beccaelizabeth (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
beccaelizabeth) wrote2009-07-31 02:13 pm
beccaelizabeth) wrote2009-07-31 02:13 pm
I keep trying not to look, and yet...
I wish, I wish, I wish I could just stop reading RTD interviews. Because I know he'll wind me up. He'll say the same things over again only more so. And it will wind me right the hell up.
So this time I read an interview that is actually the full version of an interview I read earlier, so, you know, much closer to exact-same than usual. Shouldn't even be a seperate dose of annoyance. Yet the full version? So much worse. Because he's not just complaining about fans. He's complaining in a gendered way. He is, in so many words, complaining about straight women, young females, and hysterical women. He is writing us off as 9 people on the internet and using gendered terms to do it and why can't he get it into his thick head we are many and we are varied? Surely he saw that at Comic Con?
He's also got no apparent sense of his own contradictions. He says right in a row "That’s a judgment based on sexuality. It’s horrible to judge someone on their sexuality." And "I’m talking about young straight people here that haven’t considered gay life".
http://www.afterelton.com/TV/2009/7/russeltdavies?page=0%2C3 is the last page. Right down the end is the 'nine hysterical women' comment.
He uses his previous shows and his track record to basically say he's let enough gay people live that it doesn't count as homophobic to make one of them die. And I can see his point. I definitely can. But... well... Bollocks. I'm sorry. We're not there yet. Even his shows are not there yet. We're not upset because we've been reading TV tropes and getting over excited, we're upset because we've run the maths and we're still looking for survivors.
If there are so many gay people on TV that killing one off is exactly the same as killing a straight character, please say who they are! I'm looking! Willow & Kennedy survived, but that was a lot of years ago. Who else is saving the world on a regular basis? There's a whole list of straight people, and now, where's the list of gay people? Same sex couples? Any of them?
So I know he's written a bunch of characters and a bunch of them didn't die. But we can't turn on the TV and pick and choose between a bunch of different queer heroes. And until we can, please stop killing them!
And don't roll out the 'fictional' vs 'good work in the real world' argument. It's not an either/or. And TV is *powerful*. I know, actually myself to talk to, people who have changed their opinion about homosexuality because of Doctor Who and Torchwood and Captain Jack. I'm not kidding or exaggerating. I'm astounded, but I'm not kidding. These shows actually made a difference, made people see and accept. And how does he think campaigning works? You go out and you get the attention of as many people as possible. TV can get the attention of six or thirteen MILLION people at once! The difference between that and campaigning is being conscious of the direction of push.
okay, deep breath, think calm...
I can see his point. He does have a point. He's written a lot of things and many of them we don't feel the need to complain about. That's great.
But when we do complain, it is not from ignorance. And it can't be written off by labelling it 'hysterical women'.
So this time I read an interview that is actually the full version of an interview I read earlier, so, you know, much closer to exact-same than usual. Shouldn't even be a seperate dose of annoyance. Yet the full version? So much worse. Because he's not just complaining about fans. He's complaining in a gendered way. He is, in so many words, complaining about straight women, young females, and hysterical women. He is writing us off as 9 people on the internet and using gendered terms to do it and why can't he get it into his thick head we are many and we are varied? Surely he saw that at Comic Con?
He's also got no apparent sense of his own contradictions. He says right in a row "That’s a judgment based on sexuality. It’s horrible to judge someone on their sexuality." And "I’m talking about young straight people here that haven’t considered gay life".
http://www.afterelton.com/TV/2009/7/russeltdavies?page=0%2C3 is the last page. Right down the end is the 'nine hysterical women' comment.
He uses his previous shows and his track record to basically say he's let enough gay people live that it doesn't count as homophobic to make one of them die. And I can see his point. I definitely can. But... well... Bollocks. I'm sorry. We're not there yet. Even his shows are not there yet. We're not upset because we've been reading TV tropes and getting over excited, we're upset because we've run the maths and we're still looking for survivors.
If there are so many gay people on TV that killing one off is exactly the same as killing a straight character, please say who they are! I'm looking! Willow & Kennedy survived, but that was a lot of years ago. Who else is saving the world on a regular basis? There's a whole list of straight people, and now, where's the list of gay people? Same sex couples? Any of them?
So I know he's written a bunch of characters and a bunch of them didn't die. But we can't turn on the TV and pick and choose between a bunch of different queer heroes. And until we can, please stop killing them!
And don't roll out the 'fictional' vs 'good work in the real world' argument. It's not an either/or. And TV is *powerful*. I know, actually myself to talk to, people who have changed their opinion about homosexuality because of Doctor Who and Torchwood and Captain Jack. I'm not kidding or exaggerating. I'm astounded, but I'm not kidding. These shows actually made a difference, made people see and accept. And how does he think campaigning works? You go out and you get the attention of as many people as possible. TV can get the attention of six or thirteen MILLION people at once! The difference between that and campaigning is being conscious of the direction of push.
okay, deep breath, think calm...
I can see his point. He does have a point. He's written a lot of things and many of them we don't feel the need to complain about. That's great.
But when we do complain, it is not from ignorance. And it can't be written off by labelling it 'hysterical women'.