one rotten girl in the city of the future

The way that most of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories’ most horrible villains are rich dudes that are abusive to women, in a time such as the 1880’s, compels me.

There’s a whole subset of Sherlock Holmes stories that could be labeled Asshole Guys Try to Control Women’s Money.

Yup, there’s a huge number of times where Sherlock Holmes is the ONLY person to take a young woman’s complaint or worry seriously and finds out someone is up to some serious evil.  Holmes also shows a lot of compassion and empathy with the victims over and over again.  (This is why I find “Secretly a woman” or “Trans” Holmes headcanons much more convincing than “sociopath” Holmes.)

This is also the basis for a lot of speculation about Holmes’ family life.  The idea that he has been a victim of abuse, or his mother was abused (or even murdered by his father.)  There’s definitely SOMETHING that makes him very aware of how dangerous isolated families can be, and the dark things that can happen behind closed doors.  Plus, of course, the motivation to devote himself to stopping crime.  And yes, so much of it is of the personal type. 

dude see this is one aspect of the original books i NEVER understand why modern remakes (cough cough) don’t go all in on. Like, in the 21th c we HAVE all the dumb forensic shit that made Victorian Holmes stand out, but we STILL DON’T HAVE uh….you know, compassion for women and minorities, or the willingness to believe them, adequate community support for domestic violence or hate crimes, etc. etc. which you’d think is exactly where a renegade consulting detective would come in handy. A good modern day Sherlock Holmes remake, instead of trying to convince us that Holmes is some super genius for being better than fingerprint analysis or whatever, could have him just be…a good person who helps out people the police can’t and won’t help. There you go. That’s how to write a relevant modern Holmes.

One thing that annoys me is how much the BBC version of Sherlock (and the fandom around it) focus on police cases or cold cases.  In the stories, Holmes’ bread and butter cases had fuck-all to do with the police and in a few stories, he actively works around/against them, or outright lies to them.  Of the many, many things I wish that show had done differently, this is one is particularly obnoxious since it’s such a gimme.

#my favorite murder in holmes canon#is when they straight up witness a lady murder her blackmailer#do nothing except destroy his other blackmail material#and then straight up lie to lestrade about it#sherlock holmes#more of this in modern adaptations pls (via @cactusspatz )

Let’s not forget the time Holmes helps a young woman who’s being catfished by her own stepfather to steal her inheritance, and when the villain sneers that the law can’t touch him, Holmes grabs a horsewhip out of sheerest chivalry.

So, the most canon-accurate iteration of Sherlock Holmes in the last few decades is actually Benoit Blanc….

Ok listen y'all gotta watch Elementary because that version of Sherlock’s is wildly protective of women who have been abused

i am assuming everyone in this thread has seen granada holmes and agrees it is the best and that’s why we aren’t talking about the already-flawless adaptation that exists?

This is my FAVORITE aspect of ACD's stories to yap about! Holmes and Watson are both always sympathetic to women's economic precarity. Even socially privileged women in Victorian/Edwardian times still existed in a very unstable economic reality where they were almost wholly at the mercy of their husbands, fathers, brothers, etc. for financial protection (in western society, we are currently only a few generations removed from this!). Women were materially vulnerable in a way I think it's difficult for us to fully comprehend. But Holmes and Watson understand this and Holmes especially is enraged at any man who would abuse the economic power he has over women connected to him. Even in Irene Adler's case, she is blackmailing an aristocrat to protect herself so she can gain security through marriage to a financially stable and kind man. I love that there is a constant theme throughout the ACD stories of Holmes and Watson both understanding that the law is neither kind nor fair to vulnerable people and therefore what is lawful is not always what is right and doing the right thing is more important than doing the lawful thing.

oh no! the black metal band i googled has a "controversy" section of their wikipedia page! oh no!

they're just satanists. crisis averted!

For those who don't know: Ikumi Nakamura is the woman who was senior artist on Bayonetta, and designed the titular character along with Hideki Kamiya. Their greatest moment of bonding was over their insistence that Bayonetta keep her glasses on at all times. Nakamura cannot go to horny jail. She is the warden.

Happy pride month to her and her exclusively

happy pride

Apparently, Zapp Brannigan and William Laurence are two steps from the same inspiration character (Hornblower). Jack Aubery and Jim Kirk (in TOS) are similiar, but Kirk has a rep.

I will never EVER gatekeep who can show up at Pride because I was the ally at the Pride parade for years before I figured out why I kept showing up. Yes, I got a lot of sassy "sure, honey" and "get back to me in five years" from folks who clocked me before I clocked myself. And yes, I did the sort of stupid inconsiderate closeted things for which at least three queer women in Atlanta still curse my name. But I eventually figured it out and now I have an amazing wife who I share a very queer, happy life with. Give people room to try things and figure themselves out.

hurr hurr I'm a human body hurr hurr I'm gonna solve all my problems using mucus

"i require more fluids" well what did you do with the fluids I already gave you. hmm? did you make more mucus with them? you made more mucus with them.

pacific rim fucks severely for a lot of reasons but my favorite is that it opens with "the lizard aliens are unionizing so we built robots running on the power of love to fight them you got all that right" and before you have time to really process that concept bam gunshot body on the floor and the movie goes "now consider the vast power of grief in this setup" it never really stops considering

When you point out to people who are against animal testing that there are potentially lifesaving medications that need to be tested on mammals before going to trials that could potentially harm human lives, they’ll say shit like “We should test on prisoners instead.” Bitch. Why are you working for PETA? The WW2-era Imperial Japanese Army needs you. There is suchhhhhhh a strong thread of fascism laced through the current animal rights movement and in so many animal rights spaces and they’re extremely transparent about it.

I can excuse racism, but I draw the line at animal cruelty

That scene from Community is so accurate, that is exactly how these people sound. Racism, ableism and classism often tangled with their crusade for ‘animal rights’ and their talking points often go against basic ethics and basic animal husbandry.

It's not just PETA though, it's white animal rights activists more generally who prioritize animals over actual humans. And this is not in any way a new thing. See: white western vegans showing little to no care for the humans who farm the plants they eat or the communities priced out of centuries-old staple crops due to white western vegans feeling entitled to them. And to say we should do medical tests on prisoners is showing that animal rights activists have bought into our carceral system's dehumanization of prisoners. Btw, there is a history in the US of conducting medical tests on prisoners and poor communities! You don't need to invoke WW2 era Japanese atrocities! there are plenty in your own back yard! I also think about how animals received legal protection against cruelty long before marital rape was outlawed. I love animals, I believe in being a good steward to our planet and all its creatures, but if you are demanding protections for animals that you wouldn't demand for human beings, please sit the fuck down.