Really Sherlock, really? (IR)

For my independent reading assignment my group decided to read two of Arthur Conan Doyle's first Sherlock Holmes books: A Study in Scarlett and The Sign of the Four. I was psyched about this assignment for a lot of reasons. I love mysteries, I've had Sherlock Holmes books sitting on my bookshelf for years and I figured that it would be a nice enjoyable read. Everything was all well and good until I actually started reading. The writing was fine, but what frustrated me was the author's racism, and the portrayal of women. Yes, the Sherlock Holmes series was written a time where there was a lot of racism and sexism and general misunderstanding of everything but I don't think that is an excuse for some of the portrayals in these mystery novels.

Portrayal of different races:
 
The Sign of the Four is a mystery about stolen treasure taken from India. The Indian characters in the book include two Sikh men and a native from the Andaman Islands named Tonga. The Sikhs are portrayed as greedy and evil as they put together a plot to steal treasure and kill a white man (*gasp) in the pursuit of stealing it. Meanwhile the main white villain is shown as merely a pawn in their plan who was too scared to cross them. The native, Tonga is shown as ugly, unintelligent and blood-thirsty. Although there are many deaths in The Sign of the Four they are never committed by a white man. It is little three-foot Tonga with his his blowgun that does the dirty work. When the white villain returned from India with Tonga, he made money by parading Tonga around as the devil and getting paid for "beating up the devil". Super racist? Oh, yes.

Portrayal of women:

A sexist portrayal of women can be seen in both A Study in Scarlett and in The Sign of the Four. In A Study in Scarlett  a man avenges the death of his fiance and her father. His fiance, Lucy had worn away in depression and sorrow after being married off to a bad man while her true love had been unable to save her. I found myself thinking, why couldn't have Lucy saved herself? If she was such a catch, supposedly she'd have some brains right? But no, Lucy died of sorrow because she was too weak to stand up for herself and a good strong man needs to go and avenge her death.
In The Sign of the Four we finally are introduced to a strong female character. Her name Miss Mary Morstan and her father was one of the ones who died in pursuit of a large treasure. Mary holds up well throughout the mystery and information on various killings, never crying or showing weakness.Watson thinks strength is hot and decides he wants to marry her. He goes on about how strength is almost that of a mans. Sherlock on the other hands says that no woman is to be trusted. Ever.
Really Sherlock, really?