Sherlock Meta: This Woman's Work

[addyke]

This Woman's Work
In Defence and Affection of BBC Sherlock's Depiction of Irene Adler
To Sherlock Holmes, she is always the woman.... In his eyes she eclipses and predominates the whole of her sex.
A Scandal in Bohemia (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Comments

[mjartrod]

Absolutely perfect. Thank you for putting in a pretty simplified way what Moffat did in 90 minutes episode

[doxxed_up]

I can only conclude that, in the end, this character suffers from the same problem strong, popular women in general suffer - they are simply much more scrutinised than men.
And as a woman myself, it's revolting to see people who claim to be 'feminists' degrading the portrayal of a woman who is A WOMAN. She's not supposed to be a role model - what the hell is a role model anyway? There's room in the world for Irenes, Mollys and Sarahs, no need to elevate one to a throne and despise the other(s) with sexist comments.

*applauds* THANK YOU!

[xtricks]

I kind of disagree. Canonical Irene Adler was a very independent woman, and scandalous for her time but not amoral, not obsessed with getting one over on everyone, not beating people - figuratively or literally. Her blackmail (and her dealing with Holmes the way she did) was a survival strategy when the people around her wanted to kill her for being inconvenient (which is also an interesting look at the way women were treated in the era) - not for stealing state secrets and threatening to sell them for a lark - or, more accurately, on the bidding of a man. One thing I thought of immediately, when hearing that she had all this top secret stuff was why? If she's so intelligent, she had to have known it would make her a larger target, not safer. If you're going to use blackmail as a safety strategy, you have to know how much to use and how little to get the result you want. For whatever reason, she clearly didn't

[fenm]

It certainly doesn't help that Morarity was pulling Irene's strings (for no real reason!) in the BBCverse.

And the thing about that is: Given that they clearly met before she met Sherlock, one could argue that all along, any of her "brilliant" idea to get one over on Sherlock were given to her by him.

[xtricks]

Morarity was really shoehorned in that episode - there was no need for him in the plane/terrorist plot and it really undercuts Irene as a character who stands on her own if he's back there telling her what to do with her own blackmail materiel.

[fenm]

Yeah, really. Good job, Moff.

[curseangel]

I disagree completely, with all of this. I'm actually way too worn-out right now to discuss it myself (dehydrated, exhausted, haven't eaten in a day, etc., ugh), but there's a tumblr essay thingy that sums it up pretty well for me.

[xtricks]

While I agree with most of the tumbler, I do believe that making Irene a dominatrix actually maintained the level of scandalousness that the canonical Irene had - opera singers, like actors (and actresses) were very immoral people, according to the culture, in the same way that sex workers were (and are) - in fact they were often assumed to be prostitutes.

Canonical Irene wasn't a sex worker or a prostitute and I believe one of the things the original story was showcasing was her decent humanity despite being 'an actress' vs. the skeevy Willhelm, a nobleman and supposedly of good character who was okay with her getting killed.

[ohjames]

Okay hold up. I really psyched to find someone defending Adler but I'm only a few paragraphs in and you're ruining it.

She is not a 'sex worker'
Yes, she is. This is like saying strippers aren't sex workers. They are. The problem I have with all of these discussion about Irene is that they skim over the fact that she is not just a great character, but also a decent representation of sex workers on mainstream television. Deny her that is deny me representation. There is nothing wrong with Irene being an empowered sex worker who enjoys her job.

[eldritchhorrors]

Amen. I was a Pro Dom for years.

I wasn't getting anything sexual out of it, but my clients would tell you a different story.

[addyke]

I'm very sorry and I stand corrected on this one. I suppose when I wrote it I was really thinking of the distainful tone and use of the term by Mycroft in this scene. She certainly isn't a 'men's plaything' and that is really what that paragraph is about.

[annievh]

I've always thought Irene Adler was a feminist, at least "sort-of" for her time and place. She lived by herself (at least at first), she had premarital sex, she had a career, she chose a man to marry, she was pretty much free to do as she pleased.

And the fact that she had a picture "for protection" always sounded to me like a smart woman trying to protect herself against a much more powerful man in a male dominated time.

When I first heard she was going to be a dominatrix I was a little disappointed, but I think it worked well into the context of the show. I think people are very offended at her being a "sex worker" (I believe pro-dom still rates as a sort of sex related profession, but I might be wrong), and I don't know if that's because the main couple in this fandom is slash (John/Sherlock) or because people think every kind of female sexuality is objectifying.

All I can say is that, as a Sherlock/Irene shipper I feel very alone in this fandom, so thank you for writing this down :)