[Essay] Representation at Last? Asexuality in Film and Television
Not that anyone cares, but here's another essay. Maybe this one, at least, will be useful to someone in the ace community or someone doing research on ace representation or something.
Films openly covering the queer spectrum are relatively new, and it is only recently that identities on the spectrum other than homosexuality have been addressed at all. Asexuality, an identity lesser acknowledged even among the queer community, has been woefully underrepresented throughout history in any context, but particularly in film. Occasionally, however, asexual characters do appear in popular media, recently in the film V for Vendetta and the show The Big Bang Theory, and particularly across media types in the universe of Arthur Conan Doyle’s great detective Sherlock Holmes. When they do appear, however, the asexuality of the characters is frequently disbelieved, regarded as strange or something that can be “cured” by the right person, similar to the homosexual tendencies of characters in early homosexual films.
Early queer films, even before the Hayes Code banned homosexuality in film, still expressed a sort of disbelief that a queer “alternative” life could truly be what the character would want. Even when the character does stray towards the queer, they ultimately realize the “error” of their ways and return to their former straight lifestyle, often viewing their dip into the queer pool as a “phase” that was most often cured by finding “the right (heterosexual) person.” This is exemplified by the 1914 movie A Florida Enchantment. In this classic pre-code film Lillian Travers, a young socialite engaged to a much older man named Fred, visits a curio shop and purchases a small bottle of African seeds claiming to change the gender of one who consumes them. Curious and disbelieving, Lillian eats a seed and transforms into the young man Lawrence Talbot, later forcing his maid to transform also so that he could have an appropriate valet. Lillian appears utterly happy as a man. Though at first startled, the new Lawrence quickly adjusts to his situation. At first he continues to dress as a woman and flirts outrageously with a female houseguest, but soon fully adopts his new masculine identity, leaved Fred’s home, and dresses as a man. In his new life Lawrence finds great sex with the women he meets and is by all evidence very happy. When Fred finds out what has happened he is extremely distressed and attempts to understand the situation. After himself consuming a seed and becoming a woman, Fred is run out of town and ultimately killed in a manner reminiscent of the monster’s demise in Frankenstein. Lillian eventually wakes up and is horrified by everything that has just happened in what apparently was just a dream, returning happily to her fiancé’s arms.
This film takes a character with an obvious repressed homosexual and perhaps even transgender identity, who is clearly very happy with their alternative lifestyle while involved with it, and paints their lapse into queer identity as a phase, ended with Lillian returning and remaining faithful to “the right man” (Fred), and viewing her happy gay lifestyle with horror and disgust. The idea that a character living a queer lifestyle could possibly be happy is treated with fear and disbelief, as though the possibility of such a person truly existing is impossible. This utter refusal to accept the possibility that someone might exist who would be happy living anything other than a straight, that is to say heteroromantic as well as heterosexual, life is similar to the disbelief that someone could be happy leading a sexless life experienced by asexuals in film and beyond.
Despite popular disbelief of its existence, signs of asexuality, while never explicitly confirmed, have begun to appear from time to time in popular media, such as in the cult film V for Vendetta. While asexuality is certainly never mentioned or confirmed as an aspect of V’s character, neither is any other sort of sexuality a factor, and the very absence of sex is in itself remarkable and perhaps a marker. In the hypersexual entertainment industry of today sex is seemingly a key component of any well-received action movie, and prolonged male-female contact of any sort or setting seems to be taken as asking for development of a sexual relationship. That V for Vendetta is an action movie lacking in sex is remarkable, even more so when one considers that a large portion of the movie consists of close contact and a prolonged isolated living situation between V and Evey. Despite their being alone together for an extended period of time, no sexual relationship of any kind is even hinted at, something nearly revolutionary especially in the action movie genre. Despite the lack of development of an intimate relationship the very fact that Evey kisses V, even over his mask, hints that at least she wants their relationship to move in a more intimate direction, or perhaps even that such a relationship exists off screen. Evey is the only person V trusts, which could point to her as the “right girl” to “fix” V, as she ends his long time isolation- a metaphor, perhaps, for his sexual abstinence- and makes him happier than he has ever been- implying perhaps that one can only be happy if engaged in a relation, particularly a sexual one. Despite these possible corruptions of its presence, V for Vendetta is one of the few objects of popular media depicting a sexless and unsexualized storyline and characters.
Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory shows all of the typical characteristics of an asexual character: he is lonely, awkward, sheltered, and even disgusted by sex. Uniquely, where in many cases it might be implied and assumed that an asexual character was asexual not by choice but by design, but because they were so utterly awkward and unapproachable that no one could possibly hold any interest, this show takes that aspect out of the equation by the fact that all of the central male characters are awkward, socially inept nerds. Despite this apparent common turnoff, all of the main characters of the series besides Sheldon have active sex lives, even Rajesh, to some extent, though he is unable even to talk to girls when sober for most of the series. That a whole cast of characters who, in a typical setting, might be rendered sexless, are in fact sexual despite their atypical appeal levels the playing field, making Sheldon’s asexuality less abnormal and more natural and without cause. While the general awkwardness of the sexual cast may level things slightly, Sheldon is nevertheless awkward to excess, full of weird twitches, mannerisms, awkwardness, an obsession with his mother, and a grating self-superior personality that effectively makes him a sort of nerd among nerds, and simultaneously explains away his asexuality in a world of nerds who get lucky by attributing is to some sort of problem above and beyond typical lack of appeal.
Ultimately, however, Sheldon’s asexuality hinges simply on his need to “find the right girl,” a girl he found in Amy Farrah Fowler. Amy fairly bulldozes her way into Sheldon’s life and immediately latches on despite Sheldon’s protests. While up until Amy’s arrival and indeed still after Sheldon had expressed a marked disinterest and even disgust with sex and relationships, ultimately it was seen as impossible that Sheldon would truly have no interest in sex. After all, sexless adults have no place in today’s hypersexual society. In the “sexualized nerd” universe of the show, Sheldon’s lack of sexuality or an obsession with sex such as that of his fellows, while originally comical in his lack of understanding and near absurd lack of interest, would eventually grow tiresome to viewers used to sex-charged modern media and television. The potential for viewer boredom coupled with the apparent absurdity of an asexual person being happy in their lifestyle rendered Amy necessary to normalize the situation and the show itself. The relationship is explained away by the fact that Amy’s own Sheldon-esque awkward nature means that she “gets him” and is the only person who does, making her tolerable. At first the relationship remains a sort of platonic and barely tolerated more-than-friendship, but as a result of Amy’s repeated pushing the relationship gradually developed into a neatly heteronormative relationship which, while lacking in sexual intimacy, was moving in that direction by increments.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s famed detective Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the most frequently cited example of an asexual character in fiction. Even at the time of its original publication, Sherlock Holmes was somewhat unique in its lack of romance. In fact, the series lacks almost any romantic interest at all, being near utterly devoid of female characters besides Holmes and Watson’s elderly landlady, Watson’s wife, and Irene Adler. While derivative works have made much of Irene’s presence, in actuality she was featured in only one short story, A Scandal in Bohemia, and in the story Holmes himself stated that he admired here solely for her intelligence and resourcefulness, being the only woman ever to have outsmarted him. Even with the presence of an intriguing, admirable, presumably very attractive woman (she was, after all, prima donna of the Imperial Opera of Warsaw), Holmes expressed no desire for her of any sort. For some this is explained away by his existence as an “archetypal alcoholic.” To be sure, throughout the series Holmes is an alcoholic and raging opium addict, likely suffering from depression, unhealthily dedicated to his work, with time for little else besides his good friend and cohort Doctor John Watson. These factors could certainly justify a less than Lotharian lifestyle and, when coupled with the conservatism of the time in which the books were written and set, are likely what makes Sherlock Holmes’ lack of preoccupation with women acceptable and, at first glance, unremarkable.
