SusiGo wrote:

I agree. If I got a message from the show, it is that Sherlock is not sexually and/or romantically interested in women. Not Irene, not Janine, not anyone else. 

Right. Janine was all over him, and Janine is a beautiful woman. Do we really believe that Sherlock felt bad about having sex with her since he didn't feel anything for her - when he didn't think twice about pretending to be in a relationship with her and asking her to marry him?!!? As if... He didn't have sex with her, because he isn't interested in sex - certainly not in sex with women, and as for men, well, we don't know yet (and if we branch out of the BBC show and go into canon, Victor Trevor going to visit him every day until his leg healed and then the two living together in Victor's estate in Norfolk screams of only one thing, in my opinion....but I guess the show hasn't mentioned Victor yet, so that's a variable that it's up to each of one of us to decide whether to consider).

Janine expressly tells us that they did not have sex. 
And Sherlock's face immediately after he kisses her goodbye is quite telling as well. 

Especially a straight man who is most likely aware that he is attractive, obviously makes an effort to look good, and cared about how his shirt looked when he was about to meet with John.

Why wouldn't this straight man react positively when two attractive women hit on him, I wonder?

I also find it very, very, VERY interesting that they went to such length to tell us that Sherlock did not have sex with Janine. The audience wouldn't have criticised him if he had, at least no more than we criticised his decision to trick her into thinking they were dating; we would have thought it was only logical that he'd have sex with her to maintain the lie.

Yet, they made sure we knew they didn't have sex - and made the characters say it, so we wouldn't be left wondering.

I often wondered why it was important for them to clarify that (just as much as I wonder why it was important to them to suggest that Sherlock is a virgin....)

I swear to God, when she said 'I wish you were not...." I was SO sure she was going to say "gay", that I nearly peed myself.

tonnaree wrote:

Vhanja wrote:

I'm not thinking about the naked scene. I, as a heterosexual woman, would be shocked and feeling awkward in that scene as well. I'm thinking more about her advances ("have you beg for mercy twice"/"If I were the last person on earth..."). He seems stunned and uncomfortable, not able to come up with the quick and arrogant retort he usually does to anyone who annoys him. When he asks "Where's John?" he sounds and looks almost like a lost child for a small second.

Anyway, this is getting slightly OT, but I've always read those scenes as Sherlock losing his cool and not being sure how to handle Irene the way he usually handles everybody else.

 

Losing his cool when women hit on him can also be read as "gay."  Irene or Jenine.
 

Absolutely. In fact, to me that's the explanation. Sherlock didn't come up with his usual retort because he isn't used to being hit on, in my opinion - especially in such an overt and hypersexualised way. And that to me also comfirms that he's a virgin. Let's not forget that Irene chose to show up naked - and hit on him so obviously - to make him feel uncomfortable and make him lose his footing, under Moriarty's instructions (she says 'he told me how to play the Holmes' boys'). And Moriarty knew that it would make Sherlock uncomfortable, because he has been told Sherlock is a virgin (and like I said, from his reaction in my eyes he confirms this).
 

Vhanja wrote:

Dorothy83 wrote:

And that to me also comfirms that he's a virgin. Let's not forget that Irene chose to show up naked - and hit on him so obviously - to make him feel uncomfortable and make him lose his footing, under Moriarty's instructions (she says 'he told me how to play the Holmes' boys'). And Moriarty knew that it would make Sherlock uncomfortable, because he has been told Sherlock is a virgin (and like I said, from his reaction in my eyes he confirms this).
 

I agree with this, that's how I view it too. 

As I see it, if Sherlock was gay - and especially if Sherlock was gay and was experienced in sexual relations - Irene's and Janine's advances would have meant absolutely nothing to him. They would make him as indifferent as any other approaches, and he would brush them off easily with an arrogant snide remark as he usually does with everything else he can't be bothered with.

But to me, Sherlock doesn't seem indifferent. He seems stunned, uncomfortable and loses his footing. That is to me not the way an experienced and arrogant gay man acts towards female advances. 

So what you think is that he is an unexperienced gay man? (That's how I see it - although, having a soft spot for Victor Trevor, I have contrasting head canons in my head ) Or do you see him as bisexual, or asexual?
 

Last edited by Dorothy83 (September 30, 2015 3:20 pm)

Vhanja wrote:

Dorothy83 wrote:

So what you think is that he is an unexperienced gay man? (That's how I see it - although, having a soft spot for Victor Trevor, I have contrasting head canons in my head ) Or do you see him as bisexual, or asexual?
 

I don't think he's asexual. Because again I think that if he was, sexual advances would make him indifferent. 

To be honest, I'm not sure what I think Sherlock is. In my head canon he is gay, of course. In the show I am not sure. From what I've understood from several interviews with Ben, he seems to view Sherlock as straight (or at least also interested in women, so perhaps bi).

But in the show it seems that his sexual orientation isn't really important, since romance and sexual relations is something Sherlock has chosen to cut completely out of his life. So it's sort of irrelevant.

I see what you mean. The way I see it though - yes, Sherlock has decided to cut romance and sex from his life (most likely without having even tried them) but that doesn't mean he doesn't have an orientation in that sense - so to me, he is a gay man who evades sex and romance, for whatever reason. And in my headcanon, at least in regards to romance, and love, he changes his attitude after meeting John Watson (possibly without even noticing).
 

tonnaree wrote:

Not all gay men react to female advances in the same way.  I think he loses his footing because it is women flirting with him.  He doesn't even blink when Moriarty flirts with him.

I don't think Sherlock is a virgin but that his overall experiance may be limited.  He finds most people so dull why would he bother having sex with them.  But even Sherlock would find that rare exception from time to time.

Of course, I also have never gotten over the "I helped him put up some shelves" comment in TEH.  I honestly don't know any way to read that except DIRTY.      

lol Tonnaree - I honestly just interpret it as Sherlock putting up shelves??! haha.

I never once thought Sherlock would let anyone close enough to have sex. He is snarky, cold, and dismissive to anyone we see him come into contact with - except John, and I guess Molly later on (but only as a result of something like, as an apology, or a thank you to her - never in general). He would not want to have casual sex, I think.

 

So you do see him sexually attracted by Irene? I do not. IMO he is intrigued by her mind, by similar patterns of thinking, by her cleverness, her boldness but not by her naked or dressed body.