Why the dismissal of women’s readings of Sherlock bothers me so much
Male showrunners and actors: They’re just friends. Why are you reading sex into this?
Female fans: They obviously want each other.
Male showrunners and actors: No they don’t. You’re hysterical and oversexualized and deluded.
Female fans: No we’re not. It’s OBVIOUS they desire each other.
Male showrunners and actors: NO THEY—
Female fans: YES THEY—
[ad infinitum]
Film and television are visual mediums. The text comes from what we see, not just the script, and definitely not extra-text commentary. Sherlock especially is a strikingly visual story that is all about looking.
Any woman with any sense of self-preservation spends her whole life learning to read the male gaze. The reason is not because women are constantly checking to make sure they are desirable (as many men like to think); the reason is because women have to. The consequences for not noticing when a male gaze equals “desire” are very dangerous, and so obvious I don’t even have to explain them. Any woman who walks through a parking lot at night, who has to spend her days avoiding a co-worker who sexually harrasses her but not enough to make it worth it to fight back, who deals with members of the public service who laugh at her when she is being threatened (I am thinking of that woman in San Francisco who tried to get a BART bus driver to call the police when a man was threatening to rape her and got ignored)—any woman who LIVES ON THIS PLANET has to learn to be aware of the male gaze and interpret it for signs of arousal and/or danger from a young age. This is SO MUCH BIGGER than “women want romance” or “women want love” or any of that ignorant shorthand for “women aren’t reading this show correctly.” It is definitely bigger than Sherlock.
If a man stood right in my personal space and stared into my eyes I would know how to interpret that. If a man licked his lips while staring at my face I would know how to interpret that. If a man belitted and chased off my romantic partners I would know how to interpret that. If a man asked me to reach into his jacket and pull out his phone I would damn well know how to interpret that. Any time I have tried to brush aside suspicions under these circumstances, I was proved right that I should have trusted my instincts, and I wound up in dangerous situations (luckily, nothing terrible resulted thanks to being able to escape, but the danger was real). If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but at least I don’t get locked in a basement in Cleveland for a decade. Women have to err on the side of caution. People are right when they say the sexual tension moments in Sherlock are brief, but that doesn’t matter: if you’re a woman you have to take even the briefest flashes into account. There is a reason we call these moments “eyefucking.”
Sherlock is all about the power of sight, of the gaze, specifically the male gaze. (There’s a whole article in that, but I’ll resist.)
We get Sherlock POV when he interprets a scene, with those subtitles and graphics; we get John POV for everything else (that’s my reading, anyway; Watson is the narrator of the Sherlock Holmes tales, after all). There are only a few establishing shots/omniscient narrator scenes that aren’t from John or Sherlock’s POV, e.g. the victims at the beginning of ASIP, or Moriarty texting in front of Big Ben in ASIB or in a cell in THOB. We briefly see Irene’s POV as she looks at pictures of Sherlock (in that beautiful sequence where they look at pictures of each other), but that’s about it. (I’ve never been certain whether that dream sequence of Irene interpreting the “bed scene” was from her POV or Sherlock’s or both.) I have hopes we’ll see Molly’s POV in TEH but of course I haven’t seen it yet.
The denial of the male showrunners of Sherlock and the firm disagreement of the female fans just proves to me that even in the 21st century, men and women live in different worlds.
5 men: There’s no sexual tension.
Thousands of women: Yes there is.
5 men: Clearly you’re wrong!
I don’t need this ship to be canon, it’s not the differing opinions that bothers me. The writers are free to write whatever they want and I’m on board. I just want some acknowledgement—from the world at large—that women’s perspective on human interactions is just as valid as men’s and doesn’t come from wishful thinking. Quite the opposite.
Bottom bit bolded, because THIS. Fucking THIS, a thousand times THIS. It cannot be said strongly or loudly or often enough: we get so, so fucking tired of being told that we’re delusional, when everything – everything – is telling a different story than the ones TPTB think they’re telling.
