I’ve decided to make a post to add my thoughts to the creepyass-sherlockfans fiasco and make some comments about what is and isn’t effective satire. I’m far from a satirical genius, but the fact that I’ve been able to make a blog that’s garnered a fair amount of followers and publicity in this fandom within a two-month time span proves that I have an ability to make satirical content that a) avoids upsetting the majority of people who come across it and b) makes them laugh without making them uncomfortable. This is the exact opposite of what creepyass-sherlockfans has done with their blog, and I find it irritating and upsetting that the owners of that blog are touting it as a social critique when all that they’ve done so far aside from call out some legitimate racism is bully and harass other users who are doing absolutely nothing wrong.
As the person who owns sherlock-is-straight, I work hard to make my content humorous without being outrageously offensive. I almost always consult other people before I post my meta to ask them if they think that any of the jokes go too far or come off as malicious and spiteful rather than what I intended. There are some jokes that I personally find amusing that I haven’t made on my blog because I know that they would make a good portion of my followers feel uncomfortable, and I’ve made a conscious decision not to make a joke that I believe would make ~5% of my followers unfollow me or be tempted to unfollow me. I’ve even toned my character down to an unrealistic extent because I don’t think that it would be funny for me to use the kind of language on my blog that a homophobic 63-year-old woman would inevitably use in her day-to-day life considering how many of my followers are queer themselves. Satire generally has to be ridiculous and over-the-top to avoid being offensive, and there has to be an element of absurdity to the character to make them unrealistic. A realistic character isn’t as amusing because it has the potential to display the same kind of bigoted behavior that oppressed people already see enough of in real life to find tiresome and not at all humorous.
Even though my blog is utterly ridiculous, I’ve tried to use it to address social issues within the fandom as well as the real world that matter to me as a queer person. The main reason why I love well-done satire is because I’ve always thought that satire is one of the best ways to cause social change and make people reconsider their opinions, and I have nothing against criticizing the Sherlock fandom and the people in it as long as it’s done in a way that still maintains a modicum of respect for the user being criticized or isn’t respectful but still manages to address behavior that is wildly inappropriate and problematic.
With that said, I don’t go out of my way to engage with the people who I disagree with because I take no enjoyment in ruining other people’s fun or invalidating their opinions unless they have opinions that I see as being genuinely harmful to society or completely inane. Can you imagine the backlash that I would understandably receive if I started reblogging Marylock fanart with disparaging comments underneath? What kind of person would I be if I went out of my way to harass other users and then used my blog’s satirical nature to excuse my bullying behavior? If someone says on their blog that they think that Sherlock is straight and in love with Molly, I’m not going to reblog their post and insult them unless they’re being actively homophobic or otherwise offensive. I would never reblog Sherlolly meta to mock it unless the person writing it was behaving in a way that I find despicable.
Brontë is right when she says that there are some subjects in our society that are impossible to satirize effectively. The Colbert Report would not be one of the best examples of satire of all time if Stephen Colbert’s satire wasn’t aimed at a group of people who are in a position of power in our society. Effective satire almost always mocks people in positions of power, and creepyass-sherlockfans is emphatically not doing that. creepyass-sherlockfans is a wonderful example of what isn’t effective satire, and I’m going to list the numerous reasons why right here:
It’s impossible to distinguish who exactly their blog is satirizing in the first place because their agenda is unclear and inconsistent. Their biggest issue appears to be what they perceive as “gay fetishization” in the Sherlock fandom despite the fact that many of the people that they’re attacking are queer themselves. They accused me of hating gay people despite the fact that I’m a gay woman who watches Sherlock in large part because I live in a homophobic area and need to find other outlets in my life to see other queer people on a regular basis.
They’re targeting specific users for the sole purpose of making them feel bad. Many of the users that they’ve attacked don’t have a huge presence in this fandom and aren’t able to receive support from other users if they become distressed by what’s been posted about them. Is that an example of satire or an example of bullying? I’m going with the latter.
Almost all of the posts on their blog have an air of condescension and intellectual and moral superiority to them. I go out of my way not to be condescending to other people and try my best to keep my humor lighthearted instead of biting and spiteful, and I try to engage with other people in the fandom in a fun way that doesn’t make them feel too intimidated to interact with me. I don’t get the sense that this blog is attempting to do that at all.
Even when I’ve been called out on behavior that other people have perceived as problematic that I don’t feel is problematic in this context, I’ve listened to their arguments and let them have their say instead of hiding their posts and shutting them down completely. Satirists have to be able to accept criticism even if they don’t feel that the criticism is valid. Everyone does in life, but it’s especially important for those of us who create satire to accept criticism because the misuse of satire has the potential to be damaging. What creepyass-sherlockfans is doing with their blog is definitely damaging. It’s negatively affected a lot of people already, and none of the points that they’ve made so far can excuse the damage that they’ve already done.
They’ve displayed a staggering amount of hypocrisy and have taken posts completely out of context in a feeble attempt to strengthen their baseless arguments. They’ve also used ableist terms such as “batshit” and “crazy” in a derogatory context and didn’t hesitate to call me a bitch when I called them out on their behavior. I’m normally not bothered by things like this, but it seems worthwhile to note the level of hypocrisy that it takes for someone who claims to be campaigning for social justice to direct language like this at another person.
Social justice should never be used as a guise to bully someone and invalidate who they are as a person and the labels that they identify with. Accusing a young queer woman of lying about her sexuality to make other people question her intentions and make her feel guilty about appreciating a queer romance is despicable, and I can’t think of anything that creepyass-sherlockfans could do at this point to redeem themselves. Reblogging fanart instead of reposting it isn’t much better than what they did before considering that they continue to write snide comments underneath the art that they reblog. I highly doubt that this post is going to make them delete their blog or even read up on how to write decent satire, but I’m glad that I was able to give my opinion as someone who attempts to write effective satire and has some influence in this fandom.
Before I end this behemoth of a post, I want to thank wsswatson and theideaofsussex for helping me compose it and offering their insight and unique perspectives. I also want to thank everyone who reported this blog back when it was called batshitsherlockfans and got it shut down. The best thing that we can do now is ignore its existence and try to bring some harmony back to this fandom. I know that I can’t be the only one who’s grown tired of the constant barrage of drama that keeps occurring.
2087
kianamaiart
amandla
vaporwave
jimmyeatworldofficial
