#acd women

[niccoguedes]

Contribution for Women's Month 2024 colab with @beekeaper Complete work here.

[contact-guy]

THE COPPER BEECHES part two (pt 1 here), the conclusion. According to Watson: "As to Miss Violet Hunter, my friend Holmes, rather to my disappointment, manifested no further interest in her when once she had ceased to be the centre of one of his problems, and she is now the head of a private school at Walsall, where I believe that she has met with considerable success."

(This is part of the Watson's sketchbook series)

[gaytobymeres]

Benoit Blanc's similarities to other fictional detectives

Specifically Holmes, Poirot and Columbo because I'm most familiar with them and saw many of their characteristics in Blanc.

Impeccable clothes - Poirot

Cigar - Columbo

Post-case slump - Holmes

Eccentric - Holmes, Poirot, Columbo

Detection as a means of helping people, not just for the sake of solving crimes - Holmes (and Poirot and Columbo to a slightly lesser extent)

Fun name – Holmes, Columbo, Poirot

Referred to by surname (almost) all of the time, even by close friends/partners – Columbo, Holmes, Poirot

Kindness to and deep respect for vulnerable women – Holmes, Columbo, Poirot

Said to be the best detective in the world – Holmes, Poirot

Fun American accent – Columbo

Hates rich people who abuse their financial influence – Holmes, Columbo, Poirot

Polite – Columbo (of course Holmes and Poirot can also be very polite but I don't feel like it's a defining characteristic for them the way it is for Columbo)

Rude to mean rich people in a way that is so polite the horrible rich people don’t realise they’re being made fun of/talked to rudely – Holmes, Poirot

Politeness and diplomacy that is often pushed too far and they explode into explicit anger – Holmes, Columbo, Poirot

Drama in resolution – all three to varying degrees, but especially Poirot

Understated and affable – Columbo

Involved in self-contained stories – Columbo, Poirot, Holmes (though a couple of Holmes stories do link closely to previous stories)

Uses the word 'afoot' – Holmes

Gay – Holmes, Poirot (I'll let you decide if this applies to Columbo)

[penofsteele]

My favourite thing about ACD Johnlock is that you can essentially just cite the entire existing text as evidence. We don't even need evidence at this point, it's just there. It's a love story. The only people we have to convince are the people who haven't read them.

[dathen]

It’s funny how much handwringing there is in even queer spaces over how HARD it is to write characters as aromantic, esp in fantasy or period piece settings where “they don’t have that term so aro characters cant exist!!”, when in 1891 we got:

It was not that [Holmes] felt any emotion akin to love for Irene Adler. All emotions, and that one particularly, were abhorrent to his cold, precise but admirably balanced mind.

[strangestcase]

Literally why are all Irene Adler posts on tumblr some shit like “Irene Norton could never heterosexually fuck Sherlock Holmes… because she’s heterosexually married to Mr. Norton before the eyes of God and the Church! hashtag love wins! what a lucky man! Now watch me project an entire personality onto this male character that shows up for a single scene! Never ever forget she takes his name after marriage like the good devoted wife she is! Respect!” Like helloooooo. Can anybody hear me.

[july-19th-club]

it's all fun and games getting letters from watson until you make it to the three gables . what's interesting to me though is not the question of 'did doyle write this one' - i think it's sort of a fan's cop-out to suggest that because this story is so casually racist, it *can't* have been written by doyle. i think it's more worthwhile to look at the number of years between 'the yellow face' (the titular face refers to a blank mask worn by a little girl) - a very sympathetic and respectful, for its day, story, and 'gables' - 'face' was published in 1893 and 'gables' was published 33 years later, in 1926. and this is well into doyle's weirder years, after he's been into spiritualism and wwi has happened and he's old and strange. some of his stories from these years are very fun, and others are...less so. even saying 'sometimes people change and get worse as they age' isn't really it, because there's ugly things in the earlier stories too, just to a lesser degree and without such an obvious degree of humor taken in them. those you might be able to describe as 'a product of their time', an unconscious bias that is not appropriate but also not meant with a serious degree of ill will beyond cultural bigotry. gables is so racist it almost feels out of character, but saying that also feels like an excuse in a way that doesn't sit right with me. so there is no excuse for gables. no grander conspiracy. no justifiable explanation. it's not just unfortunate and distasteful. it's a shame.

[werrrrrrrrrrrrrrrcat]

Happy international women's day!!

Baker Street girls are chilling at the local bar (maybe owned by Elizabeth?)

