Softly, Softly: The BBC's LGB Research Commission and The Johnlock Conspiracy

Softly, Softly: The BBC's LGB Research Commission and The Johnlock Conspiracy is a meta essay by loudest-subtext-in-television, focusing on how the BBC's commissioned study of "the portrayal of LGBThe referral of LGBT+ people here as "LGB" within this article is consistent with the initial report from the BBC, who were advised by Equality and Human Right Commission to study sexual orientation and gender identity separately. It is not an attempt to erase trans people from the narrative of media. people [in media]" supported The Johnlock Conspiracy (TJLC), given that it was led by some of the people prominently involved with Sherlock.Report on the Portrayal of LGB People via BBC. Accessed 18 September 2019. It heavily centers around a quote from Sherlock creator Mark Gatiss:
The essay then uses that quote, in conjunction with copious quotation from the BBC's LGB portrayals study, to promote the idea that after the study was commissioned Sherlock was exactly what the BBC wanted in terms of a gay portrayal that wasn't stereotyped or otherwise harmful. This meta is one of the foundational pieces of TJLC, since loudest-subtext-in-television was a prolific Sherlock meta writer - and before the discovery of the BBC's report on portrayal of LGB people, TJLCers had very little ground to stand on with regard to whether or not the subtext in Sherlock was queerbaiting or slowburn.vanetti in response to an anon via weeesi's Tumblr. Posted 24 July 2019. Accessed 18 September 2019. With the discovery of the BBC's report, TJLCers gained a legitimacy and grounding that they didn't have before.
It also coined the usage of the phrase softly, softly"Softly, softly" goes back to the early 19th century among Anglos, but originated with West African people as "softly, softly, catch monkey". Modern viewers may have heard it on the television series Victoria. to mean "the approach of slowly developing romance between same sex couples so that a) sexuality is an incidental trait of a character in an otherwise differently themed show, for example drama about a female lawyer who also happens to be a lesbian with a wife etc; b) it draws heterosexual people in by the virtue of them being hooked on the plot and drama of the show, and getting attached to the characters, so that when sexuality and same sex couples come into it they’ve been eased into the idea so slowly they accept them."nondeducible in response to an anon via inevitably-johnlocked on Tumblr. Accessed 18 September 2019.
==Some Topics Discussed==
* The BBC's commissioned report on the portrayal of LGB people and how it shows that TJLC is "exactly what the BBC ordered."Softly, Softly: The BBC’s 2009 LGB Research Commission and The Johnlock Conspiracy via Archived Link. Posted 9 June 2014. Accessed 18 September 2019.
* The BBC's status as a public broadcaster, meaning that they aren't beholden to advertisers and how this differs from the American public broadcasting institutions of PBS and NPR.
* How Sherlock did not aim to attract an international audience and, therefore, was definitely going to make Johnlock canon.
* Why the fact that the BBC's study saying they need to have more LGB content means Johnlock is endgame.
* The BBC has dedicated itself to authentic LGB portrayals, so if TJLC is true, ipso facto the BBC are going to make Johnlock canon.
* The fact that Mark Gatiss revealed a character as gay halfway through a novel so that it wouldn't be labelled as a "gay story."
==Excerpts==
==Reception & Comments==
Many proponents of TJLC cited this meta in particular in responses to Jay Pendragon's Sherlock Fandom Survey, saying that it was part of the reason they became a TJLCer,Conversion Stories – or: TJLC and the Sherlock Fandom. Posted 7 Oct 2014. Accessed 23 Sept 2019. but the Tumblr NSFW Content Purge means that many of the reblogs and comments on this piece of meta are lost. It was, however, widely linked in TJLC meta roundups, such as this one by inevitably-johnlocked and Jay Pendragon's Johnlock 101 – An Introduction to The Johnlock Conspiracy.
Not all comments about what this meta meant to fans have been lost, and this one by gloriascott93 is particularly interesting.
The reblogs on gloriascott93's version of the post show that the original post had nearly four thousand reblogs which is a fairly significant number, given that the original essay is quite long and many Tumblr users don't reblog long posts for the sake of preventing their followers from having to scroll past them. Due to the nature of Tumblr, many of the reblogs don't provide much, if any, commentary but the general response to the meta was positive and enthusiastic.Reblog from cupiford. Posted 8 Jan 2015. Accessed 18 Oct 2019. At least one person on Twitter referred to it as being "like the holy bible."@Francivusk. Posted 12 Dec 2016. Accessed 23 Sept 2019.
westernredcedar wrote the following about the essay on the lgbtq-recs LiveJournal community as part of LGBTQ Recs Month:
However, not everyone was necessarily convinced by the meta that Johnlock would become canon. Those on the fence or indifferent to TJLC found the BBC report that the meta centered around more interesting than the implication that the report "proved" TJLC, wishing that someone would do an analysis of how the BBC had implemented their report across all shows, instead of merely speculating about what the report means in regard to Sherlock, specifically.
==Notes and References==
===Notes===
===References===
Category:2019 Featured Articles
Category:Sherlock
Category:The Johnlock Conspiracy
Category:2014 Meta
Category:Meta on Tumblr
Category:2010s