(Re)Discovering Empathy With Torchwood

Over the past couple weeks, I’ve been re-watching Torchwood. (By “re-watching” I mean going on hours-long Torchwood binges.) Because of my bitterness about the death of practically everyone (Ianto in particular, first time around) and how the end of Children of Earth made me dislike Jack, I vowed to kick the Torchwood habit forever. Miracle Day and its whole being-on-Starz-and-set-in-America thing made me even less interested. (Call me old fashioned, but it’s just not Torchwood to me if I can’t hear those Welsh vowels from someone other than Gwen and Rhys.) I was so upset and disinterested in the show that I didn’t even want to watch the old episodes.

That changed after I watched an episode of Doctor Who with Captain Jack in it. Suddenly I was overcome with nostalgia for Handsome Jack and his crew. So, I decided to shelve my years-old grief and enjoy the show like I did before, knowing all the while what heartbreak lurked in the future.

One thing I noticed this time around is how brilliantly most of the characters are drawn. Torchwood is a haven for blurry morals (my kinda place), with Captain Jack serving as the ultimate anti-hero. Jack does what he needs to do; he’s chaotic good incarnate. (Say what you’d like about Jack, but he’s always looking out for somebody.) He’s mean and kind and brutal and thoughtful all at once. (You know, like a real person.) He also seems to know exactly what he’s doing all the time, but as the show progresses, we see Jack as helpless and clueless as everyone else more and more often.

Gwen is also one of the most successful characters. There are times I want to punch Gwen in the face, but there are other times when I find her sympathetic. Again, sort of like a real person. When she confesses to Rhys about sleeping with Owen, but then drugs him so he’ll forget, I want to shake her, but I understand that sort of impulse, even though I’ve never cheated on my boyfriend with a co-worker and then given him an amnesia pill. The only time I couldn’t fathom her actions was during “Adrift,” where she lies to and manipulates Andy for reasons I just don’t get.  But, you don’t always have to like a character for her to be well-drawn.

Even Tosh and Owen, who each seem a little like a stock character, have their characters fleshed out. Owen, like Gwen, I want alternately to punch in the face and to hug. This time around, Tosh was my favorite character, which probably has something to do with the fact that I never wanted to punch her in the face. She and Owen are so wonderfully human, which makes their deaths that much more heartbreaking.

And then there’s Ianto.

The first time I watched Torchwood, Ianto was my favorite, because he was adorable, efficient, angst-ridden, and secretly hilarious, and because I was in high school. As much as I love Ianto still, I think what prevented him from being my favorite character this time around is that they did very little to humanize him (cyberwoman girlfriend incident aside). Jack was practically always associated or a motivation. I was disappointed that in the episode where we learn of how everyone got recruited by Torchwood, Ianto’s story was how he stalked/obsessed over Jack until he got to prove himself in the warehouse with the pterodactyl. I wanted a glimpse into Ianto’s soul, and all I got was more Ianto x Jack fodder. (There’s nothing wrong with Ianto x Jack, but Tosh and Owen’s stories were really devastating and interesting, but Ianto’s was sort of pathetic and silly.)

Overall, though, the characterization is excellent, which is why I wish Russell T. could run all shows. All the characters were human, even the women. Russell T. and Joss Whedon are probably my dream team of TV/movie writers, because they understand both how to make characters human and that woman are people. (However, if they did work on a show together, someone would have to stop them from slaughtering all beloved characters.)

Another major component of why Torchwood is great is its sexuality. Ianto himself is bisexual, Jack is bi/pan/omnisexual, and Tosh is seduced by a woman without it being performative. All of these sexualities (including heterosexuality) are shown as normal and nothing shameful, which is really refreshing. For some, Torchwood may be overly frank in its relationship to sex, but at least people of non-hetero inclinations can see people like themselves on TV and like them. On TV, if not in real life, they can see total acceptance of their sexuality. And even though I just labeled a few of the characters, from what I remember, there is very little talk in the show about who has what sexual preference. No one agonizes over what preference Ianto is, if he had a girlfriend but also shags Jack, or if Tosh, having been seduced by a woman, is now less heterosexual. It doesn’t matter in Torchwood. All that matters is that you’re having sex with someone you enjoy being with.

Part of me wants to try the Starz season, but part of me is scared that the parts of Torchwood I love will be done all wrong, thanks to this puritanical country. (That, and I really do mean what I say about those Welsh vowels.) Even on a channel like Starz, I fear that the nonchalant acceptance of all sexualities will disappear. I’m scared that someone in the Starz world will force Russell T. to create less human characters, especially less human women characters. But I think I will try it, because if it is awful, I can just pretend it’s a different show called Torchwood, unaffiliated with the one I love. (I did this when watching the recent-ish movie version of Brideshead Revisited, and it worked.)

