Moran may have wanted to tease the creative team: but Johnlock is no joking matter to Sherlock fandom.

Even more incendiary is the fact that it wasn’t just any woman being handed the microphone to discuss fandom with Cumberbatch, who frequently seems uncomfortable with the zeal of his fandom. Moran herself is a polarizing figure within the feminist community whose greatest hits include calling people “retards,” using the slur “tranny,” and famously declaring she “literally couldn’t give a shit” about the lack of minority representation on the tv show Girls.

Moran’s brand of self-centered feminism lies in sharp contrast to the predominantly female spaces of fandom, where women regularly debate privilege, embrace transgender and genderqueer characters, and genderflip and ‘racebend’ media like Sherlock so that the shows they love will, at least on some level, be more representative, diverse, and empowering for women and minorities. And for all that trotting out slash is the go-to gimmick when entertainment reporters want to discomfit their celebrity guests, slash fanfiction is very often smart, subversive, and transformative. At the very least it is one of the most interesting kinds of online writing in existence.