Doctor’s lesbian sidekick in ‘perving’ storm
FANS tuning in to Doctor Who expect to find the Tardis and a perhaps a Dalek or two – but certainly not ‘girl-on-girl titillation’.
Yet that’s what confronted millions tuning in to BBC1 last night as the family favourite returned to our screens.
The new series featured the hotly awaited debut of Pearl Mackie as Bill Potts, the Doctor’s first gay assistant. Within minutes, Bill was giving the Doctor the lowdown about what turned her on, describing a girl she noticed when she worked in a university canteen.
She told him: ‘There was this girl student, beautiful… eye contact – perversion. I gave her extra chips every time, extra chips like a reward for all the perversion.’
Writer Steven Moffat has spoken of the importance of greater diversity on the show, but feminist campaigner Julie Bindel said Bill’s debut was most likely to please male viewers.
She said: ‘This is something that is clearly done for the benefit of those who just think of it as girl-on-girl titillation. I don’t want to have representations of lesbians which is all about sexism, double entendres and sexualised behaviour. It’s just taking two women and using the blueprint of sexist heterosexuality.’
Ms Bindel said she had no problem with lesbianism being discussed before the 9pm watershed as the schedules were already awash with sex among hetrosexual couples.
But Sebastian J. Brook, editor of leading fan site Doctor Who Online, welcomed the new character.
He said: ‘We live in an age where the representation of real life is important. The fact we have our first proper LGBT companion character is great.’