#Sherlock is certainly giving gay vibes

[dog-botherer]

Ok why did no one tell me how gay the original Sherlock Holmes stories are. I though BBC Sherlock was just gay out of nowhere, I didn’t realise it was just following the source material

[remythologise]

no fear (post destiel society) vs. one fear (in the rush of creators investing in the destiel dollar, johnlock actually goes canon)

[fancyfeathers]

@istgtumlrifyoudothisonemoretime asked a question

whenever i think of clementine i think of SPOILERS FOR ENOLA HOLMES 2 moriarty who is a girl. she is due to her gender, underestimated and not given a place in society and she, as revenge, plots mind beding strategties that confuse sherlock. there is a cetain anger in her that she covers up with a sweet smile. she also behaves SO MUCH like a terrifying villainess and that is exactly how i imagine clementine to be

Oh my god yes!!!

Clementine is fueled by spite and revenge, she started off in organize crime and that worked for awhile and when it fell through she did not just give up, she found another way to spite her father by working basically joining a secret society run by Eloise’s husband, Nathanial, and Andrei, similar to the Aristocrats of Evil from Black Butler and the Spina di Rosula from Genshin, going on to live in France and by a agent and contact for this organization. She faked her own death just to irritate her father and make his opinions run thin and then most certainly when she works on jobs for the organization they may or may not get in the way of the British Government/MI6, like I firmly believe that she would do something similar to what Mira Troy (the adaptation of Moriarty in Enola Holmes) did, like with her I could see it being different government files instead of money, and her leaving everyone running in circles, especially with the help of Eloise, Nathanial, and Andrei, who also all are geniuses of different verities.

I could just see her in that last scene of the second movie, it would be a hundred percent her, especially that last line at the end.

“And it was fun.”

Just how she said it would be one hundred percent how Clementine would say it while looking her father dead in the eye with the biggest smile in both anger and the satisfaction of seeing his face in a brief state of shock.

Or also, when she starts a new identity in France (like Irene to James) I could definitely see her taking a Cruella vibe from the live action movie about her, like specifically this scene, albeit a lot less hostile undertones, with her and Nathanial when he first has her join his and Andrei’s organization. Also that last scene in Cruella where she is strutting around her new house, I cannot say what it is but I can picture Clementine like that when she arrives in her new home in Paris, especially when Cruella is on top of the car and rips out the middle of the spelling on the gay to make it say Hell Hall, just absolute boss bitch energy.

(Also all the Cruella outfits are 100% Clementine coded)

[rosemarydisaster]

So, about Bi Caleb

Warning: very long post, discussing bi representation and biphobia.

*Sorry for spelling errors, English ain’t my firts language.

I can’t believe I have to tell you guys, but anyways: Caleb is bi whether he ends with a male character, a female character on a non binary character. That’s what bi people do, you know? they experience atraction for all genders. Saying that a bi character that ends with someone of the opposite gender is straight and queerbaiting is incredibly biphobic.

Yes, Vax was bisexual. Yes, he ended up with Kiki. Get fucking over it.

Now, I can understand why LGBT+ fans may feel disappointed when they tease a “gay couple” but the “straigth” couple ends up being endgame. Notice the quotation marks because there’s not such thing as a straight or gay couple for a bi person. They are bisexual in both situations, but I can see where the problem comes from. I’ve been queerbaited to hell and back by a lot of shows and it really hurts. It feels like they are laughting at you for caring. But I want those fans (whose feelings are totally valid, don’t get me wrong) to consider a few things when it comes to Critical Role, the first one being: it’s a D&D game.

Let me explain, because I know a lot of CR fans haven’t experienced what D&D is like in real life (and that’s absolutely valid, you don’t need to play D&D to enjoy CR). This is an improvisation game, not an scripted TV show. In a Tv show you can plan ahead of time what ship is going to be endgame, what themes are gonna come up for each character and it’s easier to deeply explore sexuality and gender as different planned arcs. In D&D you character’s sexuality may or may not come up depending on how you play it. Take for instance how other CR character’s have stated their sexuality:

Beau: overtly. Very *In your face* kind of lesbian. Marisha said “fuck it, I really just want to romance girls and be bad ass”

Yasha: openly, but not as in your face. Ashley Jhonson wanted to drink from that WLW cup while also being a shy disaster. Seafood market is her favored terrain.

Caduceus: Our Ace king has never hidden his sexuality, and yet he didn’t mention anything about it until chapter 114. He didn’t had the need to either hide it or state it. He was simply vibing.

I think Liam is going that route with Caleb. He’s flustered by Essek and Edwulf (Come on you guys, he always asks Matthew if he’s still hot). He also had/has a thing for Astrid and a think he might have feels for our favorite Tiefling gal. I know we are all too used to characters being teased as gay/bi only to have execs pull a “haha jk they be straight”. But this is not Sherlock or Supernatural. This is a show that not only has queer rep, but also supports queer organizations and creators. Hell, I’m sure some of the cast members are LGBT (but I’m not here to speculate on real people’s sexuality). If Caleb shows attraction to men he is not just queerbaiting, doing it for fanservicing or tricking the fans in any way shape or form: he’s just portraying a bi character. The thing is, since this is not a TV show, he is not doing it por woke points or to send a message. He’s doing it because he wants to play a bi wizard with depression.

