The Escapist

sherlvckhomo:

ok this is the last thing i’ll say about the whole debacle: i think the part that i’m most upset about is the idea that fandom is made up of 16-year-old heterosexual females that only ship two men because they don’t know how to deal with their sexuality.

First things first, even if this is true, why is it such a terrible thing? I absolutely hate that female sexuality is looked at as a dirty and disgusting thing and that young teenage girls are shamed for exporing their sexuality through gay erotica when teenage boys can talk all they want about lesbian porn and nobody bats an eyelash. Nobody should be shaming teenage girls for getting in touch with their sexuality through whatever means they want.

Second, I’m pretty surprised that someone can know enough about the fan base to know about things like military kink and bottomlock and not be aware that a large part of that fan base is made up of people that are distinctly not heterosexual teenage girls. These people exist and are a huge voice in the johnlock community and it’s really upsetting to me that young (or even not-so-young) queer people are getting erased as fans and told that they only ship two male characters so that there’s no competition from other females. NEWS FLASH: WE DON’T ALL WANT TO FUCK SHERLOCK.

Third, the idea that fans are shipping two male characters because a female character would be perceived as competition is frankly laughable. When we are given a show in which the main characters are male and the female characters are only in the background and have minimal interactions with the main characters, OF COURSE the main ship is going to be male/male. There’s for sure a gross lack of female main characters in the media and I would love for that to change but as long as the main characters of your show are male, the main ships of the show are probably going to be male/male ships! Personally, I would love a Sherlock Holmes adaptation with a female Holmes and a female Watson but I’m working with what I’ve been given here.

Basically I’m frustrated at the shaming of female sexuality and the the erasure of the queer Sherlock audience that I read in the article. I work in a field that is extremely male-dominated and the blatant sexism can really get to be a bit much. Seeing an article like this from an actor who many people (especially young girls) look up to is truly disheartening.