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Sherlock Holmes gets to be brilliant, solitary, abrasive, Bohemian, whimsical, brave, sad, manipulative, neurotic, vain, untidy, fastidious, artistic, courteous, rude, a polymath genius. Female characters get to be Strong.
Sophia McDougall, I Hate Strong Female Characters, in Culture Capitol, the New Statesman
Okay, at this point, I think we can agree that creating three dimensional female characters is not Steven Moffat’s strong point. Opinions range from mild annoyance to wow-how-much-of-a-misongynist can you be. Unfortunately, his comments about Sherlock‘s female fan base don’t help matters; this quote is my favorite: “… of course, he’s going to be a sex god! I think we pitched that character right. I think our female fan base all believe that they’ll be the one to melt that glacier.” (Of course, I only watch movies and TV shows when I’m attracted to the protagonist. Not sure what this says about how much I like Wall-e).
People much smarter than I have picked apart all the things wrong with the way Irene Adler is portrayed in this version of Sherlock. I wasn’t as upset about her turn as a dominatrix as I was about the way it ended. Moffat tried to address the controversy and somehow made it worse. ”In the original, Irene Adler’s victory over Sherlock Holmes was to move house and run away with her husband. That’s not a feminist victory … Everyone else gets it that Irene wins.” Okay, I’ll admit, running away is not the most badass move, but the point is that she outwitted Holmes and escaped on her own terms. How is it more of a victory to be placed in a situation where you literally have to get rescued by a night in shining armor with a sword? In what universe?
I want to examine how female characters were dealt with in Season 3. There are a lot of different tests that can be used (the Bechdel test would just be sad, and I really like this flowchart by Shana Mlawski, but this post is going to be long enough already), so I think I’m going to go with this quote by Amber Heard in Syrup:
Men characterize women in one of four ways: Mothers, Virgins, Sluts, and Bitches. Of course none of the above is suitable for the modern business woman. But you can create your own image by selecting pieces of each archetype that work for you…This leaves men confused and unable to pigeonhole you. What they are forced to do instead is take you seriously.
Using this quote, I think we can see two things: (1) In a lot of ways, women are still dealt with as walking stereotypes, but (2) there are glimmers of hope that the women in the Sherlock universe may get the opportunity to be just as complex and conflicted as their male counterparts.
Sally Donovan – The Bitch
“But she’s barely in this season!” – I know, that’s my point.
So, in TRF, there were two police officers (influenced no doubt by Moriarty’s mole) who were instrumental casting suspicion on Sherlock and having him arrested: Anderson and Donovan. At the beginning of TEH we see a picture of both of them flash on screen when reporters are talking about how the original police investigation went so wrong. Yet it’s Anderson who get’s a second chance. It’s Anderson that gets to act as a mouthpiece for the fans. It’s Anderson who gets to see the error of his ways and proudly declare, “I believe in Sherlock Holmes.” Anderson redeems himself so much, he even has a role to play in Sherlock’s mind palace while trying to save his life.
What does Sally get? She gets 3 minutes at the beginning of TSoT to show that she clearly didn’t have as much of a turnaround ( It’s him, isn’t it?) and then she gets sidelined. Never to be seen again in Season 3.
Allowing Sally to have the same growth as Anderson takes her out of the “bitch” category, and there’s no room for that. Even though she was always more combative towards Sherlock than Anderson, so there might have been an even bigger impact if she was the one to see the error of her ways. Instead, she gets dealt with quickly, and dismissed.
Mrs. Hudson & Mrs. Holmes – The Mothers
I don’t really mind this stereotype, especially for Mrs. Hudson, especially because it seems like the creators are in on the joke (I really am going to have a word with your mother). Una Stubbs is perfect in her role, and based on the hints we’ve been given about her backstory, I’m waiting for that spinoff with baited breath.
Mrs. Holmes is also well played, though it’s interesting that we haven’t gotten past the idea that women have to give up their careers for children because those things are always mutually exclusive.
Janine – The Slut
This is one of the things that angered me the most. Especially because the banter between Janine and Sherlock was so lovely and refreshing. Look, someone who has no prior relationship with Sherlock engaging him and accepting who he is! It was great.
