Miniskirt-wearing model saves universe: film at 11
I found this article earlier, and near the top was this:
Amy Pond is a model? Because obviously, obviously all she’s good for is her looks. I mean, Moffat has pretty much said that time and again in reference to Karen Gillan. Yeah, I know this was hinted at in the last series, but seeing it fully realized made me so angry. Amy Pond (despite what her characterization over the past series may imply) is a fully capable woman who is truly quite brilliant, yet she’s been reduced to an object.
It’s not working for me: it just comes off as criticizing a fictional woman by semi-shaming actual women. Is a woman who desires to be a model planning to reduce herself to an object? Is a ‘capable’ woman forbidden from being a model? What job is appropriate for a capable woman? Karen Gillan, after all, was a model herself. This speaks of agency (admittedly there’s a huge, huge conversation lurking somewhere in my mind about how much agency a fictional character can actually have), but ignores Amy’s actual choices.
Amy chose to be a model. We know from Space And Time that she considers herself good-looking…and why shouldn’t she? Modelling is something she both likes (check out her little slide down the stairs while she’s doing her photoshoot!) and is very successful at- more than averagely successful at, if little girls ask her for her autograph while she’s shopping. Also, it would be a job which provided her with both money (always handy, since Rory might well not be making much as an apparently part-time nurse) and freedom- she’d almost certainly get to travel and she doesn’t seem to answer to anyone.
And just in case you didn’t think she was robbed of her agency enough at this point, Moffat makes a pretty great show of bringing that point home: in addition to being put in danger, just so the Doctor can save her once again, she’s now completely worthless because she can’t bear children. Awesome.
The point was not that Amy is worthless for not being able to have kids, but was that she thought she was worthless. And I’m sure it wasn’t meant to come off that way, but when you consider the actual resolution to all this in the episode…this almost reinforces that horrible idea Amy got in her head. Because that isn’t what the episode was saying, not remotely. It was saying that Amy assumed, for some reason, that Rory would value her ability to give him children more than he valued her. (Probably because they had, technically, lost one child already.) Rory told her that he didn’t care about that and they reconciled (if a little too quickly for my liking). At no point was it even remotely implied that Amy’s infertility made her worthless- no word like ‘worthless’ was ever said- and I’m slightly unsettled that so many people jumped to this conclusion.
Steven Moffat appears to be unaware that he himself has reinforced said horrible idea, incidentally. I like to think this episode was his way of making up for it, but I’m not sure I should give him that much credit. I probably shouldn’t.
[Oswin is] a genius super hacker, but does she need to be in a mini-dress? I’m all for wearing whatever you want, but I feel like with Moffat’s track record of female characters, this choice wasn’t a personal one.
I don’t know about Jenna Louise Coleman, but Karen’s said Amy started out in trousers, only for she herself to push for the skirt- that’s here. (There’s also a filming picture from 2009 floating somewhere on the Internet of Karen in the trousers. I guess it was a last-minute decision?)
Then the bit about “I was having a bit of a phase”, in reference to her first love, a woman. Because bisexuality is a phase, apparently.
Can’t argue with that: there was no reason for that line and frankly I’m suspicious of his motives for putting it in.
But Amy, Amy, Amy- I look at her, and I always see a woman who was determined to hold on to her agency even when all around her tried to take it from her. And I’m talking about Madame Kovarian, the Silence, even the Doctor to some extent- not Steven Moffat! Amy defied or killed them all: guess it remains to be seen whether she kills her own author.
Also on Tumblr!
October 17, 2012 @ 7:39 pm
It bothers me that Amy’s choice of career is held against her in a way that other companions are, well, not. Especially since this was prior to the end of her arc, and New Who has been pretty consistent that what people become after they’ve left the Doctor is very different from what they were before or during. (This kind of got pointed out in Dinosuars On A Spaceship; Amy can’t settle into anything long term because she’s constantly expecting to be swept away again.)
October 17, 2012 @ 8:25 pm
I would be a godawful companion: I don’t have a career! Meep.
October 17, 2012 @ 7:59 pm
Personally, I’m amazed and disturbed that people see “Amy is infertile, thus worthless,” when all I saw in the episode was, “Grief makes you irrational; for God’s sake talk about it before you do something you can’t take back.”
October 17, 2012 @ 8:42 pm
I guess what people (a lot of people- here, tumblr, everywhere!) are trying to say is, “oh, Moffat obviously thinks that infertile people are worthless” but that’s so obviously not what the episode was saying that it makes me wonder if people just grasped around for a reason it made them feel uncomfortable…and they came up with that instead of the (I think) much more obvious explanation, the one you gave. Which is sort of worrying- do people sort of subconciously jump to “infertile=worthless” without realising it? Actually, for all that I said about “Amy thought she was worthless”, she…actually quite rightly may not think that, she only thinks she’s worthless to Rory. (An important distinction and one I completely forgot about.) I hope society doesn’t get to the point where we say to people who can’t have children, “You’re infertile? Society must make you feel so worthless. Wait…you don’t think you’re worthless? The hell?”
