So, for those of you who don't know, the word "queerbaiting" basically means to "bait" queer (a.k.a LGBT) fans into believing that two same-sex people are going to get together, through subtle hints (such as romantic undertones like suggestive words or music or other characters in show hinting at it.) Queerbaiting is done to increase views while never delivering on the representation. Steven Moffat's (the main writer) specialty.
Sherlock as a show itself has so many plot holes (and general bad writing) that I'll just leave you to go watch Hbomberguy's excellent video essay on it:
Credit to Harris Bomberguy. Love you
Moving on to the juicy stuff, let's talk about the queerbaiting between Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.
credit to unknown on tumblr
credit to unknown on tumblr
Now, I don't have a major in cinematography, but even I can tell that these scenes are framed to seem romantic. Notice how in the first picture, Watson (right) needlessly looks down at Sherlock's lips. And this isn't a one-time thing. The show has included such hints at romantic interest in the literal script.
credit to unknown on tumblr
The show gained a large fanbase interested in the possible romantic relationship between the two, however, the writers of the show and even the actors made sure to make it clear that that is absolutely absurd and laughable. Sherlock isn't gay, how silly! They even make others' assumptions of Watson being gay a consistent joke.
credit to https://outoftheclosetonyourtv.wordpress.com
credit to https://outoftheclosetonyourtv.wordpress.com
And when we consider the actual representation of LGBT people on this show? Let's see what we got. Hmm... Irene Adler, bisexual dominatrix woman, who is a villain on the show and who is an incredibly sexual character.. Needless to say, portraying a bisexual woman as solely interested in sex (and is a literal villain) paints bisexual women in a bad light. It's a literal stereotype for bisexual people to be promiscuous.
credit to https://giphy.com/gifs/fashion-style-star-12oDRtq3Ah5KcU
And the other main character that's "gay"? Moriarty, a.k.a the overarching villain of the show. A psychopath obsessed with Sherlock.
credit to urtentic.wordpress.com
Moriarty refers to Sherlock as "honey", acts very camp in all of his scenes and even kills himself in front of Sherlock just for fun. The show makes fun of the fans who even considered taking Moriarty's gay coding seriously by making a joke scene where it seems like Moriarty and Sherlock are about to kiss.
credit to https://gifer.com/en/CPEa
So the writers won't even consider making the two main characters a couple, laugh in the face of their LGBT fans and their only gay characters are jokes or stereotypes. How lovely.
Needless to say, stay far away from this show.
Good-bi for now,
Nelly
Oh my goodness!Everything you said about this show is 100% true :)
ReplyDeleteFor real! This show is too much!
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