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PERFORMATIVE MASCULINITY IN
CONTEMPORARY VICTORIAN
ADAPTATIONS OF SHERLOCK
HOLMES
By Mori
SUBMISSION DATE: 6 MAY 2016
WORD COUNT: 9,989
TABLE OF CONTENTS
How often have I said to you that when you have eliminated the impossible,
whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth?
Sherlock Holmes, The Sign of Four
Abstract
This dissertation explores the concept of gender performativity and masculinity, focusing on
queer texts, subtexts and paratexts and conceptualises the implications of queer representation
in modern adaptations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyles Sherlock Holmes detective stories.
Combining ideas of critical discourse analysis, Judith Butlers gender performativity and
Foucauldian definitions of power and discipline, the project outlines the discursive
construction of Sherlock Holmes as queer subject in contemporary Victorian adaptations
Sherlock Holmes (2009), Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011) and Sherlock: The
Abominable Bride (2016). It also engages with classic discourses within queer theoretical
studies such as the closet, gender subversivity, and drag culture to expose how themes of
queerness emerge with applying a qualitative performative analysis. These representations are
analysed using the broad theoretical framework of queer and post-queer theory as they
showcase how queer identities and their queer genders are constructed within media texts.
Highlighting the use of various representative techniques and applying Freudian definitions
and Lacanian concepts of the phallus and desire, the aim of this analysis is to create a
structured methodological approach towards recognising subtextual queerness in media texts
and to conceptualise the discursive-performative construction of the queer(ly) gendered
subject as a discursive Other.
CHAPTER 1: Introduction
I think the word bromance is so pass. We are two men, who happen to be roommates, who
wrestle a lot and share a bed.
Robert Downey Jr. on Sherlock Holmes
Ever since Arthur Conan Doyle published his iconic Sherlock Holmes stories in The Strand
Magazine at the tail-end of the 19th century, the world has been captivated. Holding the
Guinness World Record for the most portrayed character in popular fiction, Holmes image
has been immortalized through film, television, comic books, manga, pastiche books,
animated series and more. Holmes charm, intoxicating desire for adventures and sharp,
inquisitive mind have charmed audiences throughout the years, and he is now back in the
public arena in a range of contemporary adaptations. Every reinvented Holmes influences its
own generation, and modern adaptations starring high-profile celebrities like Robert Downey
Jr., Benedict Cumberbatch, and Johnny Lee Miller are no exception.
Throughout the years of constant reinvention and representation, the topic of Holmes
sexuality has been discussed extensively in academic circles and digital fan spaces. Many
arguments have been raised defending various positions on Sherlocks sexuality: he is a
calculating, work-focused sexless being; he is only attracted to dangerous women and men
with a sharp wit; his queer desires are directed toward his friend and flatmate, Dr. Watson.
The possibilities are endless and fruitful when explored in-depth. Throughout contemporary
adaptations, queer texts and subtexts have been brought to the attention of the public even
more frequently than in previous generations. Holmes is today weirder indeed, more queer
than he ever has been, and his queerness, as this project theorises, is trapped in both a selfconstructed and socially manufactured closet which ultimately stems from his discursive
performance of masculinity.
The aim of this dissertation is to present an analysis of these queer subtexts that exist within
contemporary representations of Sherlock Holmes. This analytical discursive reading will
focus on the specificity of constructing a modern man in the temporality of a reimagined
Victorian era, and it will outline how queer messages emerge from constructs of the male
body and bodies around it.
Using Judith Butlers theory of performativity and discourse analysis as functioning
theoretical frameworks, this analysis will unravel how language, discourse, and
representations are used to construct Sherlock Holmes queer masculinity. It will consider the
bodily construct in three modern adaptations of a Victorian Sherlock Holmes, the use of
literary metaphors such as foil characters to create queer foils, which enhance queer
representations, and phallic symbolism (or the lack thereof) in making sense of emasculated
and subjectively queer acts and identities.
Relying on crucial texts in queer gender, gender theory, and psychoanalysis, the project will
ultimately aim to define a queer analysis framework for media texts. It will scrutinize the
queer male body, theoretically placing and discussing it in its discursive performative closet.
It will ultimately engage with and explain how subtext can be used to create powerful
representations of queer objects of desire, constructing discourses of the gendered body.
The gender-defying subject is therefore also trapped in a concept similar to the queer closet.
Returning to Butlers terminology, this subject refuses to discursively perform its gender in
what is socially considered the right way. The subject instead performs gender-bending or
gender-fucking to break the
Raymond, 1996) Therefore, despite the conceptualization closet in political activism and
eradicating gay shame (see Halperin, 2009), it still lacks the contextual depth to be placed in
a postmodern queer narrative. (Reynolds, 1999) Sedgwicks reading of the closet (while
appropriate and adequate for a strictly male homosexual context) must be redefined in the
context of this project to make useful interpretations and readings of post-queer gender
nonconforming individuals.
