psa

[lettered]

edit: elisi pointed out that Moffat denies this on Twitter here. As far as I can tell, Moffat says he was talking about a character he wrote that he once identified with. An original transcript of the interview doesn't exist. Shouldn't have posted without all the info, but I looked and the editorial seemed legit enough. I'll try to do more research and not get SHAKY WITH ANGER again.


There's a lot of debate about whether the new Sherlock is sexist. The work seems complex enough that perhaps the majority (of the world, of fandom, of my flist, who knows) will never agree on how they feel about it. And because it is art, you can't really put a label on it, since people can interpret it differently. I'm all for these debates and discussions.

However, if we're going to argue about whether Moffat the man is sexist, let's just remember this article, in which he said, as morgan leigh on tumblr quoted:

“There’s this issue you’re not allowed to discuss: that women are needy. Men can go for longer, more happily, without women. That’s the truth. We don’t, as little boys, play at being married - we try to avoid it for as long as possible. Meanwhile women are out there hunting for husbands. The world is vastly counted in favour of men at every level - except if you live in a civilised country and you’re sort of educated and middle-class, because then you’re almost certainly junior in your relationship and in a state of permanent, crippled apology. Your preferences are routinely mocked. There’s a huge, unfortunate lack of respect for anything male.”

Defend Sherlock all you want, defend the works of Moffat all you want; love and enjoy his works as I have. Just don't defend this guy. He is not your hero. Please see above as regards to veracity of quote.

Comments

[sophia_sol]

Davies definitely had his icky too, yeah. And...I do remember being afraid of what we'd learn about Moffat when he took over, because writing the occasional ep and doing the whole show are two very different things, and I did know we'd be introduced to ways in which Moffat isn't perfect. I don't like the PERSON IS GOD mantra either, about anyone, because, well, people are people, and everyone has their problems (I certainly do!).

(I feel the same way only more, seeing all the adoration of Fassbender going on on Tumblr, because that is a dude who beat up his girlfriend. That adoration is REALLY GROSS.)

Doctor Who is still the tv show of my heart -- I've been loving it for so long, and the things about it that I love I really really love. But. Problems. *sigh*

[lettered]

Yeah. It's weird, because I feel like many would argue my arguments are semantic. I'm totally alright with thinking Fassbender is the hottest thing since fire, I'm alright with thinking he's the best actor since I dunno who, Laurence Olivier, I'm even fine with you adoring all his little quirks and the things he says and the interviews he does, and I'm fine with you saying all that. I'm not fine with, "Fassbender can do no wrong!" because oh look, he did. I also hate the, "I feel so wrong, but I don't even care what he did because unf!" The meaning is, "Despite the things this person has done I still feel physically attracted" which is fine, more than fine, perfectly natural, okay to express. But not if you're also accidentally expressing the fact that you don't care about abused women.

Anywho my flist isn't even that into Fassbender so I don't even see that stuff, but I've seen it so much with so many different actors and artists that it makes me twitchy. It's okay to love something you find prolematic, dude! It's not okay to say the problems aren't there just because you love it!

[sophia_sol]

That is an interesting argument you make, and I can definitely see the validity of where you're coming from.

I think mostly what frustrates me with what I see about him on Tumblr is a thing that doesn't quite fall into any of the categories you talk about. It's just this -- this complete ignoring of his issues. If I hadn't been paying attention back when it first came out that Fassbender did something that awful, I would have no idea, because it's just not talked about, AT ALL. And it worries me because it probably means there are plenty of fans who don't know about it, because they happened to not be paying attention at the right time.

Because yes, it is okay to love problematic things and people but you have to ACKNOWLEDGE THOSE PROBLEMS, and ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THEY ARE PROBLEMS. It's the thing I love most about fandom when fandom's doing it right: we're really good at working critically with awesome-but-problematic things out of a place of love. But not all of fandom's there.