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Why people are wrong about Doctor Who.
Oct. 20th, 2009 04:48 pmA lot of people of whom I am very fond have made the (very valid) deconstruction of Doctor Who as a white middle-class man who goes around the universe telling people how they ought to do things. I have often disclaimed that I choose to circumlegate these issues because of all the good things I get out of Doctor Who fandom, but a recent post on the Doctor Who Society mailing list has caused me to rethink this.
The Doctor's status as a middle-class white man is very tenuous. It is as tenuous as that of a trans man, because a medical examination could "out" him. It is as tenuous as that of a man on the autistic spectrum, because he learns the rules of human interaction as an outsider. His apparent class-status is part of that; he has learnt the best way to get what he wants is to adopt a certain kind of privileged-male arrogance, except when he's adopting some other persona in order to get what he wants. (Because what he wants is generally to avert catastrophe, save lives, etc, I won't begrudge him that too much.)
“How many heterosexual Doctor Who fans does it take to change a lightbulb? Both” provides an excellent analysis of the queerness of Doctor Who fans, and of the show itself, and points to some things that I had never even considered before as to why I love the show so very much.
Sadly, it's also perturbed me a little; is Moffat's tenure actually going to remove some of the Doctor's glorious queerness? While he was functionally asexual, he could be a queer cipher, a Holmesian "other" in a way I'd never fully analysed; but, unless Moffat gives him boyplots as romance-focussed as "The Girl in the Fireplace" and "Silence in the Library", a lot of the ways in which my dear Doctor differs from the standard sci-fi hero are going to be lost. I can take one Irene Adler, but a whole season of them will sadden me.
The Doctor's status as a middle-class white man is very tenuous. It is as tenuous as that of a trans man, because a medical examination could "out" him. It is as tenuous as that of a man on the autistic spectrum, because he learns the rules of human interaction as an outsider. His apparent class-status is part of that; he has learnt the best way to get what he wants is to adopt a certain kind of privileged-male arrogance, except when he's adopting some other persona in order to get what he wants. (Because what he wants is generally to avert catastrophe, save lives, etc, I won't begrudge him that too much.)
“How many heterosexual Doctor Who fans does it take to change a lightbulb? Both” provides an excellent analysis of the queerness of Doctor Who fans, and of the show itself, and points to some things that I had never even considered before as to why I love the show so very much.
Sadly, it's also perturbed me a little; is Moffat's tenure actually going to remove some of the Doctor's glorious queerness? While he was functionally asexual, he could be a queer cipher, a Holmesian "other" in a way I'd never fully analysed; but, unless Moffat gives him boyplots as romance-focussed as "The Girl in the Fireplace" and "Silence in the Library", a lot of the ways in which my dear Doctor differs from the standard sci-fi hero are going to be lost. I can take one Irene Adler, but a whole season of them will sadden me.