When discussing gender performativity in relation to queer gender issues, it is important to
view them in the broader discourse of queer contexts: queer past, present and future.
Integrating transgender and other gender-nonconforming individuals in queer metanarratives
like Stonewall and the AIDS crisis enables the exploration of subversive performativity
within historical contexts. The presence of drag queens, transsexuals and transvestites in such
moments of queer history is rarely documented in existing queer activism literature. (see
Weeks, 2000; Sinfield, 1998; Marine, 2011; Raymond, 1996) Nevertheless, parallels can still
be made between generally queer and generally transgender lifestyles. In In a Queer Time
and Place (2011), Judith Halberstam discusses readings of the transgender body and
subcultural identities in relation to the queer subject (also intrinsically related to the gender
nonconforming individual). Discussion surrounding subcultural identities is of particular
interest, as Halberstam criticises both heterosexual social hegemony and the mainstream
influence of gay and lesbian culture in modern post-queer spaces. (ibid.)
In a Queer Time and Place reconceptualises gender performativity and queering gender,
leading to the discursive definition of the transgender subject. Halberstams other text
Female Masculinity will be of use (in relation to Butlers analysis and case studies in Gender
Trouble) in the following critical look on drag kings and queens, cross-dressers and all other
forms of drag culture. In doing so, I will transgress the limits of performativity, use notions of
Freudian psychoanalysis and explore gender, as a mental function (and the direct result) of
discursive representation.
A Freudian psychoanalysis of drag
Looking closer at the existing body of gender studies, literature examining drag, drag
identities, and drag performance is growing steadily in tandem with literature surrounding
queer gender identities. This is hardly incidental, since drag is the most obvious example of
gender performance in the context of post-queer temporalities. Greaf (2015) writes that drag
identity is proof of the fact that gender is performative, defined not only by us and our bodies
but also our ability to pass as a certain gender according to our peers.
While sound, this analysis is superficial in the context of subversive gender identities. It has
been proven that not conforming to the existing gender binary is a state of identity, not a
simplified bodily narrative. (Levitt and Ippolito, 2014) It is therefore important to examine
drag culture and identity more closely when determining its relationship with the practice of
queering gender.
This distinction is conceptualised by Judith Halberstam in Female Masculinity. (1998)
Halberstam explores the specific textual contexts of drag kings in relation to the already
existing stereotype of butch dykes as well as different discursive readings of masculinity
in several cultural texts. In the book, Halberstam outlines the inherent anxiety of performing
in a classic heterosexual male role:
Performance anxiety, of course, describes a particularly male, indeed
heterosexual, fear of some version of impotence in the face of a demand for
sexual interaction. In comic representations, performance anxiety is often
10
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argument that not all gender subversiveness is immediately physically identifiable. (see
Prosser, 2006) This will be used when distinguishing between drag performance and proving
existing subversive gender identities in the chosen texts.
Drag discourses raise significant questions on the textual and discursive stability of gendered
bodies. As this projects analysis attempts to determine and redefine gender performativity, it
should be noted that that even if bodies may be culturally malleable, it is important to
remember that not all people experience them as such. (Weston, 2002, pp. 20) In a 2015
article discussing Facebooks username change policy, drag queen and performer Lil Miss
Hot Mess highlights the issues this virtual space still has with individuals who refuse to
conform to societal gender standards:
Facebook has difficulty understanding users who operate outside of gendered,
sexual, ethnic, and national norms () who subscribe to theories of gender
(and other aspects of identity) as performative in a Butlerian sense. (Mess,
2015, p. 145)
Mess text rounds up analysis of gender and its deconstruction as a purely bodily experience,
transcending it by using virtual technology and social network contexts alongside academic
literature on digital gender identities and sexualities (Turkle, 1997; Sandercock, 2015; Chen,
2015). These representative discourses of drag and gender as a mental (rather than physical)
state will relate to the chosen texts and critically discuss their significance in terms of the
characters consistent gender-bending practices. This will first be explored through analysis
of literature pertaining to queer readings of Sherlock Holmes, as well as the possible
constructions of power and embodied masculinity which may be present in modern Victorian
Holmes adaptations.
