Just what the doctor ordered
The new Dr Who will smash the Tardis on male domination
By bidding an emotional farewell to Peter Capaldi’s wonderfully portrayed Twelfth Doctor, BBC’s 54-year-old science fiction series Doctor Who has truly stepped into the future, which is to say, the present. Since its inception in 1963, the protagonist of the British science fiction TV show has been a character portrayed by 13 different actors – all men. This week the last remaining Time Lord, at long last, regenerated into a woman. And with her first (and only, so far) words, the Thirteenth spoke for all of us waiting for it. “Ah, brilliant!”
After Ghostbusters, Wonder Woman (even if she’s still in skimpy, unscientific armour), and now Doctor Who, it feels like fantasy and science fiction might finally be waking up to the fact that women and girls can be heroes too. When it was announced in July this year that the new Doctor would be a woman (and now again after the Christmas Special aired), the social media universe has been hoarse with outrage about how the show had been “ruined” and a positive male role model would be lost at the altar of seeming gender equality if a woman was allowed to become a Time Lord. This seems to come from some misplaced belief that role models must necessarily be gendered. By this logic, no little girl can be inspired by Einstein to become a scientist or by Arthur Conan Doyle to be a writer.
Another criticism is that simply changing the gender of a character does not count as progress towards gender equality. It’s absolutely true that the fight for equality cannot simply be about changing the gender of a fictional hero; it must also be kept in mind that there has been a normalisation of stereotypes through storytelling, and fantasy is one of the great spaces in which to change the mindset of young boys and men who have historically been seen as the target audience for such franchises. Many so-called Dr Who fans have several reservations. Among them are the fear that she won’t be able to drive the Tardis, it doesn’t fit with the narrative, would you accept a male Wonder Woman, he is a Time Lord, not a Time Lady and it is Dr Who, not Nurse Who.
As Gal Gadot swirls in mid air brandishing her sword and Jodie Whittaker crashes the Tardis on the face of male domination in fantasy series, there is hope that a new generation of fans will not be boxed into the princesses-for-girls and superheroesfor-boys binary stereotype.