shah_of_blah (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shah_of_blah) wrote2010-07-13 12:20 am
shah_of_blah) wrote2010-07-13 12:20 am
Entry tags:
Gender Fail in Doctor Who, or I Love River Song (And I Don't Care Who Frakking Knows)
So I have written this essay about women in Doctor Who. Turns out I was angrier than I thought! Anyway, here's a selection (full text on the blog).
Rose sets the precedent for the New Who Companions, and it’s quite an interesting precedent. The way I see it, her storyline can be read one of two ways: 1) The power of the ordinary woman, as the shopgirl saves the universe, and/or 2) The Mary Sue. These are not mutually exclusive. But to those not in the know, Mary Sue, in this context, refers to a sort of “blank slate” non-character, a vessel for self-insertion into the creative work (for more info, see Bella Swan). At 19, Rose has no career, no direction in life, and serves as a sort of Every(wo)man. Her life doesn’t begin until she meets the Doctor.
This perturbs me greatly, and is an idea I will return to with some of the other characters. But one of the reasons this bothers me so much is that, from my admittedly quite limited forays into Doctor Who fandom, it seems to be largely comprised of people (many of whom are of the female persuasion) in a similar position to Rose—waiting for the Doctor to take them away, to save them from the doldrums of their lives.
And, you know, maybe you do want to travel with the Doctor. I can understand that feeling, even if I don’t share it. He’s pretty cool. What makes this problematic is the way it has become an overwhelming trend and, more than that, the way it has been written into the narratives of almost every major female character on the show.
Still, it’s not all bad. The first season of Rose is quite exciting (also I adore Nine and Christopher Eccleston). What I like best about it is that Rose and Nine argue; they are frequently in opposition. And then she saves him (and the universe). Not bad, Rose Tyler. Not bad at all.
Season 2 changes the Rose/Doctor dynamic. As time passes, Rose becomes increasingly defined by her relationship with the Doctor. And I can’t remember her ever arguing with Ten (not that it never happened…just that I can’t remember). Why is that? I’m not sure. Is it just because Tennant’s Doctor is a more laidback kind of guy? Is it another consequence of the quite apparent decision, on Russel T. Davies’s part, to up the romance between them? (I’m a huge Eccleston fan, but he’s not exactly a dreamboat) This would lead to a rather unfortunate implication that a romantic couple has to get along (which might be practical, but it’s not very fun).
But anyway, let’s take a look at “Doomsday,” admittedly a highly enjoyable episode (Daleks have the best comebacks) and a pretty good tear-jerker (though it still doesn’t affect me quite the way “Parting of the Ways” does).
Rose’s melodramatic voice-overs say this is the story of how she dies. Blah blah, not a very good or effective dramatic device. And yes, ostensibly it’s because she’s declared dead in her home world (of course, one can only assume that Jackie and Mickey are also listed as dead, but it’s not the day her mum dies, oh no).
Now, Rose is 19 and she’s just lost the love of her life. She’s allowed a certain amount of sardoodledom (yes that is a real word—it means ‘melodrama’). Still, it bothers me that the show is apparently implying that her life is over without him.
We skip to the fourth season now. Rose works with Torchwood in Pete’s World, which does please me. Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth is a great idea but one that stumbles in execution. Why? Because Rose makes a pretty frakking epic return, having spent all season trying to cross over from another dimension. And she looks awesome with her enormous gun and this viewer was pretty much ready for Rose Tyler, Bad Wolf, Defender of the Universe, to go tear up some bad guys.
Does she even use that gun?
What does she do? She finds the Doctor. Well first she helps Donna, which is great, but then she finds the Doctor. Runs very dramatically towards him. Her whole big plan. All of Pete’s Torchwood. And she hardly does anything. Oh, it’s Doctor Who, not Rose Who. It’s Donna’s turn to shine (or is it? more on that later).
Bah, I say. Excuses. Rose, who had such potential for greatness…is shuffled back to another dimension to live out the rest of her life with a substitute Doctor. For this watcher, it left a bad taste in my mouth; it left me feeling that Rose’s entire storyline—entire existence almost—had been relegated to the love interest. I wanted her joy and her sorrow to not be quite so heavily dependent upon her relationship status.
With Rose, much of my thinking comes back to a brief moment in “Rise of the Cybermen” (or maybe “Age of Steel”) when she’s talking to Mickey. They’re afraid that they’ll never make it back to their world. And she says something about how they used to have all these plans. Things they were going to do.
Great. Everybody has those plans. But the writers won’t tell us what those plans were. And you know, lots of 19-year-olds are working in shops, but most of the 19-year-olds I know (and I say this as someone who was recently a 19-year-old) have plans and ideas and goals. But what are Rose’s plans? What does she want to do with her life? Or what did she want to do before she met the Doctor?
