'ain't i a woman?'

[subtle1science]

Still thinking about "The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe" (DWW)....This time, because I'm thinking how much I love Moffat's depiction of women in not only that episode, but the whole series run.  I like tuning in and feeling confident that I am not going to be insulted with, yet again, some stereotype of useless females.  Particularly useless

Comments

[suo_gan]

Thank you for this. You've articulated my thoughts better than I could have, because I would have descended into rant

[subtle1science]

Or a harridan who does nothing but berate and criticize her own daughter--oh, wait: we had two of those....Donna's and Martha's mothers. The latter of whom turned her own daughter in to the authorities, too. Oh, wait--three: Rose's mother was no prize either: the sexually desperate, amazingly stupid, trashy Jackie. The middle-aged bitch who ran the London Torchwood, interchangeable with the middle-aged bitch who helped the rich, stereotyped obnoxious American guy hide the Dalek in his basement. Don't confuse them, of course, with the middle-aged bitch who was the nanny for the Adipose.

It sure ain't Moffat who's sexist.

[anonymous]

My take on it was that Moffat was playing around with some clichés

[subtle1science]

I like suo_gan's decision that "weak" is just a poor translation of an alien concept. :D

I wasn't happy with categorizing the men as "weak"--but at least it stopped right there, at that one comment. We were spared any ongoing rant, which would've been the likely path with a previous showrunner.........Ahem.

That Madge is a bad driver--things just turn up in her way--actually became funny when, as soon as it was established that Madge did not drive well, the Doctor walked directly into a lamp post. An echo, perhaps, of "The Eleventh Hour," when he walked directly into a tree and explained, "Steering's a bit off." The latter has been the plot point of DW, so much so that Sexy finally explains it in "The Doctor's Wife": "I took you where you needed to go." Like Madge in the Platform: she didn't drive it well, but it got her where she needed to go.

[anonymous]

Yes, I’ll buy that one aobut the poor translation! :)

I think that Madge’s clumsiness resembles the Doctor’s clumsiness in a hilarious way; it’s not the gender, it’s the person! And besides, it’s perfectly understandable that you don't get all details exactly right when you have to put on a space-suit while falling rapidly towards the Earth, or when you have to steer a huge clumsy robot for the first time in your life… :) The important thing is the determination to survive and save lives, isn’t it?
/Nyctalus

[subtle1science]

Last year, the Doctor was Father Christmas, tumbling out of the chimney and onto Kazran's carpet; this year, he handed Madge the title of Mother Christmas. To me, it seemed clear that Moffat was drawing parallel between the Doctor and Madge....Reg Arwell even shrugs off Madge's encounter with the spaceman/angel as her bringing home "another stray." Madge is loopy and eccentric and sweet and not to be underestimated--just like Eleven.