Reaction to this post. Universally relevant and especially to the SHERLOCK (HOLMES) fandom, therefore respost here.
Okay, so I’m the last person who is opposed to homosexuality, or any other kind of sexuality. People may love whom and how they want.
But. Please stop making a big thing of it everytime someone assumes another person is straight unless stated otherwise. For two reasons:
1) It is natural. Before you pick me apart now – it is a biological fact that humans (and most animals) are supposed to be “straight” for the purpose of recreation. Without any outside help, a homosexual couple (using homosexuality here as an example, because IMO it’s the most widespread form of sexual orientation/identity next to heterosexuality – correct me if I’m wrong) can’t procreate. But living beings needs to procreate to assure survival of their race.
Procreation is a default condition/idea programmed into our subconscious – proven by the fact that even gay couples often wish to have children and want to include their own genetic material in the creation of this offspring. Now, that doesn’t make the “ego” or “super-ego” (as in Freud’s theory) straight, but most certainly is their “id” straight in a sense that a male part needs a female one, or the other way around, to fulfill its instinct to procreate.
2) There is this huge issue of sexual identification in our society. Has been discussed a thousand times, doesn’t need to be discussed again in detail here. But fact is that many people who are straight will be offended/confused when you confront them with the assumption that they could be gay, even if you only do it to leave it open and not force them into a category.
You don’t change the world overnight, and even though we live in 2013, homosexuality/queerness is FAR from being universally accepted as something normal. That is sad and something that does need to change, but it will take time. And please, please give it time – because everything else is war, in one way or another. There are many people, of every age, who are strongly opposed to especially homosexuality, and harsh confrontation won’t change their minds; it’s actually the last thing that will change their minds, because like we all do when aggressively confronted with something we don’t like (in general), we just as aggressively defend ourselves and our opinions and won’t listen to reason.
So if people want to assume Sherlock Holmes (the man) is straight, then it might just stem from the classic ACD novels that were written in a time when people were expected and supposed to be straight. Not gay, not asexual, not demisexual, or any of the other forms there are.
We all love Sherlock Holmes (the stories), and certainly has ACD created a rather unusual friendship between two men, and one that makes one wonder from time to time because it is so intense, but you have to consider their and even more so ACD’s situation in the late 19th century. Unless he has stated otherwise (and he hasn’t, for all I know), we will never know for sure what ACD thought of his character’s (or characters’) sexuality – and in that case we’re back to my reason 1).
As for BBC’s Sherlock – there you can go back to my reason 2). And really, we are lucky that this is a British show, as those, to my mind, are much more open when it comes to homosexuality than American ones. But still, and as much a Johnlock shipper I am, I can understand why Moffat&Gatiss don’t make John and Sherlock gay, or define Sherlock’s sexual orientation at all (especially because everything beyond hetero-and homosexuality is not common knowledge!) – there are people out there, and I daresay it’s the majority, who would be alienated by a sexual realtionship of its two same-sex characters in a TV show that is not defined to be about that topic to start with (like Queer As Folk or The L-Word), and is on top of that about two of the most famous characters in media/tv/film/book history – who, in canon, are not a couple (not openly, or in a romantic/sexual sense – anyways, not clearly named as such by ACD).
Rest assured, I like the idea of the BBC discussing this issue with fans, if this turns out to be taken as a reasonable and serious discussion by both sides (meaning that fans won’t leash out and the BBC takes those who they contact serious).
Um, sorry. Got carried away. ^^
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