remindmeofthe | (no subject)

This week in the Whoniverse, it sucks to be a woman.

Because you get your choices taken from you and your fate decided by the men in your life, around whom your existence revolves anyway.

Esther Drummond: Killed gratuitously at the last minute to give Rex some manpain over having to decide between her and the entire human race. She was only there to be killed because of her crush on Rex. (This is what I was so angry about when I first posted last night.) Please note that Esther is the second woman whose tragic death was more about Rex than about her.

Jilly Kitzinger: Sure, she lived, but the last time we saw this strong-minded, stubborn, capable woman, she was literally trotting after a man who had held out a promise to her like a dog biscuit.

Two Streams Amy Pond: Manipulated into non-existence by the Doctor; treated as an uncomfortable afterthought by Rory; unwilling to make choices for herself (either of her selves), but prepared to make choices for "a boy" who only accepted her existence after she was safely doomed.

Ladies, it doesn't matter how awesome you are or how much courage you discover within yourself when it counts or how incredibly resourceful you are. Your life, death, and status of existence will revolve around a man no matter what you do. And if you don't like that, don't worry.

The writers will make you like it.

Don't even comment to defend any of this shit or accuse me of being overly simplistic or wtfever, okay? I don't wanna hear it. Be angry along with me or take it to your own journal.

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Last night's DW, I haven't downloaded yet. I read spoilers, and I'm too seething with anger (and upset, because FUCK YOU, Doctor Who, you are meant to be escapism) to contemplate downloading. I'll do so when the show gets back to being on track.

*fumes*

Yeah. With this coming hard on the heels of Amy being used as an incubator (and . . . apparently having no lingering trauma about this?), not to mention the revelation that River has apparently never in her life done a single thing that wasn't about the Doctor, I'm just kind of grossed out by the show right now. I love it dearly, but it needs to stop being overtly disgusting soon plz.

It's a shame, too, because this episode was an excellent demonstration of how utterly cold the Doctor can be (not to mention of River's "rule number one: the Doctor lies"), and I couldn't even appreciate that because I was too busy scrubbing down my brain.

Oh, yes. I was annoyed by last weeks episode, too (fix-it fic about Amy's life being rewritten SO MANY TIMES that they are starting to blur. Which may or may not be fix-it, exactly, but at least address the issue. When I can bring myself to write it). And. Just.

No, show. Stop. Stop it, stop it, stop it.

In the meantime, I'm just going and watching Warehouse 13, season 1. Which I've never seen before. But there are women being consistently awesome so far, WHICH MAKES A NICE CHANGE. UGH. MOFFAT, STOP. IT.

I have fallen hard in love with W13 recently, and yes, a lot of the reason for that is because it has awesome women who are awesome. There are other ways in which it is much more inclusive than a lot of other shows are, too. It has its moments of grossness, but what doesn't? And the moments of awesome have outweighed the bad moments by far for me.

I bought season one yesterday! (or rather, I bought two other TV series DVDs, and because the store was having a sale, W13 came freeeeeeeeeee) and so far I'm just going 'HEARTS IN MY EYES. ALL THE HEARTS. MYKA. YOU WEAR FLAT SHOES MYKA. CLAUDIA. LEENA. HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEARTS'

And yeah, I kinda expect it to be gross at some point. But, so far, awesome is all shiny.

Yessss. Count the cast members, Ashie! THE WOMEN OUTNUMBER THE MEN. How often do you see THAT?

...I just noticed that. EEEEEEEEEEE, SHOW. ALL THE HEARTS.

Also, don't look now, but if you count Mrs Fredrick as part of the main cast (I totally do, because she's that awesome), then there is also more than one woman of color. Apparently that's allowed! IMAGINE THAT.

Every time I feel like I might be missing out on something wrt Doctor Who/Torchwood, things like this make me think maybe I shouldn't bother. :|

Yeah, I don't know. All I can really say right now is that I think we all have our lines in terms of how much problematic shit we're willing to overlook in exchange for the other things that we enjoy in a piece of media, and DW is inching ever closer to toeing that line for me. It's always had issues about women, but this season has been extra icky so far.

Thanks for this -- I'm needing to prioritize my time lately, and this convinced me I don't need to waste it on Doctor Who this week. :/

Yeah. Definitely spend the hour on important studenty stuff instead. Probably all you'll even need to know for the rest of the series arc is that the Doctor can be a lying asshole even to his friends. Which we already know. So consider yourself absolved.

ALSO---if you get old and less than svelte and puffy---that will be the one of that the Doctor chooses to leave behind. I didn't take kindly to that one.

Right? I mean, I'm still closer to younger Amy's age than older Amy's, but I definitely noticed that. As gross subtexts in that episode went, "only young and pretty women are worth a man's time and effort" was pretty fucking obvious. Rory's attitude toward older Amy was especially nauseating. So, what, he's only passionately devoted to her until she gets stout and wrinkly? Now there's an epic romance for you.

Generally, I'm willing to give Moffat a lot of lee-way on his "sexism" just as I am with a lot RTD's alleged sins, but this one is pretty hard to hand-wave. (I'm a lot closer to the "older Amy" side of the spectrum.)

Yeah. I've ignored a lot of Moffat's creepy gender issues because he's done so many other things I've liked, but this season just seems to be getting ickier with every episode. It's really disheartening.

D: I am extremely dismayed to hear that DW is veering back into fail territory. I had real hope we were leaving that behind with Rusty's departure.

Moffat was doing okay for quite a while there - not always great, but okay enough that I could gloss over the bothersome stuff. But this season just keeps getting grosser and grosser, and the last three eps have just been openly appalling. I really hope he knocks it the fuck off soon, because I love this show so much and it's upsetting to find myself wondering if I'm going to have to start reevaluating whether I should keep watching it.