Randomly found myself thinking about the sapphic stereotypes that would totally apply to Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett if Sweeney was female.
1. Lovett openly expressing her feelings, and Sweeney being unable to take the hint.
2. Sweeney calling Lovett "love", "dear", and other pet names, and Lovett (most likely) being unable to tell if he likes her romantically or if he's just saying stuff. (Or she, if I'm talking about gender-bent Sweeney.)
3. The whole "friends who are kinda flirty with each other but neither of them makes a move" thing. (I mean, they're only flirty in a few scenes, and it's mostly one sided except for in A Little Priest, but still.)
Like, after Sweeney says "Mrs. Lovett, how I've lived without you all these years, I'll never know", Lovett's probably having this internal crisis of "does he like me or is he just saying that to be nice?" Obviously anyone could be in a situation like that, but it kinda became a wlw stereotype.
Conclusion: female Sweeney and Lovett being a sapphic duo would be awesome, and the only reason why Sweeney wasn't originally written as a woman is because he would've been too powerful. (That last part's a joke, but I stand by what I said about female Sweeney and Lovett.)
