{"id":163913,"date":"2015-03-12T01:50:05","date_gmt":"2015-03-12T01:50:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/03\/12\/writemeastoryofsolitude\/"},"modified":"2018-09-10T03:57:40","modified_gmt":"2018-09-10T03:57:40","slug":"writemeastoryofsolitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/03\/12\/writemeastoryofsolitude\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-163913 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/03\/12\/writemeastoryofsolitude\/attachment\/163914\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/tumblr_nip1f1e4E11tmqtvzo1_540-150x150.gif\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/tumblr_nip1f1e4E11tmqtvzo1_540-150x150.gif 150w, https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/tumblr_nip1f1e4E11tmqtvzo1_540-100x100.gif 100w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/03\/12\/writemeastoryofsolitude\/attachment\/163915\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/tumblr_nip1f1e4E11tmqtvzo2_540-150x150.gif\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/tumblr_nip1f1e4E11tmqtvzo2_540-150x150.gif 150w, https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/tumblr_nip1f1e4E11tmqtvzo2_540-100x100.gif 100w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/03\/12\/writemeastoryofsolitude\/attachment\/163916\/'><img width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/tumblr_nip1f1e4E11tmqtvzo3_540-150x150.gif\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/tumblr_nip1f1e4E11tmqtvzo3_540-150x150.gif 150w, https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/tumblr_nip1f1e4E11tmqtvzo3_540-100x100.gif 100w\" sizes=\"100vw\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/writemeastoryofsolitude.tumblr.com\/post\/111988242481\/i-read-your-writing-upside-down-of-course-we-have\" target=\"_blank\">writemeastoryofsolitude<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><a class=\"tumblr_blog\" href=\"http:\/\/i-read-your-writing-upside-down.tumblr.com\/post\/110744379254\/of-course-we-have-talked-about-the-scene-at\" target=\"_blank\">i-read-your-writing-upside-down<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Of course we have talked about the scene at Angelo\u2019s at great length, but just look at these two guys in slow motion, it\u2019s worth it because their faces are so expressive.<br \/>The <i>first gif<\/i> shows John\u2019s reaction when Sherlock says: \u201cI know it\u2019s fine\u201d (having a boyfriend). His look speaks volumes: He\u2019s immensely relieved \u2013finally he has met someone who isn\u2019t a homophobe. We may suppose that his parents are extremely homophobic and Harry\u2019s coming out went badly, so John decided to stay in the closet. With Sherlock, he might dare to come out.<br \/>The <i>second gif<\/i> shows Sherlock giving John his full attention. He turns towards him as soon as John asks: \u201cDo you have a boyfriend?\u201d He was watching the street outside before, but now he fixates John and keeps looking at him fondly and with genuine interest \u2013 until John\u2019s hitting on him becomes a bit too much and he has to look away to gather himself<br \/>The<i> third gif<\/i> is John saying: \u201cRight. Ok,\u201d immediately after this bit of conversation: \u201cSo you\u2019ve got a boyfriend?\u201d \u2013 \u201cNo.\u201d Now he\u2019s not only relieved but positively happy. I think if it wasn\u2019t for Sherlock\u2019s \u201cmarried to my work\u201d, we\u2019d have had a Johnlock kiss not more than 50 minutes into the show. What a pity. But also: What a promising beginning for a very long romantic arc.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Every time I think about this scene, like <i>really<\/i> think about it, I just\u2026 Sure, their conversation here wouldn\u2019t seem particularly out of place in real life for the \u201csocially liberal\u201d or<br \/>\nnon-heterosexual of us, but this was not a conversation I expected to<br \/>\nhear in a million years in a television show <i>which presumably has nothing whatsoever do to with the sexualities of the main characters.<\/i><\/p>\n<p>As<br \/>\n exhaustively heteronormative as most of our films and television shows<br \/>\nare, and as gradually as we\u2019re coming to expect and demand better, it\u2019s<br \/>\njust simply not done to include a conversation for the purpose of<br \/>\nconfirming a character\u2019s heterosexuality, when that sexuality has<br \/>\nabsolutely no bearing on the narrative of the story being told. \u00a0What<br \/>\nwould be the point??<\/p>\n<p>With the \u201cstraight until proven<br \/>\notherwise\u201d mindset which is so frustrating and pervasive, carving out<br \/>\nspace in a scene to include dialogue<i> <\/i>for the purpose of confirming heterosexuality in two characters of the same gender who have <i>just met<\/i><br \/>\n would be meaningless, wasteful of limited screen time, nonsensical, and<br \/>\n perhaps even downright cruel. Heteronormative\/straight viewers would<br \/>\nfind this confirmation utterly unnecessary\u2014as far as they\u2019re concerned,<br \/>\neveryone is at all times straight unless they have been explicitly<br \/>\nsingled out as otherwise!\u2014while variously-queer viewers may very likely<br \/>\ntake it as a twist of the knife, a clarification with no purpose but to<br \/>\ndeny them even the possibility of being allowed to see themselves or<br \/>\ntheir own life experiences in these characters. <\/p>\n<p>Do you<br \/>\nreally think Mark Gatiss, who has talked at length about his own<br \/>\nexperiences with the pain of growing up without representation, would<br \/>\nhave \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/news\/2015-01-29\/steven-moffat-we-dont-know-when-the-sherlock-special-will-be-on-tv\" target=\"_blank\">never disagreed on anything<\/a>&ldquo; with Moffat if Moffat writing that bit of dialogue into their show was <i>in any way<\/i> meant to genuinely confirm for the audience that Sherlock or John was heterosexual? <\/p>\n<p>The only reasonable explanation for this talk of girlfriends <i>and<\/i> boyfriends and of Sherlock calling John out on seemingly angling to snag the title for himself is to <b>let the audience know this is <i>not <\/i>a show in which we should expect to sit back and blindly assume \u201cstraight until proven otherwise.\u201d<\/b><br \/>\n (And don\u2019t try to tell me the purpose of this dialogue was simply to<br \/>\nconvey the \u201cnon-heterosexual-friendly\u201d attitude the show would be<br \/>\ntaking\u2014this aspect was more than sufficiently covered by John admitting<br \/>\nwithout judgment that his sister was married to a woman, and Sherlock\u2019s<br \/>\nonly reaction to this information being disappointment in himself for<br \/>\nfailing to deduce John\u2019s life situation with 100% accuracy.)<\/p>\n<p>This<br \/>\n is why it boggles my mind when the tjl r crowd claims the conversation<br \/>\nat Angelo\u2019s between Sherlock and John \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean anything\u201d or worse<br \/>\nyet somehow \u201c\u201dproves\u201d\u201d they would never see each other in a romantic or<br \/>\nsexual light. \u00a0Firstly, because lmao you don\u2019t write meaningless filler<br \/>\ninto the first private, personal conversation between your two main<br \/>\ncharacters, and secondly, because it <i>does <\/i>say something, it very<br \/>\nmuch does, just not in a language that those experiencing the world<br \/>\nthrough heteronormative lenses can understand, evidently.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>writemeastoryofsolitude: i-read-your-writing-upside-down: Of course we have talked about the scene at Angelo\u2019s at great length, but just look at these two guys in slow motion, it\u2019s worth it because their faces are so expressive.The first gif shows John\u2019s reaction when Sherlock says: \u201cI know it\u2019s fine\u201d (having a boyfriend). His look speaks volumes: He\u2019s immensely &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/03\/12\/writemeastoryofsolitude\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[129,9665,4],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163913"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163917,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163913\/revisions\/163917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}