Women are forever being told we’re imagining it all – from PMS to actual hostility and danger to narrative romance, and everything in-between. Women are always ‘imagining things’, and men are always there to set us straight. Well, fuck that.
Jurassic World, Mad Max Fury Road, and Little Girls
For her birthday, we took my soon-to-be six year-old to Jurassic World. Prior to that, she had watched a bootleg copy of Fury Road with me after I had confirmed that it fit the levels of violence I consider acceptable based on what I know of my daughter.
The most interesting thing to me was her reactions after each film.
After watching MMFR, she talked incessantly about it. (She had talked during the film as well, making observations, etc.) Her name was suddenly changed to Angry Cereal, mirroring two of her favorite characters. She made a new Sims game, spending more time than she ever had before perfecting the characters – and giving them all pets. A Lego car set was turned into a crazy car that could fit into the Mad Max world. Barbies were now the Wives and her dad’s Diablo figurine was now Immortan Joe. It’s been a little over two weeks and she still talks about it.
When the credits rolled on Jurassic World, she said, ‘Can we go see another movie?’ –And that was it. The only other comment vaguely related to the movie was her assertion she liked dinosaurs. Nothing else. No elaborate recreations, nothing.
I had thought with MMFR that my excitement had rubbed off on her but that doesn’t seem to be the case. After Jurassic World, I was excited, encouraging her to talk about her favorite parts. She asked for a Happy Meal. When we went to spend a gift card at Toys-R-Us the next day, I pointed out all the Jurassic World toys. They had Blue! She barely gave them a second glance.
It didn’t jive. She had tons of dinosaur books. Why was she infinitely more interested in an adult movie that was pretty much one big car chase rather than a movie about dinosaurs? Was it because despite the differences in ratings, Jurassic World had frightened her more? Maybe. But when she picked out a new stuffed animal to buy with her gift card, she informed us the little owl’s name was Splendid.
And that was it.
She had watched Fury Road in almost complete silence until the first shot of all the Wives. Then she turned to me and said, “There’s so many girls!” That was her takeaway from MMFR: there were lots of girls! All the girls were fighting together against the bad guy! The girls were the heroes! That was important to her, seemingly even more important than it was to me. Maybe because she’s just getting her first taste of playground culture where boys and girls are separate and the two don’t mix often and it’s been confusing. Maybe because she just really liked seeing girls on the screen. When I ask her, she just shrugs and says, “I don’t know, mommy, I liked all the girls. I liked Toast.”
As an adult, I’m aware of issues with representation. I don’t remember consciously noticing it as a child but I remember Leia and Uhura and Janeway being my favorites. I remember dressing up as Dana Scully. As a mom, I watch my daughter gravitate to girls and women on screen. A movie I thought would a sure thing because DINOSAURS! became a total miss because for her, there was no one on screen that she left the theater wanting to dress up as. There was no incentive for her to change her name to mimic favorite characters. I left grinning because holy shit, raptor squad! She left wanting a cheeseburger.
Children know when they’re being marginalized. They might have no idea what they word marginalized means, but they can still tell, instinctually, when they’ve been misrepresented in and/or excluded from the story.
Spoiler alert: the answer is sexism. But let’s look at the alternatives. Again and again. Every time a female-led Marvel movie is mentioned, these same tired lines get dragged up.
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It’s all about timing.
I seriously am not even sure what this means, but Kevin Feige says it a lot. Presumably if you release a female-led movie in the wrong moon-cycle, you risk the wrath of the gods? But more often it’s…
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The movies are all planned out. There’s a creative vision to be followed, an extra movie can’t just be shoved in.
This is weird, because other movie studios are in charge of their own schedule. Are we seriously supposed to accept “We aren’t ignoring women now, we’ve been ignoring them this whole time!”? That’s not an excuse! That’s basically the opposite of an excuse! There is no “timing” or “planning” reason Marvel couldn’t have chosen Captain Marvel, instead of Guardians of the Galaxy, and Ant-Man And The Wasp, instead of Ant-Man And Older Ant-Man.
