Holmes/Watson vs. Sherlock/John, Part I

Some things I've noticed so far in my (admittedly few) readings of Holmes/Watson stories versus the (admittedly way too many) Sherlock/John stories I've read:

1) Holmes is always a closeted gay man

Or at least this is true in all the stories I've read so far. If anyone has any links to stories that go against this rule, by all means send them my way!

2) Sherlock (BBC) is always either asexual or demisexual

Now I have read stories that go against this rule, but they have been far outswamped by stories that follow it. And while 'Sherlock-is-demisexual' is not often explicit, I am planning on writing a future blog post on why I think it's much more common than people realize- a lot of stories describe demisexuality without ever calling it that. Probably because most people don't know what it is.

a. In stories where Sherlock BBC is asexual, him and John always have an understanding. Sometimes this means John gives up sex altogether for a life with his soulmate Sherlock. Sometimes this means John is given a free pass to occasionally sleep with others (almost always women!), but always comes home to Sherlock at the end of the day. Sometimes this means Sherlock participates in sex acts with John that require no reciprocation. But all of these stories have one common thread: the explicit idea that John and Sherlock plan to grow old together.

a. In stories where Sherlock BBC is asexual, John is not always attracted to men. In Sherlock/John stories where Sherlock is asexual and John is attracted to men, Sherlock almost always participates in sex acts with John, explaining that he likes giving John pleasure even if he doesn't like receiving pleasure in the same way.

In stories where Sherlock BBC is asexual and John is not attracted to men, John is usually given a free pass to sleep with women (that pass is usually assumed or outright stated will go unused once they retire). Bizarrely, Sherlock/John stories where Sherlock is asexual and John is straight, are more likely to end in marriage between our heroes than stories from the first scenerio. My guess is that this is because the authors of these types of stories want to make the Sherlock/John relationship explicitly romantic and/or emphasize its exclusivity (as opposed to the canon relationship of BFF-ness that's already supposed to exist between them where they could each, hypothetically, have other friendships that become just as close). Since our heroes aren't having sex in this scenerio, marriage is used as a way of making their eventual plan to grow old together explicit without forcing Sherlock to say so, since Sherlock often has problems expressing emotions both in canon and fanon.

3. John (BBC) is always bisexual******. With the exception of asexual!Sherlock story scenerios mentioned above, John is almost always bisexual. This is worth noting since in other fandom slash pairing where one or both of the characters are either explicitly or implicitly identified as straight in canon, this is often not the case. Instead, in such a scenerio one or both of the characters is considered completely straight with the exception of attraction to his one true slash mate. Confused? In high school, I used to read Ryan/Seth fics from The O.C. What can I say? I was a nerd. Anyway, oftentimes Seth was gay or bisexual, and Ryan wasn't. Or sometimes, they were both straight, or even Ryan was queer and Seth wasn't. But there as rarely a scenerio where they were both outright queer, at least when I was involved in that fandom. Instead character A (let's say Ryan) would be straight, but would still find himself falling in love with character B (Seth) and finding himself curious and interested in exploring what sex with character B would be like, even though character B is the only man character A can ever found himself considering having sex with EVER. The implicit understanding in such a scenerio, is that romantic love always leads to sexual attraction. Whether or not this is actually true in real life is up for debate.

So it is worth noting that in Sherlock fandom John is almost always written as bisexual, or at the very least, curious about sex with men. Even in stories where John has never before even fantasized about sex with a man, there's usually something written about him at least considering the possibilities of such acts during his time in the army, and then dismissing them as not for him. And even in the rare story where John finds himself wanting to have sex with Sherlock while never having previously even considered the possibility of sex with a man, even then, after having sex with Sherlock John is usually open and willing to from then on consider himself "not straight" (even if it's only in his head).

4. Watson's sexuality is much more open to interpretation. It's the Victorian era so there's a built in excuse for why gay!Watson would feel the need to have dalliances (and eventually a marriage) with women: It's literally against the law for him to be gay. There is no such excuse in place for John in the modern day BBC world. If caught- or even suspected- Watson could be hanged. So some writers write him as a closeted gay man who is shocked to discover his roommate shares his predilection for penis. Other times Watson is bisexual, or open-minded. It's often remarked that either his job as a doctor, his time in the army, or both have exposed him to homosexuality in the past and that he views it, more or less, as natural. Sometimes he thinks sodomy is a perversion, but Holmes teaches him the wonders of cock.


***** The "John is always bisexual" trope isn't true anymore!!!  Sometime in the last 6 months or so, I've found an influx of "OMG SEXUALITY CRISIS John" stories!  I attribute a lot of this from my switch of relying on the sherlockbbc livejournal for my fanfic to A03 instead, but I also wonder if season 2 somehow influenced this.  Anyone have any comments?