Performativity in Sherlock Holmes
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The scarce academic literature discussing Sherlock Holmes stories evades presentations
questionable or queer masculinity. Considering the specific historical setting of Arthur Conan
Doyles books, there is a pronounced Foucauldian notion of power related to exhibiting
masculinity in its accepted forms. As Kestner (1997) points out:
In assessing the nature of masculinity and its relation to the Sherlock Holmes
canon, it is crucial to determine its role in policing the culture and the degree
to which normative masculinity functioned to maintain order. (ibid., p. 42)
In Sherlocks Men, Kestner provides a solid theoretical grounding for exploring Sherlock
Holmes masculinity. Kestner accounts for cultural factors which have affected contemporary
presentations of Holmes gender identity, viewing the character in three British historical eras
(the Victorian, the Edwardian and the Georgian or Interwar period) as three separate
personas, with gender restrictions set by these periods respective cultural norms.
While Kestners text fails to situate Sherlock Holmes in the broader context of masculinity
(Fusco, 2001), it still helps in decoding cultural implications active in the Victorian eras
temporal restrictions. Kestners chapter on the Victorian Holmes (and his introductory words
on the general theorising of Holmes in terms of masculinity) will be incorporated into my
textual analysis of subversive elements in these texts. Furthermore, Kestners text goes a long
way to deconstruct preconceived notions of masculinity and heterosexuality present in the
original stories.
Theory suggests that Conan Doyles writing of a subversively effeminate-acting Holmes is
anything but surprising. After the 1895 trial of Oscar Wilde (and years of development in gay
literature which followed), effeminacy in literature became inseparable from male
homosexual identity (Bristow, 1995; Sinfield, 1994; Sedgwick, 1989). Bristow examines the
conceptual power of inversion when contrasted with Oscar Wildes image. Relying on
definitions established by Havelock Ellis in Sexual Inversion (Ellis, H. & Symmonds, J.A.
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(2008), Bristow (1995) classifies inversion as the tool which explains how femininity
defines the psyche, if not physiology, of an anatomically male body (Bristow 1995, p. 35)
and vice-versa. This creates an ideological idiosyncrasy in the context of this project, as it
immediately relates the concept of Holmes femininity (both in his conception and in later
adaptations) to his queerness. Bristows conclusions are useful both when analysing instances
of implied gender queering in the text and when differentiating between allusions of
queerness or subtle indications of subversive gender identity.
This leads to questioning the existence of queer(ed) gendered identities in the Victorian era, a
time period oversaturated with powerful discursive ideologies of virtue which (as Thas
Morgan suggests) comprise both a private practice of managing ones desires and a public
discourse and a public discourse in which law regulates the male body in the best interests
of the polity. (Morgan, 1999, pp. 111) Morgan goes on to outline that the differentiating
between female, feminine, and effeminate becomes increasingly necessary, devolving into an
ambition to police Victorian gender boundaries. (ibid.) This is a prevalent queer notion which
Sedgwick defends in Between Men (1989), and it is essentially both proven and disproven
throughout the analysis of Sherlock Holmes Victorian body. Agane (2015) takes queer
notions of gender further when exploring queer subtexts within contemporary adaptations of
Victorian texts, exploring how Sherlock Holmes takes on deconstructed gender practices,
intentionally conflating queered gender ideas and subtextual sexualities:
Viewers and adaptors, despite their postmodern sensibilities, ascribe gendered
domestic roles to romantic couples only, which forces a gay connotation of
queer gender identities. (Agane, 2015, pp. 167)
These interplays of power and their effect on Sherlock Holmes gender presentation and
performative masculinity will emerge in the critical analytical method outlined in the
methodological chapter.
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Conclusion
This review has brought together notions of gender performativity, queer identity and
subversion in an attempt to contextualise them before the full analysis. The epistemology of
gender performativity and notions, relating gender to Foucauldian power concepts will be
explored further in the methodology chapter in an attempt to define a comprehensive queer
method for analysis. Through exploring Butlers concept of performativity (and its
peculiarities when relating to drag culture), I will use grounding works in Holmesian
academia to analyse gender subversiveness in the chosen texts. These gender-related notions
of psychoanalysis and performativity will be used to critically evaluate and unpack Victorian
social constructions of the male body vis--vis post-2009 adaptations of the Sherlock Holmes
stories.
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Frecceros post-queer temporality, where queer research need not refer to gender and
sexuality though it often overwhelmingly does. Queerness of thinking can relate to many
different disciplines and in this methodological discussion my view of queer theory and a
queer method relates specifically to gender and sexuality. Regardless, this does not mean
that this analysis will not be making sense of these analytical structures under the heavy
influences of the post-queer. Browne and Nash acknowledge this when discussing the
discursive opposition between the concept of a queer subject and the attempt of finding a
clear-cut definition of queer to begin with:
For us, queer is a term that can and should be redeployed, fucked with and
used in resistant and transgressive ways, even if those ways are resisting what
could, and some would argue already has, become a 'queer orthodoxy'.