The Sherlock Holmes of Guy Ritchie’s new movie franchise is utterly unlike the original work. While Robert Downey, Jr.’s Holmes certainly conforms to the image of the rough-around-the-edges opium addict described in Doyle’s original work, an image largely lost in intermediary Holmes adaptations, the movies have received a classic modern action movie makeover, part of which involves sexualizing the characters and storyline. In Ritchie’s version of the story, Irene Adler plays a prominent role as a sexy spy for Holmes’ rival and while no real relationship develops, sexual tension between Holmes and Adler is clearly palpable throughout the movie. Irene becomes the symbol of intrigue and sexuality necessary to make the film interesting to jaded modern audiences. In particular, the scene in which Adler poisons Holmes, rendering him unconscious before kissing him and handcuffing him naked to the bed, is charged with sexual tension and situations that might typically develop into more intimate encounters. The handcuffs and Holmes’ nudity upon waking add an additional element of fetishism to the scene, further sexualizing it without adding any more blatantly sexual content.
BBC’s Sherlock signals a return to the asexual Sherlock of old. Unlike Ritchie’s active, crime-fighting steampunk model, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Holmes is, much like Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon, mentally brilliant but socially idiotic and awkward and utterly impossible for most to deal with. Also similarly to Sheldon, Holmes show no interest whatsoever in sex or sexuality, appearing largely unfazed even when faced with the gloriously nude Irene Adler. Holmes’ first encounter with Ms. Adler is, perhaps, the best episode to illustrate Holmes’ asexuality. The episode, titled “A Scandal in Belgravia,” is modeled after the Sherlock Holmes short story A Scandal in Bohemia, the story in which the original Irene occurred, and features Irene Adler as a famous high-profile dominatrix, working under the name of The Woman, who has several apparently compromising photographs from her relationship with the princess. Not only is Adler apparently bisexual, a sexual identity stereotyped as incredibly sexual and perpetually seeking sexual contact wherever it can be found, but she is a dominatrix, meaning she is not only a sex worker but a sex worker with a strong fetishistic bent. She is comfortable with her own nudity and uses her sexuality to her own benefit, making her not only an unusual and powerful woman figure but hugely hypersexual. Her blatantly hypersexual nature contrasts sharply with Holmes’ complete lack of interest in sex, and serves to highlight his asexuality and make it appear greater than it would otherwise.
It is possible that Sherlock’s Holmes is television’s first true asexual presence. A wide spread of asexual fans, desperate for any sort of recognition or representation, feel that Sherlock serves as a sort of acknowledgement at long last. Despite Sherlock writer Steven Moffat’s claim that, “[t]here's no indication in the original stories that he was asexual or gay. He actually says he declines the attention of women because he doesn't want the distraction,” many asexual viewers, a number of whom have happily identified with the apparently asexual Holmes of Doyle’s novels for years, have chosen to pick up on the ample evidence and identify Holmes as asexual anyway. Although there is a distinct lack of any evidence contradicting the idea of Sherlock Holmes as an asexual character, no effort seemingly being made to make him more heteronormative it is possible that, as with previous examples, his lack of interest in sex is being explained away and made acceptable via mental disability. Holmes’ antisocial tendencies and ability to operate normally in many situations, his apparent lack of ability to empathize, along with his unprecedented genius in a highly specific field are all signs of high-functioning autism, more specifically Asperger’s. That the clearly asexual Holmes is painted also as having a mental handicap, slight as it may be, could easily be construed as an attempt to paint asexuality as a similar handicap, as a “disorder” rather than something normal and natural.