So maybe there will be a point in which he can explores his sexuality more deeply, but remember he is playing a game. And his character is one that has a lot of trouble opening up to his feelings. Caleb is not someone that makes sexual jokes or flirty remarks. He is shy, awkward and has developed a really fucked up sense of love that he is now slowly fixing. Hell, in the same Talks episode Liam explained that Caleb was trained on Honey-pot tactics. Which, for those of you who can’t stand Bond films, means seducing your enemy/target to get information, manipulate them or assassinate them. WHICH IS A REALLY FUCKED UP THING! Let’s remember how he was the one to push Fjord to sleep with Advantica so they could spy on her. That boy has Issues when it comes to relationships. So if we don’t see him being as overtly gay as Beau, Molly or Yasha, well maybe it’s because that’s the way Caleb is. Bi people don’t owe you flamboyance, or dating both guys and gals for your approval. I wouldn’t make a post if it was only that, because I do feel the people who are aching for good bi rep and would love some more explicit confirmation. But Vax exists, so I know we can’t have good things down here.

VAX EXPLICITELY SHOWED ATTRACTION TO GILMORE. AS EXPLICIT AS IT GETS. HE FUCKING KISSED HIM. THEY WERE PRACTICALLY DATING. AND YET SOME OF YOU FUCKERS CALL HIM QUEERBAITING. AND I SAY: NOT ON MY WATCH! NOT ON MY FUCKING WATCH!!

How come a character can have canonically kissed another character in a romantic/sensual context and still be called straight? I know fucking Sherlock traumaticed y’all into having trust issues but believe me when I tell you: I’ts not that deep. This is not a “Haha I love u but in a no homo way bro”. It’s a “full homo darling, but also we’re gonna break up because I like someone else”. This is the opposite of queerbaiting. Instead of keeping a charade he was honest with Gilmore because he valued his feelings and realized that he couldn’t reciprocate them at that moment. And if you try to tell me that Vaxleth was forced and didn’t have a reason to exist except queerbaiting, let me tell you: you are wrong.

Vax saw Gilmore once or twice monthly while he spent a heck ton of time with Kiki. Sure, they didn’t had the kind of camera chemistry Gilmore and Vax had because Keyleth is not charismatic. She’s really awkward, and her relationship with Vax was more on the adorable and dorky side of things. I bring this up because I’m predicting something similar may happen to Shadowgast.

Trust me, I ship the hot wizards as much as any other critter (even though I’m a multishipper). But they haven’t talked to Essek in centuries. I think it may have been almost a month in rol and quite a few outside. And you have to take into account out-rol time to because they are humans (except Tal) playing a game and they forget about stuff (except Marisha and Matt). So Shadowgast may not happen because sure, they had really good chemistry for a month a month ago. People have crushes that die down over time All The Time. So maybe don’t be so butthurt about your ship not being canon that you accuse an ally of homophobia. 

The cast of CR put forward such an amazing representation for the LGBT+ community and it really hurts me that you gets stuck on the one thing that isn’t canon. Matt has created a world in which coming out is not necessary because no one assumes your sexuality. A world in which people respect pronouns and orientations (except Tary’s father, who is a villain). A world in which Cad or Caleb don’t need to explicitly say “I’m ace/bi” unless it comes up in conversation. A world in which his friends can be whatever they want to be without pressure or reprecusions. A world in which they get to explore different gender identities and sexual orientations with full freedom. Let’s not interfere with that (unless there’s missrepresentation), and let them play their game. If you really need mlm or wlw canon couples or more outwardly LGBT+ people you have plenty examples among NPCs and other cast members (Allura and kima, Yasha, Beau, Dairon, Keg, Reani, Tary, Molly and Vax among others).

There’s way worst shows taking LGBT+ cred for barely doing nothing. Fucking Supernatural is the most recent example! Critical Role works towards showing an honest portrayal of LGBT+ folk and accepts valid criticism from their fans on the subject (when they changed J’Mon Sa Ord pronouns from it to they/them). They don’t owe you making your ship canon or portraying their characters the way you want them to (again, unless when it’s constructive criticism). Stop being so Fucking entitled and enjoy the show for what it is

,Respectfully~

*Edit: I´m tagging Caleb’s ships into the post because most hate comes from shipping wars. Most Shadowgast fans are respectful of the cast’s decisions, even if it disappoints them. But since I’ve already seen people accusing Liam of biphobia in that tag and since I’ve already seen this shit with Vaxmore I’m tagging the ship. If you want to read my long ass post do it, if not, ignore it. I’m not forcing you to read it. I’ve also tagged it with biphobia so people can avoid it if it’s triggering. I’m sorry if it makes you mad that your ship is not canon, but that’s not an excuse to be toxic to the cast. Those of you getting mad are the ones that need to read this the most. Like I’ve said in the post: you’re allowed to be disappointed, you are allowed to want more, but you can’t force the cast to give you exactly what you want. And most certainly, you can’t accuse them of  some very serious stuff like biphobia and queerbaiting when it’s not the case..  

[thecockerelinn]

Well, even though quarantine and lockdown may slowly open up for many of us, it’s not over yet, and besides one can never have enough means to escape reality, so here are a few book reccomendations.

All books on this list are LGBTQ or at least have (important) characters who are.

