the world falls... and the rest is rust & stardust
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fandomsandfeminism:

suicidebyart:

fandomsandfeminism:

suicidebyart:

I don’t recall how or where but several days ago I came across an interview with Lara Pulver, the actress of Irene Adler in BBC’s SHERLOCK.

There were just comments from men of all sorts just relentlessly BASHING her and the character, saying it’s the most sexist piece of trash they had ever…

Howdy there. So I’m a woman, and I find BBC Sherlock’s Irene Adler to be INCREDIBLY problematic. 

Not only is she highly sexualized in very male-gazey ways, but she is routinely disempowered by the narrative. 

The episode plays into the “Women are so emotional” trope and has Irene lose to Sherlock because of her emotions which as, to quote Sherlock himself a “chemical defect of the losing side.” 

Irene is also denied agency when it is revealed that she was little more than a henchman to begin with. She is one of Moriarty’s puppets, not really a threat on her own.

On top of that, she has to be rescued by the “Scary scary terrorists” (thanks for the casual islamaphobia, Sherlock) by Sherlock at the end.

AND the episode engages in severe queer erasure by having Irene identify as gay, only to “fall in love with the right man” in Sherlock. 

The entire Irene Adler story in BBC Sherlock is deeply flawed. It is a male gaze saturated cliche male wish fulfillment fantasy. It denies Irene any real sense of agency or power. 

Hell, we have a queer woman who is disempowered by becoming sexually available to the male hero, who was only a threat in the first place due to the male villan, and has to be rescued at the end from the scary brown people. Literally everything about the episode is problematic in some way. 

Dunno why that doesn’t show up in my notes but…god dammit there is just so much wrong with that. Brings up my point again of: women aren’t allowed to be “emotional” or “girly” or anything along the lines because it’s a “stereotype”. A woman isn’t allowed to choose to be sexy because even though she’s smart and using it against men as a power play, she shouldn’t because it disempowers her. 

No one is saying this is what all women are. A woman should have the right to either be strong, weak, emotional, cold, girly, crazy, sane, etc. etc. Why must every woman suddenly become an icon for feminism by saying “all women should be these non-sexual strong independent women who doesn’t need anybody’s help”.

Why can’t we just accept and allow everyone to be whoever the fuck they want?

Ok, I think you’re missing the point. 

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being girly or or emotional. At all. In fact, most of my favorite shows are magical girl anime, which are well known for having emotional and girly protagonists. 

The problem is that BBC Sherlock frames that “emotionalness” as a weakness. BBC Sherlock turns being emotional into a “chemical defect of the losing side.”  The narrative sees being emotional as a bad thing, which it shouldn’t. The narrative PUNISHES her for being emotional, and THAT is the problem. 

Well, on top of the queer erasure and general disempowerment and male gaze saturation. 

*COUGH* And let’s try not to forget that Irene is a fictional woman written by men, yes? Real women who have real foibles and real flaws, emotional or otherwise and who make their own decisions for their benefit, or make their own mistakes, that’s fine, you go girls I support you all the way.

But Irene is fake. Not real. Never existed. She is a construct that has been distorted by Moffat and Gatiss from her far more feminist Victorian self into this… messy representation in Sherlock. Let me repeat: she is female representation written (poorly) by MEN. She and all her actions and motives are a construct of MEN’S ideals/wishes/desires (and to be even more clear - specific men, like Moffat, who has a terrible, terrible history with ableism and queer and female representation).

Her ‘weakness’ because of her suddenly-straight-love for Sherlock is written by men (I’m not saying that genderfluidity doesn’t exist, but remember - her lesbianism had no impact on the story whatsoever, at all, except as context for her comment on how she’s now in love with Sherlock, implying some sort of “I was a lesbian but he turned me straight!”). And don’t even give me that “Well, just like how Irene was The Woman to Sherlock, he’s her “The Man!” Um, have you thought about how ridiculous it is to generalise and eclipse an entire gender for one person (hint: it’s not romantic, it’s bullshit)? And it still doesn’t explain her lesbianism, they could have left it out, nothing would change except maybe she wouldn’t have to queerbait with John and Sherlock’s relationship too.

