Fanlore:Featured Article Archives/2022: Week 51

Sex Pollen is a common fanfiction trope used to bring two characters together in a sexual encounter. It involves one or several characters becoming infected with a pollen of some alien or magical plant, or they might be influenced in some other way (magic, alien technology, mind control, etc.) that causes them to develop a spontaneous and urgent need to have sex. The trope may have originated in Star Trek fandom with the 1967 episode This Side of Paradise, and it's believed the term Sex Pollen arose in DC Comics fandom. This trope has seen widespread use in SFF fandoms for decades; sometimes with characteristic variations springing from canon elements.

Although the trope is most commonly seen in fanfiction, it can be found in other types of fanworks (though often as adaptions/depictions of scenes from fanfics that use the trope).