Oct. 2nd, 2011 01:45 pm
Women in Doctor Who
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savvyliterateI keep reading posts on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
doctorwho and other places about how Moffat is a misogynist and keeps making cracks about women. And while I don't deny that he's made some stupidly sexist remarks about women, I do wonder if I'm watching the same show at times.
RTD's era - 10th Doctor: (see below for thoughts on 9th Doctor)
Rose Tyler: After risking the entire bloody universe to return to the Doctor's side, he dumps her in an alternate universe with his clone and doesn't let her give her opinion one way or the other. Ten II, knowing what Rose wants to hear, manipulates her into kissing him and the Doctor scurries off. While yes, the Doctor and Rose loved each other, he never gave her the freedom to actually choose what she wanted to do and who she wanted to be with, and never even really thanks her for what she did.
Martha Jones: That was a disaster and a half. He treats her pretty terribly throughout series 3 despite all of the great things and the sacrifices she made for him. Again, the Doctor refuses to acknowledge Martha's feelings for him and treats her like it's a horrible thing that Martha fell in love with him.
Donna Noble: The biggest clusterfuck of all of them. Donna is the one who blossoms the most with the Doctor, turning from a shallow gossip whose ultimate goal was marriage to DONNA NOBLE, BAMF. Over her pleas, the Doctor forcefully wipes her memory because he decided he knew what was best for her and didn't take her concerns or feelings about her situation into effect. This returns Donna to a shallow woman whose ultimate goal was marriage, and we don't see her progress beyond that again.
Moffat's era - 11th Doctor:
Amy Pond: Although she crushed on the Doctor, he didn't just abandon her. He brought in Rory and helped Amy realize her true feelings always lay with Rory. Instead of leaving them to a normal life post-wedding, he just scoops both of them up and takes them along. Amy forges her own path when the Doctor isn't there, developing her own perfume and modeling for it. When he said good-bye to them in "The God Complex," he didn't force her out the door. They talked and had a proper farewell, then we see that Amy has truly developed into her own person through the perfume ad and acknowledging in "Closing Time" that she no longer needed to wait for him. She can do things on her own. Amy continues to blossom up to orchestrating the rescue of the Doctor in the alternate universe and killing Madame Kovarian. At the end of series 6, none of her accomplishments had been stripped from her.
River Song: Huge BAMF whom while yes, is the Doctor's wife, never asked him to marry her. He initiated it, not her. And she spends her time breaking out of prison, having amazing adventures, becoming an extremely renowned and respected archaeologist, and more. None of her accomplishments are stripped away from her, and it's quite apparent that River on her own is equally feared/respected as the Doctor. She goes from terrified little girl to hell in high heels and isn't apologetic about any of it. At the point where River declares that she chooses the Doctor over the universe, instead of ignoring/invalidating those feelngs like RTD's Doctor would, he acknowledges them and marries her. She retains her own agency throughout everything, and even though she dies to save the Doctor in the end, it's on her own terms.
There's a lot of things I can criticize and embrace about RTD and Stephen Moffat, but when it comes down to writing female characters, to me, Moffat has done a far better job than RTD once he hit the Tenth Doctor era. RTD in the Ninth Doctor era was just fine and didn't invalidate Rose's feelings for the Doctor. And I apologize if I come off harsh, and I do respect everyone's points of view on this issue. Maybe I just see things differently, and I admit it took awhile to warm up to what Moffat was doing with Amy, and I question some of his choices like dragging out the "who does Amy really love" thing out longer than it needed to be, etc. But, by the end of series 5, I was on board with it.
doctorwho and other places about how Moffat is a misogynist and keeps making cracks about women. And while I don't deny that he's made some stupidly sexist remarks about women, I do wonder if I'm watching the same show at times.RTD's era - 10th Doctor: (see below for thoughts on 9th Doctor)
Rose Tyler: After risking the entire bloody universe to return to the Doctor's side, he dumps her in an alternate universe with his clone and doesn't let her give her opinion one way or the other. Ten II, knowing what Rose wants to hear, manipulates her into kissing him and the Doctor scurries off. While yes, the Doctor and Rose loved each other, he never gave her the freedom to actually choose what she wanted to do and who she wanted to be with, and never even really thanks her for what she did.
Martha Jones: That was a disaster and a half. He treats her pretty terribly throughout series 3 despite all of the great things and the sacrifices she made for him. Again, the Doctor refuses to acknowledge Martha's feelings for him and treats her like it's a horrible thing that Martha fell in love with him.
Donna Noble: The biggest clusterfuck of all of them. Donna is the one who blossoms the most with the Doctor, turning from a shallow gossip whose ultimate goal was marriage to DONNA NOBLE, BAMF. Over her pleas, the Doctor forcefully wipes her memory because he decided he knew what was best for her and didn't take her concerns or feelings about her situation into effect. This returns Donna to a shallow woman whose ultimate goal was marriage, and we don't see her progress beyond that again.
Moffat's era - 11th Doctor:
Amy Pond: Although she crushed on the Doctor, he didn't just abandon her. He brought in Rory and helped Amy realize her true feelings always lay with Rory. Instead of leaving them to a normal life post-wedding, he just scoops both of them up and takes them along. Amy forges her own path when the Doctor isn't there, developing her own perfume and modeling for it. When he said good-bye to them in "The God Complex," he didn't force her out the door. They talked and had a proper farewell, then we see that Amy has truly developed into her own person through the perfume ad and acknowledging in "Closing Time" that she no longer needed to wait for him. She can do things on her own. Amy continues to blossom up to orchestrating the rescue of the Doctor in the alternate universe and killing Madame Kovarian. At the end of series 6, none of her accomplishments had been stripped from her.
River Song: Huge BAMF whom while yes, is the Doctor's wife, never asked him to marry her. He initiated it, not her. And she spends her time breaking out of prison, having amazing adventures, becoming an extremely renowned and respected archaeologist, and more. None of her accomplishments are stripped away from her, and it's quite apparent that River on her own is equally feared/respected as the Doctor. She goes from terrified little girl to hell in high heels and isn't apologetic about any of it. At the point where River declares that she chooses the Doctor over the universe, instead of ignoring/invalidating those feelngs like RTD's Doctor would, he acknowledges them and marries her. She retains her own agency throughout everything, and even though she dies to save the Doctor in the end, it's on her own terms.
There's a lot of things I can criticize and embrace about RTD and Stephen Moffat, but when it comes down to writing female characters, to me, Moffat has done a far better job than RTD once he hit the Tenth Doctor era. RTD in the Ninth Doctor era was just fine and didn't invalidate Rose's feelings for the Doctor. And I apologize if I come off harsh, and I do respect everyone's points of view on this issue. Maybe I just see things differently, and I admit it took awhile to warm up to what Moffat was doing with Amy, and I question some of his choices like dragging out the "who does Amy really love" thing out longer than it needed to be, etc. But, by the end of series 5, I was on board with it.