They even made it clear within the show itself that Irene’s actions were the result of Jim Moriarty telling her what to do. Granted, she got the information herself, but she was still a subordinate colleague (at best), puppet (at worst). Her having composure and dignity during her fall has no impact on the fact that she was still a manipulation of Jim’s in his ‘war’ against Sherlock. Her supposed ‘choice’ in taking orders from Jim shows no agency because say it with me boys and girls, she’s written by men into taking orders from a man she never met in canon. Not all the mistakes and choices a female character makes can be blamed on male writers of course. When they write a well-rounded female character with flaws and virtues alike it is very much approved. But when they write a caricature of an ‘evil seductress brought low by a man’ and then a ‘damsel in distress’ you’d better fucking believe we take issue with that.

Irene had been doing so well during the beginning of the show, even! Her nakedness was obviously fan service, but at least it served a purpose, it was even a bit fun watching her bamboozle Sherlock with her intelligence in using ‘no camouflage’. And then she got fridged, but then subverted the trope herself, and beat the Holmes brothers down pat. Then poof - haha just joking she doesn’t do much except for getting the information out of people during kinky sex and seducing Sherlock, she’s not actually smart enough to do anything about it haha isn’t she great and a good female character. Fuck you. As opposed to her canon Victorian counterpart who beat Holmes fair and square, kept her treasure and sailed off into the sunset to marry the love of her life (hint: not Holmes)? Nearly all her good points were refuted by the latter half of the episode by making it so bloody male-dominated/centred I could scream.

Now you CAN have really good female representation written by men (/and women, I’m not too sure of the gender ratio of the writing teams) like Olivia from SVU, Joan and Irene/Moriarty in Elementary, Bev Katz/Alana Bloom/Abigail Hobbs from Hannibal, but the way BBC Irene panned out, she is just a sad ball of misogyny and queer erasure all balled up into one. And her ‘rescuing’ at the end even tied in a bit of racism too. Wow. Just… wow.

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This… this is so accurate it hurts.

I love everything about this

Asshole House cat just jumping Wilson and bullying him to get whatever he wants (catnip?).

RDJ!Holmes cat playing coy with his Watson.

BBC!Sherlock cat sulking while John puts up with his moods.

Elementary!Sherlock coiled up in Joan’s lap because let’s be honest, he would be the cuddliest cat and he just love his Joan to pieces.

Canon!Holmes… really does feed off Watson’s praise.

(Source: lifeandotheroddtales)

4
BUT GUYS

What if… one of the reasons Sherlock didn’t run away with Moriarty (besides the whole evil mastermind who mindfucked him and murdered people thing) was because he couldn’t leave Joan behind? Just like how he didn’t take the vicodin, he didn’t want to disappoint Joan again, not after M. After Irene’s betrayal, Joan became the one good meaningful connection in his life - she is his salvation and redemption, the friend he (and plenty of others) never knew he could have and his partner. Even though Joan would never see the world as he does, not like Moriarty, Joan is enough to stay for, Joan is enough for him to say no, over and over, to his all his demons.

And maybe Moriarty knew, in a way, how important Joan is to Sherlock, how ‘untouchable’ she is and that’s why she didn’t have Joan killed as a way to ‘free’ Sherlock from any attachments. Because it would have been the easiest way to break Sherlock completely, to utterly destroy him and make him chase her to the ends of the world, but Moriarty doesn’t want that - she wants him to come willingly, to abandon Joan and his goody-two-shoes life and elope with her. She probably wants to take care of Sherlock the same way Joan did, to erase Joan and become the centre of Sherlock’s world again.