The narrative acts like it doesn’t matter.
She and Mickey had plans. But we don’t know what they were, and from what we saw in “Rose” it sure didn’t look like they were working towards them.
Okay, I’ve just written two pages about Rose. Moving on.
Read the rest here at Critically Obsessed.
And now, a completely unrelated meme. Snagged from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
10imd .
Comment "I want" and I will give you ten actors and ten actresses. Then post in your LJ with your favorite films of theirs.
1. Liam Neeson - Schindler's List (I mean really)
2. Ben Kingsley - Twelfth Night (sorry Gandhi, I just love his version of the fool)
3. Rhys Ifans - well, i looked him up and apparently he was in Vanity Fair, which I did see, so...
4. Edward Norton - American History X
4. Kevin Spacey - Se7en
5. Orlando Bloom - uh…the fake movie they were filming in Extras? Okay, I guess I'll go with POTC.
6. Colin Firth - He will always be Darcy to me.
7. Brad Pitt - hm…Burn After Reading…although I kind of ridiculously love Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
8. Adrien Brody - uh…I've only seen him in King Kong.
9. Jude Law - well, I've liked him since AI, so…AI. Also I really, really want to see Repo Men.
10. Bruce Willis - The Fifth Element (omg I love it so much)
1. Sarah Jessica Parker - I haven't seen any of her movies...
2. Meryl Streep - Angels in America (trivia: she once walked, like, fifteen feet away from me. yes i did panic)
3. Michelle Williams - Brokeback Mountain
4. Kristin Scott Thomas - uh…Gosford Park? I really haven't seen her other stuff, except for Golden Compass which DOESN'T COUNT.
5. Julie Walters - Harry Potter! If only because I don't think I've seen her in anything else.
6. Audrey Tatou - Amelie (although she is also fabulous in Dirty Pretty Things)
7. Scarlett Johansson - ooh, difficult. Ghost World, or maybe Match Point. She'll kind of always be the protagonist's former best friend from Ghost World to me.
8. Maggie Gyllenhaal - omg Donnie Darko. First words I ever heard her say: "I'm voting for Dukakis." Also The Dark Knight. Yeah, I'm indecisive.
9. Madeleine Stowe - I just looked her up, and she was in Last of the Mohicans, which I sure did love as a kid...
10. Penelope Cruz - All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre). Although Penelope Cruz is one of those who I knew as a celebrity before I knew her as a character.
I'll have you know that I just spent over an hour wrestling with the html over on tumblr. Not cool. Going to bed now.
Rose sets the precedent for the New Who Companions, and it’s quite an interesting precedent. The way I see it, her storyline can be read one of two ways: 1) The power of the ordinary woman, as the shopgirl saves the universe, and/or 2) The Mary Sue. These are not mutually exclusive. But to those not in the know, Mary Sue, in this context, refers to a sort of “blank slate” non-character, a vessel for self-insertion into the creative work (for more info, see Bella Swan). At 19, Rose has no career, no direction in life, and serves as a sort of Every(wo)man. Her life doesn’t begin until she meets the Doctor.
This perturbs me greatly, and is an idea I will return to with some of the other characters. But one of the reasons this bothers me so much is that, from my admittedly quite limited forays into Doctor Who fandom, it seems to be largely comprised of people (many of whom are of the female persuasion) in a similar position to Rose—waiting for the Doctor to take them away, to save them from the doldrums of their lives.
And, you know, maybe you do want to travel with the Doctor. I can understand that feeling, even if I don’t share it. He’s pretty cool. What makes this problematic is the way it has become an overwhelming trend and, more than that, the way it has been written into the narratives of almost every major female character on the show.
Still, it’s not all bad. The first season of Rose is quite exciting (also I adore Nine and Christopher Eccleston). What I like best about it is that Rose and Nine argue; they are frequently in opposition. And then she saves him (and the universe). Not bad, Rose Tyler. Not bad at all.
Season 2 changes the Rose/Doctor dynamic. As time passes, Rose becomes increasingly defined by her relationship with the Doctor. And I can’t remember her ever arguing with Ten (not that it never happened…just that I can’t remember). Why is that? I’m not sure. Is it just because Tennant’s Doctor is a more laidback kind of guy? Is it another consequence of the quite apparent decision, on Russel T. Davies’s part, to up the romance between them? (I’m a huge Eccleston fan, but he’s not exactly a dreamboat) This would lead to a rather unfortunate implication that a romantic couple has to get along (which might be practical, but it’s not very fun).
But anyway, let’s take a look at “Doomsday,” admittedly a highly enjoyable episode (Daleks have the best comebacks) and a pretty good tear-jerker (though it still doesn’t affect me quite the way “Parting of the Ways” does).
