Doctor Who: The Rings of Check Your Privilege

[lizbee]

I have to go out, so my actual episode reaction will be up in a few hours, but in the meantime, I had to react to some stuff I've seen.  Mostly on Tumblr, yeah, but what can you do?



1.  If you think that losing a mother at an early age is unrealistic and bad writing, I've got some sad news for you. 

1a.  If you think Dead Mother Angst is a bit cliche, yeah, it is, but it's not something DW has ever explored much before.

2.  I'd really like to see the cut of the episode where Clara's dad was fleshed out with lots of personality beyond Being Clara's Dad.  Because apparently that ... happened?

3.  If a five foot two woman standing beside a five foot eleven man is the most misogynist thing you've ever seen, then (a) I envy you, and (b) again, alas, it is something that happens in real life with depressing regularity.  Well, to me.  It happens to me.

3a.  If you think the only acceptable treatment of short women is to pretend they're tall, I ... I don't really know what to do with that.  But I feel bad for you, I guess.

4.  Clara reminds the Doctor of Victorian!Clara and Oswin.  Not Amy.  Certainly not Rose Tyler, who isn't even dead.  THIS ISN'T COMPLICATED, GUYS.  IT'S AIMED AT EIGHT YEAR OLDS.

I was going to say that Doctor Who fandom is the only one that complains when the show is too clever, but then I remembered Avatar fandom complaining that LoK had too much showing and not enough telling.

Comments

[drakyndra]

3. If a five foot two woman standing beside a five foot eleven man is the most misogynist thing you've ever seen, then (a) I envy you, and (b) again, alas, it is something that happens in real life with depressing regularity. Well, to me. It happens to me.

3a. If you think the only acceptable treatment of short women is to pretend they're tall, I ... I don't really know what to do with that. But I feel bad for you, I guess.

...What is this I don't even

ETA: Oh, and apparently Clara's Dad has an actual name! (Dave) But you need to look at the credits to find it.

[eve11]

Well, to me. It happens to me.

Me too! Quite a lot. The coworkers I work with the most are all over 6ft.

Clara's dad did talk to the Doctor for several notebook pages in the last episode, mostly about the government. He seems a bit of a romantic, with the idea of the leaf.

I can't believe the Doctor didn't have anything useful in his pockets besides the sonic.

[neadods]

I shall have to tell a long-married couple I know that apparently their marriage is a monument to misogyny solely due to their respective heights.

I'm also going to have to tell another friend that her mother's early demise was unrealistic.

[nonelvis]

3 & 3a: ... what. Does this make me a secret misogynist for marrying a man fourteen inches taller than I am? Have I let the sisterhood down? PLEASE, TUMBLR, SHARE YOUR BOUNDLESS WISDOM ON THIS TOPIC WITH ME.

4. *headdesk*

(Not that I'm surprised by the reaction, but still.)

[nostalgia]

Rose isn't dead? I thought she was, from the way fandom talked about her.

[amphigorym_2011]

Wait. People are considering it misogynistic that 11's taller than Clara? They ARE aware that Matt Smith has always been 5'11", right. And that he was also taller than Amy and Rory. I've got a niece who's 5'11" and her husband is 6'2"-I suppose they'd consider that misogynist as well? And she's the tallest woman in my family-the rest of us average anywhere from 5'2" to 5'5".

Ah Tumblr. What won't you bitch about?

[copracat]

1. If you think that losing a mother at an early age is unrealistic and bad writing, I've got some sad news for you.

How very fucking lucky to not know that people die at every age. And yes, I would like you to imagine the bitterest sarcasm in the delivery of that sentence.

[lyssie]

O.o o.O

Oh, fandom. Never change. (yes, dead mothers are a staple and grand tradition of SF/F, but we haven't had one on Who before. And I prefer it to the constant family soap opera nonsense of other eras)

As for height, I'm not sure what to tell people. Karen G. was taaaalll. Jenna L C is not. She's my roommate's height. And they can't just constantly put her on boxes, sheesh.

[violetisblue]

"If a five foot two woman standing beside a five foot eleven man is the most misogynist thing you've ever seen..."

Damn, this means that for feminism's sake I need to make sure I'm never in the same room with my father or all but one of my male co-workers ever again. Time to go start writing the explanatory e-mails.

[radiantbaby]

I'm 5'2" and my husband is 6'. Now I'm on the lookout for the creeping misogyny that's going to define us. Or not.

Oh, fandom. Why does this sadly remind me of when parts of fandom stated that Martha didn't 'look right' standing next to Tennant in the S3 promo photos because she was black?

[danel4d]

4. Clara reminds the Doctor of Victorian!Clara and Oswin. Not Amy. Certainly not Rose Tyler, who isn't even dead. THIS ISN'T COMPLICATED, GUYS. IT'S AIMED AT EIGHT YEAR OLDS.

I'm not sure that it's not also a little nod to the Rose and Martha situation though, at least on a meta-level. Clara gets to say the things that Martha should've had a chance to say, not realising that the truth is actually weirder than she knows.

[fahrbotdrusilla]

LOL, that's a thing? I thought the last one was obvious!

[marymac]

She's about 17/18? I think? Both my mum's parents were gone by then. I should tell her she's an unrealistic badly written cliche. Then run away. Very fast.

Height is misogynist? Sooo, there's a national conspiracy to make the average English male height 5'10" and female height 5'3" just to keep women down, or something?

[sabotabby]

It's probably good that I don't participate in Tumblr discussions, isn't it?

I thought it was refreshing that Clara's dad got no real personality outside of being Clara's dad. Normally that's reserved for fictional mothers.

Anyway, I quite liked this one.