To imply that asexuality is a disorder is to imply that it can be fixed, an idea that has pervaded about people across the queer spectrum for years. Corrective rape is a common method to counter the abnormal in sexuality, both in reality and in film. Many asexuals experience rape or attempted rape to teach them that all they need to do is have sex to understand what they are missing and that they are wrong. Julie Decker, a prominent asexual activist, was nearly raped when she was younger by a close friend, who told her, “’I just want to help you.’” In the 1999 film Boys Don’t Cry, young trans man Brandon Teena was raped by people he considered friends who wanted to punish him for going against the heterosexual norm and teach him that he was wrong in the head, that he really was a woman and he needed to accept that fact. Though years have passed since the dawn of queer cinema and queer identities have become increasingly accepted in recent years, themes of needing correction continue to pervade queer films, whether they are older works of queer filmmaking or modern depictions of asexuality, and more obscure queer identities such as asexuality or transgender continue to face disbelief that they could be real identities that one would choose for themselves, just as homosexual identities considered almost mainstream now did over a century ago.
Although asexual characters, in their few appearances in popular film and television, have faced an utter lack of acknowledgement and even disbelief of their preference, an attempt at correction (often via rape under the guise of helping to “show you what you’re missing”), and the belief that their asexual disorder can be “cured” if only they “meet the right person,” in recent years asexual characters may have found some acceptance and acknowledgement. While some were ultimately lost to heteronormativity, such as The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper, others such as V for Vendetta’s V and Sherlock’s Sherlock Holmes remain as almost staunch asexuals, compared to examples available previously, shining in the darkness of underrepresentation as paragons of potential acceptance for asexuals both in film and in daily life.
Bibiography
"A Scandal in Belgravia." Sherlock. Writ. Steven Moffat. British Broadcasting Corperation. BBC, 1 Jan. 2012. Television.
Doyle, Arthur C. "A Scandal in Bohemia." The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London: George Newnes, 1892. 2-11. Print.
Doyle, Arthur C. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London: George Newnes, 1892. Print.
Drew, Sidney, dir. A Florida Enchantment. Writ. Marguerite Bertsch and Eugene Mullin. Vitagraph Studios, 1914. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.
Householder, April L. " Week 2: Who’s A Sissy? Homosexuality According to Early Hollywood." UMBC. Baltimore. Feb. 2014. Lecture.
Hughes, Christine. "BBC’s Sherlock, Asperger’s Syndrome, and Sociopathy." Global Comment. Ed. Emily Manuel. N.p., 20 June 2012. Web. 6 May 2014. .
Jeffries, Stuart. "'There is a clue everybody's missed': Sherlock writer Steven Moffat interviewed." The Guardian 20 Jan. 2012. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. .
McTeigue, James, dir. V for Vendetta. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2006. Film.
Mosbergen, Dominique. "Battling Asexual Discrimination, Sexual Violence And 'Corrective' Rape." The Huffington Post. Ed. Arianna Huffington. The Huffington Post, 20 June 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. .
Peirce, Kimberly, dir. Boys Don't Cry. Prod. Christine Vachon and Eva Kolodner. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 1999. Film.
Ritchie, Guy, dir. Sherlock Holmes. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2009. Film
Russo, Vito. The Celluloid Closet. New York: Harper & Row, 1987. 4-59. Print.
Sherlock. Writ. Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, and Stephen Thompson. British Broadcasting Corperation. BBC, n.d. Web.
SherlockHolmesFan314. “Sherlock Holmes Poison Scene HD.” Online movie clip. Youtube. Youtube, 17 January 2012. Web. 15 May 2014.
Siggy. “The essence of an asexual character.” The Asexual Agenda. Wordpress. 22 June 2014. Web. 20 April 2014.
Smith, S.E. "Sex and Sensibility on Sherlock." ThinkProgress. Ed. Judd Legum. N.p., 16 May 2012. Web. 1 May 2014. .
The Big Bang Theory. Dir. Mark Cendrowski. CBS Broadcasting, Inc. CBS, n.d. Web.
"The Lunar Excitation." Dir. Peter Chakos. The Big Bang Theory. CBS Broadcasting, Inc. CBS, 24 May 2010. Television. 14 May 2014.
