I assume Mary was REALLY early pregnant. I don't think every woman assumes because she's having sex and she feel sick to her stomach in the morning that she's pregnant (especially a woman closer to the end of her fertile years than the beginning). I mean, I'm not having sex, but I feel like I am going to throw up every morning -- do throw up a lot, too. And if there is any rhyme or reason to when I feel utterly, wildly ravenous, I'd like someone to explain that to me! So, I don't know that there's any reason to find it misogynistic that Sherlock figured it out first!
That being said, I spent ALL OF LAST WEEK going "They can't kill Mary now that she's pregnant. THEY CAN'T DO IT!!! IT'S SO UNFAIR!!!!!!! IT WOULD BE TOO REPETITIVE TO HAVE JOHN GRIEVING AT THE END OF TWO SEASONS IN A ROW!!!! I REFUSE TO BELIEVE MARY IS GOING TO DIE! BUT THEY MADE HER PREGNANT! SHE'S GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I actually stared at my computer for about 15 minutes before screwing up my courage to start the
Taken by itself and done in a show run by someone else, Sherlock brilliantly deducing Mary's early pregnancy wouldn't mean so much. But along with everything Moffat does to belittle and trash women in his shows (Irene Adler, The Woman and one of the few who ever outwit Sherlock Holmes, turned into a fetishized lesbian dominatrix who magically goes straight for Sherlock, is defeated by him, and then becomes a simpering damsel who gets rescued in an ending out of a racist 1930s movie serial?) - it's of a piece with his attitude about women being dumb little ninnies who can't do anything without a Man.
And I was hugely relieved that Moffat didn't go the "ooh, pregnant helpless woman - let's kill her to ramp up the men's relationship with each other!" route.
See, there I completely and utterly disagree with you: http://goldvermilion87.livejournal.com/177398.html . Irene may be many things, but she's not a dumb little ninny. And that she needs help is not an insult to her as a woman. It's just because she's a person. I think it's foundational to Sherlock that NO one can survive alone. The Woman probably does a better job than Sherlock does on her own, but she can't be alone forever anymore than John or Sherlock can.
Women do get pregnant while using contraception, ya know. Plenty of pregnancies are unplanned.
I wasn't at all offended by Sherlock's deduction. I've thought I was pregnant when I wasn't, and vice versa. Had sore boobs, smelled things, etc, but not preggers. Bled during my second pregnancy, which subsequently failed. Women's bodies can play really strange tricks on us.
As I said in my reply above, on its own that scene wouldn't rankle. But in a show run by a card-carrying misogynist (Sherlock cruelly uses a woman's affections to achieve his ends, but when she gets even he calls HER a "whore" - thanks, Steve), it's just one more piece of evidence of Moffat's contempt for women.
I wouldn't necessarily assume that she and John are/were having unprotected sex. A coworker of mine was on the pill and using condoms, and she still conceived her second son.
That said -- I can't help wondering if Mary strongly suspected she was pregnant but was having a major denial moment, OR if she knew and was trying to keep it from John, at least initially, and was playing dumb out of desperation. I dunno, Mary's responses came across as "playing dumb" to me than as actual confusion. (Besides which: all those fittings and not once did the seamstress or tailor pick up on her changing shape? Also, of course she's ravenous if she's been fighting an uphill battle with pregnancy to lose inches; that's not a clue, Sherlock, that's normal for any bride who's been dieting!)
I did love Mary in this. But I know the major spoiler from the next episode. and I don't want to love her. Yet I do. X(
Again, by itself that deduction wouldn't rankle - as you say, women can and do miss the signs. But I consider the source - Steven Moffat, whose treatment of women in his properties is ghastly - and it's just one more injury ("haw haw, more proof that women can't do anything right without a MAN to help them!")
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That being said, I spent ALL OF LAST WEEK going "They can't kill Mary now that she's pregnant. THEY CAN'T DO IT!!! IT'S SO UNFAIR!!!!!!! IT WOULD BE TOO REPETITIVE TO HAVE JOHN GRIEVING AT THE END OF TWO SEASONS IN A ROW!!!! I REFUSE TO BELIEVE MARY IS GOING TO DIE! BUT THEY MADE HER PREGNANT! SHE'S GOING TO DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
I actually stared at my computer for about 15 minutes before screwing up my courage to start the
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And I was hugely relieved that Moffat didn't go the "ooh, pregnant helpless woman - let's kill her to ramp up the men's relationship with each other!" route.
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I wasn't at all offended by Sherlock's deduction. I've thought I was pregnant when I wasn't, and vice versa. Had sore boobs, smelled things, etc, but not preggers. Bled during my second pregnancy, which subsequently failed. Women's bodies can play really strange tricks on us.
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That said -- I can't help wondering if Mary strongly suspected she was pregnant but was having a major denial moment, OR if she knew and was trying to keep it from John, at least initially, and was playing dumb out of desperation. I dunno, Mary's responses came across as "playing dumb" to me than as actual confusion. (Besides which: all those fittings and not once did the seamstress or tailor pick up on her changing shape? Also, of course she's ravenous if she's been fighting an uphill battle with pregnancy to lose inches; that's not a clue, Sherlock, that's normal for any bride who's been dieting!)
I did love Mary in this. But I know the major spoiler from the next episode. and I don't want to love her. Yet I do. X(
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