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

[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.

Why did you think Moffat's 2-parter was sexist? Because of Miss Evangelista being first beautiful and stupid, then deformed and brilliant? I have heard some people accuse Moffat because of this of thinking that women can only be intelligent OR beautiful, but that's clearly nonsense when you look at his other episodes, or even at River Song. As well as her, Sally Sparrow, Reinette and Nancy are all highly intelligent women and none of them is an uggo!

[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.