BBC Sherlock Fan Forum - Serving Sherlockians since February 2012 / Moriarty's Sexuality

**Posted by TheGirlInTheNight-Time** December 4, 2016 5:26 pm

Sexuality isn't really looked at that much in Sherlock but I was re-watching a compilation of Sherlock and Moriarty scenes and a got a real feeling of sexual tension mostly on Moriarty's part. Like when I watch Moriarty and Sherlock I feel like he wants to rip him face off at the same time he wants to rip his clothes off. Personally I feel like Moriaty is sexually flexible like he's whatever sexually orientation he needs to be to get people to do what he want. But I feel like he was born gay and that Sherlock is his type and personally I'm not sure what sexuality Sherlock is but I feel like Moriarty's really attracted to Sherlock. Like when he plays "Jim from accounting" I feel like he was revealing his inner self.

Tell me what you think.

**Posted by tonnaree** December 4, 2016 9:51 pm

I think he is gay, or at least fluid. I also think he's insane.
I think he is attracted to Sherlock physically and obsessed with Sherlock's mind.
Yea, that's about it.

**Posted by Vhanja** December 4, 2016 10:24 pm

I think that Moriarty is flirting and being quite sexually pushy towards Sherlock. However, I am unsure as to why he is doing it. Is he, in his psycho way, really attracted to Sherlock? Or is it merely a power play because he knows that this is the one thing that can makes Sherlock uncomfortable (regular insults wouldn't work).

**Posted by Yitzock** December 4, 2016 10:44 pm

I don't know if Moriarty really would be gay. I feel like he's beyond anything, and we really can't know what attraction he feels to anyone, if he ever feels attracted to anyone. It's an interesting question, though. I feel as though he uses sexuality, in whatever form that may take, to be manipulative or just to intimidate and make people uncomfortable.

**Posted by Liberty** December 5, 2016 8:32 am

I kind of head-canon him as gay, but I don't know if it really matters. I agree that there does seem to be a sexual element in his attraction to Sherlock. Sherlock certainly sees him as sexual. But I think Moriarty also uses sexuality to unsettle people, regardless of gender, in a similar way to Magnussen. I don't think it's so much a case of him fancying them as him wanting to make them uncomfortable or maybe manipulate them.

I don't think Jim from IT is an aspect of Moriarty. I think he's entirely a creation of Moriarty's, a disguise. The signs that Sherlock picks up on are all clues that Moriarty left for him. Which was quite audacious really - he absolutely fools Molly, which is probably easy enough, but with Sherlock he lets him think that he sees through him, when in fact he's only seeing the surface layer. He doesn't pick up that this is somebody in disguise. I love that scene ... particularly as Sherlock is pointing out that John misses out on anything important with the shoes, while doing exactly the same thing with Jim!

**Posted by TheGirlInTheNight-Time** December 5, 2016 10:34 am

Liberty wrote:
I kind of head-canon him as gay, but I don't know if it really matters. I agree that there does seem to be a sexual element in his attraction to Sherlock. Sherlock certainly sees him as sexual. But I think Moriarty also uses sexuality to unsettle people, regardless of gender, in a similar way to Magnussen. I don't think it's so much a case of him fancying them as him wanting to make them uncomfortable or maybe manipulate them.

I don't think Jim from IT is an aspect of Moriarty. I think he's entirely a creation of Moriarty's, a disguise. The signs that Sherlock picks up on are all clues that Moriarty left for him. Which was quite audacious really - he absolutely fools Molly, which is probably easy enough, but with Sherlock he lets him think that he sees through him, when in fact he's only seeing the surface layer. He doesn't pick up that this is somebody in disguise. I love that scene ... particularly as Sherlock is pointing out that John misses out on anything important with the shoes, while doing exactly the same thing with Jim!