The “Classics”:

Wraeththu  - Storm Constantine (how is it no-one’s talking about this anymore? Please do take into account that those books were written in the early 1990s, they were way ahead of their times, and yet there may be some offensive things - it’s been a while that I’ve read them so I can’t come up with any example, but should you find them somewhat un-feminist, wait until the end xD)

The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin (a true classic)

The Last Herald Mage series - Mercedes Lackey (gee yes Vanyel can be a real brat - not quite without reason though, but you’ll come to love him xD And yes we all just pretend that scene in book 3 never happened -_-) (also: influenced the Nightrunner series)

The World of Riverside series - Ellen Kushner (another influence on the Nightrunner series)

The Doctrine of Labyrinths quartet - Sarah Monette (beware, those books are not for everyone, trigger warnings are in order: rape, violence, mental issues, abuse / none of this is ever glorified or belittled, but it’s there, and it is so much a part of the characters’ lifes that it might occasionally seem like it’s not appropriately treated. Speaking of characters: very complex, intriguing characters with very dark sides, but you gotta love ‘em; intricate, complex world building / Nowadays Sarah Monette writes under the pseudonym Katherine Addison) (as far as I know they are unfortunately out of print so you’d have to check second hand book stores)

Historical fiction (with or without the paranormal)

Whyborne and Griffin series - Jordan L. Hawk (lots of paranormal stuff, magic, Lovecraftian creatures, awesome ladies, and so much more - and you will love those boys so much xD)

Magic in Manhattan - Allie Therin (the Roaring 20s, magic, prohibition)

The Collin Pendragon Mysteries - Gregory Harris (imagine Sherlock Holmes and Watson were canon; whodunnit, Victorian England)

Restless Spirits - Jordan L. Hawk  (let’s go ghost hunting: science vs. medium)

A Charm of Magpies - K.J. Charles (magpies - lots of them xP, magic, curses, intrigue, late Victorian England)

At Swim, Two Boys - Jamie O’Neill (set in Dublin around the Easter Uprising 1916; coming-of-age, tragic love story - don’t forget the tissues)

Cambridge Fellows Mysteries - Charlie Cochrane (Edwardian England, mystery, romance; amateur sleuths, found family)

SFF

The Priory of the Orange Tree - Samantha Shannon (epic fantasy, intricate world building, clash of religions, dragons, strong female leads)

The Affair of the Mysterious Letter -  Alexis Hall (fantasy / mystery; Lovecraftian vibes, bizarre and witty retelling of Sherlock Holmes)

The Tarot Sequence - K.D. Edwards (alternative world, Atlantis, magic, god-like beings, found family; trigger warnings: mentions of rape, violence)

The Rifter series - Ginn Hale (fantasy, parallel world; god-like being, magic, religious strife, necromancy (in a way))

Iron Breakers trilogy - Zaya Feli (fantasy; intrigue, cultural differences, battles, fight for a kingdom, romance)

The Icefjord Saga - Zaya Feli (fantasy, Norse inspired world, magic, mythological creatures, battles, curses)

Tales from Verania - TJ Klune (fantasy, comedy, romance; hilariousness galore! - okay sometimes it’s a bit too much, but between all the jokes and sexual innuendoes, the story doesn’t suffer; basically everyone is gay, everyone tries to get into Sam’s trousers ^^;, did I mention the hornless gay unicorn that sweats glitter, and the sexually deviant dragon? xD)

Peter Darling - Austin Chant (fantasy, retelling; very interesting take on Peter Pan, takes place many years after the events in Peter Pan, focused on the relationship between Peter and Hook; the search for a place, for someone to accept you for who you really are)

YA and New Adult

Nevernight Chronicles - Jay Christoff  (sometimes I’m amazed what’s YA nowadays; fantasy; anyway beware of all the blood)

Feverwake duology - Victoria Lee (see above; dystopia; Holy Baby Yoda but these two books are intense! triger warnings: abuse, drug use, violence, mentions of rape, deadly virus outbreak)

Only Mostly Devastated - Sophie Gonzales (contemporary; all the feels: it makes you laugh out loud, it makes you cry; Grease says hello, super sweet quick read)

Timekeeper trilogy - Tara Sim (steampunk - or should it be clockwork punk?; mythology, gods, concept of time, ghosts, cute boys, discourse on colonialism)

The Torch Keeper trilogy - Steven dos Santos (dystopia; betrayal, love between brothers, biological modifications, deadly deadly trials)

Proxy duology - Alex London (dystopia; the rift between rich and poor, unjust society, technology)

The Disasters - M.K. England (sci-fi; band of misfits to the rescue!; Breakfast Club in space - kind of xD)

Magnus Chase & the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan (fantasy, mythology; ahhh Uncle Rick - just got to love the man, seriously; Norse mythology, diverse cast, homelesness, found family, disablitiy) (I’m aware it’s officially labelled Middle Grade, but who cares. It is linked to the Percy Jackson series, but you don’t need to know it to read these books)

The TBR pile (meaning books I haven’t read myself yet, but they certainly are on my tbr list, so perhaps they will be on yours now, too):

The Locked Tomb series - Tamsyn Muir  (fantasy)

The Bloodright trilogy - Emily Skrutskie  (sci-fi, YA)

Wild Sky - Zaya Feli (fantasy)

The Extraordinaries - TJ Klune (romance, superpowers - or not..., YA)

Reverie - Ryan La Sala (fantasy)

Soulbound series - Hailey Turner (urban fantasy, romance)

Cemetery Boys - Aiden Thomas (fantasy, paranormal, romance, YA)

Micah Grey series - Laura Lam (fantasy)

Specials:

A Song for Ghosts - Manja Siber (historical, mid 19th century Dresden) - Don your fanciest dress and fetch the binocular, it’s opera time! Originally inspired by The Phantom of the Opera and Yuri on Ice - see if you can spot the hints xD (as a fellow Watcher, Manja kind of makes the list by default* xP Give it a try, you can find it via epubli or on amazon.de)

*No, this isn’t nepotism, I’m just trying to give the support I wish I had. So if you’re an author and a Watcher and you’re not on this list, it’s because I don’t know about it. Tell me, and I gladly put your book on this or any next rec list.

