[witty title]

raptorific:

0orpheus:

It always bothers me a little bit when people complain about the lack of diversity in Sherlock. The UK is not like America, were People of Colour make up a decent percent of the population (I think “Blacks” alone make up a good 10-12%). In the UK, about 85% of the population is ethnically British, 90% is white. Black’s make up about 1.1%. Having 1 black person out of about a 10-12ish person cast is pretty accurate actually. 

The issue is not quantity of characters of color. Sally Donovan is pushed off to the side. Her personality is left completely undeveloped, whereas even the minor white characters who appear in one or two scenes an episode have distinct mannerisms and personality ascribed to them. The writers barely acknowledge she exists, but they manage to give us at least a few scenes that show Molly and Anderson as people in their own right, rather than just pawns in Moriarty’s plot. 

And let’s think about the gender demographics of the main cast:

• Holmes: man
• Watson: man
• Mycroft: man
• Lestrade: man
• Ms. Hudson: woman
• Moriarty: man
• Molly: woman
• Anderson: man
• Sally: woman

So, even though there are more women in the UK than men, the main cast of Sherlock is 2/3 men, and that’s not even taking into account the fact that all three recurring female characters are background characters, and all the characters that have plot lines of their very own and tae up the bulk of the screen time are men. 

There’s also the matter of the orientalism and general “yellow peril” racism in “The Blind Banker,” plus the hella racist caricatures of Arabs in “A Scandal in Belgravia.”

Ooh, or how about how they didn’t bother to update the hella sexist “Irene Adler, the one woman capable of outsmarting Sherlock Holmes” aspect of the original books. Seriously, Arthur Conan Doyle was actively being sexist there. The thing that was supposed to be impressive about that character was that she was able to beat Holmes despite the perceived handicap of her being a woman. Honestly, that’s what that character was all about. It’s why he called her “the” woman in the books, because she was the only woman Holmes saw as being worth caring about. 

And over a century later, they’ve made a Sherlock Holmes adaptation that’s managed to update everything but the Victorian values. 

So the point isn’t that there isn’t an appropriate number of characters of color or female characters, but that the characters of color and female characters are barely present. I like “Sherlock,” but I also acknowledge that it’s a show with a diverse cast of white male characters, and its portrayals of women and people of color are “the bare minimum of being present, in the background, and only when the white male characters need them” at best, and “openly hostile” at worst. 

(via sgtbarnes)

(via hiddlespinebatch)

karlimeaghan:

Parentlock/sort of Hobbitlock: Sherlock, John and Hamish go to the library to find a book to read together.

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angry-beibers:

I’m not even part of this fandom but what if

(via ichikun)

Screencap meme

Sherlock » whatever tickles my pickle — props

(via skyebyrd)