hawthornhedge said: The line about Harriet Jones is one of the things that I like least about the RTD era & the first thing that comes to mind when I see posts about how non-sexist Doctor Who used to be. B/c the sexism of that strategy doesn’t get called out in show.
Ack, Doctor Who’s never been non-sexist! Nor has…any TV show in the history of ever, probably. Sigh.
And no, it’s never called out on, and it’s still being mentioned even twelve episodes later (in Army Of Ghosts I think) how awful Harriet is. And then she still dies to protect her planet and yet the Doctor doesn’t really acknowledge this, he doesn’t even have a moment to go ‘Oh, I was wrong about her…’ :(
I was kind of relieved when I read your original post to learn that at least contemporary audiences seemed to loathe that line and that particular strategy of undermining Harriet Jones because it truly is one of the lowest points of the new series for me but no one ever seems to get worked up over it. Because there are a lot of interesting discussions to be had, like if the Doctor thought that this was so offensively objective, why didn’t he look to take her down on the merits rather than playing on yet another base aspect of society? And, really, I don’t think that he showed that much regret (or, at least, as much regret as I think that he should have) even once he realized that the Master took advantage of this to gain power. It also really aggravated me that Harriet Jones apparently needed to die as part of her “redemption,” which, again, wasn’t really appreciated by the Doctor.
I mean, in full disclosure, it’s something that kind of hits pretty close to home for me because I’m terribly conscious of all the superficial ways that I can be judged in my work that simply don’t happen with men (like whether I am cheerful or extroverted enough, for instance). So the Harriet Jones storyline just really doesn’t sit well with me, but I always kind of felt like maybe I was the only one who found it to be not great.Ooh yes, people hated that line. Although it was used as a political thing pretty fast, I remember a Livejournal post going around that was “Don’t you think George Bush looks tired?”
…I just looked at a transcript for The Christmas Invasion and actually the whole Harriet thing gets even worse in the closing minutes of the episode, when Harriet is on TV having to deflect questions about her health and trying to get the reporters to talk about what actually just happened (the invasion!) rather than her. It just smacks of the ‘women are too fragile and hysterical to hold positions of power’ trope and that’s what the Doctor used as his weapon. :(
And as you said, then she has to die to be redeemed. And I do love her death scene, it’s badass, but you’re right in that she didn’t need redemption! Or no more than the Doctor himself does.
Ha. Whenever I see that line used for Steven Moffat*, I just think that referencing that episode kind of undermines the allegation that Moffat is wholly responsible for all sexism ever in Doctor Who. Yet I’ve seen scant discussion about how messed up the “don’t you think she looks tired?” line is IN THE ACTUAL SHOW. I think that the discussions about gender portrayals in the show are hugely important and I absolutely don’t think that Moffat is above reproach, but the discussions are inherently incomplete when you don’t consider the problematic aspects of the RTD era as well. And I obviously personally consider the Harriet Jones storyline to be one of the problematic aspects because I think that the institutional sexism is pretty glossed over in the episodes.
*Is that what you were referencing about reclaiming the line?
Yes indeed! And you just absolutely nailed everything I wanted to say about it, nice one. :D