Dear oh Dear!! (Female Dr Who)

[_V_]

I for one, am looking forward to her taking on the Cyberpersons.

[shaunbhoy]

So a woman can't be a scientist?

Not really what I said, but well done for getting hold of the wrong end of the stick again.

Legend!

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

How dare the time travelling alien with two hearts who travels around in a magic police box and regenerates when they die become a woman. How utterly absurd!

[scooterscot]

Not really what I said, but well done for getting hold of the wrong end of the stick again.

Betting both ends of your stick are a bit chauvinistic.

[darmstadt]

Those poor old farts



The Mail knew all along, except as usual they were wrong: Phoebe Waller-Bridge to be first female Doctor Who  | Daily Mail Online

[AtW]

Shaun - in your opinion are women good enough to become train dirvers?

[TheCyclingProgrammer]

I have been told it's not fair to call people misogynist for getting upset about this change. People are entitled to their opinion on the show's creative direction I'm told.

Ok, well at best isn't it a little narrow minded to judge the new series based solely on the new Doctor being female?

At worst, it's misogyny pure and simple. I'm yet to see anyone give a reasonable argument as to why this socially and technologically alien race who has the ability to regenerate their body, who transcend time and space, is not able to regenerate into a woman (and let's just gloss over this already being established canon).

Most people's argument seems to boil down to "the Doctor is a MAN and has always been a MAN therefore he can't be a woman because he's always been a MAN" which seems to be begging the question to me. There is nothing inherently male or female about the Doctor. He or she doesn't think or act like a man (or a woman), he or she acts like a time lord. If the new Doctor was a black man you can guarantee you'd be hearing the same things about how the Doctor can't be black because he's always been white.

Is it irrational to get worked up either way about a TV character? Perhaps. But characters can be positive role models. The Doctor uniquely has the ability to become whatever he or she wants and so why wouldn't you want to give The Doctor to become a positive female role for once, unless you're some kind of anti-feminist dinosaur?

People keep saying it's as absurd as having a female James Bond or similar, which is false equivalency. If anything it reminds me of similar outrage over the lead in Star Trek being black, or a woman, or more recently having a gay character.

As long as attempts to be inclusive and promote equality in film and television are derided by people as "politically correct nonsense" - as if there is no other merit to actually doing these things - then we still have quite a long way to go until we live in an actually equal and inclusive society.

[xoggoth]

regenerates when they die become a woman

OK by me as long as it doesn't involve hugely expensive transgender surgery on the NHS.

[shaunbhoy]

Shaun - in your opinion are women good enough to become train dirvers?

Yes, of course they are.

What a stupid question.

[shaunbhoy]

As long as attempts to be inclusive and promote equality in film and television are derided by people as "politically correct nonsense" - as if there is no other merit to actually doing these things - then we still have quite a long way to go until we live in an actually equal and inclusive society.

Rubbish. This is not about "promoting equality" at all.

There is ample scope for casting women in roles that allow them to portray positive role models. There is absolutely no need to tinker with a character that has been very successfully played by a man since inception over half a century ago.

It would be equally ridiculous to alter the role of Jane Tennison in Prime Suspect to that of a man, and I would be equally dismissive of that too.