Regardless of whether I try the newest season or not, I will always have the original two seasons that, despite all the grief they caused me, also gave me reasons to celebrate and find it possible to empathize with people in situations I never thought I would. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

-Joanna

Also, this is the cutest darn Captain Jack I’ve ever seen:

http://niccals.deviantart.com/art/Captain-Jack-Harkness-Plushie-170851245

#YesToFemaleDoctor

Internets! I just found the most amazing website ever!

Doctor Her is a website dedicated to fan posts about Doctor Who from a feminist perspective that is also concerned with not alienating (dis)abled, trans*, genderqueer, GLBQ people, and people of color. They paraphrase bell hooks in their About page! They use the term “kyriarchy!” I can’t handle this!

I stumbled across a totally awesome post Courtney Stoker wrote called “NuWho, poverty, and class: Or, the poor women are totally screwed.” In it, she examines the lives and fates of Rose, Martha, and Donna, arguing primarily that Donna and Rose get totally shafted because of their lower class status. If you’re interested in insightful anti-oppressive commentary on Doctor Who, visit this website. Now. Well, finish this post first. But then go.

And now to explain the title of this post, I also found out today that SFX Magazine started #yestofemaledoctor and #notofemaledoctor.

So oustide of a Who con, is the world either #yestofemaledoctor or #notofemaledoctor ? Tweet now—
SFX magazine (@SFXmagazine) March 25, 2012

These two basically sum up my position:

And while we're at it, #yestoDoctorofcolor. This isn't the US presidential elections. We can have both. #yestofemaledoctor—
Courtney Stoker (@cnstoker) March 26, 2012

I'm team #yestofemaledoctor, but not with Moffat as showrunner! A team of awesome feminists needs to stage a coup first.—
Erin (@erinpuff) March 25, 2012

I would also add that I’m sick of lazy science fiction that is only willing to challenge norms like “Time travel’s not possible!” and “Aliens aren’t real!”, but never heteronormative assumptions about gender and sex. (I also just realized that Courtney Stoker, author of the aforementioned article, also is responsible for that first tweet. Is she just the coolest person ever?)

If you have a Twitter account, please tell the world, Yes to a Female Doctor! (I’m not going to be mad if you say no, but I will wonder why you read this blog.) Even if this is never, ever going to make the producers of the show let the Doctor regenerate into a woman, the world needs to know you support challenging heterosexist norms that place men at the center of the universe! (That’s right, the whole universe!)

-Joanna

P.S. If I seem a little excitable today, it might be the cold meds talking.

Why, Moffat, Why?

Now that Doctor Who-related buzz is all over the ‘nets, I figured I’d give my take on it all.

Early last week, it was announced that, beginning with the next Christmas special, Jenna-Louise Coleman will be playing the new companion.

It’s probably unfair to say right now that I’m a little disappointed. It’s impossible to tell what kind of character she will play, especially since Doctor Who keeps itself under very tight wraps. She herself seems like a perfectly nice person and everything. I just can’t help thinking the choice is a little too safe. She’s inoffensively pretty, the kind of companion we’ve seen a thousand times. I wanted a man, or someone older, or a squishy alien, or someone who isn’t white. Something different.

There are rumors that she might be an alien and/or a lesbian. If she is an alien, I sincerely doubt that Steven Moffat would allow them to put alien makeup on her pretty face, so she’d just be an alien that looks human. If she’s a lesbian, I’m sure it will be handled completely wrong, with Coleman playing a performative, hot lesbian instead of a real-life lesbian. Besides, alien-lesbian sounds a lot more like Russell T. Davies’ area of expertise, not Moffat’s.

While I’m on the subject of aliens: Why aren’t there more of them in the teaser trailer? Why does it make it look like it’s the sequel to Cowboys & Aliens?

For those of you who haven’t seen it:

 

I’m tired of Doctor Who being all about trendy alt history. I like alternative history, don’t get me wrong. But I think the show has done it to death, and I want hard sci fi back. I want aliens in spaceships, not in the Old West, and as much as I love Daleks, I wish we’d see less of them, too. It always feels like they realized they forgot aliens, so they throw in some Daleks.

To make me even more apprehensive about the new season, Moffat has said that, “Who she’s playing, how the Doctor meets her, and even where he finds her are all part of one of the biggest mysteries the Time Lord ever encounters. Even by the Doctor’s standards, this isn’t your usual boy meets girl.” Someone make this pain end. What I get from this is that the story will be pointlessly convoluted instead of good, and she’s going to fall in love with the Doctor. (Or, because it’s not the “usual boy meets girl,” the Doctor falls in love with the companion, and she doesn’t fall in love with him. Inversion! Genius!)

