hurrah, gendergeek tendencies! no worries about showing them - my college loans paid for exactly the same education. :)
Yes yes! it was totally excellent in its focus on gender performativity, and I guess what I like best about it is that the gender performativity feels both true to current gender/queer theory (cultural construction etc) and true to Victorian conceptions of how gender works - like, it makes perfect sense that Holmes could deduce queer theory for himself (*g*) but still phrase it in a perfectly Victorian manner. And, it's awesome, because while plenty of people have one view on the Victorians, repressive hypothesis Foucault etc., they're really quite fabulously queer, and doing all kinds of things with gender performativity already! So, that's the background I felt in your story, Holmes basically noticing the same things about the Victorians that Foucault did, and using that as a basis to begin to understand himself. :)
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Yes yes! it was totally excellent in its focus on gender performativity, and I guess what I like best about it is that the gender performativity feels both true to current gender/queer theory (cultural construction etc) and true to Victorian conceptions of how gender works - like, it makes perfect sense that Holmes could deduce queer theory for himself (*g*) but still phrase it in a perfectly Victorian manner. And, it's awesome, because while plenty of people have one view on the Victorians, repressive hypothesis Foucault etc., they're really quite fabulously queer, and doing all kinds of things with gender performativity already! So, that's the background I felt in your story, Holmes basically noticing the same things about the Victorians that Foucault did, and using that as a basis to begin to understand himself. :)