Rose’s melodramatic voice-overs say this is the story of how she dies. Blah blah, not a very good or effective dramatic device. And yes, ostensibly it’s because she’s declared dead in her home world (of course, one can only assume that Jackie and Mickey are also listed as dead, but it’s not the day her mum dies, oh no).
Now, Rose is 19 and she’s just lost the love of her life. She’s allowed a certain amount of sardoodledom (yes that is a real word—it means ‘melodrama’). Still, it bothers me that the show is apparently implying that her life is over without him.
We skip to the fourth season now. Rose works with Torchwood in Pete’s World, which does please me. Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth is a great idea but one that stumbles in execution. Why? Because Rose makes a pretty frakking epic return, having spent all season trying to cross over from another dimension. And she looks awesome with her enormous gun and this viewer was pretty much ready for Rose Tyler, Bad Wolf, Defender of the Universe, to go tear up some bad guys.
Does she even use that gun?
What does she do? She finds the Doctor. Well first she helps Donna, which is great, but then she finds the Doctor. Runs very dramatically towards him. Her whole big plan. All of Pete’s Torchwood. And she hardly does anything. Oh, it’s Doctor Who, not Rose Who. It’s Donna’s turn to shine (or is it? more on that later).
Bah, I say. Excuses. Rose, who had such potential for greatness…is shuffled back to another dimension to live out the rest of her life with a substitute Doctor. For this watcher, it left a bad taste in my mouth; it left me feeling that Rose’s entire storyline—entire existence almost—had been relegated to the love interest. I wanted her joy and her sorrow to not be quite so heavily dependent upon her relationship status.
With Rose, much of my thinking comes back to a brief moment in “Rise of the Cybermen” (or maybe “Age of Steel”) when she’s talking to Mickey. They’re afraid that they’ll never make it back to their world. And she says something about how they used to have all these plans. Things they were going to do.
Great. Everybody has those plans. But the writers won’t tell us what those plans were. And you know, lots of 19-year-olds are working in shops, but most of the 19-year-olds I know (and I say this as someone who was recently a 19-year-old) have plans and ideas and goals. But what are Rose’s plans? What does she want to do with her life? Or what did she want to do before she met the Doctor?
The narrative acts like it doesn’t matter.
She and Mickey had plans. But we don’t know what they were, and from what we saw in “Rose” it sure didn’t look like they were working towards them.
Okay, I’ve just written two pages about Rose. Moving on.
Read the rest here at Critically Obsessed.
And now, a completely unrelated meme. Snagged from
10imd .Comment "I want" and I will give you ten actors and ten actresses. Then post in your LJ with your favorite films of theirs.
1. Liam Neeson - Schindler's List (I mean really)
2. Ben Kingsley - Twelfth Night (sorry Gandhi, I just love his version of the fool)
3. Rhys Ifans - well, i looked him up and apparently he was in Vanity Fair, which I did see, so...
4. Edward Norton - American History X
4. Kevin Spacey - Se7en
5. Orlando Bloom - uh…the fake movie they were filming in Extras? Okay, I guess I'll go with POTC.
6. Colin Firth - He will always be Darcy to me.
7. Brad Pitt - hm…Burn After Reading…although I kind of ridiculously love Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
8. Adrien Brody - uh…I've only seen him in King Kong.
9. Jude Law - well, I've liked him since AI, so…AI. Also I really, really want to see Repo Men.
10. Bruce Willis - The Fifth Element (omg I love it so much)
1. Sarah Jessica Parker - I haven't seen any of her movies...
2. Meryl Streep - Angels in America (trivia: she once walked, like, fifteen feet away from me. yes i did panic)
3. Michelle Williams - Brokeback Mountain
4. Kristin Scott Thomas - uh…Gosford Park? I really haven't seen her other stuff, except for Golden Compass which DOESN'T COUNT.
5. Julie Walters - Harry Potter! If only because I don't think I've seen her in anything else.
6. Audrey Tatou - Amelie (although she is also fabulous in Dirty Pretty Things)
7. Scarlett Johansson - ooh, difficult. Ghost World, or maybe Match Point. She'll kind of always be the protagonist's former best friend from Ghost World to me.
8. Maggie Gyllenhaal - omg Donnie Darko. First words I ever heard her say: "I'm voting for Dukakis." Also The Dark Knight. Yeah, I'm indecisive.
9. Madeleine Stowe - I just looked her up, and she was in Last of the Mohicans, which I sure did love as a kid...
10. Penelope Cruz - All About My Mother (Todo sobre mi madre). Although Penelope Cruz is one of those who I knew as a celebrity before I knew her as a character.
