Doctor Who, Season Nine

[Aractus]

Nup, confirmed by another study.

I wasn't clear with my intent. I took the study at face value. What I was really getting after was the fact that 'the study' was conducted in the first place. This is a clear sign that there's a professional offense taker at work. Fucking ridiculous.

I don't think so, the first study was done in response to multiple people noting that Moffat is blatantly sexist in Doctor Who and Sherlock (which by the way I don't watch), and looked to objectively assess whether it was true. The other study was inspired by the first study, but looked beyond the constraints of the direct criteria for the Bechdel Test to objectify the observed incidences of sexism further.

RTD isn't perfect either, he introduced openly bisexual characters with no relevance to the plot, and those themes of sexuality were better left out of Doctor Who, or at the very least constrained to plot relevance. Furthermore we know from Eccleston that's he's blatantly classist just as much of the BBC and British society is (which by the way I can prove with the Marmot graph below).

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I don't need the studies to prove it for me - it's been obvious to me since 2010, and I never bothered even reading into people's opinions on it. It's a lot more sexist now than many classic-era series - even though the classic-era Who was rife with the helpless females. That's why Carole Ann Ford left the original show - because of rampant sexism. If we think back to Leela - one of my all-time favourite companions - it became clear that the actress, Louise Jameson, went to great lengths to overcome sexism and actively portray an independently-minded woman. They (including Baker) wanted her to be a weak submissive female, but she wanted to portray a strong female character.

The sexism is there and obvious whenever you notice an interchangeable female character. Missy for example is an interchangeable replacement for River. Both Amy and Clara have partners who the doctor repeatedly belittles in front of the women.

When we're first introduced to River she's intelligent, strong, and independent. But she just regresses from there - overtime we learn she calls the doctor whenever she's in trouble. She never does anything for herself, and can't even decide not to kill the doctor on her own.