language-escapes:

Because I have such a broad interest in Sherlock Holmes, one
which has encompassed more than half my life so far (not that big of a deal-
I’m twenty seven), I get to see a lot of different comments about a lot of
different adaptations.  Some comments are
full of praise, some are very negative, and some are eyebrow raising.  

When it comes to Elementary, it won’t surprise a lot of fans
that a lot of the mainstream Holmesians treat it with a derisive sneer.  They have lots of different complaints and
opinions that they levy at it, but I think one of my favourites is “They made
Watson into a woman as a gimmick- and not even an original gimmick, since
Watson has been a woman before.”

The critics are absolutely right, of course.  Watson has been portrayed as a woman
before.  Probably the most well known
women Watsons are Dr. Mildred Watson (played by Joanne Woodward) from They
Might Be Giants and Amy Winslow (played by Debrah Farentino) from 1994
Baker Street: Sherlock Holmes Returns.  There are others, of course.  Many web series have had women Watsons,
including The Adventures of Jamie Watson (and Sherlock
Holmes); S(her)lock; Herlock; Baker Street; and In Hot Pursuit- which
is only the tip of the iceberg.  I’m sure
there are others I’m unfamiliar with.
And then there’s non-English/non-Western women Watsons, such as Jane
Watson (played by Galina Shchepetnova) from Russia’s My Dearly
Beloved Detective and a number of actresses who’ve played Watson in
Korea’s musicals Sherlock Holmes: The Secret of the Anderson
Family and the sequel Sherlock Holmes: Bloody
Games.  Watson as a woman is
certainly nothing new, and I’ve barely explored the topic.  These are just the ones I can think of off
the top of my head.

The issue here is that people claim that Elementary’s Joan
Watson is a gimmick because she is woman, conveniently ignoring that she is
specifically a non-white woman.  And that
is not common- it is in fact incredibly rare, if not unheard of.

I was privileged to have the opportunity to assist
@sanguinarysanguinity with her fanvid, “Something Good (Will Come From That),” which if you haven’t watched yet, you
really need to go look at it now.  One of
Sang’s goals was to have as many non-white, non-male Holmes’ or Watsons as
possible, and it was partly my job to find them.  While I was lucky and was able to find some
non-Western versions of Holmes and Watson that weren’t white, it was impossible
to find a non-white, non-male Watson in a Western visual medium.

(I am not going to address non-Western versions of Holmes
and Watson.  There are two reasons for
this.  The first is that it was hard for
me to find adaptations in non-Western media to begin with, simply because I
didn’t have language skills required, although you will note the Korean
musicals above and their women Watsons; the second is because I am specifically
going to be talking about Joan Watson from Elementary going forward, and so I
only want to compare Western medias.)

It is easy to sneer at the idea of a woman Watson if you try
to pretend that she’s unoriginal because there have been other women
Watsons.  Except that we fall into the
trap, here, of assuming that white womanhood is universal.  It is an easy trap to fall into, and one we
fall into a lot.  Look at the way we
white women hail any media that puts women front and center, conveniently
forgetting that most of those so-called feminist films and TV shows only
feature white women.  White womanhood isn’t
universal, and white women have far more representation in media than women of
color or non-white women.  

Look at that list of women Watsons I put forward above.  With the exception of the Korean musicals,
every single one of those women Watson are white.  Even in all the web series, which are not
beholden to executive interference or marketing, have only had white women in
the role of Watson.  (As an aside, it
should be noted that S(her)lock’s Watson is a transwoman.)  While Holmesians have bent enough to
grudgingly accept the idea of a woman Watson, we have not yet accepted on a
larger scale a non-white woman in the role.

Enter Elementary’s Joan Watson.  A Chinese-American woman Watson.  The first woman of color playing Watson in
mainstream Western media.  The only woman
of color playing Watson in mainstream Western media.

This is huge.  You
might not think it’s huge, but it is.  Plenty
of people have talked about how important representation is in media.  Many Asian-American women have talked about
how important Joan Watson is to them.
Many people have talked about how important it is to have an
Asian-American woman in a lead role on a major network, and specifically a role
that everyone in the world has at least name recognition with.  Elementary’s Joan Watson is important.  

On a microcosmic scale, she’s important for Holmesiana,
too.  Once upon a time, it was impossible
to fathom Holmes or Watson as anything other than British white men.  People who questioned that status quo were
met with shock- if you look at Ellery Queen’s editorials, he notes that people
greeted Rex Stout’s 1941 speech “Watson Was a Woman” with “Holmesian horror.”  Attitudes can shift, however, which is why
there are women Holmes’ and Watsons out there.
Not nearly enough, of course, but they’re out there, and generally
accepted.  It is not nearly as surprising
to encounter a (white) woman Holmes or Watson as it used to be.

Which means that Joan Watson has the potential to further
break down the barriers in Holmesiana.  Joan
Watson’s very existence normalizes a non-white Watson.  For some people, Joan Watson was how they
came to Holmesiana as a whole.  Others
will look at Elementary and then look at all Sherlock Holmes media going
forward and ask if they, too, can have non-white characters in the lead.  Joan Watson is the first and currently the
only, which makes her exceptional.  

I want to say that again: Joan Watson is exceptional,
and Holmesiana as a whole- the old guard in particular- need to back
the fuck off.  It doesn’t
matter if you think making Joan Watson a Chinese-American woman is a gimmick.  It doesn’t matter if it was a gimmick.  What matters is that people
are seeing her, and she wears the Watson name.
It matters that she is a main character on Elementary.  It matters that she is smart, capable,
compassionate, strong, an individual.  Joan
Watson is exceptional, and it’s about time that Holmesiana sucks it up and
accepts it.  

Someday, people will look at Elementary and credit it with shaping
Holmesian adaptations.  Think of how the
Gillette play and silent film shaped all Holmesian adaptations after it, or the
Rathbone films’ influence, or how our three present Holmesian adaptations have
an homage to Granada in some way.  All of
these adaptations did something specific that influenced everything that came
after.  Elementary, and specifically Joan
Watson, has the potential to create a new trajectory, to lay a new path, to
inspire creators who come after.

Joan Watson is important, and she is exceptional, and it’s time we fucking recognize it.