(no subject)
Study: Almost Half of Murder Victims Black
S3 of Doctor Who has just finished in the US, so get ready for the second round of Marthagate. :-) Here's a rant which I hope to properly digest and comment on later: Martha Jones and Love: A Rant/Meta. Just some quick thoughts for now.
bana05 is careful to underline that hers is an American response to a British show. If I'm understanding correctly, that means the interracial relationships are hugely significant in a way they just don't seem to be for British viewers. I was struck by her comment that "Black women are coded as incapable of being romantically loved in Western society". Of course one's mind immediately leaps to all the obvious exceptions, including those in Doctor Who; but I haven't encountered this idea before, and I'd like to pursue it. Certainly the US stereotypes I've examined here, such as the slutty Jezebel and the shrewish Sapphire, wreck successful romance.
The obvious response to "the Doctor did not fall in love with Martha" is "the Doctor did not fall in love with Rose or Sarah or any of the others". Thinking about this, though, there's just the one Black female companion and a whole pile of White ones. This loads Martha with massive significance, especially for Black female viewers. And if there is a (US?) stereotype of Black women being unloveable, you can see how the Doctor's inability or unwillingness to fall in love with Martha would look like yet another example of that.
S3 of Doctor Who has just finished in the US, so get ready for the second round of Marthagate. :-) Here's a rant which I hope to properly digest and comment on later: Martha Jones and Love: A Rant/Meta. Just some quick thoughts for now.
bana05 is careful to underline that hers is an American response to a British show. If I'm understanding correctly, that means the interracial relationships are hugely significant in a way they just don't seem to be for British viewers. I was struck by her comment that "Black women are coded as incapable of being romantically loved in Western society". Of course one's mind immediately leaps to all the obvious exceptions, including those in Doctor Who; but I haven't encountered this idea before, and I'd like to pursue it. Certainly the US stereotypes I've examined here, such as the slutty Jezebel and the shrewish Sapphire, wreck successful romance.
The obvious response to "the Doctor did not fall in love with Martha" is "the Doctor did not fall in love with Rose or Sarah or any of the others". Thinking about this, though, there's just the one Black female companion and a whole pile of White ones. This loads Martha with massive significance, especially for Black female viewers. And if there is a (US?) stereotype of Black women being unloveable, you can see how the Doctor's inability or unwillingness to fall in love with Martha would look like yet another example of that.