Left to right, top to bottom: Eglantine Holmes (yes, Holmes sister again), Ann Wiggins, Irene Adler, Elizabeth Moriarty, Mary Morstan/Watson

[hechiima]

the illustrious client might not be the best mystery but it's such a fun case. watson being Unhinged (learning chinese pottery in 24 hours/telling holmes that he would kick gruner's ass if holmes just gave the word). holmes openly burglarizing gruner's house and not giving af or facing prosecution. kitty winters getting her revenge by tossing vitriol and getting the lightest sentence possible for it. it's so funny.

[ofbakerst]

the real ending of this story

[noxhominis]

Irene Adler is a badass. I know this. Almost anyone who has ever read the books knows this. She is such an Iconic Character who has been reduced to the love interest of Sherlock Holmes for so long. It would be really nice to see her properly represented in modern media.

But, I would like people to talk more about Violet Hunter. This lady was a serious badass too. And she is so smart. Seriously, the first time I read the Copper Beeches, I was so amazed by the amount of information this lady seemed to have gathered by not giving a fuck about the rules. Violet Hunter would survive a horror movie. She has in fact survived the equivalent of a horror movie in the SH Universe.

Also, she is extremely relatable. She basically went Refuse a well paying job that looks shady? In this economy? And that is not the only time she is relatable. She sees something shady going on, and like the majority of the population on Earth, decides to pry, instead of leaving it alone. She is so good at giving excuses. And she is braver than we are led to believe in the beginning. She was an active part of the investigation for almost the entire story. In fact, we mostly follow her story instead of Holmes and Watson's. I absolutely loved how Adventures of Sherlock Holmes started with a story that had feminist undertones and ended with one that had a little different, but still recognisable feminist undertones.

And that is not all. Violet Hunter, as I have said before, is smart. This is a girl who was sensible enough to go to Sherlock Holmes for advice on whether to take a job or not. And that shows a remarkable amount of forethought. I identified with her so much when I was young (I still do, a little). Because I had this friend who would just call me Irene Adler because there weren't enough female characters. After BBC Sherlock, the name Irene Adler was something I didn't really want to be associated with. So one day I just told him to call me Violet Hunter if he absolutely had to (I would call him Watson, because we had both decided Sherlock Holmes was a sacred name).

On an unrelated note, Watson followed up with Miss Hunter after the events of the story. I don't think he does that to all the clients. So she was a special case.

When Letters from Watson starts in 2023, I want to make a detailed analysis of my favourite characters and stories. I would really like to do a more in depth analysis of Violet Hunter and by association, The Copper Beeches.

[fleurdelait]

man today i was doing library duty in school and noticed we have 5 sherlock holmes books, so my dumbass sat there and made them a little shrine in the classics section like a goddamn offering

[skyriderwednesday]

I think it's important to note that the reason the ACD estate was going after authors/adaptations was because of Holmes's personality, namely his capacity for emotion and respect for women in most cases, not because they dared to suggest that he and Watson were anything other than close friends.

Sure, Holmes and Watson can smooch/fuck/whatever as much as you like now, and there is nothing the estate can do about it--

But Holmes also has his full, true personality restored to him now, traits that -- on the whole -- appeared long before 1927.

[ignis--fatuus]

More Bad Sherlock Costumes

Either you are shabbily inaccurate man or shabbily sexy woman no in between

The only one that gets a pass is the one with the dog slippers cause the canon would be SO much better if Sherlock only wore those those in every book

[ogsherlockholmes]

21st October

I don’t really enjoy The Three Gables due to the racism in it (I made a post about it waaaayyy back when I first started this blog) and I think the main villain is actually ACD himself because of the racism. But, the fictional antagonist is Isadora Klein. 

Here is the description Sherlock gives us:

“It would be well that you [Watson] should come with me, for it is safer to have a witness when you are dealing with such a lady as Isadora Klein...She was, of course, the celebrated beauty. There was never a woman to touch her. She is pure Spanish, the real blood of the masterful Conquistadors, and her people have been leaders in Pernambuco for generations. She married the aged German sugar king, Klein, and presently found herself the richest as well as the most lovely widow upon earth. Then there was an interval of adventure when she pleased her own tastes. She had several lovers, and Douglas Maberley, one of the most striking men in London, was one of them... But she is the ‘belle dame sans merci’ of fiction. When her caprice is satisfied the matter is ended, and if the other party in the matter can’t take her word for it she knows how to bring it home to him...She is about to marry the young Duke of Lomond, who might almost be her son.” 

