Saturday, November 09, 2013

50 shades of grey

There’s been A LOT (too much) of discussion over Sherlock and John’s sexuality within the fandom. I’ve seen battle lines drawn over whether or not Johnlock is a bromance or a homosexual relationship. I generally lean to bromance, but I’m trying something new for NaNoWriMo.

I’m pretty open to a lot of different types of Johnlock fan fic, but I don’t necessarily hold to the (practically canon) fandom view that Sherlock’s an full blown ace and John’s Sherlock-sexual. While trying to make their relationship work within the confines of my NaNo disaster (see: reduced to writing pr0n), I ended up doing a metric shit ton of research.

Holy motherfuck is there a lot of grey in terms of sexuality.

I’m not stupid. I know there’s not One True Sexuality (unless you’re a close minded… oh, fuck it. You know where I stand on that particular issue.), but to see all the labels that people are applying to themselves, in an attempt to build a sense of community, was kind of mind-blowing.

So, that said, here’s my head canon on the Johnlock sexuality question:

Although, John *could* technically be called “Sherlock-sexual’ (gah. that label needs to die a painful death), he’s actually straight, with a preference for men (MSM). I find John’s sexuality most interesting because it really breaks down the borders and limitations that people assign to straight people.

I love this quote:
“This line of thinking is not necessarily true. In fact, it’s often not the case at all! You can fantasize about all kinds of activities that have everything, or very little, to do with your sexual orientation. You can engage in and even enjoy sexual acts that are the complete opposite to what your sexual orientation really is.” 

So. Easy peasey, mac and cheesey: MY John is straight because that’s his sexual orientation. Behaviour is not the same as orientation. Period. End of discussion.

Sherlock - oh, Sherlock. Now that’s a fucking rabbit hole of epic proportions.

And one I jumped into with both feet.

After reading about this for three hours (yep, I’m an expert now, bitches!), I’ve kind of come to the conclusion that MY Sherlock is demisexual / homoromantic. (I’m considering Sherlock to be gay because of the way he answers John’s questions about boyfriends / girlfriends.)

a) Demisexual: According to one hypothetical model, a person who identifies as a demisexual does not experience primary sexual attraction but does experience secondary sexual attraction. In this model, primary sexual attraction is based on outward qualities such as a person’s looks, clothes, or personality while secondary sexual attraction is attraction stemming from a connection, usually romantic, or from status or how closely the person is in relationship to the other.

b) Homoromantic: A person who is romantically attracted to a member of the same sex or gender. Homoromantic asexuals seek romantic relationships for a variety of reasons, including companionship, affection, and intimacy, but they are not necessarily sexually attracted to their romantic partners.

(H/T to asexuality.org for both definitions)

I’m sure once (IF) my little casefic goes live on AO3, I’ll hear something about my little head canon ideas of the Johnlock sexuality question.

And that’s completely fine.

I think that this is a conversation that needs to be had, because this is a completely fascinating world…

Sexuality isn’t black and white, and neither is the relationship between Sherlock and John.

In ACD canon, the relationship between the two men tends to be a little questionable.

As far as the BBC canon is concerned, Moffat and Cumberbatch hold that Sherlock is an ace. Freeman, on the other hand, considers “Sherlock” to be the gayest show on the telly.

Abso-fucking-lutely fascinating.

Maybe I should have gotten into psychology or literature as a major…

If I had had any idea doing this sort of research and applying it to the written word would be THIS much fun, I would have tried to make a living out of it.