Too Many Loki Feels. “Anonymous Ask, tw: rape.” toomanylokifeels.tumbr.com. 19 April 2013. Tumblr. 30 April 2014.
Tucker, Angela, dir. (A)sexual. Frameline, 2011. Film.
Whale, James, dir. Frankenstein. Prod. Carl Laemmle Jr. Universal Pictures, 1931. Film.
you*hear*but*do*you*listen. “Movies about asexuality, Entry #25.” 2 December 2007. Asexual Musings and Rantings. 20 April 2014. .
Films openly covering the queer spectrum are relatively new, and it is only recently that identities on the spectrum other than homosexuality have been addressed at all. Asexuality, an identity lesser acknowledged even among the queer community, has been woefully underrepresented throughout history in any context, but particularly in film. Occasionally, however, asexual characters do appear in popular media, recently in the film V for Vendetta and the show The Big Bang Theory, and particularly across media types in the universe of Arthur Conan Doyle’s great detective Sherlock Holmes. When they do appear, however, the asexuality of the characters is frequently disbelieved, regarded as strange or something that can be “cured” by the right person, similar to the homosexual tendencies of characters in early homosexual films.
Early queer films, even before the Hayes Code banned homosexuality in film, still expressed a sort of disbelief that a queer “alternative” life could truly be what the character would want. Even when the character does stray towards the queer, they ultimately realize the “error” of their ways and return to their former straight lifestyle, often viewing their dip into the queer pool as a “phase” that was most often cured by finding “the right (heterosexual) person.” This is exemplified by the 1914 movie A Florida Enchantment. In this classic pre-code film Lillian Travers, a young socialite engaged to a much older man named Fred, visits a curio shop and purchases a small bottle of African seeds claiming to change the gender of one who consumes them. Curious and disbelieving, Lillian eats a seed and transforms into the young man Lawrence Talbot, later forcing his maid to transform also so that he could have an appropriate valet. Lillian appears utterly happy as a man. Though at first startled, the new Lawrence quickly adjusts to his situation. At first he continues to dress as a woman and flirts outrageously with a female houseguest, but soon fully adopts his new masculine identity, leaved Fred’s home, and dresses as a man. In his new life Lawrence finds great sex with the women he meets and is by all evidence very happy. When Fred finds out what has happened he is extremely distressed and attempts to understand the situation. After himself consuming a seed and becoming a woman, Fred is run out of town and ultimately killed in a manner reminiscent of the monster’s demise in Frankenstein. Lillian eventually wakes up and is horrified by everything that has just happened in what apparently was just a dream, returning happily to her fiancé’s arms.
This film takes a character with an obvious repressed homosexual and perhaps even transgender identity, who is clearly very happy with their alternative lifestyle while involved with it, and paints their lapse into queer identity as a phase, ended with Lillian returning and remaining faithful to “the right man” (Fred), and viewing her happy gay lifestyle with horror and disgust. The idea that a character living a queer lifestyle could possibly be happy is treated with fear and disbelief, as though the possibility of such a person truly existing is impossible. This utter refusal to accept the possibility that someone might exist who would be happy living anything other than a straight, that is to say heteroromantic as well as heterosexual, life is similar to the disbelief that someone could be happy leading a sexless life experienced by asexuals in film and beyond.
Despite popular disbelief of its existence, signs of asexuality, while never explicitly confirmed, have begun to appear from time to time in popular media, such as in the cult film V for Vendetta. While asexuality is certainly never mentioned or confirmed as an aspect of V’s character, neither is any other sort of sexuality a factor, and the very absence of sex is in itself remarkable and perhaps a marker. In the hypersexual entertainment industry of today sex is seemingly a key component of any well-received action movie, and prolonged male-female contact of any sort or setting seems to be taken as asking for development of a sexual relationship. That V for Vendetta is an action movie lacking in sex is remarkable, even more so when one considers that a large portion of the movie consists of close contact and a prolonged isolated living situation between V and Evey. Despite their being alone together for an extended period of time, no sexual relationship of any kind is even hinted at, something nearly revolutionary especially in the action movie genre. Despite the lack of development of an intimate relationship the very fact that Evey kisses V, even over his mask, hints that at least she wants their relationship to move in a more intimate direction, or perhaps even that such a relationship exists off screen. Evey is the only person V trusts, which could point to her as the “right girl” to “fix” V, as she ends his long time isolation- a metaphor, perhaps, for his sexual abstinence- and makes him happier than he has ever been- implying perhaps that one can only be happy if engaged in a relation, particularly a sexual one. Despite these possible corruptions of its presence, V for Vendetta is one of the few objects of popular media depicting a sexless and unsexualized storyline and characters.
Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory shows all of the typical characteristics of an asexual character: he is lonely, awkward, sheltered, and even disgusted by sex. Uniquely, where in many cases it might be implied and assumed that an asexual character was asexual not by choice but by design, but because they were so utterly awkward and unapproachable that no one could possibly hold any interest, this show takes that aspect out of the equation by the fact that all of the central male characters are awkward, socially inept nerds. Despite this apparent common turnoff, all of the main characters of the series besides Sheldon have active sex lives, even Rajesh, to some extent, though he is unable even to talk to girls when sober for most of the series. That a whole cast of characters who, in a typical setting, might be rendered sexless, are in fact sexual despite their atypical appeal levels the playing field, making Sheldon’s asexuality less abnormal and more natural and without cause. While the general awkwardness of the sexual cast may level things slightly, Sheldon is nevertheless awkward to excess, full of weird twitches, mannerisms, awkwardness, an obsession with his mother, and a grating self-superior personality that effectively makes him a sort of nerd among nerds, and simultaneously explains away his asexuality in a world of nerds who get lucky by attributing is to some sort of problem above and beyond typical lack of appeal.
Ultimately, however, Sheldon’s asexuality hinges simply on his need to “find the right girl,” a girl he found in Amy Farrah Fowler. Amy fairly bulldozes her way into Sheldon’s life and immediately latches on despite Sheldon’s protests. While up until Amy’s arrival and indeed still after Sheldon had expressed a marked disinterest and even disgust with sex and relationships, ultimately it was seen as impossible that Sheldon would truly have no interest in sex. After all, sexless adults have no place in today’s hypersexual society. In the “sexualized nerd” universe of the show, Sheldon’s lack of sexuality or an obsession with sex such as that of his fellows, while originally comical in his lack of understanding and near absurd lack of interest, would eventually grow tiresome to viewers used to sex-charged modern media and television. The potential for viewer boredom coupled with the apparent absurdity of an asexual person being happy in their lifestyle rendered Amy necessary to normalize the situation and the show itself. The relationship is explained away by the fact that Amy’s own Sheldon-esque awkward nature means that she “gets him” and is the only person who does, making her tolerable. At first the relationship remains a sort of platonic and barely tolerated more-than-friendship, but as a result of Amy’s repeated pushing the relationship gradually developed into a neatly heteronormative relationship which, while lacking in sexual intimacy, was moving in that direction by increments.
Arthur Conan Doyle’s famed detective Sherlock Holmes is perhaps the most frequently cited example of an asexual character in fiction. Even at the time of its original publication, Sherlock Holmes was somewhat unique in its lack of romance. In fact, the series lacks almost any romantic interest at all, being near utterly devoid of female characters besides Holmes and Watson’s elderly landlady, Watson’s wife, and Irene Adler. While derivative works have made much of Irene’s presence, in actuality she was featured in only one short story, A Scandal in Bohemia, and in the story Holmes himself stated that he admired here solely for her intelligence and resourcefulness, being the only woman ever to have outsmarted him. Even with the presence of an intriguing, admirable, presumably very attractive woman (she was, after all, prima donna of the Imperial Opera of Warsaw), Holmes expressed no desire for her of any sort. For some this is explained away by his existence as an “archetypal alcoholic.” To be sure, throughout the series Holmes is an alcoholic and raging opium addict, likely suffering from depression, unhealthily dedicated to his work, with time for little else besides his good friend and cohort Doctor John Watson. These factors could certainly justify a less than Lotharian lifestyle and, when coupled with the conservatism of the time in which the books were written and set, are likely what makes Sherlock Holmes’ lack of preoccupation with women acceptable and, at first glance, unremarkable.
