oh little sigh

Another reason I have no tolerance for Elementary detractors!

A big reason that Sherlock BBC fans seem to be upset at Elementary is partly the change in gender dynamics from the original texts. It’s about the bond of two white cis straight men!

Well, fuck you, Moffat and Guy Richie fucked up Doyle’s Woman by making Irene lose to Sherlock in their adaptations. 

Irene was supposed to win. Irene should have won in A Scandal in Belgravia. Irene should have beat Sherlock, SACD’s Irene was more clever than Sherlock, was capable of beating him at his own game. 

Slash and Racism: Navigating the Borderlands

Title owes a debt to Gloria Anzaldua. 

Slash fiction is not the be-all-and-end-all of subversive, radical restructuring of media.

Slash can be subversive - writing about gay characters in media that is determined to pretend our sexualities can only be Very Special Lessons to Teach Good Straight People? That is subversive, I’m not denying that.

But who are the characters we spend so much time on? Who do slash fans care about? For the most part slash fans focus on white cisgender men, able-bodied and traditionally attractive. 

Inception. X-Men First Class. Sherlock. Supernatural. Merlin. Bandom. Buffy The Vampire Slayer. The Avengers. All fandoms with large slash communities where the focus is on white men. 

What I am not saying is that white gay folks have a perfectly fine life. What I am saying is that white men are incredibly privileged in our society. White cisgender gay men have less intersections of oppression than queer women, queer men of color, queer women of color, transgender people. 

Western fandom is incredibly white. It’s by-and-large dissection and writings and drawings of western media - that is to say, media that focuses a good 90% of the time on white men. 

The casting of Lucy Liu as John Watson in “Elementary” is not homophobic. The reaction that HOLY SHIT A WOMAN OF COLOR IS NOT MY WATSON WATSON IS A WHITE MAN is worrying. Why are you assuming Lucy Liu will be playing a love interest? Why are you assuming that this Watson will be a straight woman? Can you not imagine a world where a WOC might be queer? Can you not imagine a world where a woman might no prioritize romance?

As a queer woman and a feminist  I have confronted outright misogyny from slashers - people who think that the male characters are just so much better than female characters. People who think slut-shaming women is a great way to pave the way for the True and Pure Love of Two White Men.

I have encountered vile homophobia from slashers - admittedly probably because I’m a woman. My queerness has been deemed less acceptable than men’s queerness. How dare I be a lesbian and be interested in slash fiction. 

There’s transphobia and racism that also cannot be swept under the rug by slash fans.

You have to be careful about the media you consume and produce. Don’t assume that everything is fine. Don’t assume that people will want to help you. Don’t assume that being progressive on one issue means anything about other issues. 

Sherlock Fandom. A Word?

So it’s homophobic to cast Lucy Liu as Watson because then there won’t be gay subtext.

Oh. Okay, so it’s not homophobic when producers give a wink-wink-nod and fetishize gay people, when we exist as long as we don’t have sex, when we exist only as something to be laughed about but never stated? 

That’s harmful. When gay people are only on television to titilliate, when we’re made into jokes. When Sherlock Holmes doesn’t admit to being gay but calls his brother a queen as if it’s a big jolly joke. When a gay woman says she fell in love with a man because he’s just so dashing.

Dude, like. It’s cute that you’re trying to hide your misogyny and your racism but I see you. I also see your homophobia even though you want to pretend you’re all ~radikewl~ and down with us gay folks.