The way that most of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories’ most horrible villains are rich dudes that are abusive to women, in a time such as the 1880’s, compels me.
There’s a whole subset of Sherlock Holmes stories that could be labeled Asshole Guys Try to Control Women’s Money.
Yup, there’s a huge number of times where Sherlock Holmes is the ONLY person to take a young woman’s complaint or worry seriously and finds out someone is up to some serious evil. Holmes also shows a lot of compassion and empathy with the victims over and over again. (This is why I find “Secretly a woman” or “Trans” Holmes headcanons much more convincing than “sociopath” Holmes.)
I am never going to shut up about how much I specifically love The Adventure of The Copper Beeches because it is literally Sherlock Holmes listening to a young lady he does not know except as a potential client, agreeing with her that a potential job she has interviewed for that she thinks is SUPER SKETCHY is, indeed, sketchy as fuck and when she says she’s probably gonna take the job anyways because the money is good and she needs it going “OKAY I GUESS but for the love of god please write to us so we know you’re okay we will literally drop everything and jump on a train if you want us to”.
The job turns out to indeed be sketchy as fuck, she writes to them, Holmes and Watson drop everything and jump on a train when she asks them to. I read this story for the first time when I was twelve and it made a HUGE impression.
This is also the basis for a lot of speculation about Holmes’ family life. The idea that he has been a victim of abuse, or his mother was abused (or even murdered by his father.) There’s definitely SOMETHING that makes him very aware of how dangerous isolated families can be, and the dark things that can happen behind closed doors. Plus, of course, the motivation to devote himself to stopping crime. And yes, so much of it is of the personal type.
that would be A Case of Identity, if I’m not mistaken :]
This is why Holmes’ definition as misognynous makes no sense. A label that they put on him like so many others, probably misogynistic people. It is incomprehensible how he can respect and tolerate women if they do not interest him sexually, it is inconceivable that he can recognize a socially weaker category and want to defend it. You can only defend women if they become a prize to take to bed. Misogenicity and homophobia are a very close couple
Yes @raggedyblue - indeed there’s plenty of evidence of Holmes’ actual respect for women in canon. Another example is The Solitary Cyclist, which I like for many reasons:
- The client is a young, working woman who is described as strong-willed and competent.
- Every weekend she cycles alone six miles (almost 10 km) through a desolate part of the countryside, to get to the railway station and go visit her mother in London.
- Holmes compliments her, not for her beauty, but for being physically well-trained. Later he refers to her ”athletic persuit”.
- His respect for her and his not treating her as a potential ’prize’ feels refreshing and makes one focus on the actual case.
- She’s a musician (like Holmes) which he promptly deduces from her fingertips.
- Her story includes being sexually harassed at work by an abusive man.
- She consults Holmes for also being stalked by a bearded man while cycling.
- It turns out that both the abuser and the stalker (who is actually her employer, disguised with a false beard) are involved in a criminal plot against her, to get at her impending inheritance.
- The former man abducts her and force-marries her, while the latter man repents and tries to kill the former. This false marriage was aimed to take away her independence and steal her fortune. But Holmes stops all this and makes sure the abusers are put in prison.
An interesting thing is that, at first, Watson seems to have considered this case a trivial one, not seeing the severity of this woman’s problem. When he’s sent out to investigate, he returns with no useful information. But Holmes does immediately turn his attention to it, in spite of already being involved in a complicated case concerning a millionaire.
exactly, i never got why people think he's a misogynist. i guess it's what homophobes say when they can't bring themselves to say gay? *shrug*