Quaint little categories

[beccaelizabeth]

You know there's an exchange in 2-01 that, while LOL, do bug me - "You were the wife" as an argument. Erm, 51st century boys? Who have thus far been portrayed as having quite different expectations of sex and gender roles? Exactly what the frilly heck could they mean about which was 'the wife'? Because if it's a question of expectation or actions then it's a pretty weird thing to say, given the givens.

... and suddenly I'm having visions of them livening up their 5 very repetitive years by repeated sex swaps...

Another thing, sort of overlapping but also seperate, is how they insult each other by referring to signs of ageing. I mean, we saw at the end of DWs3 a Jack who is vain and worried about ageing. But... a Jack who considers ageing a bad thing? When he's attracted to insectoids? Seems a little narrow.

Though you could connect it to a century and a half of watching people age away around him. That would have to suck.

Still... a Jack who winds up his ex by saying how he got old? That's not a nice moment.

Mind you, if they were time looped those whole five years they'd have only got 2 weeks older together, so it could be a Thing in a Things Change way.

Sometimes though I wonder if it's just the writers being insufficiently SF about it. I mean, they're easy exchanges to write, it's just when you drop in a 51st century immortal it starts to look a bit odd. Yesno?

Comments

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Well, we've seen the 51st century in Who, and it does look more than a little heteronormative....

[beccaelizabeth]

which when? New series?

also, I'd still say 'writers need to think more better' whatever the previous canon.

... only hopefully I'd use better grammar...

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Well, we've gone from the beginning of time to the end of time and seen many human societies in between and realistic depiction of social change has never been a priority. Indeed, Who has a habit of recreating 21st century situations for camp/comedic effect no matter what era or galaxy they might be in (or even if we're actually dealing with humans--cf. "Voyage of the Damned").

[beccaelizabeth]

*nods*

[alixtii.livejournal.com]

Although one could argue that the TARDIS is only translating dialogue into language and metaphors and references the Companions could understand. But then Captain John might have learned 21st century English via a similar mechanism--in the language in which he thinks, Jack played the complicated social role known as "wsfrehufernihood" and the language tapes tell him the closest equivalent is "wife." Or some such.

[beccaelizabeth]

and *nods again*

[estarcollector.livejournal.com]

About the aging thing...maybe age was always a sensitive topic with John, so Jack is just deliberately hitting a nerve? *shrug* It seems odd coming from the kind of culture we assume they're from, BUT if a society has such open ideas about sex...well, appearance may be more important to them than we'd at first believe.

[beccaelizabeth]

yeah, I think the pair of them were all about the nerve hitting. know each other way too well.

appearance is important, but bugs and poodles are on the pretty side. past a certain point I kind of don't want to figure that out...