Ivy Blossom

Q:Many people find Moffat sexist, particularly in his portrayal of Irene. I personally don't, both because I think Irene didn't lose the bigger game (in that she had Sherlock there for her when she needed him most, just like she said) and I felt Irene's loss was there to mirror Sherlock's own eventual loss due to love in TRF. Also, she didn't love Sherlock because she is a woman but because she is human and humans love. I was wondering your thoughts on this due to your love of his writing. Thanks!

Sexism is like sand on a beach vacation: it gets into everything.

As feministis, we’re looking for thoughtfully-crafted characters with motives of their own who happen to be female. A good character, a three-dimensional character, a strong character, isn’t always a feminist woman who behaves in ways we like. A good character isn’t always a good role model. A really great character can make choices we don’t like, can have issues that involve things like love or children or sexuality, or have a hangup about getting married. She can lose her games. She can run away. She can be a girly as she likes, or as nonconformist as she likes, as long as she’s a full and complete character.

The worst thing, I think, is when a writer doesn’t think about a female character from her own point of view; it’s not what a female character does in a story that’s should be the issue: it’s why she does it. As a reader or a viewer, we need to be able to answer the why on a very personal and individual level.

I don’t need more Ginny Weasleys, The Nondescript Girl The Hero Can Marry So He Can Have A Giant Family and Be Happy Forever. Being a weak-willed woman who makes terrible choices and treats her family and friends poorly (Bella Swan) might make a character a bad role model, but it doesn’t necessarily make her bad character. Hey, at least she’s doing enough to be annoying!

Fiction isn’t a behaviour manual, and female characters do not exist to be role models (and we really shouldn’t even want them to be). Male characters don’t have to be role models to be good characters: they can be serial killers and bad lovers and liars and we still want to sympathize with them and read about them. Male characters are allowed to be interesting; female characters should have the same privilege.

I think Steven Moffat’s Irene is a fascinating character who believes she can play everyone she meets, including Sherlock, Mycroft, and Moriarty. She is chaotic and interesting and does what she likes. She takes risks, makes mistakes, and has feelings for the wrong people. I think she is a well-considered and well-constructed character.

So no: I don’t think that Steven Moffat himself is sexist. Sadly enough for me, I’ve never met him, so I don’t know for sure, but I’m fairly confident that he is not.

That said: a story is not its author. What characters do in a story should not be understood as a reflection of what the author thinks is good and right. Experiences of characters in stories are not meant to be blanket representations of the experiences of groups of people; when they are meant to do that, we’ve run into a problem we need to call out. Writers need to focus on the character, this specific female character, and think about what she would do. A female character must not represent women: she must be true to herself alone, uniquely and specifically. That’s what we want. Unique and specific female characters who are fully-fleshed out human beings. Irene is uniquely and specifically herself, in my opinion.

I’d really prefer, for the sake of good story telling, that we not ask our storytellers to give us role models for good, right, politically appropriate behaviour, or characters whose experiences and beliefs fall in line with what we feel they should be. It’s hella boring. (Ever read any Soviet literature?) Give us ladies who live and breathe, who want revenge (or don’t), who can kick everyone’s butt (or can’t), who explore their sexualities at will (or who won’t), who are timid (or not). Irene is a complete and complex character, and I appreciate the work that went into her.

Edited to add: after I posted this, there was a bit more, with feeling.