To Irene, Sherlock came apart at her death, and it should have been at her mercy that he be put back together. But it wasn’t. Against all odds and what she wanted to believe, Sherlock fixed himself and got sober again, with thanks to Joan. Sherlock didn’t need Irene anymore, he was moving on, and Moriarty really couldn’t have that could she? So she came back into his life like a whirlwind, faking PTSD and being kidnapped to guilt trip Sherlock into running away with her, away from Joan.

They said in interviews this wasn’t going to be your typical ‘two girls fighting over one guy’ thing, but at a deeper level, it kind of is. It’s about two lonely geniuses that found each other and could have been everything together, if not for the criminal ways of Moriarty. She says she’s the only one that sees as he does, but then that’s true vice versa - she’s finally found someone as unique as her, a work of art to her artist heart. Of course she’d ‘fight’ Joan for Sherlock, how could she ever let him go? But in the end, she would always lose to Joan, has already lost long before she ever came back to Sherlock’s life, because Sherlock never loved Moriarty, even if she loves him.

Ugh.

~Feelings~

(though how Joanlock feels suddenly took a turn for Moriarty/Holmes I’ll never know).

59
Some thoughts

Sherlock sees puzzles to solve.

Moriarty sees games to play.

But Joan sees people.

And that’s why both Sherlock and Moriarty were so blinded and weakened by each other despite their intellect, while Joan could see and ‘diagnose’ them. They were actually blinded by love. This is why Joan wasn’t afraid and wasn’t angry at Moriarty in the restaurant.

Moriarty had just insulted her about being a mascot, and leaned close to ask if Joan wants to sleep with Sherlock, words designed to infuriate and humiliate; but all Joan could think about is probably “Why is she saying this to me at all? If she’s as smart, or smarter than Sherlock as she claims, then she should know.” I think that’s when it hit Joan. The reason Sherlock couldn’t see Irene as Moriarty was the same reason why Moriarty couldn’t see that Joan has no interest in Sherlock. Moriarty was jealous, and she’s jealous because she’s in love.

But Moriarty was destined to fail, no matter if Sherlock ran away with her or not. Because Sherlock fell in love with Irene Adler, painter and forger extraordinaire, not Moriarty, criminal mastermind. But it was Moriarty that fell in love with Sherlock despite everything. Sherlock was never going to love her again, no matter what she did, however she ‘fixed’ him. Okay I’m having Moriarty/Holmes feels this is really weird.

6303

I had an aneurysm the first time I saw the Elementary opening and I recognised it. BEST SHOUT OUT IN THE SHOW SO FAR. Better than even “I believe in Sherlock Holmes”.

(Source: elementaryfangirl)

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sketchlock:

bakerstreetbabes:

johnwatsonismyspiritanimal:

whovenger-hiddlebatch-lock:

theparadoxmachine:

rainy-days-and-tiramisu:

joolabee:

tiger-in-the-flightdeck:

gini-baggins:

What?

John has a depression linked eating disorder. In the opening of Pink, after John wakes up, his breakfast consists of an apple that he doesn’t eat. This is very common in PTSD, especially those who have suicidal thoughts and tendencies, which we know John does. It’s not that they are actively starving themselves, it’s that they just don’t see the point eating, as an effort to stay alive. 
When he meets Sherlock, John eats dinner as if he is starving. He digs into his food, talks with his mouth full, as if it is the first full meal he has had in months. Which is entirely likely, since John has been home for several months at that point. Again, this is very typical of people who have been suffering this type of eating disorder, and find that they are no longer as painfully depressed. 
Sherlock even goes so far as to point out that after moving in together, John puts on an average of a pound a week in weight. John brushes it off as being normal. He doesn’t deny it, he just points out that he is eating more than one meal a day. This implies that he wasn’t eating this often before he limped into Sherlock’s life. 
This makes Sherlock’s insistence that John eat even more powerful. He goes so far as to halt an investigation on more than one occasion, to make sure John gets a meal into him. A well-fed John is a happy John, not because he is full, but because it proves that he is happy enough to actually eat. 

