Time travel, feminism and the 7th Doctor

[athena25]

I make no apologies. The 7th doctor is my doctor. I remember being terrified of the Happiness Patrol long before I was old enough to understand how terrified I should have been - as a milk-free child growing up in a Northern town - of Thatcher. Ace was everything I wanted to be when I grew up, she took no nonsense, went everywhere,, did everything

Comments

[athena25]

Yes, I think I was just the right age for the type of stories they were churning out at that time.

[littleonionz]

Did not like McCoy and co, but then I am an ancient eville mother and Tom Baker and Peter Davidson were my guys.

Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Buffy. Not terribly current but not bad given a faasand years of foot on neck;)

Alien. I wasn't old enough to see it at the cinema but when I *did* see it it blew me away. There were females who acted normally, like real people not those weird screamy crying things that did feck all except get in the way of the action in Sci-Fi and action filums (and books, slight side ish) and then there was Ripley and even the other one who was real enough that when she had a break down it was okay,because it was real and possible for any human just to stand and cry when faced with a big scary alien. Anyway yeah, Alien was the biggest breath of fresh air, closely followed by Aliens, which, although 'macho' the marines were pretty integrated and equal and gender wasn't an issue.

[stu_n]

Interesting that Ripley wasn't written as a woman, and when Sigourney Weaver was cast, the part was barely rewritten. Contrast that with Veronica Cartwright's part, which was written as female...

[littleonionz]

I'm not sure it is fair to judge on the basis of what was intended as opposed to what actually transpired as invalidating the reality of my own (minus fighting aliens) existence as a female type person. Both aspects of a person's character are very valid as I have personally experienced (as have all humes one imagines the fight or fight response) that one came about as a happy accident is like many such events rather fortunate. Luke Skywalker was intended to be a girl.

[littleonionz]

I prolly should have written more to explain myself in the above, but it is teatime and the troops needs feeding.
It may not have been intended for Ripley to be a chick, however; she was the most believable female I had seen up to that point in a Sci-Fi or possibly any film, for me as a chick she was close to real not just a plot device, not just an object there to help progress the hero's journey, she was the hero.

[ed_fortune]

I am big McCoy fan (though Davison is my Doctor, as well as an early crush), and Battlefield a favourite. (Though I like Remembrance better.)

I'm looking forward with both grown-up and fanboy interest to this episode of Sarah Jane Adventures, mind you.

[wulfboy]

When I were a lad I wanted to do bad things to Ace, becase she took no nonsense, went everywhere, did eerything and often blew them up. Possibly not a good opening line when we're talking about feminism, but it's true, and I don't apologize.

I felt that Catherine Tate's recent run on Dr Who was positive - we had a female and male character who were not romantically involved, who appeared to just be good friends. Not the best series in the world, but that particular companion helped.

I desperately want Amelia Pond to not fancy the doctor and to have fun seeing lots of stuff and that.

I can't talk knowledgably about a lot of things but I do think that gender equality in terms of fiction has taken a bit of a knock.

[littleonionz]

I thought Catherine Tate's character was just awful. I'm not sure it is a gender crime to fancy people either, I know a lot of humes who spend a shed load of time thinking about other humes in a fruity kinda way...or maybe that is just me? I should prolly eat less steak.

[wulfboy]

I don't have issues with a companion fancying the doctor, I'm just concered that the "female companion fancies doctor" relationship is just an easy cop-out and that there are differnt male/female dynamics that could be explored in a show like Dr Who which is being watched by all sorts of people of all sexes and many age groups.

[athena25]

I think that fancying Ace just comments well upon your taste...

I'm ambivalent about Catherine Tate - I think she was funny but also that Donna was rather annoying, in places.

Amelia Pond I'm waiting and see-ing. Having her appear as a stripogram started it all off rather badly for me.

[spiraltower]

I think passing the Bechdel Test only means that it has more than one woman in it and they have a conversation about something other than a man. Simple as that. The comic in which in featured is something like 25 years old and even then the point wasn't that a 'Pass' film was worthy, just that a 'Fail' was a movie the character wouldn't go to see.

I find it odd that this has somehow become "It passes Bechdel! It _must_ be worthy!"

In other news, I couldn't abide McCoy as the Doctor. I remembered him too well from Jigsaw, Vision On and Tiswas. Mind you, I'm not sure I ever really forgave the Doctor for stopping being Tom Baker.

[athena25]

Yes, I have no idea why Bechdel has become the supposed beacon of pro-feminism. Actually, I can.

Because Bechdel is easy to understand and to unpack. And it comes from a comic book about dykes (so it must be the cutting edge of the cutting edge). And sometimes people are just bloody lazy and can't be bothered to think.

Part of my issue with current feminism is the acceptance of things that are blatantly substandard in terms of gender equality because they are better than they used to be, or because of token characters.