Moriarty nicknaming Sherlock " the virgin " isn't about sex at all...it's because Moriarty thinks Sherlock is some kind of good boy..on the side of the angels...thus an innocent.
I think Mycrofts " how would you know.." comment was Mycroft needling Sherlock in the same kind of way...remember "mummy wouldn't like it..." and mummy calling Sherlock "my baby.."
Mycroft mocks Sherlock about it ( being a good mummys boy etc ) in the way Sherlock mocks Mycrofts weight.Typical sibling bickering.

Sherlock subdues his sexuality to do the work..because it's distracting.
If he didn't feel it..nothing to subdue or get distracted by.
So celibacy is his choice.
Maybe sexual attraction distracted him from the work before..
I think it is very unlikely Sherlock is a literal virgin...he trys very hard to pretend not to have normal human feelings....but it is very obvious he does.
As for gay / straight etc Sherlock is a scientist....the scientific view/fact...is that all humans are born bisexuals.
After that as Sherlock himself explains it is childhood perceptions and social conditioning...something imo Sherlock would be immune to.

Last edited by lil (April 28, 2014 9:15 pm)

Trying to gather my thoughts.

Yes, Irene challanged and frustrated Sherlock but I do not think he had sex with her.  I don't see his "reactions" to her as sexual.  

Take the scene in front of the fireplace.  They've obviously been there for awhile with John gone and Sherlock doesn't even notice her for a long time.  Then, there she is, hair down, wrapped in one of his bathrobes, coming on to him like a house a fire.  And what does he do?  He takes her pulse.  He uses the moment to gather more data against her rather than bed her.

Also on the subject of Janine, there's no evidance that she actually got naked and in the shower with Sherlock..  For all we know she just popped in, giggled at him and then went on to the bedroom to get dressed;.

Just saying.

She says: 'Good Morning, little one', I thought....

Having feelings does not equal having sexual experience.

besleybean wrote:

She says: 'Good Morning, little one', I thought....

Yeah. And seemingly naked, except for wearing one of his shirts, and having just come out of his bedroom and shocking John down to his argyle socks. lololol

That all seems just like another example of the writers, toying with us, because that scene made it appear as though not only were they doing it, they'd been doing it quite thoroughly! Only later did it come out that the relationship hadn't actually been consummated. ??? So what had she been doing rolling around naked in Sherlock's bed (after all, there's a perfectly good bed upstairs, in John's old room), while Sherlock had been off doing god-knows-what for god-knows-how-long in the crack house, helping herself to his clothes, and then walking in on him in the bathroom?  How bizarre is all that, if they weren't lovers?

Poor John, he must have felt as though he was trapped in one of those fun houses at an amusement park.
 

Last edited by ancientsgate (April 29, 2014 7:59 am)

She says: 'Good Morning, little one', I thought....

You're right! I remembered it wrong...

So Janine said Hello to Sherlock's "little one" and then we heard water splashing... and laughs...

So what had she been doing rolling around naked in Sherlock's bed (after all, there's a perfectly good bed upstairs, in John's old room), while Sherlock had been off doing god-knows-what for god-knows-how-long in the crack house, helping herself to his clothes, and then walking in on him in the bathroom?  How bizarre is all that, if they weren't lovers?

Yes, their relationship was weird as hell, they seemed physically confortable, but they didn't cross the line...

I'm glad Sherlock avoided IT, there has to be limits when you fake a relationship to break an office, it's good he didn't "used her" that far...

mmm. I dunno. There's a thousand different ways to "burn", after all. She was a dangerous woman, in general, but more specifically, to Sherlock.

And why was she dangerous to Sherlock in a way that Moriarty wasn't? that's the key in their relationship, that's what make her diferent to other clever enemies, it's extremely clear for me, and Moffat said it too: "You know, you shove Irene Adler in front of him, and he just falls apart like most men would".

If Moffat and Benedict say he isn't inexperienced, then I believe them, so that means something happened somewhere.... maybe was her, maybe wasn't... but, in that matter, I see a huge difference between the first season Sherlock and the third season one...


Sorry if i'm writting terribly, I'm not aware of it  




 

Ok, first post here!

I like the Benedict quotation which started this thread, because that's what I think about Sherlock too.

Of course, it is possible he is a virgin, I'm pretty they exist, even at his age. It wouldn't be wrong, just odd.

However, I don't think you can fake being able to turn on the charm to get information out of a woman, or pretend to be involved with a woman, while being completely innocent sexually. Where he "learned" about it doesn't matter : he knows how to respond to flirtation, at least, not too forward, subtle flirtation. To me, his reaction to Janine's "No sex" wasn't prudery or alarm : it was genuine shock. Come on, how would YOU react if someone of the opposite sex you don't know said that to you? It doesn't mean he's a virgin, it means the topic of sex is not something he likes being brought up with strangers in public.

Ok, so Mycroft thinks sex "alarms" him. Again, you can be uncomfortable about discussing something but still do it in the privacy of your bedroom...

As for "The Virgin", well, I like how someone here explained that Moriarty probably meant "The pure one"  or "the angelic one", rather than a literal virgin.

Also, it could be both of them (Mycroft and Moriarty) projecting their own insecurity (in Mycroft's case) or irresistible attraction (in Moriarty's) onto Sherlock.

As for his sexual orientation, well, I'm usually thoroughly unconvinced by JohnLock "proof". I think that they share a very deep bond, a deep friendship, but I haven't seen anything more. I think that despite his comments on Sherlock's insufferable-ness, John is genuinely in awe of his friend's mind and intellect, whereas Sherlock is in awe of John's courage and humanity. Why should such a connection automatically be romantic or sexual?

Of course it's all fiction, but the boys' sexualities in fan fiction seem totally different to those in BBC Sherlock.

ancientsgate wrote:

 There are fan fiction stories that read exactly as though they were actual show scripts.

That'd be me, I even counted that amount of scenes per sequence (which if five, roughly, if anyone cared to know). I like to challenge myself to see whether I can come up with something that feels like canon. When I started entering the fanfic world, I thought everyone wrote like that. Little did I know!

I must say I really enjoy all those alternative universes that people create. Some writers are really good, even though the premise of the story can be a bit 'unusual'. I first didn't get the johnlock thing either but I read a couple of really good fics and I'm now getting where they're coming from a bit better. People love the friendship from the show and want to take it to the next level. I think most of us feel the bond between those two characters, shippers or non-shippers. 

Read some with an open mind, anyone might be quite convinced. After all, even given what we've seen in the actual show, it would only take an eensy weensy push to move that relationship into Johnlock.

Why should I? I am not interested! Sherlock/Cumberbatch and Watson/Freeman are two men that I find attractive and whom I'd rather have myself than watch them have each other, so why should I convert myself to believing in their homosexual relationship?

And that in no way means I'm not open-minded. If they had been in an explicit romantic relationship from the beginning, I would have rolled with it, but as things are, anyone's fantasy could be construed as "the truth".