October 18, 2012 @ 2:30 am
I guess what people (a lot of people- here, tumblr, everywhere!) are trying to say is, “oh, Moffat obviously thinks that infertile people are worthless” but that’s so obviously not what the episode was saying *nods* If that had been the message, Amy would have had to apologize and it would have been all on Rory whether to magnanimously forgive her for her shortcomings and take her back. Or else the problem would have been miraculously solved, since Amy is a protagonist and therefore the show needs her to be “worthwhile,” however the writers define that. Which is sort of worrying- do people sort of subconciously jump to “infertile=worthless” without realising it? Judging by the sort of flack that voluntarily child-free people get—I think so, yeah. Or at least they assume everyone else is jumping to those conclusions, which can be a sticky mess.
October 18, 2012 @ 12:48 pm
Or else the problem would have been miraculously solved, since Amy is a protagonist and therefore the show needs her to be “worthwhile,” however the writers define that. I love that the problem wasn’t miraculously solved- Amy never magically became able to have kids again. I’d have hated it if that happened… Judging by the sort of flack that voluntarily child-free people get—I think so, yeah. Or at least they assume everyone else is jumping to those conclusions, which can be a sticky mess. It’s worrying. Did people think, “Moffat made Amy infertile so as to render her worthless” rather than just plain… “Moffat made Amy infertile?” :(
October 17, 2012 @ 8:12 pm
I think I love you. This this so much this But Amy, Amy, Amy- I look at her, and I always see a woman who was determined to hold on to her agency even when all around her tried to take it from her. And I’m talking about Madame Kovarian, the Silence, even the Doctor to some extent- not Steven Moffat! Amy defied or killed them all: guess it remains to be seen whether she kills her own author.
October 17, 2012 @ 8:43 pm
Eeee, thank you. :D <3
October 17, 2012 @ 8:14 pm
I feel like everyone has put on their “Moffat is a misogynist, grr argh” goggles and that’s all they can see anymore. Because I really don’t think the point of AotD was “If you can’t have babies, you must be useless,” (because, you know, you’re so useless that your husband loves you anyway and you go on to save the world and do awesome things in subsequent episodes and I can’t even) or that being a model somehow reduces Amy. It was, yeah, obviously something she was good at, and it wasn’t like anyone forced her or like it was the only job she could possibly take, so she must have thought it would be at least a bit cool. And, I mean, it wasn’t even her only job! It’s not like anyone said, oh, this is all she’s good for. She was also a writer, and she was implied to have taken and quit other jobs (possibly in the same or different career field) during the breaks between episodes, so I think she’s good at a lot of things and just didn’t quite know where she wanted to settle down. And why is modeling so much less legitimate than, I dunno, acting, which is kind of how we get this show on our TVs every week? Moffat says some dumb things, but he also seems to get in trouble for really random stuff that doesn’t really…make sense. I am really afraid to read the article you linked. But I have seen some of this sort of crit before, and this is a good response you have here!
October 17, 2012 @ 8:47 pm
Thank you <3 so she must have thought it would be at least a bit cool Which makes perfect sense with Amy’s character- she likes doing things that are a Bit Cool. (Picking locks, breaking into places, etc) And why is modeling so much less legitimate than, I dunno, acting, which is kind of how we get this show on our TVs every week? Karen Gillan used to be a model! (I heard she didn’t actually like it, but…) She was also a writer, and she was implied to have taken and quit other jobs (possibly in the same or different career field) Interestingly, today I found out a really nice bit of post-Angels semi-canon: apparently the publishing company Amy started to publish Melody’s book was called Pond River. It was on the back of the official ‘Melody Malone’ ebook the BBC released. So she still ended up with her own company! (Although…and here comes real life…having a job shouldn’t be what defines you. I haven’t had one in ages…)
October 17, 2012 @ 10:37 pm
apparently the publishing company Amy started to publish Melody’s book was called Pond River Ooh, that’s neat! And maybe that’ll make everyone feel better about the whole Amy Williams thing? Because that doesn’t sound like erasing her old self or anything. And ha, if it comes to that, I haven’t got a job either. Just a pile of math homework that keeps trying to stare me down. :P
October 18, 2012 @ 12:38 pm
It doesn’t, does it? Although I suppose it’s not canon enough…it probably didn’t go through Moffat. But still! Ah, maths. I can’t do maths. :p
October 18, 2012 @ 3:59 pm
Everyone expects me to be able to do math because it’s what I’m studying, but the sort of math that is useful in daily life is the sort that gets outsourced to the calculator to save time for the advanced math, so sometimes I will go to do something easy like compute the tip for a bill and it’s suddenly impossible and I feel like I can’t do math either. :P