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

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I could make a really bitchy remark here

Aww, go for it!

I have honestly read a lot of Torchwood CJ fic that reads more like Pirates Of The Caribbean CJ characterisation.

LOL - I never thought of that. Now, I am a great admirer of Captain Jack Sparrow, but he's miles away from our Captain Jack in personality and style. (Our Jack drinks water. That Jack drinks rum. 'Nuff said.)
When next I read a Torchwood fic that has a really strange-acting Captin Jack, I will simply picture him as Sparrow in a greatcoat and see if that fixes things!