It’s true! The BBC does seem to be relatively open-minded about queer relationships, especially compared to a lot of media companies. (The Doyle Estate, on the other hand, has historically not been.)
It could stay that way, certainly! And honestly I don’t think we’re ever going to see Sherlock and John’s relationship go further than it has in this episode. I don’t think we’re ever going to be shown on-screen kisses or anything like that.
Which, from a narrative standpoint, is fine.
But from a cultural, social standpoint, it’s damaging that this keeps happening.
I’ve gotten several asks, replies, and reblog comments on this post (almost all polite, and I so appreciate that! You guys are awesome!) to the effect of, “I disagree/I still don’t see it/It’s still just one interpretation of the text.” WHICH IS FINE. You are free to interpret a text in any way you choose, and I’m super-excited that we don’t all see the same thing! It makes the world so much richer.
But those comments, innocuous in their own right, are symptomatic a greater problem, which has less to do with how individuals are reading the text than with how the text presents options to be read.
When heterosexual couples are shown on screen, they kiss, make out, even have full-out sex on screen. Whether you agree with the pairing or not is not the point. The point is that you CANNOT REFUTE THEM. They cannot be erased.
But still, even now, when it’s a queer pairing, it’s referenced. Alluded to. Hinted at. As I said in my own meta, you are invited—even encouraged!—to ask yourself what happened in the scenes we don’t see.
But equally you are invited not to see it.
If you disagree with the pairing, whether you do so for homophobic reasons or because of your own personal preferences or interpretations, you are offered the freedom to simply decide that it doesn’t exist. Over and over, in one text, movie, tv show, video game after another, you are given the option to erase queer interpretations just as much as you are given the option to accept them. They don’t want to ‘force them’ on you. They don’t want to ‘stuff them under your nose.’ But they have no problem doing this with cishet relationships. That is not equal, and that’s a problem.
So that is why it can’t stay like that.
I mean, it will stay like that, in Sherlock. I’m about 99.9% sure you’re never going to see on-screen makeouts between Sherlock and John, so if for any reason you prefer the question to remain ambiguous, then you’re copacetic. 🙂
But in popular culture in general? It really mustn’t stay like that. It’s hurtful.
When cishet relationships are shown explicitly, inarguably, on-screen, whether you personally want to see them or not: it’s telling the consumers of that story that these attractions, romances, and loves triumph over the opinions of others.
Whereas when queer relationships remain ‘open to interpretation,’ you can see them if you want to but not if you don’t, then It’s telling people that queer relationships should remain closeted, should be kept under wraps lest they offend, that the opinions of people who don’t want to see it (for whatever reason) are more important that the opinions of the people who have those relationships or need to see them.
Erasure.