Maggie, this is FANTASTIC. ♥ Thanks so much for writing this; we can always trust you to be insightful & eloquent about things like this! It illuminates essentially everything I'm finding problematic with the show, and a lot of things I didn't even realise. It's a really good look at how media teaches us to be complicit in our own oppression and discrimination.
Honestly, I have no idea what to do with Sherlock. I really want to like it -- and there are aspects I love about it -- but it's so blatantly, casually offensive sometimes that I almost hoped it was trying to be ironic. Unfortunately, no. It's being very serious. Chinese people really are only about exotic circuses and smuggling rings! Women are only there for you to talk about them as sexual objects in relation to men! The sociopathic white man is a god, and should be treated as such! (I don't know enough about classic Sherlock Holmes to comment on this, but it almost seems like the way the premise is set up to idolise the protagonist, it paves the way for problems.) If we wrap it all up in a shiny package with desaturated colours & visual flair, and encourage everyone to identify with the dismissive gaze of the white male protagonist, no one will notice!
no subject
Honestly, I have no idea what to do with Sherlock. I really want to like it -- and there are aspects I love about it -- but it's so blatantly, casually offensive sometimes that I almost hoped it was trying to be ironic. Unfortunately, no. It's being very serious. Chinese people really are only about exotic circuses and smuggling rings! Women are only there for you to talk about them as sexual objects in relation to men! The sociopathic white man is a god, and should be treated as such! (I don't know enough about classic Sherlock Holmes to comment on this, but it almost seems like the way the premise is set up to idolise the protagonist, it paves the way for problems.) If we wrap it all up in a shiny package with desaturated colours & visual flair, and encourage everyone to identify with the dismissive gaze of the white male protagonist, no one will notice!
/rant ;)