Sits down
closes laptop
puts head on table
bursts into tears

Tries not to cry
Rolls over
Cries a lot

Allow me to add to your feels with parts of the actual canon.
There’s a bit in Scandal in Bohemia, when the recently married Watson comes to see Holmes, who is on a new case. Holmes sees Watson and tells him that he looks like he’s gained about 7 1/2 pounds since he got married. Now to most people, this looks like Holmes being a dick and a lot of adaptations have translated this into Watson being portly or whatever, or loving to eat.
But at the very start of Study in Scarlet (which takes place only two stories before Scandal. The only one in between is the Sign of Four, where he meets Mary, his wife.) Watson is recently returned from war. He was badly injured and came down with a tropical fever that nearly killed him. He returns to England very tan, very weak, and very very thin. 
So how I began to translate Holmes telling Watson he’s put on weight is, yes, he’s teasing him, but at the same time he’s relieved because Watson’s getting healthy again. It’s his backhanded Holmesian “I can’t actually compliment your wife cuz it would damage my street cred” way of saying that Mary’s been good for him. That his Watson is in good hands. And even though Watson leaving wasn’t good for Holmes, he’s not such a selfish prick that he can’t recognize that Mary is having a good effect on Watson. 



People who write Sherlock as HATING Mary and turning into a pettily jealous six year old over her please take note. 




I’d like to say this gif is kind of perfect in describing my feels because I’ve always thought that Sherlock and Mary get along well especially in their mutual love for John. (WAHHHHH)

These are good feels to have.

sketchlock:

bakerstreetbabes:

johnwatsonismyspiritanimal:

whovenger-hiddlebatch-lock:

theparadoxmachine:

rainy-days-and-tiramisu:

joolabee:

tiger-in-the-flightdeck:

gini-baggins:

What?

John has a depression linked eating disorder. In the opening of Pink, after John wakes up, his breakfast consists of an apple that he doesn’t eat. This is very common in PTSD, especially those who have suicidal thoughts and tendencies, which we know John does. It’s not that they are actively starving themselves, it’s that they just don’t see the point eating, as an effort to stay alive. 

When he meets Sherlock, John eats dinner as if he is starving. He digs into his food, talks with his mouth full, as if it is the first full meal he has had in months. Which is entirely likely, since John has been home for several months at that point. Again, this is very typical of people who have been suffering this type of eating disorder, and find that they are no longer as painfully depressed. 

Sherlock even goes so far as to point out that after moving in together, John puts on an average of a pound a week in weight. John brushes it off as being normal. He doesn’t deny it, he just points out that he is eating more than one meal a day. This implies that he wasn’t eating this often before he limped into Sherlock’s life. 

This makes Sherlock’s insistence that John eat even more powerful. He goes so far as to halt an investigation on more than one occasion, to make sure John gets a meal into him. A well-fed John is a happy John, not because he is full, but because it proves that he is happy enough to actually eat. 

Sits down

closes laptop

puts head on table

bursts into tears

Tries not to cry

Rolls over

Cries a lot

Allow me to add to your feels with parts of the actual canon.

There’s a bit in Scandal in Bohemia, when the recently married Watson comes to see Holmes, who is on a new case. Holmes sees Watson and tells him that he looks like he’s gained about 7 1/2 pounds since he got married. Now to most people, this looks like Holmes being a dick and a lot of adaptations have translated this into Watson being portly or whatever, or loving to eat.

But at the very start of Study in Scarlet (which takes place only two stories before Scandal. The only one in between is the Sign of Four, where he meets Mary, his wife.) Watson is recently returned from war. He was badly injured and came down with a tropical fever that nearly killed him. He returns to England very tan, very weak, and very very thin. 

