I was thinking of writing a rant myself but this is so perfect (especially the last couple of paragraphs are brilliant and completely on point!) I already feel a little better having read it. not that I feel less angry. Just better because I don't have to go in search of words that will only elude me because of my anger.
I did rant on twitter though. And did some googling on how Steven Moffat writes women. Because, to be honest, I haven't been too happy with Doctor Who's portrayal of them in a good while. I came across a quote attributed to Moffat:
"I don’t know how well women come out of Coupling," says Moffat, the son of a headmaster, who taught English in Greenock before following his original writerly instincts and scoring his first success with Press Gang. "There’s this issue you’re not allowed to discuss: that women are needy. Men can go for longer, more happily, without women. That’s the truth. We don’t, as little boys, play at being married - we try to avoid it for as long as possible. Meanwhile women are out there hunting for husbands."So I tweeted this:
I wasn't expecting a reply since it's well known he doesn't reply to criticism. And he also hadn't replied to my earlier tweet in which I had simply asked him why he made Irene gay. (Because I was actually genuinely interested in his reasons.) But lo and behold I actually got a pissed of @reply from Mr. Moffat himself:
"Boy, that guy really can't take criticism", I thought, "but hey, getting misquoted by journalists really fucking sucks, I get that." So I wrote back. I was actually very calm and collected and objective:
And then suddenly, WHILE I WAS TYPING AWAY AT THIS BLOG POST:
Uh...
But thus he has disqualified himself. It is actually quite hilarious to me because thankfully I've gotten to a point in my life where I don't take these things personally but exactly as what they are: The answer of a troll.
Btw: It seems Moffat has deleted the post, because Finn can't access it and now neither can I. Thank the gods for screenshots, right? ;)
edit: It doesn't matter whether you want to call it misogyny, sexism or just plain bad writing of female characters. What matters is that it is there. And no one has tried to refute that yet. All people are doing is split hairs about the definitions. Which are academic. Which this blog (nor my twitter account) is not.
So if you want to actually have a discussion about Moffat's writing with me - go ahead. But if you just want to split hairs you must do it elsewhere and know that your comments of that kind here will be deleted.
