Under attack by Weeping Angels for Day 4 of #29DaysOfBlackCosplay!
Amy Pond (The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone)- Doctor Who
amy pond
“Have you ever run away from something because you were scared? Or not ready? Or just because you could?”robins-reginas asked you: amy pond or
clara oswald?
what’s your opinion on people writing amy off as a terrible person because of the time she sexually assaulted the doctor?
Thank you for your patience sorry this took so long to answer. Please drop me a line and let me know you saw this!
I think, at best, they probably didn’t watch the rest of her arc, and, at worst, are looking for a reason to demonize her. I’ve written before about how what Amy did to the Doctor at the end of “Flesh and Stone” was indisputably Not Okay. She did sexually assault him by kissing him without his consent. I’ve also said that I wish the show explored the consequences of this action a little more, but on the whole I think it did an okay job of showing that this wasn’t okay or romantic (and that’s not a jab against Eleven/Amy shippers, there’s plenty of other support for that ship, but just not this kiss).
Like I said in what I linked above, Amy’s not sexually aggressive for the sake of being sexually aggressive. She’s sexually aggressive because of underlying issues relating to her character. (Note: sexual aggression =/= sexual confidence. I’m not discussing Amy owning her sexuality here because that’s a positive aspect of her character. I’m talking about specifically a trait and instance where she took this too far). Amy lashes out when she’s anxious. She goes back to what she’s good at in times of stress: faux confidence to the point of looking like arrogance and a fake dismissive attitude. She does this frequently throughout Series 5, taking “big deal” events and shooing them away. Just look at how she actually handles the kiss situation aftermath with Rory. He’s clearly upset, and she’s pretty dismissive of his feelings until the end when she drops her front and they reconcile.
Sexual aggression is another way Amy deals with feeling powerless. She knows her body and her sexuality are large weapons in her arsenal. When she felt powerless and scared after the event with the angels, she compensated by kissing the Doctor. This doesn’t make it right, but it does explain it. Amy’s actions are not a result of her being selfish or “a terrible person,” but rather, they’re a result of her underlying mental illness and self esteem issues. (Note: I’m not saying that people with mental illness get a free pass when they hurt others. I’ve already expressed that what Amy did wasn’t okay). To write her off for this reason ignores this. It also ignores how she changed throughout the rest of her arc.
Series 7 Amy would never do this. Series 7 Amy knows that Rory loves her and has personally reconciled much of her self esteem issues and personal issues with abandonment. Amy didn’t kiss the Doctor because she didn’t love Rory, but she was sure as hell afraid that Rory was going to abandon her like everyone else. These are issues that Amy works through as she heals and grows throughout her arc. She learns that her fears are unfounded and that the people in her life who matter will never leave her. To completely dismiss Amy for this action is to ignore her character growth and the person she develops into. To completely write her off shows an unwillingness to understand her.
I’ve been thinking about this a bit lately, and two things stand out:
- Amy was abandoned as a child. (No, it wasn’t her parents’ fault, but it still happened.)
- In the forest, in that episode, Amy was abandoned by the Doctor and by the four soldiers who were left to keep her safe. She was in deadly danger, and they left her. (Again, not by choice, but it happened.)
In that circumstance, if I seriously believed that assaulting a person and kissing them against their will would prevent future abandonment, I would probably do it. Now, the number of assumptions that lead Amy to that conclusion—that kissing the Doctor would lead to consensual sex, that sex would lead to him not leaving her—all those assumptions are fucked to one degree or another. (Many of them are not unique to Amy.) But still, we’re not talking about someone who was acting out of callousness, power-tripping, or any of the standard motivations for sexual assault; we’re talking about someone who was acting out of a profound sense of helplessness.
Besides, I don’t demand that characters be paragons. Mark Vorkosigan did worse, and he’s still a favorite of mine, in all his fractured dangerousness. Hell, come to that, the Doctor has done worse. What I ask is that characters change, learn, and grow, and Amy does.
Huh. In all the times I’ve seen that scene, I’ve never thought of it quite like that (abandonment + abandonment = sex that will prevent abandonment). There are several complicated psychological issues going on with Amy that culminate in that moment. They don’t excuse what she did, but they do explain why she did it.
Star Wars can write more personality into a robot that talks in beeps than Doctor Who can write into a female character.
BB-8: super cute, trusting?, dutiful???
River Song: freedom incarnate, intelligent, adventurous, powerful, impossible to restrain, damaged and healing, witty, brave, likes wine, dramatic, always reckless but more responsible as she ages, gains power from trust, openly emotional in youth but hides her pain later, technologically savvy, historically knowledgeable, learns compassion, ruthless in need, wreathed in stories, wise.
