Fear Thesaurus Entry: Sex

Debilitating fears are a problem for everyone, an unfortunate part of the human experience. Whether they’re a result of learned behavior as a child, are related to a mental health condition, or stem from a past wounding event, these fears influence a character’s behaviors, habits, beliefs, and personality traits. The compulsion to avoid what they fear will drive characters away from certain people, events, and situations and hold them back in life. 

In your story, this primary fear (or group of fears) will constantly challenge the goal the character is pursuing, tempting them to retreat, settle, and give up on what they want most. Because this fear must be addressed for them to achieve success, balance, and fulfillment, it plays a pivotal part in both character arc and the overall story.

This thesaurus explores the various fears that might be plaguing your character. Use it to understand and utilize fears to fully develop your characters and steer them through their story arc. Please note that this isn’t a self-diagnosis tool. Fears are common in the real world, and while we may at times share similar tendencies as characters, the entry below is for fiction writing purposes only.

Flaws That May Emerge
Addictive, Antisocial, Cynical, Defensive, Dishonest, Inattentive, Inflexible, Inhibited, Insecure, Jealous, Macho, Nervous, Oversensitive, Suspicious, Uncommunicative, Withdrawn

Hindrances and Disruptions to the Character’s Life
Being unable to find someone to go through life with
Difficulty opening up to others
Developing a sexual dysfunction
Feeling uncomfortable and awkward when sex is discussed, referenced, included in a movie, etc.
Being sexually unfulfilled
Sex becoming an act that must be endured rather than something pleasurable to be shared

Scenarios That Might Awaken This Fear
Being stalked or harassed
Friends gossiping about their sexual experiences
Meeting a potential partner the character would like to pursue a deep relationship with
An unexpected sex scene in a movie or book
Someone flirting with the character
Being touched without consent
Certain types of medical exams
A partner insisting on couple’s therapy, where the character will have to discuss sex and explore their feelings and memories about it

Other Fear Thesaurus entries can be found here.

Need More Descriptive Help?

While this thesaurus is still being developed, the rest of our descriptive collection (16 unique thesauri and growing) is accessible through the One Stop for Writers THESAURUS database.

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