I too loved that scene I agree with your point that 'Jim from It' was a facade Moriarty put on to make a fool out of Sherlock and all the other points about him using sexuality to intimidate people but I just feel that Moriarty's psychotic obsession with Sherlock has some how manifested into sexual infatuation and attraction or it might just be that he's attracted to intelligence which is what I think of Sherlock but we won't get into that just yet.
When we see Moriarty interact with other although it's only been a few times he not as sensual, for lack of a better word, shall we say than he is towards Sherlock. You could argue that he does this to make Sherlock uncomfortable but I feel like he does it in a way that Sherlock would observe it to be him trying to make him uncomfortable but it's actually Jim expressing his attraction towards Sherlock. Cuz if there is one thing Jim Moriarty is good at its confusing the hell out of everyone.

**Posted by Thouturdofperdition** December 23, 2016 11:01 pm

Honestly, a lot of mass-murderers in history have been just turned on by violence or threatening people. Adrei Chikatilo is one. Jeffery Dahmer is another. They are not sexually attracted to people, they are simply addicted to watching people hurt. Physical desire isn't their motivation. Hatred is. I think the BBC Moriarty is the same way. He gets a kick out of terrorizing and manipulating Sherlock.
"We don't need toys to kill each other. Where's the intimacy in that?"

So, I don't think Moriarty would ever actually want to be physically sexual with Sherlock, because for Moriarty, the pleasure comes from burning him.

**Posted by Cenoura** February 10, 2017 1:30 pm

Moriarty is clearly a metrosexual.

**Posted by besleybean** February 10, 2017 2:09 pm

It could be so.

**Posted by SusiGo** February 10, 2017 2:22 pm

In the helicopter scene in TFP he clearly that he is sleeping with his bodyguards. Of course he could be playing mind games again. Same with his remark to Mycroft. His sexuality seems to focus on men exclusively.

**Posted by besleybean** February 10, 2017 2:24 pm

He certainly flirts with men, what about his weird dance with Eurus?
I know Andrew has said he has his own view on Moriarty's sexuality, but has said it's a personal thing.

**Posted by SusiGo** February 10, 2017 3:07 pm

Well, talking about a man's stamina and the joys of afterglow does seem quite explicit to me.

**Posted by besleybean** February 10, 2017 4:27 pm

Does to me, doesn't mean he only likes men.
Actually having sex with a woman is even more explicit and yet for some, this doesn't make John straight.

**Posted by Vhanja** February 10, 2017 4:51 pm

He does this creepy sexual thing with one of the lady officers during the trial in TRF, so he doesn't only target men. He seems do be doing it more as a power play than for sexual reasons, although it's hard to say if it perhaps both.

**Posted by besleybean** February 10, 2017 4:59 pm

Power play would be my best guess, mainly...just playing with Eurus?

**Posted by Liberty** February 10, 2017 5:59 pm

I agree, Vhanja. I personally head canon him as gay, but I have no proof. Part of his approach seems to be to be sexually teasing/threatening. I don't think he just happens to be sharing details of sexual relations with his bodyguards (it wouldn't surprise me if there was no sex at all) - it's just the way he operates. It makes people uncomfortable. If Mycroft had been female, I can imagine Moriarty saying the same words for the same reasons, and the same effect.

**Posted by nakahara** February 11, 2017 10:19 pm

SusiGo wrote:
Well, talking about a man's stamina and the joys of afterglow does seem quite explicit to me.

I wonder why would they include this line in a script, if they didn´t want to show Moriarty as queer....

**Posted by besleybean** February 11, 2017 10:20 pm

I wonder why they would show John dating women, marrying a woman and wanting an affair with a woman, if they wanted to show him bi or gay.
Or in fact to follow the last allusion: if they didn't want to show him as straight.

Last edited by besleybean (February 11, 2017 10:21 pm)

**Posted by nakahara** February 11, 2017 10:22 pm

besleybean wrote:
I wonder why they would show John dating women, marrying a woman and wanting an affair with a woman, if they wanted to show him bi or gay.
Or in fact to follow the last allusion: if they didn't want to show him as straight.

You mean authors just write those things in because they want us to think the very opposite?

**Posted by besleybean** February 11, 2017 10:24 pm

No, I don't.
So following your question, Moriarty could be gay and I have already said that...
But the weird dance with Eurus was my only question on that and also(actually) why 'pretend' to be gay in TGG?