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paperairplanes13 · 6 years

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8 examples of why Steven Moffat is NOT a feminist

Gif 1: Fetishizing motherhood and reinforcing patriarchal binaries and hierarchies—So much wrong with this one. The Doctor argues that mothers are “more than female"—i.e., better than—those who are not. It plays into pernicious patriarchal myths that women aren’t really women until they’ve given birth, until they’ve had children. Not every woman wants children. Not every woman can have them (for a variety of reasons—including (duh) the fact that some women don’t have uteruses—they’ve had them removed, or they just have penises instead). It doesn’t make them in any way inferior to those who do.

Additionally, he asserts that women are better than men, which simply reverses the patriarchal binary and thus evinces a fundamental misunderstanding of what feminism is. Feminism holds that everyone is equal, members of every gender, not that one gender is better than all of the rest. That’s a patriarchal notion. Hierarchies are patriarchal—privileging certain groups of people over others. Communities where everyone is equal, valued, and respected are feminist.

Gif 2: Reinforcing patriarchal stereotypes of women as irrational, overly emotional beings, while men are, of course, the sane, rational ones, which is generally used to justify the notion that women should be denied positions of power. “It all makes sense to her"—i.e., women apparently have some strange sort of emotion-driven non-logic that is fundamentally different from that of men, and that compels them to want to seduce/marry men and then, like the flighty, irrational creatures they are, want to kill them on a whim. This moment is deeply and unforgivably misogynistic.

Gifs 3 and 4: Romanticizing stalking—Both these women, Kathy Nightingale and Madge Arwell, eventually married the men who were stalking them, which sends the message that stalking is normal, romantic, and acceptable. Also, what if Madge had said no to marrying a complete stranger who finds it acceptable to stalk young women who are walking home alone through fairly isolated woods? Would Reg really have kept stalking her—a complete stranger—until he coerced her into agreeing to marry him?

Gifs 5 and 6: Victim-blaming and contributing to rape culture—In Time, Rory drops a thermocoupling after looking up Amy’s skirt, and Amy, Rory, and the Doctor all place the blame on Amy for wearing a skirt rather than Rory, who apparently has zero self-control (also problematic), or the Doctor, who seems not to have entirely thought through the potential ramifications of having a glass floor. And in gif #4, from Space, the Doctor’s ultimate solution to the problem is to order Amy to change into more conservative trousers—i.e., policing a female body—rather than urging Rory to exhibit some self-control. Or altering the desktop theme so that the floor is no longer transparent. The fact that Amy immediately accepts the blame without attempting to argue for a moment is particularly sickening. Essentially, then, this entire skit contributes to rape culture.

Gifs 7 and 8: Demonizing women, which has been par for the course in patriarchy since biblical Eve was first vilified for biting the apple. The implication that River’s attractiveness is why she is “hell" is therefore fairly problematic, since it is rather explicitly harking back to those patriarchal myths, as is the Doctor’s tacit endorsement of the medieval monk’s fear of women. Why did he not correct or contest the monk’s rather terrified reaction at learning that the Doctor was conversing with—the horror!—a woman? A simple, “No. No. Don’t be silly. Women aren’t evil at all.“ from the Doctor would have been enough. Also, back to gif 7, how exactly is River’s attractiveness at all related to her decision to save the Doctor’s life? Are they implying that it is because she is sexy that she is so dangerous, which is incredibly misogynistic? The Doctor and Churchill are objectifying and belittling her by speaking of her in such a way. River, like every other woman/being in the universe, deserves more respect. To be treated like a human being, not a piece of meat. If Rory had been the one inside that suit, would they be speaking of him so dismissively?

It’s fairly obvious that Moffat likes to think of himself as a feminist. But anyone who is capable of writing the above moments (and each and every one is from episodes he wrote himself) clearly does not have a good grasp of what feminism is. Perhaps he should have done his research.

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paperairplanes13 · 6 years

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Why do you hate Eleven?

man it’s super late but i basically boils down to

i’m not a fan of the doctor behaving like a complete child

not bothering to find amy’s baby

not telling amy about being pregnant

brainwashing humanity to murder for him

stalking clara/not telling her he’s met her twice before

effectively murdering oswin by leaving her to die in the explosion he enables by removing the defences and not taking her with him just because her mind is trapped in a metal tank

murdering dozens of coma patients by exploding the spaceship without even thinking about rescuing them

not a fan of a character who is constantly lying and who i can’t trust as a viewer

i didn’t realise this for ages, but the way he spits out food and water onto amelia’s floor, and throws/smashes china plates- like oh my god little 7 year old amelia is going to have clear that up you asshole?

letting river take the fall for his murder so that he can remain ‘in the shadows’, while she spends her life locked up in a cell

phrases like ‘humany wumany’ and ‘explodey wodey’

the constant twirling

’——- are cool’

him cutting himself off from humanity and literally sulking in a cloud because his friends are happy together (and totally able to seem him again tbqh), after he failed to manipulate amy into staying with him

talking down to people, calling them stupid (strax for example)

sexually assaulting rory

sexually assaulting a married queer woman and not apologising when she slaps him.

making boner movements with various phallic objects

acting sexually aware one minute (wrt river, leering at clara’s bum) and then the next he’s flailing like a kid when he’s being kissed and not understanding that craig is implying sex or that amy and rory are having sex

acting like he’s never been on earth before and not understanding human customs (somewhat limited to the craig episodes which is why i don’t like them)

sick of stories centering on his importance to the universe

forcing river to break her wrist and screaming at her, despite the fact that they could have just written the line about it being broken in the book, but not gone ahead with it irl

sniggering behind clara’s back when she accuses him of thinking women can’t drive

his reply ‘it’s a woman’ and facial expression to the monk

forcing his friends to witness his ‘death’ and to think he’s dead for god knows how long

when rory crashes the TARDIS because he was distracted by looking up amy’s skirt, instead of telling rory to pay more attention, he tells amy to put some trousers on

how he’s constantly running from his darkest day, or his darkest hour and rising up higher than before and falling father than before and omg stop being so dramatic

‘ Ah, well, she’s been brainwashed. It all makes sense to her. Plus, she is a woman.’

there’s probably more but it’s 2am