Moffat Says Asexuality Isn't a Boring Lifestyle, But Still Not Exciting for Dramatic Purposes
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- Published on Saturday, 21 January 2012 16:57
- Written by Lara Landis
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Steven Moffat has found himself at the center of the controversy. He may not even realize that he has found himself at the center of a controversy unless he checks his online messages more often than he claims to do. The writer made an off-the-cuff comment in an interview he gave the Guardian that Asexuality is not interesting. Had Moffat just stopped at saying his Sherlock is not Asexual, it would have annoyed Asexual Sherlock fans, been a minor point of interest among Asexuals and it probably would not have attracted the attention of many different Asexual sites.
Moffat responded to the query of one Asexual fan from his Twitter account. One user responded, “Asexuality isn't boring, we totally party all night long, not to mention the cake we eat”.
Moffat responded with, “Asexuality isn't a a boring LIFESTYLE, just less dramatic in this case. As happy is less dramatic than sad. Apart from the cake”.
The idea that Asexuality is not interesting or that main characters have to be highly sexual has been mentioned in a number of writing books, but it ignores that at least one famous horror writer included no romance or sex at all in his stories. H.P. Lovecraft, who is one of the most important horror writers of the 20th century, did not include romance in his stories and the popularity of his stories did not suffer.
The notion that main characters have to be highly sexual stems from the idea that conflict is necessary, but sexual tension is only one of the many possible conflicts in literature. Perhaps, Moffat's comments are simply a case of him sticking to what he was taught. It is not the first time it has happened, and it mirrors the problem this site has had with pronouns throughout its history.
Sources:
Steven Moffat Says Sherlock is Not Asexual
"There Is a Clue That Everybody Missed."
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Normally I don't care about Sherlock, but this was hard to miss. Asexuality a LIFESTYLE? And BORING because we're not a bunch of perverts? This is extremely offensive and he should apologize.
I've burned enough energy raging about Moffat's comments, but I will say this. If the man seriously lacks the imagination to realize how interesting asexual characters can be, then I have just lost a great deal of respect for him as a writer.
He also appears to be saying that sexual = sad and asexual = happy. WTF?! “Asexualit y isn't a a boring LIFESTYLE, just less dramatic in this case. As happy is less dramatic than sad. Apart from the cake”
And a character being asexual doesn't mean you can't build up sexual tension. For instance, what if another character is attracted to the ace character? The fact that those feelings aren't returned could be a big source of conflict/tension (ie Molly's crush on Sherlock in this case).
Asexuals are all happy? Suuuure. There's no way dramatic tension can be built from other peoples' prejudices about it (eg. Moriarty and Mycroft both seem to assume there's something wrong with not having sex, and many medical professionals do as well), the character themselves feeling like they are 'broken', trying to reconcile not wanting to be alone with the fact that everyone around them pairs off, other characters trying to deal with the fact that their feelings are unrequited... come on, man, think. It's not all THAT boring.
I'm asexual and can I just say that being asexual does not mean that we don't want romance. Which means that Sherlock can still be Ace and get all the romance drama just without the sex. Besides, don't you think that maybe Sherlock being sexual would detract from his overall character a bit? Also, steering Sherlock Holmes towards romance might even be a bit of a bad idea when the main plot is supposed to be about crime, not Sherlock's sex or love life. Leave that to the fanfiction I say.Then again, I am an Ace myself so I could be biased. But personally, delving too deep into romance can make a TV programme boring. And making Sherlock Ace would both make him interesting (asexuality isn't very well known after all) and help raise peoples awareness of asexuality in a positive way.
Quote : Asexuals are all happy? Suuuure. There's no way dramatic tension can be built from other peoples' prejudices about it (eg. Moriarty and Mycroft both seem to assume there's something wrong with not having sex, and many medical professionals do as well), the character themselves feeling like they are 'broken', trying to reconcile not wanting to be alone with the fact that everyone around them pairs off, other characters trying to deal with the fact that their feelings are unrequited... come on, man, think. It's not all THAT boring.
Yeah, it would make things quite a bit interesting considering how unrecognised asexuality is. Besides, Sherlock acts very Ace and he even all but said it himself, girlfriends and boyfriends aren't his area. Also he appears to be a virgin (if Mycroft and Moriarty's words are to be trusted) and shows little to no interest in sexual matters. You can still have romance though. Could be demi romantic or romantic.