A fair point; though I'm aware of Gatiss's involvement, I definitely have assumed Moffat has had the dominant creative control of the Sherlock project, due in no small part to his recent cult following and acquiring of both Sherlock and Doctor Who. However, I have no way of knowing that Gatiss didn't have just as much say as Moffat in the writing, so I will quit attributing it entirely to Steven Moffat.
However, as a gay writer, I can't say I believe that gay writers cannot promote (accidentally or intentionally) some degree of heteronormative sentiment in their writing -- sometimes it's career-necessary. Hell, I don't think Glee is especially progressive for the LGBT community, but I'm sure Ryan Murphy thinks he's doing exactly as much as he can with it. I agree that Sherlock and John's living arrangement and relationship would in-character come off as questionable in today's society, but I do think there was a degree of cynical "don't call our characters gay, we're already commenting on how gay they are, lol" warding-off-homosexuality-accusations in the way they've been written. Bromance-is-questionably-gay is a common dudebro joke to ward off the accusation anyway: see Scrubs.
In any case, it's pretty complicated, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of careful mixture of audience-pandering and attempts-at-progress went into the writing of Sherlock. I'm dubious that Moffat's having Gatiss as a friend lets him off the hook for homophobia, though, any more than any male writer who's had a close female working friend is necessarily not sexist.
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sforzinda
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Date: 2011-07-25 12:53 am (UTC)However, as a gay writer, I can't say I believe that gay writers cannot promote (accidentally or intentionally) some degree of heteronormative sentiment in their writing -- sometimes it's career-necessary. Hell, I don't think Glee is especially progressive for the LGBT community, but I'm sure Ryan Murphy thinks he's doing exactly as much as he can with it. I agree that Sherlock and John's living arrangement and relationship would in-character come off as questionable in today's society, but I do think there was a degree of cynical "don't call our characters gay, we're already commenting on how gay they are, lol" warding-off-homosexuality-accusations in the way they've been written. Bromance-is-questionably-gay is a common dudebro joke to ward off the accusation anyway: see Scrubs.
In any case, it's pretty complicated, and I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of careful mixture of audience-pandering and attempts-at-progress went into the writing of Sherlock. I'm dubious that Moffat's having Gatiss as a friend lets him off the hook for homophobia, though, any more than any male writer who's had a close female working friend is necessarily not sexist.