I’m especially missing Donna’s not-fawning-over-the-Doctor ways right now. And more than anything, I’m missing Russell T. Davies. You can say a lot of things about how Doctor Who, even Russell T.-era Who, problematizes female characters. But Russell T. didn’t have woman problems the way Steven Moffat does. For some extra reading, an excellent article about Steven Moffat’s woman problem can be found here at Starburst Magazine’s website.

We can argue til we’re blue in the face about Moffat’s woman problem in the context of Doctor Who, but the fact is that if a man casts an actress because he likes her legs, he’s probably sexist. I don’t really look forward to watching the new season, but I do look forward to deconstructing it.

-Joanna

To The Joust!

Amidst all the weird, non-historical programming that the History Channel is bringing us daily, there is one weird, half-historical show that I’m actually excited for: Full Metal Jousting.

The show fuses modern metal armor with the medieval rules of jousting, creating a totally awesome spectacle I will definitely be watching. (The show has already started, but I only found out about it today.) I love jousting. When I go to a ren faire (the Renaissance Faire, for all you non-rennies), even faires that follow the formulaic three-show storyline, I go to as many jousts as possible. (Although when I do go to storyline jousts, I miss having all the other tournament games that don’t involve fighting each other.) I know they’re staged, and that no one’s actually getting hurt. I don’t particularly care.  Watching a joust is exhilarating and fun, and the only time when screaming things like, “Your blood will water the grass” is at all an ok thing to do. The show is championship-style, with a cash prize for the winner.

My first hesitation about the show is that jousting may not be as amazing on TV as it is in person. Sitting outside in garb, with a hundred other people who are also screaming “Your blood will water the grass” is a very different experience from lounging on the couch by yourself. Of course, that’s the same difference between seeing any sport in person and on TV. I just hope that the History Channel adequately translates jousting to TV (something I imagine is difficult).

I’m also a little disappointed, though completely unsurprised, that there are no female jousters on the show. I realize that it could be asking too much of History to feature a coed jousting tournament when there are plenty of people who refuse to acknowledge female athleticism. And History definitely seems to want to market this in a macho kind of way. Which I get. But in real life (real life being, of course, the world of historical reenactors) there are female jousters. Plenty of them. There are even all-female jousting groups like Mounted Fury.

I don’t know what the casting call for these jousters was like, or what the audition process was like for the show. I have no idea if History tried to include female jousters or not. That isn’t really my point here. I’m just disappointed that, once again, an area where women are actually prevalent participants is being portrayed as an all-male zone.

I know that if there were female jousters on Full Metal Jousting, what everyone would say to discredit the female jousters would be: Are they strong enough to compete with the others? Should they change the rules to make it easier for women? These are the questions that still haunt any discussion, intelligent or otherwise, about coed sports or allowing women to do things like try out to be Navy SEALS. Because, as well all know, all men are big muscular giants and all women are teeny little flowers. Never mind that in the “real life” world of jousting and swordfighting, women and men compete together, in both staged jousting and real swordplay.

(In case anyone doubts those statements, the North Carolina Renaissance Faire has for years included a female knight in the jousts. Bat Cat and I also used to be involved with the European Medieval Arts of Arms group, who do actual period swordfighting. Women and men fight and rise to the rank of knighthood together, and no one seems upset by that.)

So, while I will give Full Metal Jousting a try, I know that the world of jousting that the show is portraying is only a limited one. And, as much as I might enjoy it, I won’t be able to help thinking that I might enjoy it a little more if it better represented the whole of jousters.

-Joanna

My Little Brony Revisited

It’s been a couple months since I first blogged about how my thirteen year-old brother is a proud Brony (a boy over the age of 10 who likes the show ‘My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic’). In my graphic design class, we had to pick an article that either we wrote or found online to reformat for print and design illustration for. I knew that I wanted to use one of my blogs from Geekalitarian, and after careful consideration I chose ‘My Little Brony’.

After reading through the post again and mind-mapping ideas for illustrations, I began to think about myself when I was a middle schooler. While my brother may be obsessed with sparkly ponies, I worshiped at the altar of Tim Burton. While my brother is writing stories about ponies discovering the meaning of harmony, I wrote a story about a group of people brutally murdered who meet up in the afterlife to solve a mystery. Where Joanna and I spent gym classes discussing the virtues of various forms of torture, my brother and his friends discuss the complexities of Ponyville. For the most part, I still lean towards these ‘dark’ and macabre themes in my work. Who’s to say how long my brother will be in to ponies?

This makes me wonder what possible implications this could have. Does this say something signifigant about gender or sexuality? Some would like to think that my brother is gay becuase of his interest in MLP, a lot of other people also think that I am a lesbian. The world isn’t so black and white.

