Should the Doctor be a Woman? Definitely Not

(Image Source: BBC)

The new series of Doctor Who is now fast approaching and the controversy over the casting of Jodie Whittaker continues. 

I am one of those awful misogynistic broflakes that hates women because they think having a female doctor is a really bad idea.

I don’t have any issues with female heroes and I certainly don’t hate women. I also appreciate that it is too late to prevent this change now but I feel it's important to record my distaste for this decision and so, I will put forward my case against a female Doctor. 

The road hasn’t been sufficiently paved for such a change

I can hear you all already, “But it’s been well established that time lords can change gender when they regenerate.” Sorry, but no it hasn’t. Two characters in the 55-year history of Doctor Who have changed gender when regenerating; the Master and the General. Of these only the general’s occurred on-screen so before that the reason for Missy may not have been “because time lords can now change gender”. So arguably it didn’t become “established” in canon until “Hell Bent” in 2015. 

 (And please, don’t start about the reference to the Corsair in “The Doctor’s Wife” in 2011. It was a throwaway comment at the time, or are you going to tell me the name of the Doctor is actually Basil as of the 2015 episode “the Zygon Inversion”.) 

So it has been established, true, well established, no. But we still haven’t been offered an explanation as to why this is only happening now. I think it’s quite patronising from the show runners to suggest that it has always been the case that time lords could switch genders when for the first 52 years of the show’s existence there was no evidence that this was the case. They need to offer an explanation for this or else it will be a glaring plot hole. 

The conversation between the Doctor and Bill in “World Enough and Time” was particularly poor from Moffat. In this conversation the Doctor expresses doubt about whether he was male when he was very young, despite the fact that as he is well aware, the Doctor has been a man in all 13 incarnations of himself up to this point. I know he’s clearly trying to pave the road for Jodie here, but he’s doing it very badly by effectively attempting to retcon both the Doctor and the audience about the fact that he has always been a man. 

(Image Source: Twitter)

The Doctor is a unique and positive male role model

Here is the more emotive or moral case I will put forward against this change. I think men and boys need the Doctor. 

“But men have so many heroes, women need some too.” I agree but not the Doctor, men need him. Think of other male heroes you’ll think Marvel and DC, you might think secret agent types like James Bond, Jason Bourne, Jack Ryan or Ethan Hunt. But all of these characters have something in common. It’s fight first, think later. 

These heroes are your classic macho men. If a problem can be solved through violence, you can bet these guys will opt for that. The brain should be engaged only when the fists have failed. 

That is not the Doctor’s way. The Doctor always thinks his way through a problem first. He carries a sonic screwdriver and he hates guns. He does fight and use violence, but only as a last resort. Yet he repeatedly saves civilisations using these means. So whilst all these other role models are telling young boys to fight first and think later, the Doctor tells them to think and to learn, to outwit your enemies rather than out-muscle them. 

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I think that is a vital counterweight in the messages boys receive, but it will be taken from them if the Doctor becomes a woman. Boys need the Doctor. Let's not take him from them. 

Gender swapping characters is just downright lazy writing and is often unpopular

I don’t like gender swapping popular characters more generally. I think it’s incredibly lazy. Rather than writing entirely new female characters with their own personalities and back-stories, let’s just take this well-known male character and cast a woman to play him. 

I can’t see the logic from even a feminist perspective that this is a good thing. Surely there are female characters we could write that could be made equally as popular as these male ones, or established female heroes that we could tell new stories about. 

Look at the response to Wonder Woman compared to say Ghostbusters or Ocean’s 8. Even though both the Ghostbusters remake and Ocean’s 8 were gender swapped with sufficient internal logic, audiences largely rejected them. Fans didn’t like seeing their favourite films characters with gender-swapped lead characters and casual viewers don’t tend to be blown away by remakes. 

Whereas Wonder Woman was excellent. Fans loved it and let’s be honest it’s arguably the best DCEU film, not because feminism as many media outlets would claim, but because it was an excellent relaunch of a beloved character that was consistent with the character’s previous depictions. 

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On that point… 

If girls need a female equivalent of the Doctor to be their role model, let's give it to them. We could have even done it in a way that didn’t even take a beloved character from young boys. How? 

Jenny! (Image Source: BBC)

Our saviour. She is a time lord and she has only one biological parent; the Doctor himself. She is currently a loose end from series 4 that was never revisited on screen. We last saw her taking off in a rocket to explore the universe. She could have been the perfect solution. 

A new show, with her at the centre could have given young girls the heroine they deserve. Be creative, write a way for her to find herself in a TARDIS and you’ve got basically the same show as Doctor Who but starring a woman. I’d gladly watch it, wouldn’t you? That’s how you give girls role models, write them. Don’t hijack male characters, be creative. 

Girls deserve positive role models, but so do boys. Keep the Doctor male.

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