And I even expected that Sherlock would be in some way involved with a woman as a way into Magnussen’s inner circle, because that’s what happened in the original ACD story. No, what pissed me off was how far they went in making Janine’s character the stereotypical silly, slutty woman waiting to be taken in by the dashing Mr. Holmes. It would be one thing to have Sherlock fake an interest in Janine to get to Magnussen’s office, but the level it’s taken to in HLV is insulting, to be honest. Her “revenge” is equally stereotypical, as is his response. I mean, he ACTUALLY calls her a WHORE. (And you – as it turns out – are a grasping, opportunistic, publicity-hungry tabloid whore.) There is no situation where a male character directs that at a female character and it is not offensive.
Why does everything have to be about sex? Why oh Why oh Why? Why is Moffat obsessed with the idea that every woman who encounters Sherlock Holmes wants to jump his bones. It seems as though, through Janine, Moffat was reprimanding all those female fans who are “trying to melt the glacier.” See girls, be careful what you wished for. What was the point of this exchange, exactly:
SHERLOCK: I exploited the fact of our connection.
JANINE: When?!
SHERLOCK: Hmm?
JANINE: Just once would have been nice.
SHERLOCK: Oh. I was waiting until we got married.
JANINE: That was never gonna happen!
What does that contribute to the plot? Nothing. It’s just a crude wink at the fact that all women want to sleep with Sherlock Holmes, yet he’s not interested in any of them. Does Steven Moffat really think that after finding out that someone had entered into a relationship and PROPOSED to them to spy on their boss, and had no genuine feelings, the thing that a woman is going to be most upset about is not getting laid? Really?
And on that engagement. This isn’t the Middle Ages, where women got handed off to suitors without ever meeting them. Among my friends, if a man who one of us had been sort of dating for at most a month (yet still disappeared for long stretches of time) proposed, our reaction would be nowhere near as positive. It would definitely not be yes. And most definitely, our first reaction would not be to buzz him into our super-evil bosses’ private office.
Yet in the world of Sherlock, that’s a perfectly acceptable thing to do. In fact, women are expected to fall to pieces at the sight of a diamond (Did she faint? Do they really do that?). It’s fine to have Sherlock Holmes use his charms on the ladies to get what he wants, but when that lady is an unrealistic, over-the-top caricature of how a single woman thinks and acts (silly, sex-obsessed, and waiting for that ring) we have a problem. Especially because she didn’t need to be that way for the story to still work.
Moffat makes Janine a Slut with a capitol S, and given his comments on the subject, it’s easy to see the parallels he’s drawing between her and Sherlock’s female fans. And if that’s really how he sees us, it’s time he gets out more.
Molly – The Virgin
This is an archetype Molly has filled for almost the entire series run. The hapless virgin so blindly in love with a man who’ll never notice her that she continues to make a fool of herself. There’s been significant character development, and Molly becomes one of the most important people in Sherlock’s life, becoming the integral piece in helping him pull off his faked suicide, but she still doesn’t push far outside this role. Season 3 doesn’t start well for Molly, making her devotion to Sherlock more of a joke – she’s so in love with him, she doesn’t realize she’s “moved on” with his doppelgänger.
But then something changed. Molly took herself out of the Virgin category quite literally (And we’re having quite a lot of sex – because again, everything in this Sherlock universe comes back to sex). From then on, the dynamics in their relationship shifts. Sherlock has to take Molly seriously – no more is she the lovelorn girl who can barely get a word out. Her role in HLV is so important - she’s helping Sherlock not because he’s taking advantage of her skills, but because she’s forcing him to focus. She becomes the voice of control and reason when his own senses are spiraling out of control.
Alas, we get to see very little of this new Molly; her part if HLV is vital but brief. However, if the creators allow her to be defined by more than her unrequited love for Sherlock, then I think in later seasons should could become the complex female character I’ve been waiting for.
