I'm not sure if the critic thought well when she said that casting a woman into Watson's role "castrated" him. This is mainly because it strikes me as castration = emasculation, and feminine = emasculating. I know there's this thing where femininity or just even being like a female is considered bad and degrading for men
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I'm not sure that the critic thought about anything, given the fact she didn't even bother to watch the show before deciding she knew what it was about.
But on the subject of cartoon characters and genderswapping, when I was a kid I used to think that Dixie Kong from Donkey Kong 2 was a little French male monkey with a feather in his cap. (A rather effeminate, male monkey, but I still thought him a boy) and my best friend used to think Rabbit from Winne the Pooh was a woman -- and you know what? It didn't change anything at all. People are so funny about these things.
I don't know if I have many other examples because most of what I looked at was video games. I was very happy when pokemon finally gave you a sex to pick though. I just don't think sex should radically change a role.
The only critique I had as far as Watson being a woman (and this isn't the fault of her being a woman, but more the writing) was that the sexual tension (if there is any) between Watson and Holmes is now heteronormative (whereas I rather loved that there was sexual tension/awkwardness played up in the BBC's Sherlock between the two men, even though Holmes is disinterested in relationships overall and I'm sure Watson identifies as straight)
That isn't a critique, thought, that's just your personal preference.
I sincerely doubt it. But then, I don't know. I mean, it isn't like there was any other American network television series that was a modern re-vamp of Holmes recently. Certainly not one which went for 8 seasons and won numerous awards and happened to have two male leads, or anything.
Elementary has also talked about how it doesn't want sexual tension between Holmes and Watson at all and that the focus'll be as it always was: friendship. I think, honestly, a genuine Male/Female friendship isn't something we've seen on television in a long time (if at all, in primetime) so I think it's a great change.
I just did a search and found 1,786 House/Wilson slash fics on A03 -- and House fandom really pre-dates the popularity of A03 by a few years. So people are going to ship whomever they want however they please -- and that's fine so long as it doesn't turn into misogyny directed at female characters who get in the way of their ships. Like, I've got no problem with... say, Harry/Draco shippers but I think it's a problem when people use that being their 'ship' as a reason to hate Ginny.
House wasn't exactly a re-vamp of Sherlock Holmes and Greg House himself was almost aggressively straight, especially in later seasons. Granted House and Wilson were deeply emotionally dependent on each other, but lbr, the writers were aware of that dynamic and responded to it by trying to balance it with plenty of "no homo."
It's understood that Holmes/Watson is not canon in the original source material and that the desire for it is a fan preference, but there is a legit argument about exactly wtf is up if it just so happened that out of all of the many modern interpretations of SH, the only one in which they become a couple is the one where it allows them both to be straight. THAT SAID, that's not what Elementary is doing, and therefore that's obviously not a valid criticism of that show.
House wasn't exactly a re-vamp of Sherlock Holmes and Greg House himself was almost aggressively straight, especially in later seasons. Granted House and Wilson were deeply emotionally dependent on each other, but lbr, the writers were aware of that dynamic and responded to it by trying to balance it with plenty of "no homo."
Well, House was specifically manufactured to be like Sherlock Holmes though, like the names were different and it was diagnosis instead of deductions but It's still Sherlock Holmes and intentionally so --- also I believe that BBC Sherlock puts in all kinds of "no homo" too -- right down to turning characters who admit to being gay straight (or having them say they're "just playing gay") and having John say in every single episode of S2 how 'not gay' he is.
I agree with you that if they made Watson a woman just to have them hook-up I would have a problem with it. It was one of my reservations before the creators of the series stressed they weren't doing it.
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But on the subject of cartoon characters and genderswapping, when I was a kid I used to think that Dixie Kong from Donkey Kong 2 was a little French male monkey with a feather in his cap. (A rather effeminate, male monkey, but I still thought him a boy) and my best friend used to think Rabbit from Winne the Pooh was a woman -- and you know what? It didn't change anything at all. People are so funny about these things.
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That isn't a critique, thought, that's just your personal preference.
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.... oh wait.
Elementary has also talked about how it doesn't want sexual tension between Holmes and Watson at all and that the focus'll be as it always was: friendship. I think, honestly, a genuine Male/Female friendship isn't something we've seen on television in a long time (if at all, in primetime) so I think it's a great change.
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Elementary really is a great show!
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/derail
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It's understood that Holmes/Watson is not canon in the original source material and that the desire for it is a fan preference, but there is a legit argument about exactly wtf is up if it just so happened that out of all of the many modern interpretations of SH, the only one in which they become a couple is the one where it allows them both to be straight. THAT SAID, that's not what Elementary is doing, and therefore that's obviously not a valid criticism of that show.
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Well, House was specifically manufactured to be like Sherlock Holmes though, like the names were different and it was diagnosis instead of deductions but It's still Sherlock Holmes and intentionally so --- also I believe that BBC Sherlock puts in all kinds of "no homo" too -- right down to turning characters who admit to being gay straight (or having them say they're "just playing gay") and having John say in every single episode of S2 how 'not gay' he is.
I agree with you that if they made Watson a woman just to have them hook-up I would have a problem with it. It was one of my reservations before the creators of the series stressed they weren't doing it.
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