It’s not us. It’s them.

ravenmorganleigh:

sussexbound:

I know that the last few days have been upsetting, disappointing, high emotion for many.  But, I’m honestly really starting to get uncomfortable with how much we are still throwing the author of ‘that article’ under the bus, and turning on one another.  

Yes, perhaps that article wasn’t the finest piece of entertainment journalism (I mean I don’t generally expect much from entertainment reporting anyway).  There was definitely some journalistic bias going in, and some weak writing.  But she has released the question she asked Moffat, which was originally missing from Part one, was very quick and polite to point me in the right direction when I asked for it, has had the article legitimised by both Mark Gatiss (the show runner) and Sue Vertue (the shows producer, and the one set to lose the most money if they misquoted them and they lost viewers due to it). And yes, she does seem to have a bit of a negative view of certain segments of the johnlock fandom, but she is currently being dog piled with accusations of homophobia and plagiarism so it may be that she’s just a tad raw at the moment.

Here’s the thing.  I know we’re all upset.  I know some of us are hurt, some are sad, some are in denial, some don’t care at all, because to their mind this changes nothing.  All those things are fine and fair to feel.  But no matter how you are feeling, let’s remember that there is nothing directly quoted in this interview that either Moffat or Gatiss haven’t said before.  In fact Mark’s comments in Part One of this interview almost exactly mirror those he gave at the Mumbai Comicon in December of 2014.  The author didn’t make this stuff up.  The things in quotes are the things Mark, Steven, Sue and Amanda actually said.  If they weren’t, then Mark and Sue would not have legitimatised this interview on Twitter.

If you are angry about the things that Mark or Steven said in this interview, then be angry at them, not at the author of the article.  If you are angry about the mean-spiritedness, and at times even homophobia that is occurring in the comments section of the article, or on twitter, or even here on tumblr, then be angry at Mark and Steven, who were the ones who actually said the crap inciting these sorts of attitudes.  The author just quoted them.

If you want to believe that Mark and Steven are just lying liars who lie, and johnlock will still happen despite what they say, that’s fine (I honestly hope so myself, or this show is going to be one of the most narratively inconsistent, one of the worst written, and the perpetrator of some of the worst queer baiting ever!), but at the same time you have to acknowledge that their lying in this particular way, just to keep a plot secret, is going to have real life ramifications on lgbtq fans.  These kinds of lies do incite the kind of mean-spirited and homophobic responses I have seen online this week.  And this has been my biggest beef about the whole mess, honestly.  Because lying in this particular way is wholly, and completely unnecessary, and it is causing very real online bullying to real life lgbtq fans.

Think about that for a minute.  These two privileged men tell lies (if they are lies) that hurt real life lgbt people (predominately young women), just to preserve the grand plot reveal of their pet fan fic project (that is ironically predominantly funded by one of their wives and their mother-in-law).  And they tell these lies when it is completely unnecessary.  They could, when faced with questions about John and Sherlock being a couple, simply redirect the conversation, or dismiss the question with a simple, “People can make conjecture about whatever they please.  We know the story we’re writing.  You will have to wait and see.”  Such a statement commits to nothing, and hurts no one.

What upsets me most, through all of this, though, is seeing women turning on women, female fans turning on other female fans, lgbtq fans turning on other lgbtq fans, female fans throwing female entertainment journalists under the bus, while at the same time excuses for and defense of Moffat and Gatiss are absolutely everywhere.  Moffat and Gatiss’ words are the things that lit the fire under this madness, and yet I see young women, and young lgbtq fans rushing to defend them.  Why?  

@madgirlspoem talked about this in an excellent post yesterday.  And I want to pull a quote from there, because it was just so good:

“As male creators in a position of power, if you belittle a minority group, for whatever reason, and more pointedly for reasons that are quite narcissistic and petty (”to protect a plot twist”) then you are perpetrating the abuse that has been historically imposed upon them. You become part of the problem, not the solution, regardless of how wonderfully progressive your media work might turn out to be. Guess what: we deserve better. (…) You deserve better.”

You do.  You do deserve better.  

I made some points on someone else’s post back on June 14th (which was Mark Gatiss specific) about things I’m angry about when it comes to male media creators and their interaction with female fans, and after everything that’s happened the last few days they seem more relevant than ever, so I’m going to post them again here:

I’m angry at misogyny.
I’m angry at being viewed as ‘crazy’, ‘sex-obsessed’, an objectifier of gay men.
I’m angry that the media assumes that just because I ship two men, I’m all of the above and straight.
I’m angry at being invisible in media as a wlw, as a bisexual wlw.  
I’m tired of the fact that what small scraps of queer media we do get are controlled predominately by privileged, white, straight or more rarely gay men.  
I’m tired that the majority of queer characters we do get on television are privileged, white, gay men.
I’m tired of the fact that when wlw do show up in our media they are still killed off for dramatic impact because women who love women are viewed as disposable objects by male media creators.
I’m tired of the fact that young, queer girls are so starving for representation that they cling desperately to, and idolise, privileged, white, gay men, when those men, in actuality, don’t give a shit about them.

This is the last thing I’m going to write about this incident.  Watch the show, or stop.  Keep believing johnlock will happen on the show, or don’t.  But please, please, please do not throw each other under the bus, or fight with each other over this mess.  Women should not be attacking other women over something privileged male media creators have said and done.  

(((((((((((APPLAUSE!!!!!!!!)))))))))

This is a GREAT article summarising this entire thing. I have some thoughts I’ve been mulling over for the past couple of days, but being on a family visit has tied up a lot of my time. Meanwhile, bravo, sussexbound. This is really well stated!