The Sherlock Holmes of Guy Ritchie’s new movie franchise is utterly unlike the original work. While Robert Downey, Jr.’s Holmes certainly conforms to the image of the rough-around-the-edges opium addict described in Doyle’s original work, an image largely lost in intermediary Holmes adaptations, the movies have received a classic modern action movie makeover, part of which involves sexualizing the characters and storyline. In Ritchie’s version of the story, Irene Adler plays a prominent role as a sexy spy for Holmes’ rival and while no real relationship develops, sexual tension between Holmes and Adler is clearly palpable throughout the movie. Irene becomes the symbol of intrigue and sexuality necessary to make the film interesting to jaded modern audiences. In particular, the scene in which Adler poisons Holmes, rendering him unconscious before kissing him and handcuffing him naked to the bed, is charged with sexual tension and situations that might typically develop into more intimate encounters. The handcuffs and Holmes’ nudity upon waking add an additional element of fetishism to the scene, further sexualizing it without adding any more blatantly sexual content.
BBC’s Sherlock signals a return to the asexual Sherlock of old. Unlike Ritchie’s active, crime-fighting steampunk model, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Holmes is, much like Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon, mentally brilliant but socially idiotic and awkward and utterly impossible for most to deal with. Also similarly to Sheldon, Holmes show no interest whatsoever in sex or sexuality, appearing largely unfazed even when faced with the gloriously nude Irene Adler. Holmes’ first encounter with Ms. Adler is, perhaps, the best episode to illustrate Holmes’ asexuality. The episode, titled “A Scandal in Belgravia,” is modeled after the Sherlock Holmes short story A Scandal in Bohemia, the story in which the original Irene occurred, and features Irene Adler as a famous high-profile dominatrix, working under the name of The Woman, who has several apparently compromising photographs from her relationship with the princess. Not only is Adler apparently bisexual, a sexual identity stereotyped as incredibly sexual and perpetually seeking sexual contact wherever it can be found, but she is a dominatrix, meaning she is not only a sex worker but a sex worker with a strong fetishistic bent. She is comfortable with her own nudity and uses her sexuality to her own benefit, making her not only an unusual and powerful woman figure but hugely hypersexual. Her blatantly hypersexual nature contrasts sharply with Holmes’ complete lack of interest in sex, and serves to highlight his asexuality and make it appear greater than it would otherwise.
It is possible that Sherlock’s Holmes is television’s first true asexual presence. A wide spread of asexual fans, desperate for any sort of recognition or representation, feel that Sherlock serves as a sort of acknowledgement at long last. Despite Sherlock writer Steven Moffat’s claim that, “[t]here's no indication in the original stories that he was asexual or gay. He actually says he declines the attention of women because he doesn't want the distraction,” many asexual viewers, a number of whom have happily identified with the apparently asexual Holmes of Doyle’s novels for years, have chosen to pick up on the ample evidence and identify Holmes as asexual anyway. Although there is a distinct lack of any evidence contradicting the idea of Sherlock Holmes as an asexual character, no effort seemingly being made to make him more heteronormative it is possible that, as with previous examples, his lack of interest in sex is being explained away and made acceptable via mental disability. Holmes’ antisocial tendencies and ability to operate normally in many situations, his apparent lack of ability to empathize, along with his unprecedented genius in a highly specific field are all signs of high-functioning autism, more specifically Asperger’s. That the clearly asexual Holmes is painted also as having a mental handicap, slight as it may be, could easily be construed as an attempt to paint asexuality as a similar handicap, as a “disorder” rather than something normal and natural.
