rivendellrose: (NOOOO!!!!!!!)
rivendellrose ([personal profile] rivendellrose) wrote2009-05-29 02:04 pm

change! more change!

BBC releases information on the new upcoming companion.



But I could have sworn people had been saying she'd be older. I realize now, of course, that this must have been only rumor-mongering, but... I guess we're back to 19 yr olds? With a Doctor who's only 26. Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. But she's Scottish, and I'm looking forward to that! And... she really is awfully pretty!

I was doing pretty well, honestly, apart from surprise, until I hit this line:

"A generation of little girls will want to be her. And a generation of little boys will want them to be her too," [Moffat] added.

All right, Mr Moffat. I've defended you against every imprecation of sexism until now. I've always said that I don't see it in your work, and that I definitely think you've done better with female characters in Doctor Who than our dear buddy Mr Davies. But... you had to go and say that, didn't you? Just go on, then. Remind me that this show, at its root, is still the show where the boys can want to grow up to be the Doctor, but all us girls can hope for is to be a companion.

Edited to add: I should say - on an individual level, I'm not complaining about any of the companions. As individuals, hell, even as a group, I love them. Romana and Martha and Sarah Jane and Liz Shaw and Jo Grant and Ace and Donna... I mean, come on! They're totally worth loving and looking up to. What I'm complaining about here is the built-in power dynamic - the feeling that, no matter that we don't use the word anymore, even the best of the girls is still just an assistant to the man, who is obviously the one running the show. Literally.

So here's my challenge to Moffat - I want him to change my mind about that.
ext_23531: (romana&k9)

[identity profile] akashasheiress.livejournal.com 2009-05-30 02:12 am (UTC)(link)
I don't understand how people can claim that Moffat is not sexist when he said things like ''Women are needy... are only out chasing for husbands... the white middle-class male is in a constant state of apology'' and ''No woman would watch Doctor Who if we included too much technobabble'' (I'm paraphrasing, of course) and I heard that he's also put Classic Who companions into the Useless Screamer category.