(Browne and Nash, 2010, pp. 9)
The quest for finding a queer method for this project has expanded beyond what had been
initially anticipated. During the research, it has become clear that adopting queer as a
theoretical and epistemological framework rather than a methodology would be a more
successful approach. Despite it being filled with paradoxes such as that of radical
constructionism, identity, transgression, and queer culture (Oakes, 1995), queer theory has
resisted all methods of research that I have attempted to apply to it. Therefore a more
epistemological approach in regards to the analysis was chosen. Queer theory fortunately
appeared to be quite susceptible to this line of enquiry, especially when reconsidering Eve
Sedgwicks work.
Sedgwicks aim in Epistemology of the Closet is to explore the construction of homo- and
heterosexuality regarding the performative nature of the two identities coexistent relationship
through history. (1990) This offers an interesting approach to a queer research question. As
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Butler (2002) points out, Sedgwick accepts the notion that a single subject may entertain
these unreconciled positions simultaneously, and, indeed, may be historically compelled to do
so. (pp. 117) Unlike Halberstam, Sedgwick goes in the opposite direction of autoethnography and analyses gay men, a societal group that she herself is not part of. Sedgwick
develops this by introducing her axioms whose inspiring simplicity defines her attitudes
towards queer and queering ideas throughout the book. In a way, this is the method
Sedgwick applies in her own analysis. Her axiomatic approach only proves Browne and
Nashs point about the fluidity of queer and the near impossibility of pinpointing and
defining a queer method.
To tackle this impossibility, the following segment will attempt to create a methodological
tool that will rely on the epistemological and philosophical implications of Butlers work and
help the analysis of subtextual queer cues in the chosen texts. The implications of this tool of
discursive performativity will be considered, as well as its benefits to the research, and the
difficulties encountered when trying to define a straightforward research method to discuss
queer subjectivities.
Critical discursive performativity
As discussed in the previous chapter, Butlers notion of performativity will be understood in a
uniquely queer context. The most important epistemological reading of Butler relates to her
conceptualisation of gender as a constructed social norm through means of repetition and
performance:
Gender is, thus, a construction that regularly conceals its genesis; the tacit
collective agreement to perform, produce, and sustain discrete polar genders as
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verbal language in which media representations create discourses of gender, queer gender and
queer performative masculinity. Performance and performativity in media discourses, as
Matheson (2005) points out, are essential for constructing the identities of the subjective self.
As seen when discussing the problematic notion of a queer method, its the subjective and
highly changeable nature of the self that prevents an adequate analysis of queer identities.
CDA will ground the otherwise fleeting conceptualisation of Butlers performativity and
provide a secure ground to stand on in the qualitative analysis on queer masculine bodies.
With this concept of critical discursive performativity, the analysis will explore how
representational subjects such as Sherlock Holmes discursively construct their gendered
bodies through subtextual performativity. It will not only rely on the characters lines and
behaviour but also consider the metanarratives that have resulted in this construction the
other characters, that enforce this subtext, the sceneries, and the (queer) literary devices in
place of defining those characters.
The chosen research sample consists of two post-2009 Sherlock Holmes movies, Sherlock
Holmes (2009) and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011), directed by Guy Ritchie,
and an episode of critically acclaimed BBC show Sherlock called The Abominable Bride.
(2016) Even though they represent two different incarnations of Sherlock Holmes in the
Victorian era, the analysis proves that there is a running theme of queer masculinity,
encompassing the character of Sherlock Holmes in both of them. Critical discursive
performativity explores how this is achieved in both sets of media texts, through different
textual and subtextual codes. This provides a unique, innovative look into not only the everchanging and intriguing character of Sherlock Holmes but also the means in which queerness
and issues of unfulfilled desires can be discursively intertwined in contemporary media texts.
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My personal perspective and subjectivity as a queer media and cultural studies researcher will
also heavily influence this analysis. As a queer woman, I find extremely important to analyse
how and why popular media chooses to (not) represent queer identities.
Finally, I have approached this project with the idea to establish this method of analysis as a
cornerstone term when it comes to analysing queer subtextual performativity in media texts.
As queer researchers, we need to work on a spectrum of theory, including feminist theory,
queer theory, theories of power, ideology, knowledge, and disciplines and move towards an
inclusive social approach to establish discursive queer identities in media. (Hammers and
Brown, 2004) Therefore, while this research project focuses on the specific case study of the
Sherlock Holmes character, its method and theoretical foundation can be an important basis
for studying subtextual queer discourses in popular media in the future.
