Skyquake87 wrote:Tbh, I can still get how casting a female Doctor is pandering to an extent. I wouldn't mind it if it felt more like there was a narrative drive for it (which, in fairness, there has been certainly in the last couple of series of Who) , but its been drowned out by all the clamour for it and just whiffs of caving to external pressures, whether that's frothing tabloid journalists or the BBC's own drive for diversity at all costs (especially in light of the horrendous publication of salaries it had to endure). That more than anything else has just made me unable to properly get behind the idea until very recently. It just feels like "There. We did it. Are you happy now?".
What actually would be the costs of diversity though? That's basically why women and other groups get so angry at this sort of thing, the idea that White Hetrosexual Male is the default and anything else is a bit odd and weird and quota ticking rather than just as valid.
As for LOG, it's interesting that there's been such outrage for not only Barbara but also Papa Lazarou in the recent new episodes. Again, symptomatic of how times have changed etc etc but also that people can't recognise that some of these things are ripe for humour, whether you like it or not. LOG has always been a show about grotesques and caricatures of some of the very worst aspects of human behaviour, so to take offence at it seems very silly indeed. Or that you shouldn't be watching. And surely to God, if you're tuning in, you must have some idea of what you're letting yourself in for - the writing team does comprise people who wrote Psychoville and Inside No. 9!
It's a YMMV thing of course, but I can see the point in still doing Papa Lazarou as the basic message there is people who do blackface are ****s, and I don't think the name has ever become an actual slur.
Barbara on the other hand, we're in an era where transgender people are actively fighting harder than ever for their basic right to exist and there's an increasingly loud right wing voice calling for their total extermination (to coin a phrase). It's hardly surprising they'd find the return of a twenty year old incredibly negative "Man in a dress with a big butch voice" stereotype hugely upsetting and something to complain about loudly.
(Gatiss of course hasn't helped himself recently by attacking the casting in his last Ice Warriors episode with "I find it hard to imagine black people existing before 1950", which was a joke in an attempted point about not liking diverse casting in the Victorian army--even though it's actually broadly speaking accurate to real history--but still about the single worst soundbite he could have come up with)
Plus there's that twenty year old character. Twenty years before 1997 we had Bernard Manning and the like doing their terrible material. Young people today looking back at the stuff we grew up with and going "What. The. ****." when it's problematic isn't a fault with them (especially, as with Barbara, it's still being done today so there's no "Those were the times!" arguments to be made), it's that the world has shifted. Largely for the better, even if there are so many trying to drag us back. The problem was more a group like transgender people not having a platform in 1997 to talk about how things like this are hurting them and the people making the show never having that chance to realise it.
There are somethings in life we absolutely should be bothered about; equality and education and health and our place in the world (especially here in the UK where Brexit is shaping up to be a right dogs breakfast, the government are seeking to curtail press freedom and have the sort of internet China does, amongst many many other deeply troubling issues), its good to be critical, but taking offence at works of fiction or cartoons or whatever the hell it is is aiming your ire in the wrong place.
Oh they can multitask, I love the passion and take no shit attitude of people in their teens and twenties have at the moment to take down everything. I don't remember it being like that for my generation, maybe not having the unifying thing of something like Twitter was a factor there as well. I hope they can keep it up, when you're fighting against the real dark evil consuming the world right now we need that strength and determination more than ever.
And even if it's less important, never forget how important media is in shaping world views and how seeing people that look like you well represented can make a massive difference. We saw that this year with the ecstatic reaction to Wonder Woman and there's a similar build up to Black Panther. There was a great video the other day of several POC surrounding a poster with its one Caucasian Andy Serkis face on it and going "This is what it feels like for white people ALL THE TIME!" and dancing around with pure joy.