on Moffat and children's stories

[tempestsarekind]

Er. I appear to have tripped and committed meta.

On Moffat, Misogyny, and Children’s Stories

“The Leopard of Little Breezes yawned up and farther off from the rooftops of Omaha, Nebraska, to which September did not even wave good-bye. One ought not to judge her: All children are heartless. They have not grown a heart yet, which is why they can

Comments

[litlover12]

Interestingly, I was just reading a new thread about Moffat's misogyny on ONTD.

The main thing I took away from it is that people just like to complain a lot.

Anyway, this is really good analysis.

[tempestsarekind]

It is a never-ending topic, I guess...

But thank you! And thank you for *reading* it; the post ran away with me, rather.

[ericadawn16]

Brava! You wiped the floor with all of them...too bad they'll never bother to read or comprehend it.

[litlover12]

That would require actual thought instead of knee-jerk whining. Can't have that. Too much work. :)

[tempestsarekind]

Thank you for reading!

[neadods]

Nice post! I'm going to chewing on all the details for a while before I have anything deeper to say - you've got a lot here.

[tempestsarekind]

Thanks so much for reading it!

[viomisehunt]

unlike Russell, I guess, who...gave all the companions essentially the same back story of “running away from nagging mothers And the Nagging, slightly possibly-aggressive mother is not misogynist at all. Moffat did not create the scenario that compels viewers to "Rate" a female companion's worthiness as human being according to the Doctor's desire or lack of desire for them: Lover, Mate,or disposable Handmaid. And at least two of Russell's companions have no direction until he shows up, and they forsake their mundane lives because of a man offers them a better life than they can work/reach for on there own. These tow women-Donna and Rose-- are the most beloved. Where as Woman Interrupted--which is how, Paraphrased Martha is described-- is disliked because she has stones to realize the relationship is toxic to her self esteem. (In the Story of Martha--which is one of the rare book that is considered canon, we learned that Martha had wanted to be a Doctor since she saw an x-ray of her arm, but you are correct. Davies didn't

[tempestsarekind]

Yeah. As I wrote in another comment, I think the "companion's development is tied to the Doctor" narrative is a potentially troubling feature of New Who as a whole, rather than something unique to Moffat - which is why I don't understand the whole Moffat-vs-RTD way that fandom talks about this. It's not that I think Moffat never writes anything problematic, ever, but some of the stuff he gets lambasted for is stuff that comes with the franchise - he could *change* it, absolutely, but he didn't invent it.

As for Moffat's comments...I don't know. He's said that he was quoted out of context in that interview - that he was talking about one of his characters in Coupling, not describing his own views. So I don't feel comfortable using that quotation as evidence, if there's the possibility that it's not accurate. And I don't know of a lot of other comments he's made in that regard - I only see people pointing to that one article. (Maybe he *has* made a bunch of comments like that, but I don't know of them.)

[viomisehunt]

Believe me in the last week, I have had more than my experience in comments taken out of context. It is possible Moffat set the tone for his relationship with fans with the "Dumping the needy girlfriend" comment about Rose, and he didn't endear himself to fans with his description of the kind of "female" he imagined as companion. I'm afraid it isn't just one article, but a series of articles and snap interviews. However, by his own admission he gets caught saying "off the cuff" things. We all run into creative problems if we write a person as a Type--as in this guy is a CAD--rather than create characters. Moffat possibly feels that Amy and River are strong women, but yeah, I think he does put more emphasis on Natural Motherhood, whereas fatherhood is often a surprise to the Father--especially in the examples you gave. Both male parents are brought to a crisis. Rory is treated like a third wheel in the Amy/Rory/River tale. However, Rory's father is an absolute gem. I don't know if that means anything other than Moffat had a better

[tempestsarekind]

Fair enough - I haven't read many interviews with Moffat. (I tend just to look at adorable pictures of Matt, Karen, and Arthur!)

[gileonnen]

I think you've made good points about the commonly-raised issues with Moffat's writing, and about the ways in which he fixates on narratives (that tend to come off more gender-coded when he applies them to women than when he applies them to men).

For my part, though, when I was watching the very beginning of the finale, when Clara was chasing down the Doctor in all of his guises as she monologued, I got to the point where she said that this was what she was for--saving the Doctor--and the part of me that really loves watching the Doctor get saved couldn't stifle the part of me that said aloud, to the screen, 'God, not ANOTHER woman who exists for the Doctor

[tempestsarekind]

Thanks for reading this! And that's totally fair; everyone's breaking point for this stuff is different and personal

[gileonnen]

*nodnod* I agree, this is more a New Who thing than a Moffat thing! But it's become a really annoying thing, and that's a shame, because I really liked New Who.

[tempestsarekind]

Yes! I can see the difficulty, in a way, because the scales of narrative weight are always tilted toward the Doctor; he's older than the companions, and knows more, and is smarter. So what do you do to give the companions more weight? Well, if the Doctor is canonically The Most Important Figure in Creation, who burns at the center of the universe and all, then what could be more important than saving him? If you save the Doctor, then you become even more important than he is! But that comes with an uncomfortable repetition of people (especially women) sacrificing themselves for him.