New Who 4.10, Midnight

[strange_complex]

I'm up in Birmingham for the weekend, making sure that Mum's OK while Dad spends a weekend in Cambridge at his annual college reunion event. Mum continues to make good progress, but she's very tired out all the time. So, while she's sleeping, I hope you'll forgive me if I take the chance to catch up on a bit of Who blogging. There may be some spam

Comments

[white_hart]

Yes, I've seen a lot of commentary saying this kind of thing: 'another anonymous non-white woman' and so on. I think that they are kind of conflating the actions and beliefs of the characters with those of the author.

[white_hart]

It is. I do try to be aware, as a white woman in a Western democracy, that things that seem innocuous to me could be offensive to black and Asian viewers, but it still seems to me that sometimes the accusations go too far. And sometimes they don't; I think there have been genuine problems with the representation of a number of minorities in New Who, but because there are people who will protest any time a villain is anything other than a white man those get overlooked rather.

[strange_complex]

No, I agree - it really didn't come across as racist to me. I think one of the most important aspects of the episode is that every character in the tour-buggy has flaws, as well as strengths - including the Doctor, of course. I really couldn't see any distinction between the way the black characters and the white characters were portrayed in that respect.

[strange_complex]

the non-white characters had the most positive characteristics

Yes, that's how I saw it too.

[xipuloxx]

But we have the black woman who's subservient to a white man who doesn't listen to her, and the black woman who sacrifices her life for a white man. These are, according to those people, racial stereotypes indicative of RTD's ingrained belief in black people's, or women's, role. I don't really agree with that, but I'll concede they're not just pulling the racism card out of nowhere. But I do agree with you that in this episode, they're the only two who are supportive of the Doctor, so it's a bit daft to complain about them as racial stereotypes. The other accusation of racism I'e seen recently is the Insidious Evil Chinese Fortune Teller in "Turn Left", and that one is a bit of a dodgy stereotype, honestly

[strange_complex]

Yeah, I guess that's true about the social position of the two black women.

Why did you think Moffat's 2-parter was sexist?

I think the clearest statement of my views on this point is here, on swisstone's journal.

[xipuloxx]

I can't access that! I think it's probably friends only.