Gender essentialism and Thirteen
From the podcast: The Oodcast S07E07 - Assassins In Need (reviewing Demons of the Punjab, released 17th Nov 2018).
The Oodcast is a bunch of very talented people who perform songs and comedic sketches as well as make commentary on Doctor Who episodes.
This following transcribed conversation was difficult for me to listen to, because the person advocating for a gender essentialist reading/writing of the Doctor is a woman, and imo, she did not fully follow through with the implications of what she was saying. I think many, many people think like she does, however, and possibly that is how the showrunner sees it too. What do you think??
CM = Chris Mead. LM = Laura Mead. (They are married, btw.)
CM: I just wonder if it's a mistake to move the Doctor's character towards what we would say are more traditionally feminine qualities at the same time as changing the gender of the main character, I would like to see this Doctor, this incarnation, be full on war Doctor, at least once. I want to see that's still there.
LM: I don't know. Because I think, if you're going to change the gender of the Doctor, and have them behave exactly the same way as all their previous incarnations, what was the point of doing it?
CM: Well, every incarnation does change. Everyone's slightly different. I just didn't want it to be a change along gender lines so easily.
LM: But - gender does separate us. Like, there are many, many ways in which you and I are identical in the way that we think and interact with people, but many many ways in which we're completely different, and yet we are equals.
CM: But - those qualities, these qualities that we assign one gender or another, aren't real, they're just what society says, like "a man should be like this" and "a woman should be like this" and we know that that's not true, we know that there's countless examples of people who don't fall along those lines or who reject a gender identity, a binary gender identity at all. So, just, I don't know, I wonder about it.
LM: I think you can reject that whole idea of performative femininity, I don't think we're going to get this Doctor sitting in front of mirror, and primping and preening and doing anything which is part of this stereotypical role of what a woman or what a lady should be like.
CM: - No, I agree -
LM: But, there's nothing wrong with the Doctor being scared, with the Doctor being pacifist in a very very obvious way, with the Doctor encouraging collaboration. Those are feminine traits, well I mean, I hope that they're not just feminine traits, but I think they're positive ones.
CM: They're traditionally traits that have been ascribed to women.
LM: Yes. And I want to see the Doctor do things differently. I want to see the Doctor have a complete meltdown. I want to see the Doctor be frightened. I want to see her overcoming her own limitations.
CM: I mean, I want to see all that too and I love this incarnation. I'm just interested in, I just think it's an interesting question to ask.
