So LJ broke again... *kicks* Also Skirtgate.
Apparently comment notification is broken. Thus this is a public service announcement to say that I've replied to stuff. In particular I have left insightful comments about Dudley Dursley, talked a bit more about Glee and will at some point get around to talking about Amy Pond's skirts. Promise.
Although on that note I was catching up on the past couple of weeks of the Radio Times and there was an awful lot in there about the "sexulisation" of Doctor Who. Mainly expressed, this being the Radio Times, in the writer rolling his eyes at the so called "uproar"; obviously all being blown out of proportion by Daily Mail readers. There were two interviews in two different editions, one with Karen and one with Matt. (Rather annoyingly the bit that I wanted to talk about isn't in the shortened version of Matt's interview, maybe I'll scan them later.) Both written by the same woman.
As you can imagine the Karen interview does focus rather a lot on those famous legs for instance: "As she concentrates, one long leg winds tightly about the other, slim and supple as the limbs of an elegant octopus."
So far so expected. What I did find interesting though was that the Matt interview spends just as much time discussing "the unseemly sexiness of a bared torso at teatime" and the fact that people are out there busily freeze framing the shots of him from "the Lodger" where he only has a towel to cover his modesty.
Both interviews do a quick dive into to the actors current personal relationships and in both cases are politely but firmly rebuffed.
There were an awful lot of pictures of Karen in her interview, particularly an almost full length one which is clearly meant to be the "sexy" one, but on the other hand they also ran a picture of Matt with his shirt off at a festival.
There were definitely some interesting comparisons to be made. Certainly the Karen one did make me feel slightly awkward, less so when I found out that a woman had written the piece (but a man took the photos), but still it did feel like a bit too much emphasis was placed on, what is really a very small part of the character.
But then Karen went and pointed that out anyway. "It's part of who she is, but it's quite a small part. She's a normal girl". In fact that last bit seems to be Karen's attitude to the whole Skirt thing, a sort of "why is this an issue?" To quote: I just don't get it with the skirts. Its what any girl on the street is wearing (...) we all wear stuff like this."
(As for that last point I can sort of back that up. One of my first reactions to Amy's clothes was, to a degree, recognition. A sort of that's what I wear/would like to wear thing. Actually seeing someone on screen wearing and being comfortable in clothes like that sort of contributed to me ditching the leggings occasionally. Significant because my knees are fairly scared, at least to my eyes, from various accidents in the last two years and I'm only just getting comfortable with them being on general view. Though Amy doesn't get all of the credit, TB did his bit too, for some reason he seems to like the occasional bare leg. :-) )
Anyway I was reminded of zahrawithaz 's post On Sexualizing Amy Pond when Karen, who really does seem to have her head screwed on tight, said that: "There's a kind of non-matching thrown togetherness about Amy's costumes that say she doesn't spend a lot of time on her appearance. Her outfits really say something about her and I think that's what an outfit should do - it's making a statement about who she is."
So far zahrawithaz has come closest to my own feelings on the whole Skirtgate thing which is good because as everyone can see from the above post I am rubbish at coming to any sort of definite conclusion. Anyway, if you guys would like to see the full interviews I'm more than happy to scan them in. Radio Times for all!
(Also quick RL update. Am back home with no TB to distract me for oh more than two months. This is good for you guys cause I might actually write some stuff but bad for me because I'm going to miss him horribly. *sniff*)
Although on that note I was catching up on the past couple of weeks of the Radio Times and there was an awful lot in there about the "sexulisation" of Doctor Who. Mainly expressed, this being the Radio Times, in the writer rolling his eyes at the so called "uproar"; obviously all being blown out of proportion by Daily Mail readers. There were two interviews in two different editions, one with Karen and one with Matt. (Rather annoyingly the bit that I wanted to talk about isn't in the shortened version of Matt's interview, maybe I'll scan them later.) Both written by the same woman.
As you can imagine the Karen interview does focus rather a lot on those famous legs for instance: "As she concentrates, one long leg winds tightly about the other, slim and supple as the limbs of an elegant octopus."
So far so expected. What I did find interesting though was that the Matt interview spends just as much time discussing "the unseemly sexiness of a bared torso at teatime" and the fact that people are out there busily freeze framing the shots of him from "the Lodger" where he only has a towel to cover his modesty.
Both interviews do a quick dive into to the actors current personal relationships and in both cases are politely but firmly rebuffed.
There were an awful lot of pictures of Karen in her interview, particularly an almost full length one which is clearly meant to be the "sexy" one, but on the other hand they also ran a picture of Matt with his shirt off at a festival.
There were definitely some interesting comparisons to be made. Certainly the Karen one did make me feel slightly awkward, less so when I found out that a woman had written the piece (but a man took the photos), but still it did feel like a bit too much emphasis was placed on, what is really a very small part of the character.
But then Karen went and pointed that out anyway. "It's part of who she is, but it's quite a small part. She's a normal girl". In fact that last bit seems to be Karen's attitude to the whole Skirt thing, a sort of "why is this an issue?" To quote: I just don't get it with the skirts. Its what any girl on the street is wearing (...) we all wear stuff like this."
(As for that last point I can sort of back that up. One of my first reactions to Amy's clothes was, to a degree, recognition. A sort of that's what I wear/would like to wear thing. Actually seeing someone on screen wearing and being comfortable in clothes like that sort of contributed to me ditching the leggings occasionally. Significant because my knees are fairly scared, at least to my eyes, from various accidents in the last two years and I'm only just getting comfortable with them being on general view. Though Amy doesn't get all of the credit, TB did his bit too, for some reason he seems to like the occasional bare leg. :-) )
Anyway I was reminded of zahrawithaz 's post On Sexualizing Amy Pond when Karen, who really does seem to have her head screwed on tight, said that: "There's a kind of non-matching thrown togetherness about Amy's costumes that say she doesn't spend a lot of time on her appearance. Her outfits really say something about her and I think that's what an outfit should do - it's making a statement about who she is."
So far zahrawithaz has come closest to my own feelings on the whole Skirtgate thing which is good because as everyone can see from the above post I am rubbish at coming to any sort of definite conclusion. Anyway, if you guys would like to see the full interviews I'm more than happy to scan them in. Radio Times for all!
(Also quick RL update. Am back home with no TB to distract me for oh more than two months. This is good for you guys cause I might actually write some stuff but bad for me because I'm going to miss him horribly. *sniff*)