Amy Pond: full of faith, fear of abandonment, brittle and abrasive young, commitment issues, bravado, learns how to live an ordinary life, learns social skills, artistic, snarky, enjoys history, violent until she decides to not be, devoted in love, decent cook, defines her reality by her memories, psychically powerful, perceptive, difficulty functioning under extreme emotional stress, fairy-tale to story-teller.
Clara Oswald: adorable, terrifying, good with kids, sentimental, thirst for travel initially buried under sensible responsibility, strengthening impulsivity, eventually embraces her bossy-control-freak abilities, fantastic liar, lies to project normality while afraid of her adventure-addiction, eventually embraces adventure-addiction, strong conventional streak young, likes tea, aspiring story-book heroine, successfully rewrites herself as heroine.
um ok
Rose: allowed to be deeply selfish, for better or for worse, in a way that female characters often aren’t; immature but loving; wears her emotions on her sleeve, gains a love of adventure and danger; is always compassionate to those she meets who are of lower social status (see: Raffolo, Gwyneth, the Ood) because she knows how that feels; warm and friendly
Martha: very intelligent and dedicated; gives a lot of herself even in situations where this is unhealthy for her; is the glue that holds her family together; is far more forgiving than she needs to be (Joan did not deserve her magnanimity); is not afraid to call people out on racism; learns to take control of her life
Donna: puts on a mask of bravado but has no self-esteem whatsoever due to her emotionally abusive mother; shouts at the world and at herself; hates injustice and cruelty; is not afraid to tell people what she thinks; loves her grandfather and even her mother; takes up space
favourite female characters as voted by my followers
#21 AMY POND (Doctor Who)
“This is the story of Amelia Pond. And this is how it ends…”
There’s a little girl waiting in a garden. She’s going to wait a long while, so she’s going to need a lot of hope. Go to her. Tell her a story. Tell her that if she’s patient, the days are coming that she’ll never forget. Tell her she’ll go to sea and fight pirates. She’ll fall in love with a man who’ll wait two thousand years to keep her safe. Tell her she’ll give hope to the greatest painter who ever lived and save a whale in outer space. Tell her this is the story of Amelia Pond. And this is how it ends.
So I started a version of it but I got to a point where I could go no further unless it was going to be him [Christopher Eccleston]. I went for another meeting with him and he decided no. His reasons are his business and he’s a very private man. But it’s reasonable to say he really cares about Doctor Who. He’s well versed in what’s happened since he left, and happily chatted away about Amy Pond by name.
Steven Moffat about Chris Eccleston and the 50th Anniversary in a Radio Times interview
Chris is an Amy Pond fan!
It really frustrates me that Moffats female companions don’t wear pants
Are you kidding me? What is wrong with wearing skirts and dresses?
People always act like Amy only wears skirts… which is really, really wrong? I mean, she does have a fair number of miniskirts, but you also often just get to see her in jeans.
And River wardrobe includes dresses (TToA, TPO, TATM), but she also gets a lot of practical, not necessarily “feminine” clothes (TToA/FaS, TPO/TBB, SitL/FotD). She really dresses for the occasion – and if that’s military clothes or a space suit, then it’s military clothes or a space suit.
It’s really Clara who we’ve yet to see in trousers – and as someone who’s bought half her wardrobe: Why would she? She looks absolutely fantastic, and it’s all really comfortable to wear.
(As a most-of-the-time British English speaker I think they all wear pants, but that’s an assumption I can’t exactly prove.)
This so much, especially the bit about Clara and owning half her wardrobe :P
But on that note, Clara’s wardrobe says quite a bit about her. It’s very put together, and she has a definite style that she sticks to – fitted dresses (with a little bit of twirl in the skirt) and biker boots. It’s her armour, it’s her dressing like she’ll be picked up for an adventure the very next day. Which, of course, she knows is going to happen, and as someone who’s dreamed of adventure all her life, she wants to make it as perfect as possible, that includes dressing like a heroine.
Amy does like her mini skirts (and just generally fitted clothes). They give off an image of confidence (after all, why would you wear a mini skirt if you didn’t think you could pull it off?), which is something Amy is lacking in early on, so she does her best to fake it – by dressing in a confident manner, by being overly flirty and sometimes abrasive. This is toned down slightly over her arc as she grows in inner confidence and doesn’t feel the need to fake it anymore. Amy’s arc can be seen in many areas, and her clothes are just one of them.
I also think you can write similar styles of things about the fashion of every companion, not just those of RTD.
Wearing the clothes you want to wear is not wrong, and both Amy and Clara’s (and River’s) styles fit with their characterisation, and I really love that extra layer we get to the characters.
It may be worth pointing out that Amy originally started off in trousers:
But Karen Gillan had lots of input into her costume, and she thought Amy would prefer miniskirts.