shadowfireflame | Entries tagged with genderswap

OMG, squeeing so hard right now because the brilliant notsosilentwallflower on tumblr/bambionice89 on Youtube has done an extension of her brilliant fem!lock gifs/edits, this time in video form!

I reeeeally love the idea of a female Sherlock (as opposed to just a female John). Female geniuses are awesome, but arrogant female genuises are amazing (and rather rare). You can check out my fem!Sherlock recs list if you’re interested in more.

But this video has pretty much solidified my headcanon for fem!Sherlock (Eva Green—gorgeous, edgy, with that coldness Sherlock can portray) and fem!Moriarty (Ruth Wilson—you remember the psychopath from Luther? I totally predicted she’d make a great Moriarty; she was also the lead in Small Island with none other than Benedict Cumberbatch for a husband).

I’m still not 100% sold on fem!John (Carey Mulligan) or fem!Lestrade (Stana Katic—Beckett on Castle), though I have to admit that Carey Mulligan does have something very John-like about her in her eyes and calm acceptance of the world around her, tinged with a bit of sadness. I can’t help feeling that she and Lestrade should be a bit more weathered, somehow, more like seasoned veterans from dealing with Sherlock. But Steven Fry as Mr. Hudson is inspired.

Please enjoy and go beg the creator for more! <3

Current Mood: ecstatic

Younger me could never have foreseen this post and would have recommended institutionalization had someone tried to suggest to her that one day she'd be typing up her reasons for reading about fictional guys having ass babies...and yet, I regret nothing. :D

In response to the lovely

lobelia321's request to explain mpreg, I typed up some awesome stories I love that are mpreg (male pregnancy; guys having babies), as well as the reasons why I like it so much, so I thought I'd share them here while I have it all coded out! I know lots of people don't like the trope, but here are my reasons. :)

( Cut so as to not squick people :) )

Hope this helps those mildly interested in the trope? Veterans should please let me know any fics in these fandoms with a heavy mpreg element that I've missed! :)

P.S. There's an LJ Friending Meme going on right now! My comment thread is here. :D

Back to the Harry Potter Recs Masterpost: (Portkey)

Back to the Sherlock Recs Masterpost: (Taxi!)

Current Mood: devious

From the same (unfortunately incorrect, it seems) rumor mill that brought you the Benedict-Cumberbatch-as-the-Master rumors, the next thing seems to be a possible casting of Lara Pulver (who, of course, played Irene Adler on Sherlock) as The Doctor.

While I will take this with a grain of salt, I’m just saying that casting either of those two persons in either of those two roles would absolutely guarantee that I watched the series obsessively. And I haven’t really been able to get into it before.

But surely it’s well past time for a female Doctor—not just a damn companion—and especially if she’s played by an actress whom I already trust and love!

Note: Tagging with “genderswap” because I think it covers the same category of flipping traditionally male roles into female ones. But now I’m thinking that might be a little misleading or even patronizing. Because The Doctor is canonically an alien who regenerates into different forms. Why the hell shouldn’t one of those forms be female?

Reading comments that say The Doctor wouldn’t be The Doctor if he were female just makes me angry. Because—why? Why must some fans persist in the belief that switching a character’s gender would so intrinsically change him/her as to make him/her unrecognizable? I absolutely do not believe that.

Um. Edit for more ranting:

So I read this article about the possible casting, and in that was a line that I took exception to and ranted about, figured I might as well post it here to. Yay, ranting.

The line: ...for reasons of sanity, we’re firmly on the “Doctor should be male” side of the argument...

My response: What a curious statement, and I'm really not sure what is meant by it. Whose sanity? I can assure you one male Doctor after another is not doing wonders for mine.

Why should the Doctor, who canonically regenerates into different forms, not once in twelve times take the body of a woman (or, though this argument is not about this, a person of color)? What an eye-opening experience it would be for the character (and for us)! What a chance for differing dynamics between the characters. (A female Doctor's relationship with River Song comes to mind...)

Why should major actresses on this show be constantly relegated to the traditionally female roles of being companions and love interests? Of course being a male would certainly help the Doctor in most time periods, but wouldn't he relish the challenge of becoming female?

I, for one, have been not particularly interested in the recent Doctors, but I would be absolutely guaranteed to watch if the Doctor were a woman.

Current Mood: determined

I want to learn how to draw just so I can do stuff like this forever.

Featured on i09 and themarysue:

The genderswapped version of Harry Potter from the artist maaria on deviantart:

Check out the art here!

My impressions:

--Fem!Snape looks so gothic and awesome
--Not going to lie, same with fem!Voldy
--Harriet is scruffy and scrappy and adorable
--Fem!Fred-and-George suddenly become more amazing when they have punk rock hairstyles
--guy!Hermione for the WIN
--girl!Draco looks kind of stereotypically awful and bitchy, but I like her confidence
--girl!Neville and guy!Luna would be so cool, too
--Harriet/guy!Ginny suddenly just got a lot hotter.

I've read a ton of fem!Sherlock, but I don't think I've ever read an always-a-girl!Harry story. Ever. /suddenly feel awful

EDIT: Okay, so I found a list of always-a-girl!Harry at this link, if you're interested. Unfortunately, it's from FanFiction.net, which I dislike, but it's better than nothing, and I'm grateful for the compiler. Also, there are some fun recasting photos at the harry-potter-genderswap tag on tumblr. :)

Current Mood: giggly

Happy Leap Day!

