[ SECRET POST #4387 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4387 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #628.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, there's a lot of switching in the Sherlock fandom as well. There's definitely more bottom!Sherlock overall, but most of the time they switch a bit, too. Which is very much to my taste.

I wonder if switching is more popular in the megafandoms than it is in the smaller ones?

That said, I certainly cannot claim the Sherlock fandom has been exemplary in how it's handled the top-vs-bottom debate, because it hasn't. It's been wanky as fuck about it.

NAYRT

[(Anonymous)]

WAIT. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Bottom!Sherlock is more popular?

Obviously I'm not familiar with the fandom at all but for some reason I was under the strong impression that Top!Sherlock was much more popular.

This changes everything.

Re: NAYRT

[(Anonymous)]

Yes this. And like, if you're going to tap into that stereotype, or trope, or plot device, or whatever you want to call it, other people are entitled to feel weird about it.

I mean, there's a whole thing right now about how the big things in straight porn seem to be step-incest, choking, and slapping. And some straight people are justifiably weirded out by that, even if it is all fiction.

Re: NAYRT

[(Anonymous)]

Oops, misfire.

Re: NAYRT

[(Anonymous)]

for some reason I was under the strong impression that Top!Sherlock was much more popular.

This is definitely not the case, though I can see why you might think that.

I'd say toplock was more popular for...maybe like the first year of the show existing? Then for another year or two I think toplock and bottomlock kind of achieved parity. And then bottomlock took over - especially after S3 aired, for reasons that are too complex to explain in a concise way.

I think in the beginning fans were more inclined to take Sherlock's character at face value as he was presented in canon - this wildly domineering, debateably sociopathic arsehole. So at first people were like, "He's a Dom-y top and no mistaking," and wrote that. But I think a lot of people were just kind of bored (or turned off) by that very matchy-matchy "Dom in the streets, Dom/top in the sheets" approach to his character, and to his relationship with John. So it didn't take very long before a lot of people started questioning their initial assessment, and bottomlock caught on in a big way.

I feel like it's gotta be 5:1 bottomlock at this point. IDK, it's possible I'm biased. But I feel like if I were going to be biased it would more likely be the other way. Stuff we don't like tends to stand out more to us than stuff we do, right?

This changes everything.

Ha! Indeed.

Re: NAYRT

[(Anonymous)]

I also feel like part of the change in the dynamic is that, like most versions of Holmes/Watson, it's a brain/brawn dichotomy. Sherlock is the intellectual and John is the muscle. Sherlock is fashionable and dramatic and has pretty hair and plays the violin, John is an ex-soldier with a gun and a temper. So you get into a lot of stereotypes about masculinity and how that's defined and what that (stereotypically) means for who pitches and who catches.

Re: NAYRT

[(Anonymous)]

like most versions of Holmes/Watson, it's a brain/brawn dichotomy. Sherlock is the intellectual and John is the muscle.

I agree this is often how it's depicted in fanon (and TBH I like that dichotomy). But in canon? Nah. John was depicted as more likely to get in a fight, sure, but Sherlock seemed to have more physical prowess than John did. I always thought it was quite a bad choice, narratively. If Sherlock is a better fighter AND much smarter AND it's his work they're doing all the time, it makes it nearly impossible for John to have a truly active, pivotal, necessary role in the story. But for some reason that never seemed to bother the writers. *sigh*

Sherlock is fashionable and dramatic and has pretty hair and plays the violin, John is an ex-soldier with a gun and a temper.

This part is all true though, and I agree that it does play a role in how people stereotype them, sexually.

[(Anonymous)]

I think switching is more popular in the megafandoms because there's just more of EVERYTHING. More TopA/BottomB. More TopB/BottomA. More switching fic.

And because things tend to go in trends, and in long-running megafandoms, there's more time for that pendulum to swing.

For me, switching is my favorite thing. Not because it's PC or "egalitarian," but because it is the sexiest of all the options to me. I love it when roles are not taken for granted but get renegotiated every time. When it depends on their moods. When they compete for it. When they flip a coin. When the guy who's bottomed mostly for the last three weeks suddenly turns to his partner and says, "I wanna fuck your brains out tonight" and the partner goes FDLKSDJ:OIU;)($*) and almost comes in his pants at the very thought.

And yeah, I think Johnlock is a pairing that is VERY well suited to this dynamic. And that's probably because I've read like 7 years of Johnlock fic with them doing it every which way. The great thing about being a switch fan is that I enjoy both top/bottom configurations just fine, I don't need tags or "warnings" ("warnings" for consensual sex positions between grown adults, WTF no) so it's all good. I don't have to write off half the fic for my pairing because it does it "wrong," lol.

[(Anonymous)]

I think switching is more popular in the megafandoms because there's just more of EVERYTHING. More TopA/BottomB. More TopB/BottomA. More switching fic.

This much I think is certainly true. However, I keep seeing people lament that hardly anybody writes switching fics in their fandoms, yet I'd say 4/5 fics I read in the Sherlock fandom involve some switching, and then another anon came in and said that Destiel also has tons of switch fics. So that's what made me wonder if it was something more than just "more of everything equals more of switching."

I don't need tags or "warnings" ("warnings" for consensual sex positions between grown adults, WTF no)

I find tags a nice courtesy, but obviously not anything like a necessity. But the idea that you have to warn for who tops is pretty ridiculous - and I say that as someone who believes very strongly in warning for stuff.

[(Anonymous)]

I wonder if Western media fandoms have more of it. When I first got into fanfic in the late 90s/early 00s I was really struck by how people into anime and manga fandoms seemed to be WAY more invested in who tops and who bottoms than people in any of the fandoms I was in. A holdover from the seme/uke thing, maybe? Some people seemed to consider AxB virtually a totally different ship from BxA and that seemed utterly bizarre to me at the time. Still don't get it completely.

That said, Sherlock fandom has had some downright nasty top/bottom wank - including accusations of rape-apology and pedophilia (for consensual sex between two grown-ass men) and people claiming that toplock "triggers" them and all that. There was a whole review blog called "is it bottomlock" that read popular fics of the day and made sure everybody's delicate sensibilities were spared from the horror of accidentally reading a fic where Sherlock sticks it in.