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A female-led film would be a big risk.
Guardians of the Galaxy. I’m serious. You can’t tell me a Black Widow movie, with an established character played by a box-office-draw actress, and a good advertising campaign, is more of a risk than “those dudes no one’s ever heard of, in space, with two fully-CGI characters, fronted by That Parks And Rec Dude Who Used To Be Chubby”.
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And it’d be soooo expensive. Scarlett Johansson would want lots of money, and Marvel is really cheap with its acting talent.
Marvel has had a tradition of casting relative unknowns in major roles, presumably because it’s easier to get them to sign multi-picture contracts and not have to drive dump-trucks full of money up to their houses. Robert Downey Jr is the exception, he was paid $50 million for Avengers, while Scarlett Johansson took home one-tenth that amount, and Chrises Hemsworth and Evans got even less. (I say “even less”, these numbers are ridiculous!) Even if they had to pay Johansson $25 million, Guardians opened at almost $100 million for its first weekend. Plus, a Widow movie, probably a spy-action thriller type deal, is going to be much cheaper to make than the likes of Avengers or Guardians. They’ll need a couple of million for a Nick Fury and one other Avenger (probably Hawkeye), they’ll probably cast one other big name, and then it’ll be all unknown Russian actors.
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Plus, Scarlett Johansson doesn’t even want to do it.
I dunno. I haven’t spoken with her in person on this topic. But she seems as up for it as any of the others do. For a studio that doesn’t want to pay them much, they sure have a bunch of enthusiastic actors! Anyway, Johansson has said she’s up for it, if they wanted her and there was a good script. http://screenrant.com/scarlett-johansson-talks-black-widow-solo-film/
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Anyway, Black Widow was a huge part of Captain America: The Winter Soldier. That’s practically like having her own movie!
Seriously, people say this. For maybe a year and a half, Kevin Feige’s go-to answer for “can has woman movie pls?” was “Wait for Captain America 2, wink wink!”. A normal person would interpret this as “We’re setting up a Widow movie to spin off from Cap 2.” but apparently he meant “Look, she gets to have a decent part in a properly dude-fronted movie. Compromise!” No. In case it’s not clear, having a good female character in a movie that takes place in a world closely resembling our own, where women make up a slight majority of the population, is a baseline!! It would be outrageous NOT to have an important female character! As it turns out, the heroes in Cap 2 are Cap, two women and two black guys, so that’s pretty cool. But it’s still Cap’s movie. How is it that grown-ups cannot understand that being allowed play with someone else’s toy is NOT THE SAME as owning your own toy?!
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A new property like Captain Marvel would be too risky. No one knows who she is.
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY. I am really glad that they made Guardians. Not because it’s perfect (it’s not), not because it’s funny (it is), but because it is undeniable proof that they will gamble on anything, provided it doesn’t upset their Straight White Male Protagonist (preferably played by a buff blonde guy called Chris) streak. Marvel are currently on track to put out TEN WHOLE MOVIES where the main character is a white guy played by a buff Chris before it puts out a single movie fronted by a woman or someone who isn’t white. (It has yet to even feature a significant character who is both a woman and not-Caucasian, and only one major actress isn’t white. She’s a green-skinned alien, though, not a black chick.) Anyway, now that they’ve made Guardians and introduced the Kree, Captain Marvel would be the perfect link between the Avengers and the Guardians.
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Marvel is better than DC! Marvel already has so many awesome female characters. It’s mean-spirited to hate on them when they’re doing better than the other studios.
I think there’s a pretty good chance Marvel gets more ragging on this because (a) they seem like they should know better, while DC seems to mess a lot of stuff up, and (b) more women watch Marvel movies, so there are more women to complain. Guardians had an audience of 44% women. But anyway, just because someone else is worse doesn’t make you good. Marvel has proven that it is capable of delivering well-rounded, interesting, important female characters … and then sidelining them and refusing to give them their own movie. We’re halfway there, that’s why it’s important to keep pushing!