Today I spent the morning reading on my Kindle for hours in what turned out to be pointless jury duty, and I spent the afternoon getting a job offer/filling out paperwork/getting tested for drugs! Yay! Hard work is finally paying off. :)

Other things of interest:

—Lucy Liu has been cast as Joan Watson for the pilot of CBS’s Elementary. Well, I was going to watch this show anyway because, seriously, at this point stick “Sherlock” on anything, and I will apparently eat it up. But now I’m actually looking forward to this. I really like Lucy Liu as an actress. And though I can foresee some potential issues, if nothing else, this is a step in the direction of finally having a genderswapped Sherlock. But more than that, the casting has generated a lot of discussion about gender and the difference between epic bromance and the portrayal of a gay relationship. See

sarahtales’s post about adaptations for some good discussion. And definitely read

greywash’s post about not pre-judging this show until it’s, you know, actually been aired.

—The rumor mill has been churning about a possible casting of Benedict Cumberbatch as the Master for the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who. While I would absolutely love to see this (and rumor has it that Moffat would as well), and it would make me much more interested in the program than I currently am, it feels a bit too much like wishful thinking/fan casting. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but let’s not jump to conclusions.

—Quote I found recently from Steven Moffat comparing the titular characters in his two projects, Doctor Who and Sherlock: “The Doctor is an angel trying to be a man; Sherlock is a man trying to be a god.” Hee, it reminds me of the “you’re on the side of the angels” thing with Moriarty. And basically that is why I adored Sherlock right off the bat but found it harder to initially relate to the Doctor—to me it’s more interesting to see someone attempt something impossible and fail than to see someone who can do the impossible attempt to limit himself. But obviously there are tons of similarities between the characters; I just like darker, more damaged characters more.

—National Theatre Live’s Frankenstein is returning for encore screenings! Which means I can finally see Benedict Cumberbatch as Dr. Frankenstein and Jonny Lee Miller as the Creature! I was fortunate enough to see the reverse casting last time it came to town, but I suspect I might like Benedict as Frankenstein more because, you know, he’ll have hair. /is shallow

( And finally, some Sherlock spoilers... )

Current Mood: contemplative

Right, so I know how this seems like it’s pretty random, but there is a reason! After watching (and falling in love with) the 3-episode BBC series Sherlock (which is great except for utterly failing the Bechdel Test and also random race!fail in part 2), I started wondering where the hell all the female geniuses were. I couldn’t off the top of my head imagine that many brilliant females at all. The closest I could come to one that could possibly match Holmes’ character and brilliance was Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (etc.) series. I can think of tons of smart ladies, sure; Hermione’s very clever, for example. But a sheer brilliant female genius? Couldn’t think of one except Lisbeth. And that really started to bother me.

EDIT: The TV characters of Temperance "Bones" Brennan in the show Bones may actually qualify. She seems pretty damn brilliant/socially awkward/Holmesian. I'll need to see more episodes. The TV character of Amy Farrah Fowler in the show The Big Bang Theory may also qualify, as a brilliant, socially awkward counterpart to the character of Sheldon, but again, I haven't seen that many episodes.

I found a pseudo fix in reading Laurie R. King's The Beekeeper’s Apprentice, in which a young girl with a Holmesian intellect is taken under his wing, but he was still half the focus and for the purpose of this experiment, I wanted it all to be on her. (But I still love this series. For more, see my reviews of book 2, book 3, book 4, book 5, book 6, book 7, and the radio drama.)

And then I found fanfic in which Sherlock Holmes is a woman. Thank God for the world of fanfic, I tell you. Correcting misogyny one word at a time. Often John Watson is also a woman, but that doesn’t matter to me in this case; I want to see a dazzling female intellect wowing the average, everyday citizenry.

EDIT: Okay, so I'm coming to realize that it's not just that I want a female genius (though I'll take those!). I actually want an arrogant female genius. Someone irritating, confident, abrasive, demanding. I don't want a cute little girl who demurely and quietly provides her brain powers to the betterment of humanity; I want a woman with charisma who explodes onto the scene, verbally eviscerates everyone, and then sweeps away with her massive intellect. Yeah...in short, I want a female Sherlock Holmes. And I've found some.

Something like this would have been very helpful to me when I was searching for them, so I’ve compiled a recs list of all the ones I’ve found and loved. Please do let me know if you come across a great fic that I’ve neglected! This type of story really means a lot to me and says something important about gender and genius. Plus, you know, the idea of girl!Sherlock is just really, really hot.

( Onto the Genderswap! )

: : :

More, please, pretty authors who are into this, too? *bats eyelashes*

Random edits after the fact:

Guys, I think basically my work here is done. Now instead of just being a handful of genderswap fics, there are a ton! More than I can count! *happy dance* I strongly suggest you check out Key of X.org's Sherlock-is-female-or-transgender category (run by foxestacado, to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude). The whole website is really great for Sherlock Holmes fic recommendations!

Apparently there is at least one officially published Sherlock genderswap: Honour Among Punks: The Complete Baker Street Graphic Novel by Guy Davis. Looks cool.

And there's a series of short stories freely available about one Miss Madelyn Mack, Detective, who is apparently very similar to Sherlock. Check out here and here for details if you're interested.

Ha, there is a TV adaptation with fem!Sherlock: a Canadian TV series called The Adventures of Shirley Holmes. Now, unfortunately it is not actually genderswap of the original Sherlock Holmes; it's about his great grand-niece. Still, at least Shirley is in the Holmes family.

So apparently abundantlyqueer has written Fem!Sherlock snippets. No, I'm sorry, your argument is invalid.

OMG PERFECT FANCASTING by notsosilentwallflower on tumblr!!! Eva Green as Sherlock, Carey Mulligan as John, and Ruth Wilson as Moriarty (hey, I predicted this one!). Awesome gifsets.