That’s not shade. That’s fucking harassment. Asking a gay writer that question, a gay writer with a serious track record of real-world activism and who has, you know, actually written about queer people before, just because he didn’t make your OTP canon.
What the above poster said. I am frankly disgusted that in any universe I would be associated with so called “fans”
Mark has campaigned for LGBT causes his whole life, being Parton of Gay Switchboard to name just one. He’s outspoken and out. He’s also a gay man who grew up during a time (and in a place, not being in a metropolitan area S a kid) where being a gay man would have been difficult. He is a fine ambassador for our community and I have nothing but respect for him in that area.
How dare you attack a man like him just because your ship didn’t become canon.
Mark puts his activism in the real world. Directs it at real problems. I suggest these so called fans do the same.
I haven’t yet witnessed anyone calling him names, or sending threats, or mobbing him a violent way, I’ve been quietly watching for a week now, and he’s getting a lot of mentions, but nothing outlandish imo
The tweet I screenshot here is an example of how people are demonstrating their hurt. It’s concise, and petty yes, but is that harassment? I wouldn’t even consider it. It’s just another one of many speaking their hurt. People trust him exactly because of who he is, and those same people are feeling betrayal for it.
Mark is a powerful, secure man with a block button. He hasn’t even attempted to block the mildly infamous dymm the real yet. I think he’ll be just fine.
I don’t think anyone sane denies Mark is A) a gay man and B) done good things for the community. I don’t think this was ever about ignoring or denying things he’s done right. Doing good things doesn’t negate mistakes you have or will make either.
A lot of people opposing this wave of backlash moftiss are getting keep with the same mantra, the ‘because your ship didn’t become canon’ thing.
I implore you to reevaluate all the facts. Mark has openly admitted in the past to purposely toying with homoeroticism in Sherlock. The No-Homo, Not a Love Story narrative is a relatively recent development when you consider the entire seven year lifespan, particularly after the reaction following S3 – whereafter it could simply no longer be ignored. There is a multitude of reasons why people feel the way they do, and the largest majority of those reasons stems from their own use of romantic devices and tropes, their cast calling it a love story, ‘the gayest love story’, etc etc, not to even touch on the fact they numerous times cite TPLOSH as a template and their muddy use of ‘we lie we lie we lie’ to obstruct people from drawing clear conclusions. This is wholly without bringing the loads of ACD queer academic readings, and the fact that they have boldly promoted themselves as ‘groundbreaking’, ‘fixing something no one has gotten right yet’, and do you really expect queer people not to get excited when your show is promoted with the line ‘Sherlock Holmes is back and is in love – with who?’ Really? It’s exactly as it sounds – queerbaiting. It’s relying on the excitement of people invested in the main relationship of the show between two characters that happen to be male and not following through.
So really, it’s a little more than being denied an OTP. Young gay kids who love this show thought, genuinely, the evidence was too much and too undeniable to possibly not be real, that their heroes and faves were really, finally going to be textualised in some shape or form.
They, the fans, just didn’t expect a gay man to be on the other end of their disappointment. It’s not that he doesn’t care about LGBT as a whole, it’s why, in this instance, for everything he’s said and done regarding this show and the main relationship, for all his knowledge of ‘softly softly’ representation, and he must be aware, he must be, why did he do this – or alternatively allow this to happen? He has, objectively when you critically analyse and break down his writing on this show, written a romantic narrative (perhaps Steven more than he).
People are in pain. They are frustrated. Combine that with the fact that TFP (well S4 overall but particularly TFP) makes no sense and no real connection with the rest of the series, and overall seems to be poorly executed (another mention to destroying the 3G scene in what can only be seen as self destruction and entirely contradictory to earlier receipts on what they believe for 3G), AND then you throw in the villains as being the only textualised queer characters… it’s a nasty blow to people who idolise this man.
So, gay or not Mark is a big boy. He’s rich, and in a position of power with a fanbase he’s slowly spotted his track record with by talking down on them at more than one occasion. He’s clearly able to throw his weight around, he can shut down anyone he wants to. He has yet to do so.
I’m a fan of Mark. He’s is, maybe was, a role model of mine. I think he’s incredibly intelligent, and I think if and when he decides to engage the alienated fans who fill his pocket, on level, in fair discussion and offer closure if anything, people will settle down. He needs to address the very community that means so much to him, that he’s attracted through his very own work.
This isn’t harassment, this is the audience doing anything they can to engage the authorgod. This is ACD vs. his mourning, angry readers in the 21st century.
It’s hilarious when a sherlolly thinks johnlockers are being harassing when they ask a writer in plain ol’ sarcasm on whether or whether not queer people will be represented, but when a sherlolly tells a johnlocker that they deserve to be abused, it’s either ignored or justified.
I haven’t seen any blatant verbal abuse to either of the writers in my time here, and fuck it all I sure as hell would tell a fellow johnlocker to stop it if I had seen any for myself. Plus, Mark Gatiss is big boy, he can handle his own, and he sure doesn’t need any protection from anyone.
Yeah, I didn’t misspell for a fucking good reason. Bite my ass.
We are truly not sorry for standing up for our rights and to fight against queer baiting. Mark is a gay man and that’s why we thought he wouldn’t treat us like this. Well we were wrong and now we raise our voice. If you Sherlolly shipper or whatever straight ship you ship have a problem with that log out and continue telling yourself how awful we are. I don’t care and I won’t stay quiet about what they did to us and the whole lgbtq+ community. And this is not just about Johnlock not being canon but about how they called it a joke and how funny it was to see queer kids hoping to get for some respectful representation.
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