I'll have you know that I just spent over an hour wrestling with the html over on tumblr. Not cool. Going to bed now.
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Psssht! Debatable. ;)
He's not on my top ten, sure, but part of it I'm sure is that I just don't think David Tennant's that attractive. Also, I adore ridiculous words like 'sardoodledom'. Hee.
Ahem, *minor* points aside, I'm liking this essay, and I'll have to go see what you have to say about Martha especially. I adore her(WHY no icon, self?). But as someone who wasn't invested in Rose/Ten or Ten himself that much, the second season had some highs, but overall I did think Rose's storyline ended up disappointing me for many of these reasons. What you say about Rose being the directionless Everywoman, yeah, but I definitely enjoyed finding out who she was through these fantastical adventures more than I liked the "defined by romantic relationships" in s2, and I'm guessing later since I'm still dragging through s4.
*stops rambling and marks placeholder for thoughts when not exhausted*
I know nothing, but a good portion of my flist swoons for Doctor Song, so I might need to link them to this when I've got a chance to read it. And think properly. ;)
AND FIFTH ELEMENT FTW!
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Haha, it certainly is debatable. And I'm with you on David Tennant. Although most people are like, "What do you mean he's funny looking?"
I definitely enjoyed finding out who she was through these fantastical adventures more than I liked the "defined by romantic relationships" in s2
Yeah, I do quite like Rose, and I especially loved her dynamic with Nine, as I felt the shippy aspect was more understated and the focus was much more on the adventures. Season 2 is more problematic as their relationship starts to take over her storyline, in my opinion.
Also, don't read past the Martha section of my essay, as the rest is rife with spoilers!
River Song fans are suddenly starting to come out of the woodwork...I'm beginning to wonder if I was under the wrong impression when I said that she was an unpopular character!
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I've skipped straight to Eleven and am much enjoying him (and Amy) so far. Slowly.
Someone else will have to sort out how much River hate is out there, but I get the impression that there are a number of people who adore her intensely and say so loudly, but that's she's still largely disliked?
P.S. Have you seen
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Oh god, the slab of concrete episode! I somehow missed that episode the first time around, and just saw it a few weeks ago. It was one of those 'lol are you serious?!' moments. Ugh.
The general consensus, that I saw, when Steven Moffat took over and it was announced that she would be returning was very...displeased. And you know, I didn't really care one way or another based on her initial s4 appearance, but I didn't understand the overwhelming River-hate. The DW fandom kind of frightens me.
I have not seen the vid! I will watch it right away.
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Part of what I like about Rose is that while she did stay mainly because she was in love with the Doctor, it was also because of the adventures. She may have had plans like getting a degree and a proper job before, but then she got the chance to travel across the universe and help people. I think that makes you re-evaluate your future plans.
I see this mainly in opposition to Martha, who always seemed to me to be mainly there because she quite fancied the Doctor - and yes, partly because of the new worlds. But for Rose, the adventure and getting into trouble were just as much a part of it as discovering new planets was.
Ten and Rose did fight - less frequently but more about 'big' stuff: the 'wither and die' in School Reunion, Rose refusing to leave him in Doomsday.
And I agree that Rose doesn't do anything in Journey's End, but that's largely because RTD just had to many ideas for one episode. XD
I don't blame you for not seeing Sarah Jessica Parker's movies - can I emphasis that I haven't either, and I was just looking for new names to hand out? XD
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Re SJP: I didn't really figure you for a SatC fan. :)
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ITA 100% with your entire essay (though you've written something much more coherent than I ever could :D).
I've never understood why there is so much hate for Martha & River Song. As you pointed out, Martha easily has the best character arc of the companions and River is the closest thing to a Doctor!equal this show will probably ever have. Plus, they're both just awesome :)
I agree with the disappointment of River's 'ending'. Next to Donna, I think River's 'ending' is the most upsetting for me. My only hope is that it's not really her ending. That she only goes along with it until she and her team can find a way out. I also hope that Donna's 'ending' isn't really her ending, either. That she was the woman in white from EoT and that she remembers everything and ultimately becomes a time-lord! (I doubt either of these things to be true but it makes me feel a little better when I re-watch those episodes to imagine a better future for them.)
I also share your love for Amy and love that like Martha, she doesn't seem to need the Doctor. Then again, I'm absolutely biased since I'm a sucker for snarky red-heads :D
This was just a fantastic piece of meta! Thanks for sharing.
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My only hope is that it's not really her ending. That she only goes along with it until she and her team can find a way out. I also hope that Donna's 'ending' isn't really her ending, either.
I know how you feel! In my imaginary world, River Song can't be held by such flimsy measures...
Thanks for reading and commenting!
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