Meta: Doctor Who, Feminism and Families
This meta brought to you by Dr. Fannishliss and her dissertation, ie the hobbyhorse I just keep getting back on.
I come at this from a perspective of many years spent as an academic feminist. On the one hand, the idea of defining a woman entirely by her family is one thing feminism has tried to combat. But the other side of that same coin is the idea that any heroic person has to cut off their connections to family in order to fully individuate. So that's what I want to talk about (yes the same old academic feminist problem that has haunted me since 1994!).
I'm very interested in the idea of the Byronic Hero as it applies to the Doctor. (See Atara Stein's awesome book for more about applying this classic Romantic trope to pop culture.)
In many ways the Doctor started out more as a Picaresque hero-- he was a wanderer who moved in and out of exciting stories with his companions. By the time of Three he was more of an Adventure Hero in the classic James Bond/John Steed sense. The sense of friction between the Doctor and his people was first seen in War Games (though the Time Lords were kind of Star Trekky, almost BigHeadedPeople in that ep) and that conflict developed and intensified through Trial of a Time Lord until finally RTD ran with it and had the Doctor responsible for the banishment of the Time Lords behind the Time Lock (as we eventually learned, he did not kill them all, since they are still alive, but locked away).
So by the era of Nine and Ten, we see the Doctor as a fully developed Byronic Hero -- he is, alone of his race (pace Master), cursed with incredible power and responsibility that alienates him from existence, and he seeks some kind nepenthe from that dire fate. We even see him making the terrible mistakes a la Waters of Mars that we'd expect from a Byronic Hero, hubris being the prime characteristic of that type.
Now, admittedly this is my bone to pick, but exactly what that isolated, hubristic type needs more than anything is to interact and form ties with with human beings, especially people who emphasize compassion, love and family above all else. Yes, Rose is 19, but she has heart enough to love and forgive a damaged Time Lord. Yes, Martha walks away, but not before walking the earth to save the world (the Doctor and her family being part of that world she saves)! And of course Donna is a Big Damn Hero.
What I appreciate about the portrayal of the companions' families in New Who is, while they try to limit the scope of the women's dreams (Donna's mum's constant nagging and criticism, Jackie's insistence that Rose be kept "SAFE" above all else) at the same time, those families give the characters a grounding and a sense of what love and commitment really looks like. I respect Martha a great deal for wanting to be there for her family after their ordeal.
Jack's an interesting example because in all his backstories we repeatedly see his loved ones torn away from him. He keeps trying and trying to connect and because of his immortality is doomed to loss after loss -- even in CofE when he is made to choose the fate of the Earth over his own flesh and blood. (horrible!!!) Jack is a study in the tension between healthy human bonds and the Byronic heroism that is demanded of the uniquely empowered/cursed individual.
This recent cover story of Atlantic Monthly should show that this is still a tension that feminism is struggling to contend with. Can women have "it all"???? This is not just a women's issue though. The tension between Life Out in the World and Life in the Home is a false dichotomy that every human being must make sacrifices in order to balance. [That's why I'm so impatient with the idea that "Rose and Ten2 are too involved with the world and adventure to ever have kids" -- okay, so we solve that problem of home vs world by deflecting, deferring, denying? I refuse. There can be life alongside kids, and after kids, BELIEVE IT OR NOT!!! To become a Mother does not automatically kill all other options!!! Feminist storytellers need to tell women's stories, and that includes learning how to tell not kidfic but stories about women who happen to also be mothers, not as the central defining aspect of their life, but nevertheless an aspect of it!!! Yeah, I'm a little triple screamer about this idea. ]
In my personal and feminist opinion, huge kudos to New Who for insisting on telling the stories of how companions negotiate their ties to home while still insisting on the larger universe the Doctor has opened up for them -- and for insisting too that the Doctor is weaker without those humanizing Ties That Bind him to the people who love him the most.
I come at this from a perspective of many years spent as an academic feminist. On the one hand, the idea of defining a woman entirely by her family is one thing feminism has tried to combat. But the other side of that same coin is the idea that any heroic person has to cut off their connections to family in order to fully individuate. So that's what I want to talk about (yes the same old academic feminist problem that has haunted me since 1994!).
I'm very interested in the idea of the Byronic Hero as it applies to the Doctor. (See Atara Stein's awesome book for more about applying this classic Romantic trope to pop culture.)
In many ways the Doctor started out more as a Picaresque hero-- he was a wanderer who moved in and out of exciting stories with his companions. By the time of Three he was more of an Adventure Hero in the classic James Bond/John Steed sense. The sense of friction between the Doctor and his people was first seen in War Games (though the Time Lords were kind of Star Trekky, almost BigHeadedPeople in that ep) and that conflict developed and intensified through Trial of a Time Lord until finally RTD ran with it and had the Doctor responsible for the banishment of the Time Lords behind the Time Lock (as we eventually learned, he did not kill them all, since they are still alive, but locked away).
So by the era of Nine and Ten, we see the Doctor as a fully developed Byronic Hero -- he is, alone of his race (pace Master), cursed with incredible power and responsibility that alienates him from existence, and he seeks some kind nepenthe from that dire fate. We even see him making the terrible mistakes a la Waters of Mars that we'd expect from a Byronic Hero, hubris being the prime characteristic of that type.
Now, admittedly this is my bone to pick, but exactly what that isolated, hubristic type needs more than anything is to interact and form ties with with human beings, especially people who emphasize compassion, love and family above all else. Yes, Rose is 19, but she has heart enough to love and forgive a damaged Time Lord. Yes, Martha walks away, but not before walking the earth to save the world (the Doctor and her family being part of that world she saves)! And of course Donna is a Big Damn Hero.
What I appreciate about the portrayal of the companions' families in New Who is, while they try to limit the scope of the women's dreams (Donna's mum's constant nagging and criticism, Jackie's insistence that Rose be kept "SAFE" above all else) at the same time, those families give the characters a grounding and a sense of what love and commitment really looks like. I respect Martha a great deal for wanting to be there for her family after their ordeal.
Jack's an interesting example because in all his backstories we repeatedly see his loved ones torn away from him. He keeps trying and trying to connect and because of his immortality is doomed to loss after loss -- even in CofE when he is made to choose the fate of the Earth over his own flesh and blood. (horrible!!!) Jack is a study in the tension between healthy human bonds and the Byronic heroism that is demanded of the uniquely empowered/cursed individual.
This recent cover story of Atlantic Monthly should show that this is still a tension that feminism is struggling to contend with. Can women have "it all"???? This is not just a women's issue though. The tension between Life Out in the World and Life in the Home is a false dichotomy that every human being must make sacrifices in order to balance. [That's why I'm so impatient with the idea that "Rose and Ten2 are too involved with the world and adventure to ever have kids" -- okay, so we solve that problem of home vs world by deflecting, deferring, denying? I refuse. There can be life alongside kids, and after kids, BELIEVE IT OR NOT!!! To become a Mother does not automatically kill all other options!!! Feminist storytellers need to tell women's stories, and that includes learning how to tell not kidfic but stories about women who happen to also be mothers, not as the central defining aspect of their life, but nevertheless an aspect of it!!! Yeah, I'm a little triple screamer about this idea. ]
In my personal and feminist opinion, huge kudos to New Who for insisting on telling the stories of how companions negotiate their ties to home while still insisting on the larger universe the Doctor has opened up for them -- and for insisting too that the Doctor is weaker without those humanizing Ties That Bind him to the people who love him the most.