[kattahj]

I don't know if I can properly articulate my reaction to The Witcher TV-series. I've never read the books or played the game. My initial introduction of the show was seeing a pic of Henry Cavill looking like, as someone put it, Legolas on steroids, and I thought, this looks awful. But it got the thing on my radar, and the initial reactions I saw were... actually good? So I started watching. And oh my goodness, I couldn't stop.

This isn't Game of Thrones, far from it. One reviewer called it the spiritual successor of Xena and Buffy, and she was onto something. Less quippy than Buffy, sure, more pompous, unapologetically kitschy. The kind of fantasy that Diana Wynne Jones mocked in her Tough Guide to Fantasyland, yet it knows exactly how preposterous it is and leans right into it. Not only is there a comedic bard providing commentary through song, but those songs come pretty damned close to contemporary pop. (Sidenote, why is Jaskier not gay? This is taking the 90s vibe too far.)

It speaks directly to that starry-eyed adolescent inside of me who watched Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves fifteen times or more (I lost count).

Henry Cavill is more rugged than usual, with a Batman growl to his voice, but enough of a Napoleon Solo-esque dry humour to offset it. The combination is appealing. In fact, for the first time, I find him downright sexy. (As I previously discovered with Jude Law in Sherlock Holmes, sometimes a face can be made MORE attractive by being LESS pretty.)

Lots of great parts for women - with some problematic writing and frequent boob shots, certainly, but still so rich and intriguing that I'm all in. (And honestly, I'm fine with boob shots. Give me Cavill's ass for balance, though.)

Are the timelines confusing? Not really. Once you know that each protagonist is in their own time, it's all pretty straightforward.

Is the worldbuilding shoddy? Maybe. I don't care. When was I ever into anything for the worldbuilding?

Do I love it? So, so much.

Is it good? What is "good"? I don't know anymore. I feel like Ava Sharpe reading Mick Rory's romance novels, or like Mark Kermode watching Mamma Mia. None of the usual standards have any meaning. It's like eating meringue chocolate ice cream leftovers - a soggy, half-melted mess, and the most delicious thing ever

(Also, I feel that I've had similar reactions to so many stories that I just have to accept that what I love or not has nothing to do with quality, in general.)

[hsmtmtsnet]

Tim Federle of High School Musical talks LGBTQ+ representation | Rainbow Crew: Moments That Made Me

Digital Spy caught up with Tim Federle, the creator of High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, to break down all these big changes while also teasing what's to come in season three.

Olivia Rodrigo’s character has a separate storyline of her own this season. How did Jesse Tyler Ferguson's involvement in that arc come about?

Jesse’s an old friend of mine. We’re both Broadway guys from New York. I texted Jesse and I was like, "Do you have any interest in playing Olivia Rodrigo’s dad?"

And he texted back, "Yes. Yes, I do."

Jesse is as big of a comic star as it gets, and he’d just won a Tony Award, which is so cool. But I think sometimes this business is ultimately: who do you know? And who do you know will bring good vibes to set?

He was just a joy and a masterclass, walking onto set and being an absolute dream, and being a fanboy of Olivia, which was so sweet to watch.

Could you talk us through Olivia's reduced role this season and how this California arc came about?

I mean, anyone paying attention to the music business in the last year… it’s like: you’re not Sherlock Holmes to discover that Olivia’s become the biggest music star in the world, as I think she richly deserves.

I actually went to Disney, and said, "I think Olivia should tour the world. This is her dream. And I think we should do the right thing, and allow Olivia’s music career to explode."

I had Olivia’s support in that, and I had Disney's support in that. We all worked together to give her – I think and hope – a really memorable experience in season three for those OG High School Musical series fans, while also recognising that there’s so much talent in this cast, and there’s other stories we can tell.

I hope people are moved by her appearances, and also celebratory of all the other sort of exciting characters and stories that we tell.

Season three also switches things up with this new summer camp location.

It’s fun, after a couple of years of doing this show, just to shake it up a bit. And I know when I went to summer camp, all rules are off. You’re meeting people for the first time. They don’t know who you are. They don’t know your baggage or your history.

I think summer camp offers not just sort of fun under the sun and a little bit of scandal under the stars, but it allows you to decide who you want to be when you go back to school. And this really is the summer that kind of changes everything.

Why is it so important to see queer themes included so organically in shows that are aimed at children and more family friendly like High School Musical?

Mostly because I think it’s the truth. And even though we’re doing a soapy, mockumentary version of real life that obviously has some super-cheesy, corny, deliciously Disney elements to them, I think our audience knows when we’re faking it.

I have an 18 and a 21-year-old cousin who I like to interview before we start every season. And I’m like, "Ladies, tell me what it’s really like."

They talk about their school, and how extremely queer and accepting their school is, and the changing dynamics of their friend groups as people try on new personas, and accept old personas that were perhaps a little more closeted.

I think there’s a rich history of gay storytellers, especially, in the musical space. That’s sort of my background. And I don’t think you can tell a story about a group of modern theatre kids without a strong queer undercurrent. I’ve been quite fortunate to have that support from Disney, and certainly from this cast and crew, to tell those stories.

