The Problem With Rorie Williams
[This essay has fallen from an alternate universe where Amy and Rory’s genders are swapped- timey-wimey-spacey-wacey eh? They are now Andy and Rorie.]
There is much to admire in the characterisation of Rorie Williams. She kicks all kinds of ass, she is pragmatic and kind- and, most noticeably, she is the one who wields the sword while the man stays with the baby, in A Good Man Goes To War. Indeed, the importance of the pregnancy arc in Doctor Who Series Six cannot be understated- a man kidnapped, duplicated and used as an incubator, while a woman fights to save him! It was a bold and impressive move for the show, even if it wasn’t really mentioned again.
But despite all this, there’s something bugging me. And that’s the simple fact that Rorie’s entire life revolves around Andy- we have never really gotten to know her as a person the same way we have her husband.
Granted, things might change in Series Seven, as we will get to meet her father. (Although that’s another man. Where’s her mother?) But why has it taken two series to get to that point, when we met Andy’s parents in Series Five? And it’s not just that- why isn’t Rorie allowed the little snippets we’re given about Andy? We know Andy’s favourite school subject, what sport he played at school, what his middle name is, what his favourite book was- we don’t know any of those things about Rorie. Indeed, you could say there’s only really two aspects to her character- she’s desperately in love with Andy and she’s a nurse. (Oh, and she likes cars I suppose- although that’s only mentioned once.) Why don’t we ever find out, really, what her nightmarish 2000-year wait was like for her? Why don’t we see her bond with her daughter the same way we see Andy do?
Indeed…eventually, you begin to wonder if the writers just plain don’t care about her as much as they care about Andy and the Doctor. As feminist a character as she looks- swords, armour and all- she’s never made an important choice that didn’t involve her husband. Never! She chose to wait 2000 years for him – she chose to travel with him (what’s happening to her career while she’s doing that?) – she chose to marry him. And is Andy even worth this when you consider the disgusting domestic violence ‘joke’ in The God Complex?
Then there’s the things Rorie doesn’t choose. She doesn’t choose what last name to have- the Doctor does call Andy ‘Mr Williams’, which I appreciate, but everyone else calls her ‘Mrs Pond’, and calls them ‘The Ponds’ as a unit. She doesn’t choose her daughter’s name. She doesn’t choose when she leaves the TARDIS- she makes remarks about the time being over, but it’s the Doctor who makes the choice and Andy who seems to accept it.
The differences in how the writers treat the pair is nicely illustrated by the episodes Andy’s Choice and The Boy Who Waited. (Both of them are named after Andy, for a start.) In one of them, Andy has to choose between a life with the Doctor or a life with Rorie: as it is, he pretty much gets both. In the other, Rorie has to choose between two versions of her husband. One of them dies, leaving her devastated. She never gets to choose anything that isn’t about Andy. Her whole life (not to mention all her deaths! This girl’s been fridged multiple times!) revolves around him. And that’s really unfair.
August 30, 2012 @ 2:11 am
I’m confused. Are you using a genderswapped universe to critique the Whoniverse’s actual treatment of Rory, or are you just writing meta that applies to the hypothetical genderswapped universe? Because if it’s the first one, things get really confusing, because Rory is already a role-reversal character in a lot of ways, so making him female would change him back to being stereotypical (being a nurse, being more passive as compared to Amy, etc.). The thing I liked about “The Girl Who Waited” was that, although we had gotten a lot of suggestions that Amy really did care about Rory and was now willing to show it, and that she did intend to choose him over the Doctor, Rory’s devotion to and sacrifices for Amy had always seemed more dramatic and obvious and part of his identity. So that Amy was willing to do an impossible thing, something she wouldn’t try even for herself, because she loved him, sort of put them on a more even footing in a way that “Amy’s Choice” should have, but didn’t really quite seem to. At least in my opinion. That said, the whole breaking time thing is getting a bit over the top for me, no matter which member of the Pond family is doing it on any given day. And it’s gotten to be like microwaving a TV dinner for them–it happens like every 3 episodes.
August 30, 2012 @ 12:42 pm
It’s really because I’ve seen so many comments on Tumblr that Amy has no personality beyond Rory and the Doctor. I think that’s untrue, so this is really to point out that the exact same critera applies to Rory too, and that if the genders were swapped the whole thing would be really problematic. There’d be jokes about ‘Andy’ hitting ‘Rorie’, ‘Rorie’ wouldn’t get to keep her last name… Or something. I guess it’s more of a thought experiment really…
August 30, 2012 @ 3:26 pm
People think Amy has no personality? That’s really weird. And even if she didn’t, the way the show is structured is basically that Amy is the Doctor’s sidekick and Rory is Amy’s sidekick (although he’s sort of been “promoted” since they married), and the amount of character knowledge/personality the audience is given naturally decreases down the hierarchy of how important the character is supposed to be to the viewer. Thought experiments can be fun. I’ve always been fond of Schrodinger’s cat. But that’s off-topic. :P
August 31, 2012 @ 4:51 pm
It bugs me. She’s easily got as much personality as any of RTD’s companions. :( And people say, ‘she’s entirely defined by men!’ when Rose was too!
August 31, 2012 @ 5:23 pm
I think it’s just that people tend to be, in no small part, defined by the people around them. And the people we see Amy with the most are, yes, the Doctor and Rory. Was Donna defined by men because the two most positive people in her life were her granddad and the Doctor? *headdesks at the crankiness of Tumblr* Am still worried about the Pond “divorce,” btw. I keep hearing that it’ll be all right, but I can’t think what would even get them thinking about such a thing in the first place, unless it was mind control or some such. It just seems so unlike them. I need it to be tomorrow so I can stop stressing out about the marriage of fictional characters already! :P
September 1, 2012 @ 12:40 am
Exactly! And Rose had the Doctor, Mickey and her father…three men! Tomorrow is today where I am right now! I am so excited…and scared! :o
September 1, 2012 @ 12:45 am
Ahhhh it’s the last first new episode with Eleventy and Amy and Rory all together. I have way too many feelings about this, haha. Since you get to tomorrow evening first, send back news of how it goes! :P
September 1, 2012 @ 12:57 am
I shall! (Hey, what bit of the world are you in?) :D I think I’ve read *just* enough spoilers to, uh, dull me from most of the pain. ;)
September 1, 2012 @ 1:03 am
I am in the Midwestern United States. Cornfields, represent! Or something. :P That’s good to know that the spoilers dull, rather than increase the pain. :)