To summarise, Klein got herself a sugar king (I’m sure that means something to do with actual sugar and not Sherlock saying she had a sugar daddy, but the second option is funnier, so I’ll leave it to you to decide) then started dating men younger than her. On the whole, that isn’t villainous (despite what Victorian slut-shamers tell you) but she would blackmail these man when she got bored, which isn’t great. It’s like she was Charles Augustus Milverton, but she was involved with the blackmail in that she was risking her reputation if she exposed the scandal. 

Sherlock and Watson visit Klein, who basically immediately gives in as soon as Sherlock mentions the police. 

“What is this intrusion...?” she asked... “I [Sherlock] need not explain, madame. I have too much respect for your intelligence to do so– though I confess that intelligence has been surprisingly at fault of late.” “How so, sir?” “By supposing that your hired bullies could frighten me from my work...” “I have no idea what you are talking about. What have I to do with hired bullies?” Holmes turned away wearily. “Yes, I have underrated your intelligence. Well, good-afternoon!” “Stop! Where are you going?” “To Scotland Yard.” We had not got halfway to the door before she had overtaken us and was holding his arm. She had turned in a moment from steel to velvet. “Come and sit down, gentlemen. Let us talk this matter over. I feel that I may be frank with you, Mr. Holmes. You have the feelings of a gentleman. How quick a woman’s instinct is to find it out. I will treat you as a friend.” 

As an antagonist, Klein is very weak because she doesn’t even try to defend herself. I think this is most due to gender stereotyping, so that the most evil thing she is capable of doing as a woman in that era is have sex with younger men. So, she’s turned into an apologetic but sultry lady, rather than being actually criminal. The fact this quote is included as well ‘She smiled and nodded with a charming coquettish intimacy.’ only victimises her and diminishes her acts so that she is seen as a woman who made a mistake and not a blackmailer. 

I could go into a lot more detail on this subject, but I’m just going to say this: if you’ve ever seen two people, a man and a woman, commit a crime, such as murder, who receives the harsher punishment? 

When women receive less harsh sanctions for their crimes, it reinforces the stereotype that woman are weak and incapable of violence, when that is untrue.

Yes, I’m jumping quite far from the story, but I still think it’s important to look into how these stereotypes have come about, and ACD’s stories in particular can reinforce a lot of them. 

[curioscurio]

Reading a lot of Sherlock Holmes, and trying to draw victorian men accurately will lead you to learning that people wrote on their shirt cuffs often in ink because they were detachable and usually made of extremely starched linen or PAPER. working class men would find them stiff, overly formal, or not worth spending the money on it, but if you were mid to upper class then it was expected that you wear just as much complicated, sillohuete focused shapewear as women. Victorian men also wore corsets, especially military men, to achieve that puffy chest and flat stomach look around the 1820's.

The male corset fad had died down a little around the turn of the century (1880-early 1900's) as women fought for more comfortable and less oppressive shapewear, and effeminate men ridiculed for wearing the once fashionable and even medically recommended undergarmet. However, the male corset in the 1880's was still fairly popular enough to be advertised by dressmakers!

(Forgive me not citing my sources at the moment, but these advertisements I believe are dated around 1880 when mens corsets fell out of popular style but were still available and fashionable in certain circles.)

Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that Dr. Watson, being both a medical and military man... probably wouldn't have worn a corset at the time of his deployment around 1880, unfortunately. ( I know, we're all dissappinted.)

Not that he couldn't wear one if he wanted to! But based on ACD cannon, I really feel that he would not be the kind of guy to wear one. Call it speculation, but if I had been deployed and then shot in the shoulder and leg, wearing a corset would be all but torture on my body. Let alone trying to wrestle an injured soldier out of one while trying to stitch him up. Corsets for military men were more of a fashion statement than a medical device; and even then, it was only helpful for orthopedic reasons (back problems mostly).

It was also around that time that the Women's Dress Reform movement began. Despite the Sherlock Holmes novels being ripe with period-typical misogyny, I like to imagine that Watson would side with the women and medical professionals on this one, in that they were often restrictive, unnecessary, and medically harmful in the long run.

Sherlock Holmes, however, absolutely has a large variety of both male and female corsets for various disguises and probably wears them often. This isn't explicitly stated in canon or anything, I just feel it in my heart.

Sorry if this is all over the place or not completely accurate! I went down a rabbit hole but am totally open to any corrections! Also I think the idea of Watson lacing up Holmes and grumbling about corsets is a funny visual lol