The Beauty of Donna: a gender divide?
So I've been discussing this season of Who on a forum in my old fandom, and was very taken aback yesterday to see another poster - a man - comment that Donna is "at best 'plain-looking'. Now, I think she's gorgeous, and responded to say so, and to add that I love that they've gone with an older actress as companion and they're allowing her to be sexy and attractive, instead of the way women of CT's age are often shown in TV dramas. Admittedly, Jackie Tyler was intended to look downtrodden and a bit dowdy (and if you see photos of Camille Coduri in real life, she looks very different), but it is a bit of a stereotype, certainly in a lot of British TV drama.
But then I mentioned the 'plain-looking' thing to another online male friend, and later to my husband, and in both cases I got a few seconds' silence, and then but she is sort of plain-looking.
So this is where I'm beginning to wonder whether there's some sort of gender divide going on here, and if women are seeing something men aren't - and why. Of course, three people does not a statistical sample make, even if those three are a cross-section of different age-groups (20-something, 40-something and 50-something), so I'd love to know what others think.
ETA: And in comments, and here, two other women mention men around them saying that Donna's unattractive. So there's definitely more of it about.
Here's some eye-candy before the poll:
Poll Donna in the eye of the beholder
But then I mentioned the 'plain-looking' thing to another online male friend, and later to my husband, and in both cases I got a few seconds' silence, and then but she is sort of plain-looking.
So this is where I'm beginning to wonder whether there's some sort of gender divide going on here, and if women are seeing something men aren't - and why. Of course, three people does not a statistical sample make, even if those three are a cross-section of different age-groups (20-something, 40-something and 50-something), so I'd love to know what others think.
ETA: And in comments, and here, two other women mention men around them saying that Donna's unattractive. So there's definitely more of it about.
Here's some eye-candy before the poll:
Poll Donna in the eye of the beholder