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Ugh, you’re being so PC. Do we have to have quotas now? It’s just some sci-fi movies! Don’t take it so seriously.
(This isn’t really an excuse, it’s an attempt to make the conversation go away.) Um, no. I find it hard to believe that anyone following this stuff was not themselves influenced as a child by sci fi or fantasy or comic books. I do find it easy to believe that anyone saying that always found it really easy to find lots of cool characters who looked like them, to pretend to be and to look up to. No, it’s not the biggest deal ever. But it sucks, if you’re an eight year old girl, and you want to play Avengers and you ALWAYS have to be Black Widow even though she’s kinda boring to play and you’d much rather shoot lightning or fly. Or there’s two girls, so one of them gets to be an Avenger and the other one has to be a girlfriend and get rescued all the time. Also, we’re not supposed to take it seriously that Wasp seems to have been written out or maybe fridged, even though she’s a founding Avenger and named the team, but any deviation from white-maleness has fanboys bursting in from every direction with the battle cry of “But in the comics….!” Anyway, to hell with hypothetical 8-year-olds. _I_ want this. Marvel are growing a female audience, they should step up.
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(Bonus round: Black Panther is too complicated. Wakanda would be difficult to explain or show.
(a) Guardians of the Galaxy. (b) Use a real African country instead.
(e) Not that we’d have to spend much time there, if we didn’t want to. T’challa could always show up in New York or whatever. He could be an exile. Or looking for something to save his people. If Tony Stark creates Ultron and Donald Blake was Jane’s ex and Bucky and Natasha didn’t train together, then apparently we’re allowed make changes to the comic mythology.
(f) Have you even SEEN Black Panther?! He’s awesome!)
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It’s sexism. Marvel doesn’t want to do a female-led movie (or one led by a black guy). And they do not have a good reason to provide us. And that’s not good enough.
I’d like to add that this is the same MO that most of Hollywood has and there have already been a few films that have done wonderfully.
I love Marvel, but I won’t deny they have their flaws. Marvel is in a good position to take this step and offer us a female or POC -led movie. They’re actually in a better position than any other franchise out there.
It’s okay to like Marvel and still admit they have their faults. In fact, it’s important to admit that they have faults because if you don’t call people out on this, they won’t be inclined to change.
Posted on
[W]e know precisely why it is that women and their influence within YA fiction—their building of YA fiction—falls into the margins. We know why it is that men like John Green write Love Stories and women like Sarah Dessen write Romances. We know why it is that a World War II novel like Marcus Zusak’s The Book Thief sees much more recognition and receives more accolades than Ruta Sepetys’ World War II novel Between Shades of Gray. It’s not the quality. It’s the way the system is built that makes women the outsiders in the category of fiction they made.
This is an incredible article about the work women writers have done to make YA what it is today—and how often and how HARD we work to we neglect that very important part of the category’s history—especially when we want to credit it with anything good.
Or, as Kelly so eloquently put it, “S. E. Hinton’s story foreruns those of other women in YA fiction. While YA was allowed to grow and develop, too often, the work women did laying down the tracks to its success was recognized not on its own merits but because of the approval of their expressed work by men.”
No, but even my own fic default character is male. I realize that’s a habit. But it’s hard to break
Most of my books tend to be about women, funnily enough. But I grew up on a lot of Tamora Pierce…
See almost every story I read growing up, it was male heroes. I grew up on a lot of classics and King Arthur and Robin Hood and Phineus Fogg were all men. Later I got into scifi and fantasy and the trend continued with Lazarus Long and Ender and Baginsses.
TV wasn’t any better with Captain Kirk and Picard and Bridger and Sheridan. Sam Beckett and The Doctor.
Movies gave me Indiana Jones and William Wallace.
I realize this should make me want to write more female characters. I know the problem with representation. But it’s still very, very hard for me to write female characters, though I do try. At least I’ve written River and Tamara.
This is also another part of why I changed my major.