There’s Something About Mary
Ahh Mary Morstan. Even more so than Molly, in Mary I see an opportunity for an interesting and developed female character. She certainly doesn’t nicely fit into any of the categories outlined above. She’s able to keep Sherlock guessing all the way until the end, and she knows it (You were very slow). She’s conflicted; there’s no doubt that she loves John, and Sherlock too, but there’s also no doubt that she’s capable of some very bad things (So many dead people). One of the biggest discussions that has erupted in the fandom is over Mary; do we like her, do we hate her, where do we see her going; everything you hope for when creating a compelling character.
Alas though, the downfall of Mary is that she is a “strong female character,” as detailed in Sophia McDougall’s article quoted at the beginning (I’m only going to use part of it, but if you have the chance read the whole thing, because it’s spot on). To quote McDougall:
But really these scenes reveals the underlying deficit of respect the character starts with, which she’s then required to overcome by whatever desperate, over-the-top, cartoonish means to hand. She’s in a hole, and acts that would be hair-raising in a male character just barely bring her up to their level
It would be one thing if Mary was just an ex-CIA assassin on the run, who lied to John but then fell in love. If she tried to get out from under Magnussen’s thumb on her own and failed, before turning to Sherlock for help. But to have her shoot the main protagonist, her husband’s best friend, effectively killing him, and yet being forgiven by both Sherlock and John is ridiculous. If this character had been named Mark instead of Mary, John would have tracked down the man who shot his best friend with no mercy. He probably would have inflicted his own form of justice instead of turning said man over to the police. He definitely would not have eventually forgiven this person, no matter what Sherlock said. In fact, I doubt Sherlock would be all for forgiveness either, seeing as he had been murdered. Because Mary is a woman, and she has to somehow keep up with the dynamic duo of Holmes and Watson, her actions are huge and outlandish and certainly wouldn’t be tolerated from any man.
She also falls into another SFC pitfall, similar to the fate that awaited Miss Adler, in that she ultimately needs to be rescued by the men. Sherlock and John go to Magnussen’s to get any documents pertaining to Mary. John let’s Magnussen flick his face for Mary. Sherlock Holmes shoots a man point blank in the head in front of a multitude of witnesses and potentially forfeits his own freedom in the process to make sure Mary is safe. It’s this ending that makes me think the creators haven’t come as far as I’d hoped. HLV ended in the same way as ASiB; a female character, no matter how clever she thinks she is, creates a mess that the men have to go and clean up. It’s like they came so close to creating a complex female character and at the last minute chickened out and fell back on “damsel in distress.”
Still, I’m hopeful for the future. That in the coming seasons Mary will have an opportunity to be something other than “strong.” That we’ll see her grappling with the consequences of her decision to shoot Sherlock. That we’ll get some background on who A.G.R.A. was, and how she became Mary Watson. That she’ll be placed on equal footing with Sherlock and John so that there’s no need for over-the-top theatrics to get her taken seriously.
So where are we, at the end of Season 3? There’s still a lot of female stereotypes. When female characters surpass their role, they usually cast aside rather than dealt with. No matter how “strong” they may seem, more often than not the main women end up as damsels in distress. However, there are baby-steps in the right direction. There are hints that the creators have caught on; if the majority of your viewing audience is female, eventually you’re going to have to create a female character that’s as interesting and complex and complicated as they are. You’re going to have to allow a female to be as interesting as Sherlock on her own merits, and not because she’s allowed to get away with more.
And no, not everything always has to be about sex.
**Side note – as much as this show has struggled in accurately representing female characters, it’s also struggled in how it’s handled the relationship between John and Sherlock. Again, there are people who have been much more eloquent on this subject than me, but I’ll say this. Whether or not that relationship will ever turn romantic, treating the possibility of romance as a joke is not acceptable. Straight-until-proven-otherwise should not be a default viewpoint; we’ve come farther than that. Even if it’s not ever more than friendship, not allowing to male characters to show any affection undercuts the depth of their bond. And please, the they-live-together-so-they-must-be-lovers joke has got to stop; it’s crass and not okay. If that’s the environment the creators live in, then that’s sad, but it’s not the reality for the majority of us; under that logic, the 5 friends I lived with in college basically constituted a lesbian brothel.
Again, much thanks to Ariane DeVere for her lovely transcripts.