[mild-lunacy]

I start with a characteristic of individual men, a kind of (powerful) taste, a significant desire for physical intimacy (of one or another kind — cuddling and kissing, body play, various sorts of genital sex acts, whatever) with other males, and in adult men, significant arousal by (some) other men (what my friend Steven Levine calls DHL — dick-hardening lust). Call this Taste Y (Y as in Y chromosome).

On the other hand, there is a related social category, a recognized kind of person in our culture, a kind of social identity (well, probably, several kinds, but let’s keep it simple). We view some set of men with Taste Y as constituting a class for social purposes. Call this Category G, and call a member of Category G a G Man. (Yes, I recognize that these are desperate, unlovely labels. But we need to get away from the usual labels, because they’re used in diverse, even contradictory, ways by different people on different occasions, and the concepts in question are frequently confused.)

People suppose that G Men will tend to share properties beyond having Taste Y and that they will fit into society in certain ways. G Men will tend to believe that are in some significant ways like (many) other G Men. (These are the ways social categories work in general.)

The existence of a Category G is a historically contingent fact. It’s reasonable to claim that in Western culture in general Category G is a fairly recent development, that before some period there were no G Men.

Ordinary language is generally very poor in distinguishing properties of individuals from social categories.

I ran across this post on Arnold Zwicky’s blog about Brokeback Mountain, and it really made me think about the use of these categories in fandom. On the one hand, you could say this is totally different than slash, because Brokeback Mountain is canonically about gay men. However, Jack and Ennis don’t ‘identify’ as gay (and neither do Ronan or Adam in the Raven Cycle; needless to say, John Watson emphatically doesn’t in BBC Sherlock). In fandom, we like to say so-and-so is ‘gay’ if they show signs of Taste Y or even demonstrate too much affection for another person of the same gender pretty easily. Being ‘gay’ is just an expression of identification, a social category. You can pretty much include anyone-- any person and any character-- into that category, given you use the right frame. The same cannot be said for having Taste Y: you either have it or you don’t.

I was thinking particularly of John’s denials of being gay. It’s interesting how fandom has sliced it and diced it, and it’s undeniable that it’s sliceable. That is, you can certainly mean a number of things if you say you’re ‘not gay’, and a number of them have nothing to do with lacking Taste Y. You could argue that John meant it differently than Jack or Ennis would in Brokeback Mountain, but that’s a supposition. It’s an axiomatic statement for which there can be no proof. If the word ‘gay’ itself has contextually shifting meaning, saying you’re ‘not gay’ cannot definitively be said to refer to homosexual attraction in and of itself. This is simply a problem of language. You have to know what the person or character means. There’s only one way to really know, and that’s to share that person’s cultural context, as intended.

An old fandom friend of mine once told me that she thinks casual fans are inherently more likely to get the intended meaning from a competent enough show, ‘cause fans tend to be too invested in certain characters and/or interpretations. A casual fan might understand plot and characterization more shallowly, but overall they avoid huge diversions from canon plausibility. The intended meaning or context is almost certainly going to be broad. Aside from the prevalence of heteronormativity, the simplest and most obvious interpretation is always a good bet in TV. That’s just how communication generally works. This is the general cultural context we’re talking about, that gives the words and concepts their meaning.

Obviously, casual fans will also miss plenty of deeper shades of meaning in dialogue, most obscure references and even a lot of in-show continuity. Of course, the benefit of intense attention to the text can also be a flaw, as my friend said, since what starts out as an axiomatic frame for analysis (say, John has Taste Y and is actually bisexual) can become a set of blinders. You certainly see that in Sherlock fandom a lot these days (and in any fandom, anytime).

I do think that overall, though, casual fans of an average intelligence do tend to get the gist correctly if the show’s relatively well-written. With that in mind, there’s something to be said for the heteronormative reading, in that it’s usually right, as far as intent. So most people don’t parse language super-closely. They simply understand that Jack and Ennis (or Ronan, say) are G Men (gay) because they act gay, or act like other ‘G Men’. This is performative queerness. It doesn’t depend on the characters’ internal identity; in actuality, it becomes irrelevant. Characters essentially become ‘gay’ as soon as they act on queer desire; if you don’t (or won’t) act on it, it doesn’t exist for your average casual viewer unless the character declares themselves gay. Conversely, John (and Sherlock) aren’t G Men because they don’t perform it, or participate in the social category. Instead, they both conform to the boundaries of heteronormative behavior, which are really, really broad. 

This sort of outside-in approach is hard to avoid in film and TV, which essentially chronicles the external actions and reactions of a set of characters. Usually it is enough. Of course, that’s only usually.

But there can be problems. People can slip easily from the question of whether someone is “gay” to the question of whether they have a “gay identity”.

Jack and Ennis deny a gay identity, and there’s no reason I can see not to take them at their word. But it seems to me that they are unquestionably men with Taste Y, at least for each other (and in Jack’s case, rather more generally), and there’s some evidence that they are both Y Men.

That’s interesting, and probably only possible in a certain historical context. This situation wouldn’t really work in present-day America, not even out West. Still, it’s worth keeping in mind the separation between attraction and social identity, although both are aspects of identity. Most people prioritize their social identity in real life situations, and in character analysis, there’s more of a tendency to psychoanalyze.

This is a situation that really only exists and is only understandable in the context of fiction, because of the degree that we know the characters, in a manner we could not if Jack and Ennis were real people. We can agree or disagree with the self-identification of fictional characters, ‘cause we can see inside their head (to varying degrees). Besides that, with fictional characters, we can see them as a part of their narrative, with all the mirrors and metaphors and parallels that entails. Queerness isn’t just a social category but a textual one. Rather than simply using behavioral evidence, we have access to subtext.