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Master of disguise
Despite his subtextual defiance of gender norms, Holmes exhibits Freudian anxiety and fear
of diminishing the physical gender disciplines and structures that confine the Victorian era. In
the beginning of Sherlock Holmes (2009), he avoids any situation that may infer that his body
is in any way effeminateto the extent of hyperbolizing its performative masculinity.
This is especially evident in the boxing scene, where Holmes clearly expresses a discursive
desire to conform to the pervading hypermasculinity of the Victorian era. In the fight, Holmes
is half naked and covered in sweat and blooda classic, near-pastiche image of the hyperman. (Image 1) He oozes in butch masculinity, wrestling another half-naked man under the
gaze of a male audience.
This scene places the entire film firmly within the quintessential Victorian male experience,
whilst also falling in line with masculine-centric stories that Ritchie has developed in earlier
films. (Thomas, 2012) It also takes the first step towards exposing Sherlock Holmes
character as a discursive Other in this reimagined post-queer Victorian society. In
Foucauldian texts discussing surveillance (1977), power is constructed through considering
25
who is observing and who is being observed or, if we are to take the example Foucault most
often engages in, who is positioned where within the Panopticon. However, this scene
showcases more of a synoptic mode of observation the many watching the few, or in this
case, the male audience watching (and discursively Othering) Sherlock Holmes. Under this
scrutiny, Holmes body is observed through a discursive synopticon. As Mathiesen (1997)
points out, there exists an intimate interaction, even fusion (pp. 223) between panopticism
and synopticism. According to Mathiesens theory, the synopticon reveals a much more
intricate and complicated positioning of discursive power, resulting in a viewer society.
(ibid.) The emergence of this hegemonic power and its manifestation in this contemporary
Victorian society affects how Holmes chooses to present his own (queerly) gendered body. It
creates a Freudian-like obsession with self-representation and furthers the discursive
gendered closet that the character is preemptively placed in within the cinematic
metanarrative.
The preoccupation with his own body and how it is presented to society reveals Holmes
queer performance. He basks in the victory and the strength of his physical form, yet the
relative anonymity of the wrestling ring poses the question as to why he strives to present this
(in many ways highly sexualized) image of himself grappling with another man to an
exclusively male audience. Holmes desire is to prove his own masculinity to himself, hence
why his wrestling performance morphs into a queer experience of two grappling men being
observed by more men. It reflects the inner state of Holmes being and his identity as a
performative queer subject in Sedgwicks (1990) discursive closet. Holmes closet is partly
self-constructed and partly socially constructed. While we do not see him escape this closet in
either film, he figuratively challenges it on multiple occasions, which will be gradually
addressed throughout my analysis.
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His masculine performance is challenged by the appearance of Irene Adler among the crowd,
a mysterious, fleeting image that Holmes claims he will not register on an emotional level.
Irene Adler challenging Holmes masculinity is a running theme throughout both Sherlock
Holmes and A Game of Shadows. Her appearance in this scene is direct proof that Holmes
masculinity is self-constructed and that he is afraid of its inevitable collapse.
This collapse reaches a peak point in an A Game of Shadows scene, where Holmes, as the
master of disguise that we have seen him be throughout Sherlock Holmes, opts for the, at a
first glance, simplistic disguise of drag. (Image 2)
Image 2: Holmes in drag is used for both advancing the plot and comedy effect
Holmes thinking here is dubious. Why has he chosen the far more pastiche and,
simultaneously, more complex to recreate image of a woman, rather than that of a beggar or
an old manboth roles that we have seen him effortlessly dive into before? The drag
performance transports the film into a contemporary context, engaging the audience in the
slapstick humour of the scene and glossing over the subtextual meaning of Holmes act. It
acts as a direct juxtaposition of his hyperbolized masculine performance; if anyone ever
failed to see Holmes as an effeminate and gender-defying subject until now, this scene seals
the deal on it.
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The scene cleverly hints at the contemporary rising popularity of drag artists and transgender
women in pornographic contexts, which has intensely diversified the historic polymorphic
character of sexual economy. (Escoffier, 2011) As the scene progresses, Holmes loses more
and more clothes, until he is caught in a faux fight with Watson, the good doctors head
between his garter-clad knees. The blatant queerness throughout this entire sequence not only
inspires laughter but also offers a deeper insight into the ways the contemporary genderbending Holmes meets the sexually repressed Victorian Holmes. Through this clash, Holmes
physical body is queerly constructed as far as the sexual limitations imposed by the time
period of this particular cinematic universe would allow.
