Discussion prompt gathering

[damned_colonial]

Over on podficmeta they did something for 3W4DW that I think might work well here. One of the moderators, zvi, posted asking people to suggest things they'd like to have discussed on the community. So, I'm going to do the same, lifting most of the phrasing from her post ;)

Please comment to this post if there's a discussion you'd like to see happen on this community. If you have a full fledged entry, you can tell me that you'd like to do the posting. If you just have an idea you'd be okay with me riffing on, say that and I will.

I'll then post top-level posts prompting discussion on the subjects suggested.

Comments

[kindkit]

1) The cultural norms issue, especially as it turns up in the anti-slash argument in Holmes and other historical fandoms: "But they wouldn't have done that! That was criminal/sinful/taboo back in those days!" It would be nice to get into some nuanced discussion of how people are influenced by their culture's sexual ideologies without necessarily obeying all the rules.

2) The nineteenth-century medicalization of homosexuality, especially since Watson is himself a doctor.

[oursin]

how people are influenced by their culture's sexual ideologies without necessarily obeying all the rules

Anna Clark, in Desire, which is an overview history of 'Western' sexuality, has a very useful formulation of 'twilight moments' for behaviours which were condemned or at least not approved, but nevertheless took place. (It's a useful read generally)

I think I did some bibliography on C19th definitions of homosexuality as a comment to an earlier post, but the medicalisation issue and how influential it was is something I could oh so easily expand on!

[kindkit]

Thanks for the rec! And more from you on the medicalization issue would be great.