Doctor Who: A Feminist Defence Of Steven Moffat

Sexy Ladies

wdwwdw This criticism is that all Moffat women are defined by their sexuality, which is always over-emphasized. And it is silly. I€™m sorry, but it is. All the women he writes are in control of their sexuality, able to manipulate men€™s sexuality for their own reasons, and clearly enjoy being dominant sexual beings. Why is that a problem? Sexuality is indeed a facet of every one of Moffat€™s characters, but it doesn€™t define them. Madame du Pompadour isn€™t €œa professional sex buddy,€ she€™s €œone of the most accomplished women who ever lived.€ She has a host of talents beyond sex, and her sexuality is really just her means of gaining power. There are plenty of female characters with un-pronounced sexuality: Madame Kovarian, Madame Vastra, and Jenny spring to mind, as well as the mother in The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe. As James Cornish€™s fantastic article put it, €œMadge Arwell is shown to be devious, resourceful, and willing to go to any lengths to protect her children.€ There€™s nothing sexual in that description. Sally Sparrow, Amy Pond, River Song, and Clara Oswald are all flirtatious, it€™s true. But Sally Sparrow is also resourceful, clever, and shockingly sensible. Amy Pond is a writer, domineering, and intensely indecisive. River Song is trapped in a tragedy that was written for her, but maintains a forceful personality in spite of it. Clara Oswald is ridiculously smart, inquisitive, caring, bossy, and has an incredible ability to combine her intellect with her emotions and cut to the heart of the Doctor€™s BS. Power on Sherlock and Doctor Who comes from two places: the heart and the head. It€™s a simplification of the central Western problem of emotions vs. reason. Sherlock and the Doctor€™s power comes from their head far more often than from their heart, but for their counterparts, (Watson and Jack Harkness included) who could never compete intellectually, it comes from the heart more than from the head. Sure, coding emotions as female and intellect as male is a problem. But that€™s not what Moffat€™s stories do. Moffat€™s women are both emotional and clever, and that gives them outlooks on the world that the Doctor and Sherlock can never have. It allows them to transcend the limits of the main male characters, to see more clearly. It lets them understand the world in a way that the Doctor and Sherlock just can€™t. And one of the character traits Moffat uses to emphasize a companion€™s connection with emotions is their pronounced sexuality.
Contributor
Contributor

Rebecca Kulik lives in Iowa, reads an obsence amount, watches way too much television, and occasionally studies for her BA in History. Come by her personal pop culture blog at tyrannyofthepetticoat.wordpress.com and her reading blog at journalofimaginarypeople.wordpress.com.