Lie down with me, Watson: use of phallic imagery
The phallus is an omnipresent symbol used to define multiple textual and subtextual cues in
both heterosexual and homosexual contexts. Readings of Freud suggest that he defines the
homosexual problem as the source and the scale of the estimate of value a boy places on
the universal, erotogenic phallus. (Davis, 2010, pp. 203) In Lacanian psychoanalysis, we
find the phallus again, this time as a pronounced signifier for the patriarchal state he who
possesses the phallus holds symbolic power in society and generates signification. (Butler,
2011) Butler discusses the phallus in detail (Gender Trouble (1990) and Bodies that Matter
(2011)), delving into Freuds definition and Lacans conceptualization before concluding that
many things can stand in for a phallus and bear the same significance.
This signifier is by no means absent in Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of
Shadows. In the former, Robert Downey Jr.s character adheres to the literary Sherlock
Holmes pipe addiction. This is significant in the following scene when Holmes speaks to
queer-coded villain Lord Blackwood (Mark Strong) as his last wish. The main shot focuses
strongly on both Holmes and on Blackwoods menacing face behind bars in the background.
(Image 3) This deliberate placement of (and focus on) the pipe in Holmes mouth and his
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decision to light up only when walking away from Blackwood can be resolved and
understood through subtextual queer readings.
Holmes pipe is his semiotic performative phallus; Blackwood is his symbolically caged
demon. This scene (and Blackwoods entire narrative arc) is a subtextual reference to the
Victorian sentencing of gay men for indecency, most notably in the Oscar Wilde trial.
Wildes sentencing was one of the first instances when injustice towards subversive
sexualities became visible, inspiring fear and despair amongst gay men which lasted until
well after the 1980s AIDS crisis. (see Dellamora, 1994) Holmes chooses to keep the pipe (a
subtextual phallus) both visible and in his mouth. With this action, he simultaneously
reaffirms and rejects his own performative masculinity and perceived hegemonic position. As
Holmes walks away from his queer foil (Blackwood), he rejects the prevailing discourse of
fear and gay shame (Halperin, 2009) and reestablishes himself as an unabashedly queer
subject living within a performative gender closet.
Sherlocks drag appearance in A Game of Shadows helps confirm the pipes role as a
symbolic phallus. Disguised as comic relief, Guy Ritchie presents viewers with an
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undoubtedly homosexual image: two men lie side-by-side, one of them naked with the
symbolic phallus in his mouth. (Image 4)
The semiotic phallus in this situation does not necessarily refer to the biological organ. Lacan
makes such a distinction clearly (see iek, 2006; Gallop, 1986), and thus we see the phallic
pipe as a semiotic signifier of Holmes performative masculinity.
Such gender bending or gender fucking performative acts (Whittle, 1996) are employed for
comic relief, more so in A Game of Shadows than in Sherlock Holmes. This has provoked
criticisms of queerbaiting (Mueller, 2015), especially since Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law
themselves played on this theme during the films promotion. (Thomas, 2012) Nevertheless,
the presence of a Lacanian symbolic phallus transcends existing metanarratives and paratexts;
the subtext is transported to the subconscious realm of unattainable desire.
Phallic women as queer foils
The signified meaning of Lacanian phalluses (or lack thereof) is carried through the text into
representations of Victorian women around Holmes. With her presence in Sherlock Holmes
and A Game of Shadows, Irene Adler reaffirms Sherlocks queered performative masculinity.
In these contemporary takes on the Victorian era, Adler takes on male roles, language and
attire. Through this, she both reclaims the symbolic Lacanian phallus and outlines its lack in
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the figure of Holmes. Adler effectively acts as a foil (a term mainly used in Shakespearean
literature (Sedgwick, 1989), denoting a character who exposes the protagonists hidden
traits), both in a literary and a queer sense: she exhibits and displays Holmes performative
queerness.
Irene Adler is the embodied deconstruction of Victorian values. She is a divorced femme
fatale who instills fear and anxiety in male protagonists, and she even wears male clothing in
one scene. (Image 5) Adler dominates her submissive subject (Holmes), a fact Watson points
out when she first appears:
ALLOW ME TO EXPLAIN.
WATSON: ALLOW ME. SHES THE ONLY ADVERSARY WHO HAS EVER OUTSMARTED YOU TWICE. MADE A
PROPER IDIOT OUT OF YOU.
WATSON: AN ALIBI? A BEARD. A HUMAN CANOE. SHE COULD SIT ON YOUR BACK AND PADDLE YOU ACROSS
THE
THAMES.