So how I began to translate Holmes telling Watson he’s put on weight is, yes, he’s teasing him, but at the same time he’s relieved because Watson’s getting healthy again. It’s his backhanded Holmesian “I can’t actually compliment your wife cuz it would damage my street cred” way of saying that Mary’s been good for him. That his Watson is in good hands. And even though Watson leaving wasn’t good for Holmes, he’s not such a selfish prick that he can’t recognize that Mary is having a good effect on Watson. 

People who write Sherlock as HATING Mary and turning into a pettily jealous six year old over her please take note. 

image

I’d like to say this gif is kind of perfect in describing my feels because I’ve always thought that Sherlock and Mary get along well especially in their mutual love for John. (WAHHHHH)

These are good feels to have.

(Source: johnlockedness)

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heysammy:

Hello, ladies, look at your Sherlock Holmes adaptation, now back to Elementary, now back at your Sherlock Holmes adaptation, now back to Elementary. Sadly, it isn’t Elementary, but if it stopped using sexism, racism and female stereotypes and switched to diversity and realistic portrayals, it could pretend it’s Elementary. Look down, back up, where are you? You’re on a boat with characters, their development and plot lines which are all genuine, authentic and delightful. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it, it’s slyly placed references to that original canon you love. Look again, the reference is now a trans*woman. Anything is possible when your Sherlock Holmes adaptation actually dares to take the step into an accurate modern society and doesn’t get stuck in the heads of egomaniacs. I am a tortoise.


Everyone go home, internet’s been won for the day.

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bakerstreetbabes:

#truefacts

HOLMES SMASH

bakerstreetbabes:

#truefacts

HOLMES SMASH

(Source: theredbullpixie)

13770

moonblossom:

The Holmeses and their Watsons

Yes. This. Also A++++++++ and all the awards for including Elementary!

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elina-elsu:

sherlockdc:

Remember that time Watson held Holmes’ hand, while Holmes had a lady and a gun in the other? Yeah.

I certainly do.

elina-elsu:

sherlockdc:

Remember that time Watson held Holmes’ hand, while Holmes had a lady and a gun in the other?

Yeah.

I certainly do.

4351

mamamantis:

crackerhell:

youarenotyou:

threekittenmoon:

strawberreli:

threekittenmoon:

anklewings:

sherlocks-blue-scarf:

duskstitching:

so i tried watching “sherlock” and like

why is joan watson a guy???

like ew i don’t get it?? why would they turn her into a guy

and a white guy at that

like, i have nothing against men but they can’t have good relationships with each other

and i don’t have anything against white people, i have white friends, but it’s not attractive……… martin freeman isn’t attractive….. he looks like a dog………

Are you serious????! The original Watson in the ACD stories was a man named John Watson. CBS screwed up when they made John into a woman (which they have done before, unfortunately). And I hate to break it to you, but Aurthur Conan Doyle was British, hence, the reason why they (Sherlock and Watson) are of Anglo-saxon descend. And as for your statement, ” men can’t have good relationships with each other,” its quite baffling. Men can and DO have good relationships with each other-it doesn’t have to involve romance at all. Guess friendship among men is rare.

And instead of judging Martin Freeman solely on his acting skills, you choose to judge him based on his appearances-very demeaning of you to do so.

oh my fucking god

Best ever.

this post is so perfect, omfg laughing SOO HARDDD

I know. 8/10 would troll again. It is a beautiful piece of artwork. It should be printed and hung in a museum.

beautiful

im pretty sure i just came

fucking incredible

Somebody give this girl a goddamn medal. *salutes*

(Source: princessjoanwatson)

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ilovemyjawn:

image

how often does Elementary Sherlock burn things in his bin?

A LOT OKAY HE BURNS CRAP IN HIS BIN LIKE IT’S HIS BIRTHRIGHT

OTP Challenge 21 - Cooking/baking (out of 30)

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One way or the other

(Source: antiprocess)