10 Reasons You’re Not Fit To Call Yourself A Doctor Who Fan
Think you’re a true Doctor Who fan? Or d’you think you’ve got the makings of the worst Doctor Who fan? Find out on WhatCulture!
The entire concept of this list is shit. It’s the picky, stupid sort of thing some people do to exclude others. Take it from me, someone who’s engaged in every aspect of the Whoniverse:
have you seen an episode of DW, enjoyed it, and want more? You’re a Who fan.
Only watch the show? Still a Who fan.
Only pay attention to Classic/Big Finish or similar combination? Still a Who fan.
Only watch New Who? Congratulations, still a Who fan.
I don’t care if you ship something I can’t stand, or only watch the “cute” Doctors, or we differ on fave companions, or anything like that. I love Doctor Who. I’m a Who fan. If you love it, in whatever form, you’re a fan too.
The person who made this list, and all of their ilk? Also a Who fan, if a shitty human being.
I am increasingly filled with overwhelming irritation at WhatCulture’s articles in general. The recent Who articles I’ve seen have been irritating at the very least. I prefer to avoid the site.
Okay, against my better judgment, I actually went and looked at this article. Shocker: it’s bullshit. More than that, some of it is offensive bullshit.
For instance, their number one reason why people aren’t “real fans” is having a crush on the Doctor. They also hate people who get too engaged in a ship. Those are both specifically aimed at a common perception of How Women Do Fandom.
They also criticize people who hate companions, but mention only companions from RTD era and before, ignoring the fact that one of their writers wrote a piece that was highly negative towards Clara (although none too complimentary towards the other companions it mentioned, either).
The rest are, for the most part, just irritating completist stuff. I could go on a rant about how expecting people to be able to access all kinds of media that Doctor Who has appeared in is actually ableist, but I think that’s stretching it. And, frankly, the negativity towards “fangirling” is enough to make this article well worth avoiding.
(Please use donotlink to access if you have to read that… thing, no need to increase the popularity of that “article” any more.)
I think there’s another interesting thing to point out – that it absolutely ignores the idea of Doctor Who as a family show.
My sister is 10 years old, and I’m pretty sure she thinks it’s “just” a show. She pretty much skipped Nine except for two episodes, completely ignored the Tenth Doctor, and claimed the Eleventh Doctor firmly as her own. Her first question about any main character tends to be “Will he/she get married?”. The idea of watching 1960s television is out of the question (and in black and white, too! it might as well be 300 years ago and not 50)… and the audios clearly wouldn’t appeal to her, even if she somehow were able to understand them (wrong language). She has both a surprising memory for details, and yet often no recollection of major plot developments. Forget about Classic Who or the EA – she even dreads the Twelfth Doctor. Too old, too unattractive (10-year-olds are shallow, who knew). But I hate to break it to anyone; she’s a fan of Doctor Who. Her excitement speaks for itself.
If attempts at gatekeeping exclude an essential part of the audience completely – in this case, most children, often first-time viewers who the show particularly targets with every new season and special – then… well, it’s a piss poor attempt at gatekeeping. Which is probably a good thing. May your attempts at gatekeeping remain shitty in quality and obviously wrong.