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There is more scope yet to analyse both Sherlock Holmes and A Game of Shadows as
discursive representations of Holmes queerness. My chosen segments outline the running
themes of Holmes discursive performativity, providing groundwork for future analysis of
The Abominable Bride. The themes of Lacanian unconscious desires, phallic symbolism, and
queer foils will develop further still as Victorian Holmes continues to emerge from his
discursive gender closet. Analysing Guy Ritchies films projects subtextual cues in light of
Butlers performativity and firmly places Holmes discursive queerness in the spotlight.
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Image 6: Sherlocks drug use in both a Victorian and contemporary context is a textual sign for repressed
queerness
The trope of drug use as a metaphor for prohibition and forbidden (queer) desires has already
been explored, especially in the context of Victorian and gothic literature. However, the
concept of drug-taking concealing a performative identity is more of a means of escape that
overcomes a storyline of concealed queer romance. (Sedgwick, 1990) As Haggerty (2005)
points out, rather than just considering the metaphor of substance abuse it is helpful to
consider the drug dynamic as a means for addressing questions of identity for which an
alternative vocabulary was just beginning to emerge (pp. 125) Victorian stories with a
subtextual queer storyline thus often leave the queer subject hopelessly addicted. As
Sedgwick (1990) notes, Oscar Wildes Dorian Grey illustrates this perfectly.
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Taking inspiration from Dorian Grey, Sherlock relapses into addiction when there is no other
way to escape his performative queer identity. As revealed later in the episode, the entire
Victorian scene is actually a dream reality constructed under the influence of drugs.
Considering the psychoanalytical definition of dreams as a form of wish fulfillment (Freud,
2005), Sherlocks dream presents the undisclosed desires he harbours as a queer subject. His
Victorian self reflects the closet that his 21st century self is trapped in - he attempts to escape
this closet through drug abuse.
Shortly afterwards, John Watson directly confronts Sherlock about his addictive behaviour,
urging him to stop:
JOHN: NOW TELL ME. MORPHINE OR COCAINE?
SHERLOCK: COCAINE. A SEVEN PERCENT SOLUTION. WOULD YOU CARE TO TRY IT?
JOHN: NO. BUT I WOULD QUITE LIKE TO FIND EVERY OUNCE OF THE STUFF IN YOUR
POSSESSION AND POUR IT OUT OF THE WINDOW.
A DRUG ADDICT.
(MacKinnon, 2016)
After this encounter, neither Victorian Holmes nor contemporary Sherlock reach for the
syringe again. Sherlock even outright rejects further drug use, claiming he has no need for
[drugs] now, Ive got the real thing (MacKinnon, 2016) at the very end of the episode. This
rejection of Sedgwicks queer Victorian addict metaphor reveals personal development and
realization of performative identity throughout the dream sequence. Sherlocks closet (like
Holmes closet in Guy Ritchies films) is partially self-constructed, and within the self is
where the closets destruction must begin. Victorian Holmes is more than a foil for
contemporary Sherlock he is the embodiment of his suppressed desire and performative
queerness, expressed through drug use. The Victorian dream is the means through which
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Sherlock fights the masculine gender closet of masculinity he has constructed for himself. By
rejecting his own drug use both metaphorically and literally, he is trying to reveal his own
repressed desires.
Monstrous queers and the ghosts of phallic women
Gothic settings and stories have in a way, always been queer (Hughes and Smith, 2011).
Many theorists have explored this intricate discursive connectivity between queer identities
and monstrous narratives. (see Palmer, 2012; Hanson, 2007; Sedgwick, 1989) This is a
problematic notion, presenting queer identities as monstrous, near-abject Others and exposing
them to discursive tensions of villainy in narrative constructs. The Abominable Bride plays on
this motif with the image of Sherlocks queer foils: Moriarty (who I discuss later) and the
Bride herself.
From the very beginning, Bride Emelia Ricoletti (Natasha OKeeffe) is described and
portrayed as a classic monster, white as death [with a] mouth like a crimson wound,
(MacKinnon, 2016); she brings havoc and terror to Holmes Victorian world. (Image 7) As is
later revealed, the Bride is not one character but instead a group of disenfranchised women
who take revenge on the men who have dishonoured them.
Image 7: The ghost of the Bride is not a singular person she is a deconstructive symbol of Victorian
patriarchy
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With these symbolic acts, the Bride represents the phallic woman in this gothic ghost story the mere idea of her deconstructs myths of chastity and purity. The Bride signifies the
downfall of Victorian patriarchy and a semiotic manifestation of Creeds (1993) abject
monstrous feminine.
