re: Irene Adler

I think a few people missed the point of Irene’s oversexed-ness: it was an act.  She was an information broker who used the methods that got her results.  And those methods were not necessarily sexual in all cases; dominatrix work does not always involve sex.  She was a con woman playing very specifically with Sherlock and attacking him in the one area where he was woefully under-qualified to understand what was going on.   In the end, I never saw her as a damsel in distress because she was never the object to save; she played the part to Sherlock, but I always saw her as the opponent.  Moriarity wasn’t her boss, like in the SH movie; they were exchanging information for assistance.   Begging Sherlock at the end not to unlock the phone was the request of a downed duelist for mercy, not a desperate victim crying out to be saved as she was the one who challenged him.  

As for him saving her at the VERY end, again, I saw no damsel.  She wasn’t begging to be saved from something she had no power in; she’d gambled, lost (by losing the data on her phone and its protection), and was paying a price she was both infinitely aware of from start to finish and pretty settled to paying.  The fact that he showed up to help was unexpected but she took the advantage when it showed.  

I certainly understand that there can be different viewings and that different people could see things differently, but I think it’s a disservice to the character to say she was written ‘badly’ or that it was automatically misogynist or oversexed, especially given that agency was so clearly in Irene’s thoughts and actions and I’ve always thought agency to be of prime importance when considering such things.

submitted by fibrecrack

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  1. miurt reblogged this from malachitegrey
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  4. unlit-vogue reblogged this from criticalfeministcorgi and added:
    This is actually...this interpretation makes me like her more.
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  6. a-timelord-consultant reblogged this from staying-alive-is-so-boring and added:
    ^ Finally someone who gets it. Thank you for this.
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    totally take back
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