That’s where it all gets muddled and complicated, of course. As Grace once said so succinctly, ‘you don’t interpret a story the way you interpret real events’, full stop. That’s analysis, though. In real life, casual viewers may use the context they have most readily available to understand the surface of the text, and it’s usually enough. You could also argue a story is meaningless without the addition of real-life context. For example, as @s-l-martin said earlier, in reality, most ‘ambiguously gay duo’ type couples are actually gay. If people give off ‘gay vibes’, it’s almost certainly not platonic. At the same time... well.

Some people say that it was entirely “natural” for Jack and Ennis to express their love for one another through sex. This is profoundly silly. If by love we mean a relationship to someone else characterized by intense pleasure in their company (probably accompanied by elevated levels of certain hormones), desire to spend time with them, admiration and respect for them, a feeling of being a better person when you’re with them, feelings of trust and support, feelings of simultaneous likeness and complementarity (Jack and Ennis are wonderfully paired on these two dimensions), etc., then there are plenty of straight guys who love one another. They call each other “best buddies”, or have no name for their relationship at all. But they’re very important to one another. Almost never do these relationships involve physical intimacy, even at the cuddling and kissing level. And that’s because these guys don’t have Taste Y. For them, there’s no natural progression from love to sex. Jack and Ennis do have (heretofore unrecognized) Taste Y, so they’re soon going down that slide into fucking.

Like Zwicky says, there’s ‘no natural progression’ from having any sort of feelings (even ‘romantic’ feelings, that being a fuzzy category) to sex. If you don’t have Taste Y, then you simply would not progress to queer behavior no matter how close you are with someone of the same sex or how much you love them. Not to put too much of a fine point on it, but it’s true that no matter how much John loves Sherlock (and vice versa), it doesn’t have to have anything to do with sex for either or both of them. There’s no limit to feelings. A character can literally have any kind or degree of feelings and not have them turn sexual, because one can simply fail to have Taste Y. That is (probably) what John’s supposed to be saying with the whole ‘not gay’ thing. Of course, that’s exactly what Irene dismisses at Battersea, but my point stands.

The problem is really contextual and narrative in nature, and that’s what makes it queerbaiting. In other words, there are certain conventions and tropes, certain kinds of coding in stories that signal queerness without having to actually show two dudes doing the do, like in Brokeback Mountain. This is how we used to have our heteronormative cake and eat it too. But it’s certainly one bitch of an unsatisfactory situation, so to speak.

[liggytheauthoress]

trigger warning for attempted suicide in tonight's elementary:

so why the fuck is joan's therapist getting killed off

why do i never wake up to find joan watson standing over me yelling my name

sherlock where did you get a victorian-era sensory deprivation chamber

"over fifty stab wounds' worth" damn who did joan's therapist piss off

"i would remind everyone that the majority of mentally ill people have no history of or propensity for violence" ilu jlm!sherlock

does this mean joan's going to be getting more emotional focus again

i know i do this every week but i suspect this first guy (he's a middle-aged white guy okay he fits the Formula and he has a Vibe to him)

yaaaay more joan/bell screentime, please let this trend continue

dammit another middle-aged white guy with a Vibe why do i even bother

sherlock did you steal the dead person's patient files

okay well it's almost definitely not this guy

were he and the doctor banging or

...well i remember this clip from the promo so i know how this is ending. that definitely eliminates him as a suspect though...

oh hey he lived (which un-eliminates him as a suspect but he's still last on my list)

stop throwing the middle-aged white guys at me show i can't choose a top suspect with so many

aaand the boss just moved up to the top of my list

okay if they're pointing the finger at the business partner already it's almost certainly not him

LIN

"you don't look fine" yes good concerned!siblings are good sister bonding is good

"she thought i would have been a good mother" yeah and you ARE a good mom joan just ask kitty???

"yes, for the duration of this visit, i am your therapist. would you like to lie down?" help i love lin so much

"like you said, this is an active crime seen. we'll thank YOU to leave." if joan watson said that to me in that voice i would leave via a heart attack tbh

maybe the person who planted it was the GUY WHO OWNS THE BUILDING......

alternately, the husband wanted to catch his wife cheating on him

"i'm accusing the people he works for"

ah dammit if they're talking to the boss this early on, it's probably not him (then again i said that last week and i was wrong so)

if it's not the boss it's gotta be the husband

hi i'm Really Fucking Gay for joan in that dress

at least i was right about the boss putting in the listening device

"we're just a couple of police consultants who color outside the lines"

"give me until tomorrow morning" the boss's odds of surviving this episode just dropped considerably

LIN AGAIN

JOAN WATSON IS A WONDERFUL MOTHER OKAY I REFUSE TO ACCEPT KITTY'S EXISTENCE BEING IGNORED LIKE THIS

more sister bonding i'm so happy right now???

who the fuck are you strange bald man

"jane austen on ice" "it's even worse than it sounds, but my baby girl loves to skate" i like strange bald man he seems fun

well it's not a t-shirt but sherlock shirtless in a hoodie is a nice change

also it's gotta be the husband

"if you don't leave my home, it too will end in a murder, just not mine" goddamn sherlock

goddammit it WAS the business partner

"no eye contact with the audience, please, it ruins the illusion" sherlock and bell are enjoying this way too much

saw that coming. not that there's any chance of them actually giving me joan and sherlock adopting a kid but still.