With this act of deconstruction, she becomes a monstrous feminine who simultaneously acts
as a queer foil for Sherlock. Since the entire storyline takes place within his unconscious, the
presence of monstrous phallic women is no coincidence. By giving them a symbolic phallus
in his fantasy yet still representing them as something to be feared, Sherlock enhances the
subtext around his own queer performative closet. The monstrous Bride chases his
performative identity as a group of women fighting the Victorian patriarchal ideal. This
elaborate fantasy again reveals the unattainable object of queer desire. The 21st century
Sherlock believes that this patriarchal standard is still a reality reinforcing his queer closet.
By unmasking the ghost and dealing with its abjection, he destroys one part of his socially
constructed closet of performative masculinity. The other part of this discursive closet is
Sherlocks ultimate queer foil, his adversary and narrative mirror character Moriarty (played
by Andrew Scott).
The return of the queer foil
Sherlocks fear of his own performative masculinity and queer closet manifests itself in the
appearance of supposedly dead Moriarty. In contrast, Moriarty is unabashedly queer. His
language, actions and flamboyance are noted earlier in the series (McKinnon, 2010) and
Moriarty himself reiterates his obsession with Sherlock in The Abominable Bride :
MORIARTY: I LIKE YOUR ROOMS. THEY SMELL SO MANLY.
SHERLOCK: IM SURE YOU ACQUAINTED YOURSELF WITH THEM BEFORE.
()
38
SHERLOCK: IM AWARE OF ALL SIX OCCASIONS YOU HAVE VISITED THESE APARTMENTS
DURING MY ABSENCE.
MORIARTY: I KNOW YOU ARE. BY THE WAY, YOU HAVE A SURPRISINGLY COMFORTABLE BED.
(MacKinnon, 2016)
Sherlock is visibly distressed by this scene taking part in what can be understood as the
depths of his subconscious. This leads us to believe that Moriarty is more than just a queer
foil. He is the ultimate foil, an unattainable queer desire that Sherlock desperately wants to
suppress. Unlike Holmes and Irene Adler in Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock does not fight his
queer foil in The Abominable Bride: he does not try to escape or outwit Moriarty. Instead, he
struggles with his own object of unattainable desire. As the sequence progresses, Sherlock
attempts to turn this object into an abject (Kristeva, 1982) but fails, as Moriarty re-manifests
himself in drag at the focal point of the ghost story. (Image 8)
This scene conclusively proves that Moriarty is the ultimate queer foil for Sherlocks
performative masculinity. While Sherlocks queer desire may not be directed at Moriarty per
se, Moriarty is the desire, personalized in a form Sherlock fears and loathes but still tries to
39
understand and absorb. Moriarty is Sherlocks embodied objet petit a, Lacans psychoanalytic
concept at the heart of his theory of desire. (Lacan, 1994; Kirshner, 2005) The objet petit a is
a highly metaphorical signifier of the unattainable object of desire. In the context of
subconscious queer masculinity and the Freudian unconscious, it proves to be the ideal
definition of Sherlocks psyche and discursive existence in his queer closet. Moriartys
narrative function as this psychoanalytic metaphor situates the final discursive definition of
Sherlocks closet, revealing an unattainable object of (queer) desire in the core of his
performative masculinity. As Sherlock moves to dispose of Moriarty (both metaphorically
and literally) at the end of the episode, he accepts and begins to live within his performative
identity construction.
Conclusion
This analysis of The Abominable Bride has demonstrated other subtextual techniques used to
outline the inherent performativity in Holmes masculine identity. By analysing both the
internal and social constructions of Sherlocks gender closet, the motif of Lacanian desire and
the objet petit a has emerged. This subtextual metaphor also appears in the Guy Ritchie
movies, and I will explore the significance of this in the following, final chapter.
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41
Sherlock Holmes performative masculinity and create his discursive gender closet. A more
in-depth analysis can be conducted into the specifics of the phallic womens gender itself and
how it manifests, especially in the case of the Bride in Sherlock, in their vigilantism towards
men. This analytical strand can also translate to other contemporary readings of the stories,
with US-produced Elementary posing a considerable interest by its genderbending practices
of John/Joan.
To conclude, gender and masculinity, as Butler and Halberstam suggest, remains a
multifaceted social construct, created through and dependent on various discursive and
literary practices. Representation of that ambiguity in popular media, though, remains
decisively scarce and, when present, heavily subtextually coded through means of complex
literary and psychoanalytic devices. The case of Sherlock Holmes in his post-2009 Victorian
adaptations is very singular and specific, however the defined theoretical framework in this
research project can be adapted to critically disseminate any media texts in terms of postqueer discursive notions of performative gender. The curious case of Sherlocks questionable
masculinity and hidden queer desires is still open and open it shall most likely remain
until the discursive gender closet exists in society and is therefore mirrored in popular media
discourses.
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