Conclusion
Perhaps the most thundering refutation of the criticism that Moffats women are never allowed to own their story is Clara Oswald. In contrast to the three Ponds--none of whom got to determine the narrative of their story any more than the Doctor did--Clara was always the writer of her story. She saved the Doctor before he even met her, and she did it in grand fashion defeating two major Doctor Who foes. When she became a regular companion, it was she who determined the days the Doctor would come for her (in direct contrast to Rivers eternal vigil), and she who became the first companion to keep her life wholly independent of the Doctors from the beginning. The Doctor needed Clara more than she needed him, and because of that she always had the upper hand emotionally in their relationship. The Doctor may have always known more than Clara, but thats normal because Doctor always knows more than everybody. Clara understood more than him, a very important difference that always gave her the balance of power. In The Name of the Doctor, she made the decision to leap into the vortex and, rather than letting it tear her apart, she went through time saving the Doctor. She ignored his protests and made her own decisions about her life and death. In the end, the Doctor was asking her to let me save you. As far as Moffats women being too sexy goes, a woman companion whose sexuality is as unpronounced as the Doctors would be a terrible idea. Companions are there to balance out the doctor, to humanize him, and one aspect of humanity is sexuality. The Doctors lack of overt sexuality sets him apart, and often makes him lonelier than ever. And its the Doctors loneliness that is the central villain of the new Doctor Who. His loneliness warps him, makes him something inhuman, invades and even poisons every relationship he has. It takes a strong personality to break through his loneliness, and many companions have found that a good snog makes the whole thing go much faster. Much of the same holds true for Sherlock.
The problems of women in Doctor Who are the problems of women in television. Donna may be the coolest companion ever, but she was still marriage-obsessed, and her happily ever after involved a white dress. Martha and Mickey also happily-ever-aftered as a happy couple. Amy is buried under her husbands name, as his wife. These arent problems with Moffats narratives, theyre problems with womens cultural scripts. On balance, Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Steven Moffat commit no more sins portraying gender than anyone else, and fewer than many. Perhaps the best feminist defense of Steven Moffat comes from the Bechdel Test. For those who dont know, the Bechdel test involves two simple questions about any piece of media: 1) Is there more than one woman? 2) Do they talk to each other about something other than a man? Its a bar so low youd think anyone could step over it, but the sheer volume of movies and tv shows that fail is enough to make any feminist despair. Steven Moffat passes the Bechdel test more consistently than any other writer I can think of. Looking back at his episodes, there have been non-man-centered conversations between women in everything but The Doctor Dances. Even the Irene episode of Sherlockthe original stories of which never once passed the Bechdelpasses with flying colors. Joss freaking Whedon doesnt pass with this kind of consistency; The Avengers fails the Bechdel. In the end, most of this is nit-picking. Casual fans do not engage in the kind of thinking about a show that produces this much analysis. They do not care what bloggers think. What the casual fans find in Moffats women are confident, powerful and outspoken women. They are smart and never apologize to anyone. Were talking about a writer who had aliens translate man to weak and woman to strong! Accusations of misogyny are ridiculous. We need more women like Moffats on television. We need them badly. No multi-layered gender studies critique matters as much as the need for strong women characters on television and in science fiction generally. So lets everyone lay off the poor bloke. If you liked what you read, drop by my pop culture blog at
tyrannyofthepetticoat.wordpress.com.