[outwardjourneywithin]

Throwback - The Guise of Nightcrawlers

December 2014. The below is my misadventures from a night out.

Make sure to read these quotes in a Colombian accent.

"Take out your hair! How long is your hair? It's so loooong!" "You're so tan, I'm not normally this tan I'm very pale, I'm probably as pale as your belly."

Now picture yourself, by yourself, in a Holden Barina. Getting driven halfway home by this Colombian man. Whom you thought was your Colombian friend only a few minutes earlier.

"None of my roommates are home too-night." "You should see the view from my apartment, you can see the whole skyline." "You can drink whatever you want in my apartment, bacardi, whiskey, rum, we can do shots."

That was the predicament I found myself in last night. In a car, with a wildly gay man, driving me to his apartment. Me, in the seat next to him, eyes forward and ass clenched.

The irony is that I was trying to fuck his friend. A girl. Named Marcella, she was this beautiful exotic Colombian girl with brown curls, skinny waist, lustily curvey. With these dark eyes that saw through you as if you were standing in front of her naked.

Beautiful girl was really keen on her. So I became friends with her best friend, this Jorge character. The whole night I was wondering, "Doesn't this guy think I'm a cunt? Surely he wants to fuck Marcella and here I am cramping his style. I'd hate me if I were him."

Turns out he didn't hate me. He wanted to fuck me.

So there I was. Friends with Jorge who completely slipped past my gaydar I had not the slightest inkling that he might be gay. Must have been the accent.

Despite my predicament suggesting that I am completely inept at directing social situations my way (i.e instead of having sex with Marcella, I was now my way to having gay sex, pressed up against a high rise window drinking in the Melbourne Skyline), I was actually doing pretty well with Marcella. She was totally vibing on me It was great.

She was eyeing me when I was bartending at the Design Exhibition earlier. There was this tension between us every time we were near each other, it was great. Fast forward to the afterparty of the exhibition, I was talking to her.

It was going so well. At this point I thought Jorge was driving Marcella home, they're best friends right? So while talking to Marcella, Jorge offers to give me a lift. His home was halfway to my home. In my head I was thinking, ‘Fuck yeah. Alone time with Marcella in the back seat. Easy move. I’m into this idea. I’m getting in this car, and later I’ll get inside Marcella. Maybe even at Jorge’s house. Who knows. The world is my oyster and at the moment the world is treating me well. This is going to be great. I'm excited.’

Shortly after making this decision, the only person I knew at the after party - and my lift home - tells me he’s leaving, and asks if I’m coming with him. I’m all like "yeah man go home I've got it figured out."

I certainly did not have it figured out. As was blatantly revealed to me two minutes after my friend left.

Almost like it was a set play (maybe 'trap' is a more apt description), my new Colombian friends start talking about Marcella’s husband, what he’s up to and where he is right now.

I feel like I’ve been slapped in the face. I’m thinking ‘but, but, we were going to have sex??’

Completely oblivious to my internal turmoil, Marcella wanders off moments later, and I'm left with just Jorge.

This development was a definite setback. But I am a 23 year old drunk, horny man. Also deluded. I still thought she wanted me. So i was still working to make that sex with the sexy Colombian happen.

In sober hindsight she was just a beautiful girl talking to me, and I was just this stupid cunt that thought that meant she wanted to sleep with me. Must be hard being a beautiful girl sometimes, can't form any real relationships with the opposite sex because all they're thinking is "Goddamn I want to fuck her."

I continued talking to Jorge, just being my nice self, making friends, laughing, talking about shit that meant nothing. Little did I know, that all the while he was thinking "Goddam I want to fuck him."

Anyway, at this point I feel a bit stranded. It’s nice talking to Jorge but I am just being nice. I don’t really want to talk to him, I just want to talk to Marcella and occasionally flick my eyes down to her exposed cleavage (a total action of my sub-conscience. I can’t help it. I like that I can’t help it, but still I can’t help it).

So I’m a bit bored with how how things are going since I am definitely not getting sneaky looks at any breasts. Almost like Jorge could sense my indifference, he suddenly says, "Lets vamous."

I'm thinking fucking sweet, time to ruin a marriage in the back seat of your car, or at least give it a very valiant attempt.

He says bye to a few people and we make our way out. We’re outside the bar, waiting for Marcella. Great, she’ll be down in a minute. Yesyesyesyesfuckingyeeesssssss.

Suddenly, Jorge starts walking. I do a bit of a double take and then start following him. I walk a little bit further, look back at the bar, which is shrinking away from us suddenly oh so fast, and ask, “Where’s Marcella?”

Jorge says, “She’s still drinking. Her husband will pick her up later in the night. Come on my car is this way.”

She's not coming. She's not fucking coming. I'm getting in this guy's car - stranger’s car - drunk, and he is going to take me further and further from the girl I want to fuck, who is also drunk.

Fuckin Fuck.

But I think, ‘oh well gotta go with it.’ It would be rude to just be like, ‘Nah bro if she's back there I'm heading back, have a nice trip home.’

Also I would just be stranded again. So I start walking to this guy's car, still completely oblivious to what he wants to do with me and my butthole.

It was on the walk over to his car that I started to get suspicious. He started talking about his experience in the male bathroom only moments before.

"The guy next to me was a donk-eee, he was hung like - " makes motion of an elephant trunk sprouting between his legs, then waves it around a little bit and slaps me on my leg.

