I went to look through the tags of that Clara-bashing post. (You know, the one where Rose, Amy et al are rolling their eyes at her, because really what fandom needs in general is more ladies hating other ladies.) It’s all the same. Thousands and thousands of the same comment. “I really dislike Clara. Fucking Moffat.”
Um.
What’s Clara done to be dislikable? She’s an awesome person. She’s kind. She’s selfless. She’s a sister-figure to a pair of kids whom the fandom also hates and a bloody good one. She’s called the Doctor out more than once. She respects and gets along with the other women in the Doctor’s life.
But no. The most common complaint I hear about her (and the point of that gifset, I suspect) is that Moffat elevated her above the others by writing her into old Doctor Who history, going back and inserting her into old clips, all that stuff. But this show about a man was literally rewritten to also include a woman and that’s a bad thing?? No? It makes her a Mary Sue? Oh.
This woman- this lovely woman who looks after people, who gives up her most treasured posession because it’s the right thing to do, who has high self-esteem, who insists the Doctor accomodate her responsibilties, who was literally born to save the Doctor BECAUSE SHE CHOSE THAT (this point cannot be overstated, as it goes completely ignored) she’s useless. Worthless. Because she was written by someone dislikable, she must be too.
All those incredible, wonderful things Clara, Amy, River have done? All that bravery and selflessness and complexity – Clara’s choice to do something that made her a mystery to the Doctor, Amy being incredible enough to more than transcend her terrible storyline, River being, oh yes, a Mary Sue (sorry, I can no longer see that as a negative thing) – swept under the rug, every time, in favour of “fucking Moffat” and I love these ladies, I relate to these ladies, and I hate it.
I’m so fucking disappointed in you, Doctor Who fandom. You may not (thank god) have the power and influence that Moffat has, but you definitely have a large portion of the misogyny.
October 31, 2013 @ 4:36 pm
There are times when I think some of fandom’s “criticism” of Moffat means they come off worse than the man himself. I’ve never heard of him actively using misogynist slurs like certain “critics” do to his characters.