they’ve had, but the characters have never applied the label to themselves. But it’s way harder to “tell” just because of someone’s actions when it comes to demisexuality, which is why it’s so crucial that The Love Hypothesis says the word out loud.
Ever since the movie came out, I’ve come across some comments on social media to the tune of “oh, so that’s what I am,” and “I didn’t know this had a name.” That might be funny to some, but it showcases the problems with our education system and also the importance of representation on screen. We see ourselves in the characters in movies and TV, and the more those represent the full breadth of the human experience, the better off we’ll be.
Olive’s story isn’t about her demisexuality. Instead, we see her get close to Adam; we witness the two of them talking and bonding, and by the time they get to the conference, and there are, sadly, two beds, we still know what’s coming. The emotional connection has been established on-screen, so the movie can then move to the sex scene part without it contradicting what we have already established regarding Olive’s identity. And it works because the movie has built up the relationship enough that we believe she really does care for Adam.
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But a story not being about one thing doesn’t mean that part of your identity isn’t important. And a rom-com might not be the place you would expect to get lessons from, but entertainment is and will always be a mirror into the world we live in. So, it’s very refreshing to have that mirror shine a light not just on two pretty white characters, but on something that a lot of people perhaps didn’t even have a word for until they saw Olive.
And as a bonus, The Love Hypothesis is a pretty fun rom-com. Who doesn’t love a good fake-dating scenario? And, like the best rom-coms of old, we spend more time in the actual romance than we spend in the miscommunication era. A win for all the romance girlies and everyone who isn’t afraid of emotions.
Ten, twenty years from now, we will probably remember this as a good romantic comedy. But it’s likely we’ll remember it more for the fact that it dared to give us demisexual representation when there wasn’t much to be found. Now, that’s groundbreaking.
The Love Hypothesis is available to stream on Prime Video.
