Torchwood: Captain Jack's sexuality...

[fajrdrako]

becky_h initiated an interesting discussion about how Captain Jack is not a slut on torch_wood yesterday, and while I've only read part of the commentary so far (and plan to return to read more) I wanted to first voice a few thoughts of my own about the subject.

And let me start by saying it's okay if he is a slut. I have liked many heroes who were promiscuous, some of them even bisexual and promiscuous, and I love them all the more for it. And that's what I thought I was getting with Captain Jack. We had all sorts of reasons to think so. The Captain Jack we met in Doctor Who was flirty and sexy and introduced as seductive from the beginning, with both Algy and Rose. Even in "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways", after he's been with the Doctor and Rose for a while, he's a exerting his charm towards those around him, and the Doctor accuses him of flirting.

Then we get the advance publicity for Torchwood. Lots and lots of talk about 'omnisexual' Captain Jack. The producers say he'll go for anyone with a postal code. John Barrowman says he'll go with anyone with a hole. Lots of talk about his general sexiness, his bottom, hints of graphic sex and/or nudity.

The truth is, it isn't hard to have more graphic sex than you get in Doctor Who.

So then we get Torchwood and Captain Jack's flirtation is notched down a peg. Over the course of the first half dozen episodes, he talks about kissing alien life forms, having had a twin acrobat boyfriend, having a long list of past lovers.... But in the present, what? He kisses an alien to keep her alive. He kisses Ianto when he's half-conscious. (Nice moment, though.) He is sweet and loving to an old woman he'd had an affair with when she was seventeen. He cuddles Gwen a little in the gun room, but when she kissed him in "Day One", he didn't even kiss back. The only time he flirts with Gwen at all, is when he thinks she won't remember afterwards. When Gwen shows interest and curiosity in him, and possibly more, he sends her home to Rhys, telling her not to mess up the relationship she has with distractions.

And really, in a show where sex is an ongoing theme, it was soon pretty clear that everyone was getting some except Jack. We see him sleeping alone, obsessing over his work, apparently spending all his time at the Hub. The only lovers he mentions are past history.

And more and more we see his sense of compassion - towards Tosh, Gwen, John Ellis, Jasmine and her mother. By the end of "End of Days" we see his capacity to love everyone on his team. And yes, we know he has sex with Ianto - presumably on more than one occasion - but what we see is the warmth and the human connection, and it's Ianto who propositions Jack, not the other way round - Jack is, in fact, surprised when he does.

And for the original Jack... Attracted from the first moment he saw him, our Jack backs off, and keeps sending the other Jack back to Nancy. What we see between them is more romance than sex. Jack isn't chasing after Jack for his body. Jack is weeping because Jack will die and he can't save him.

So it's more and more clear that Captain Jack isn't all about sex, like we might have expected. He's all about love. He cares.

I like that.

He's also obviously very sensuous, and would probably be having sex with any number of people if it didn't bother him so much to lose them afterwards. I like it that his capacity for love is not equated with monogamy.

I was surprised when he criticised Gwen for her infidelity to Rhys, but it made sense when you look at it from his point of view: he didn't want Gwen to hurt or break that relationship. He saw the love there, and saw its value, and didn't want it lost - or worse, thrown away through carelessness.

Comments

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I was surprised when he criticised Gwen for her infidelity to Rhys, but it made sense when you look at it from his point of view: he didn't want Gwen to hurt or break that relationship. He saw the love there, and saw its value, and didn't want it lost - or worse, thrown away through carelessness.

...And also for there to be at least one member of the team who had a regular life outside that wasn't damaged by working for Torchwood.

Jack has, I think, learned a great deal since he was with the Doctor; he's got baggage to carry from that, too.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

for there to be at least one member of the team who had a regular life outside that wasn't damaged by working for Torchwood.

Yes indeed. I think that's important to Jack - especially after he saw what happened to Suzie, how her obsession over Torchwood made her into a killer with no sense of proportion. When Gwen later says 'everyone here ends up alone' - I think that's exactly what Jack doesn't want.

Jack has, I think, learned a great deal since he was with the Doctor; he's got baggage to carry from that, too.

Definitely, and in several ways. As I see it, the Doctor gave him a life where he was happy - on the TARDIS - and then snatched it away, leaving him with a strong sense of duty but no sense of understanding.

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
ché la diritta via era smarrita.

...Though whether I am symbolically casting the Doctor as Virgilio or God I'm not sure. Maybe both. In any case, I can see Torchwood as Jack's Inferno, an underground place of learning, compassion, fear, loneliness, occasional despair and ultimate hope.

[msp-hacker.livejournal.com]

I can see Torchwood as Jack's Inferno, an underground place of learning, compassion, fear, loneliness, occasional despair and ultimate hope.

That's a beautiful metaphor.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

The more I think of it, the more I like the way it follows through.