Oh Fuck.

Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck. Shit.

Then like your life flashing before your eyes at a near death experience, all the other shit he said came flooding back to me. Like I was sherlock holmes at the climax of the movie, coalescing all these whispers of clues into one spectacular sensory overload masterpiece. Finally revealing who the killer was and how he used a left shoe and cucumber to commit murder.

Except instead of all these clues coalescing into who did the murder, they were revealing just how gay this guy was. Also, instead of committing murder with a cucumber, this guy wanted to fuck me with it.

Also, to be honest, the ”whispers” of clues, weren’t that subtle. Nor was the masterpiece coming together that elaborate.

The puzzle I solved when this guy slapped me on the leg with arm ‘donkey dick’, was more reminiscent of a kids toy. The one with those different shaped blocks that have to put through their respective shaped holes so that they fall into the box. That was about the sophistication of the mystery I solved. He wanted to shove his block in my hole.

Looking back, his gayness was so obvious, but at the time I had no idea.

Things like, "Make sure to save my name as Jorge Long Tongue Big Dick," didn't have the innocence that it did 2 hours earlier. Neither did touching each others pecs, or him showing me how to move my hips to dance, or turkey slapping each other just for fun.

Alright turkey slapping never took place. If it did I would be slapping my turkey straight into Marcella.

The thing that lost it's innocence the most was accepting a lift from Jorge. I am getting a lift from a guy that wants to fuck my asshole. Fucking fuck.

Also, I'm a people pleaser. I can't just say, "sorry man I'm uncomfortable with this whole thing now, I'm going to call someone to take me home." I can't just say that and hurt this poor sexual predator's feelings. That's devastating! he would be really upset about that for at least a few hours. No the only rational thing to do, is just get in this guy's car, and hope that he doesn't fuck you.

So we get in his car, and the games began.

I lied about living with roommates (was so not telling this guy that I live alone) started talking about the girl at work I'm sleeping with. Did not show the cunt my belly or untie my hair when he giggled and try make it happen. Just let all his comments about having a drink at his apartment hang dead in the air. Just fucking left them there. Let the awkward but psycopathic calculation of his whole entrapment hang dead in the air, and then when we finally get to his apartment and he tries to quickly race into the underground car park before I have a chance to get out, forcing further close encounters with him in the elevator and likely his apartment, I just got the fuck out. Waved bye, put my smile back on - because hey I was pretty fucking happy, my asshole was still reserved for the single pure action of taking shits - and walked over to the main road, find myself a taxi to get home.

And then of course that's a whole other weird fucking experience too. The details are a bit boring but the overall experience was fucking funny. Essentially my cab driver was Eddie Murphy when he was in Coming To America, not in humour just in life status. He was the son of millionaires. But I didn't know that, because he was fucking cabbie.

So when I said to him, "So why did you move to Australia man was it for a better life?"

He cracked it at me, and in hindsight he had a point, who am I to assume that this life is better than what's in India? People can change countries just for a change. They might have a good life in their home country, but still, they just want to see what else is out there.

However, he stereotyped me as another dumb racist white Australian male, which was also unfair.

Also, logically my question did make sense, I am not leaving Australia for India, because my life is fucking good here. So logically for someone to leave India for Australia, it was because they think life will be fucking good here.

When I tried to explain this, he interpreted it wrong. He thought I had a God Complex of "STRAYA" and "Love it or get the fuck out."

Anyway, he tells me that he left India because he was sick of being a rich kid, wanted to experience life on another level, so he travelled. He did mention something about University and maybe having a degree but he was a cabbie right, so I thought he didn't.

Just like when people see me bartending. They assume that I don't have a degree either, just like 90% of the other staff that work there. The stereotype even permeates the staff’s perception of each other, as they were surprised to hear that I did have a degree.

Judgemental stereotyping can be hinderance sometimes hey.

Anyway, so this cabbie is a millionaire and it was actually quite interesting. He doesn't tell his parents that he has to drive at 1:30am on a Wednesday night to pay bills. Ten years he's been in Australia experiencing life on another level and loving it. But finally, his parents got sick of waiting for him to come back, because they're giving him a million dollars to invest in whatever - he told me not to ask in what, and ever the people pleaser I didn't - and he's leaving the cab business in a month and a half.

He was easily the most interesting cab driver I had. Cold with logic but still very passionate.

To top it all off he was the only cab driver ever to offer me change. Even when the change is a few dollars a lot of cabbies make no motion to give it to you unless you ask for it. This guys whipped out his proper little change dispenser - not a piece of shit little plastic box with a mess of poo change in it - and tried to give me my 20 cents change. I waved it off, which in hindsight is fucking stupid. He just told me he's getting a million dollars next month, and I'm all like "no no no bro, keep the 20 cents, that's fine don't worry about it."

I smiled, slammed the door and waved goodbye.

Only moments ago, I was out, drunk, alone, on the other side of the city. Now, I am standing in front of my home, with my amazing beautiful fucking bed inside waiting for me. This incredible sense of achievement and relief washed over me, as If I had accomplished something really worthwhile.

It obviously wasn’t that much accomplishment. Really all I did was: get drunk, wave my only friend off when he offered me a lift home, be too drunk to realise I was getting blatantly hit on by a gay man, evade gay sex from this man, get yelled at by an angry cab driver, make friends with that cab driver, and finally stand in the street at the front of my apartment building.

What a life I lead.

I keycard my way into the building and head inside for a well deserved night’s rest, with my ass still in tact.