To imply that asexuality is a disorder is to imply that it can be fixed, an idea that has pervaded about people across the queer spectrum for years. Corrective rape is a common method to counter the abnormal in sexuality, both in reality and in film. Many asexuals experience rape or attempted rape to teach them that all they need to do is have sex to understand what they are missing and that they are wrong. Julie Decker, a prominent asexual activist, was nearly raped when she was younger by a close friend, who told her, “’I just want to help you.’” In the 1999 film Boys Don’t Cry, young trans man Brandon Teena was raped by people he considered friends who wanted to punish him for going against the heterosexual norm and teach him that he was wrong in the head, that he really was a woman and he needed to accept that fact. Though years have passed since the dawn of queer cinema and queer identities have become increasingly accepted in recent years, themes of needing correction continue to pervade queer films, whether they are older works of queer filmmaking or modern depictions of asexuality, and more obscure queer identities such as asexuality or transgender continue to face disbelief that they could be real identities that one would choose for themselves, just as homosexual identities considered almost mainstream now did over a century ago.
Although asexual characters, in their few appearances in popular film and television, have faced an utter lack of acknowledgement and even disbelief of their preference, an attempt at correction (often via rape under the guise of helping to “show you what you’re missing”), and the belief that their asexual disorder can be “cured” if only they “meet the right person,” in recent years asexual characters may have found some acceptance and acknowledgement. While some were ultimately lost to heteronormativity, such as The Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper, others such as V for Vendetta’s V and Sherlock’s Sherlock Holmes remain as almost staunch asexuals, compared to examples available previously, shining in the darkness of underrepresentation as paragons of potential acceptance for asexuals both in film and in daily life.
Bibiography
"A Scandal in Belgravia." Sherlock. Writ. Steven Moffat. British Broadcasting Corperation. BBC, 1 Jan. 2012. Television.
Doyle, Arthur C. "A Scandal in Bohemia." The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London: George Newnes, 1892. 2-11. Print.
Doyle, Arthur C. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. London: George Newnes, 1892. Print.
Drew, Sidney, dir. A Florida Enchantment. Writ. Marguerite Bertsch and Eugene Mullin. Vitagraph Studios, 1914. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.
Householder, April L. " Week 2: Who’s A Sissy? Homosexuality According to Early Hollywood." UMBC. Baltimore. Feb. 2014. Lecture.
Hughes, Christine. "BBC’s Sherlock, Asperger’s Syndrome, and Sociopathy." Global Comment. Ed. Emily Manuel. N.p., 20 June 2012. Web. 6 May 2014. .
Jeffries, Stuart. "'There is a clue everybody's missed': Sherlock writer Steven Moffat interviewed." The Guardian 20 Jan. 2012. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. .
McTeigue, James, dir. V for Vendetta. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2006. Film.
Mosbergen, Dominique. "Battling Asexual Discrimination, Sexual Violence And 'Corrective' Rape." The Huffington Post. Ed. Arianna Huffington. The Huffington Post, 20 June 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. .
Peirce, Kimberly, dir. Boys Don't Cry. Prod. Christine Vachon and Eva Kolodner. Fox Searchlight Pictures, 1999. Film.
Ritchie, Guy, dir. Sherlock Holmes. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2009. Film
Russo, Vito. The Celluloid Closet. New York: Harper & Row, 1987. 4-59. Print.
Sherlock. Writ. Mark Gatiss, Steven Moffat, and Stephen Thompson. British Broadcasting Corperation. BBC, n.d. Web.
SherlockHolmesFan314. “Sherlock Holmes Poison Scene HD.” Online movie clip. Youtube. Youtube, 17 January 2012. Web. 15 May 2014.
Siggy. “The essence of an asexual character.” The Asexual Agenda. Wordpress. 22 June 2014. Web. 20 April 2014.
Smith, S.E. "Sex and Sensibility on Sherlock." ThinkProgress. Ed. Judd Legum. N.p., 16 May 2012. Web. 1 May 2014. .
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