It is my hope that this comparison sparks some sort of discussion- either here online or elsewhere in your lives. The questions above that I raised are important, and I don’t know all the answers. (Although for the most part I know everything)

PS: Incase you are wondering, my illustration for this project is going to be a family photo of Burton-styled me and my brother as a pony. Once it’s finished I’ll edit this pos

-BatCat

Uptown/Downton

For those of you who have been living under a rock, the British television drama ‘Downton Abbey’ has taken the US by storm. The Christmas special aired a few weeks ago here, and I think I finally have enough perspective to discuss the past two seasons.

‘Downton Abbey’ is centered around an old English household (both the nobility and the servants) in the early 1900s. In the first episode we meet Lord and Lady Grantham who are unfortunate enough to have three daughters and no heir. The cousin who is to take over the title and Downton upon Lord Grantham’s death tragically dies when the Titanic goes down. When they find the next successor he is- gasp and scandal- a middle class lawyer! The early 1900s was a tumultuous time for nobility (who were quickly losing power and socialist ideals were on the rise in Europe) without having to worry about their great estate being entailed away.

There are so many issues covered by the extensive plot-lines of Downton (with each episode lasting as long as a movie) that I hardly know where to begin. I will try not to be too descriptive and I hope that this will convince those of you who haven’t been swept-up to get caught up before season three (which hasn’t even aired in Britain yet, so those of you state-side have plenty of time).

Perhaps the strongest female characters in the show are the Dowager Countess Violet Grantham, Miss O’Brien and Lady Sybil Grantham.

The Dowager Countess is completely old school. Although the world around her is changing, she remains the figure of preening nobility. While she doesn’t believe in giving the vote to women, the Dowager Countess is unafraid to speak her mind, stand up for herself and her family, and bows to no one (which is probably because she is noble- but still). I think this video sums her up quite well: *SPOILERS*

My personal favorite moment:

Basically, she is the biggest badass of the show. Everyone else plays their little games, but Violet can end things with a simple quip.

Miss O’Brien is Lady Grantham’s lady’s maid and resident villain of season one. O’Brien is a scheming and bitter, but chooses to live out her schemes through Thomas a footman (who is amazing- but gay. Sorry ladies). Unlike some of the other servants we are introduced to, O’Brien does not let her class keep her down. She isn’t timid, but rather a total bitch. After Lady Grantham miscarries, O’Brien’s character goes through a transformation. O’Brien’s nastiness made her into a monster, and she can’t look at herself in the eye. The growth that we see in O’Brien makes her such a great character. One could argue that the characters on Downton are like caricatures of their roles, but we see throughout the series how they evolve into their own identities.

Lady Sybil. Oh, Lady Sybil. The youngest of the Grantham daughter, Sybil is the most genuinely kind. She believes in progress and equality between men and women, and for the most part class. The Granthams get a new driver, Branson, who is an Irish socialist. After eavesdropping while driving the ladies around, he gives Lady Sybil a collection of pamphlets on women’s rights (Adorable). Sybil constantly surprises her family with her strong beliefs and desire to wear pants. During the war, Sybil joins a nursing core and helps run the hospital and later the convalescent home in Downton Abbey itself.  After what seemed like an eternity, she really dropped a bomb when she told her family that she was marrying Branson! Although her sisters tried to convince her not to, she stood up to her family and found her happiness.

And because I can:

I have high hopes for season three, although I’ve watched enough British television to know that this show is going to rip out my heart and smash it to tiny pieces (here’s looking at you, Torchwood!). After watching Downton, I feel like I’ve been spoiled. I want more television as gripping and involved as this show. If as much happened in an episode of… any other show, then maybe I would feel compelled to watch more T.V.

Also: If you do want to get caught up, I would recommend tracking down the BBC versions because the PBS versions cut out some of the content  (which is crazy since most of the episodes are 1 1/2 to 2 hours long).

-BatCat

Why I Shouldn’t Watch T.V.

Having been ill for the past month, I’ve watched a lot of T.V. After watching commercial after commercial I have found that I hate most ads. Either they are annoying, repetitive, secretly racist, or promoting negative gender stereotypes. Sure, one might say that they are ‘just ads’ and to ‘not take it so seriously’, but it’s because we are inundated with these images and messages every time we turn on the television, the radio, or even walk out the door, makes it a big deal.

The following are three commercials (from least to most offensive) or portions of commercials that I believe to be some of the worst in terms of negative gender stereotypes. I am intentionally leaving out things like diet pills and weight loss ads because why those are bad is rhetorical.

Flo The Progressive Girl

 

I hate Flo. What I hate more is how many people I’ve meet or heard that say they want to be like Flo. They want to be like Flo because men think she’s ‘cute’. She may be cute, but she is also a ditz. She is not a role model. Now, I am sure it was never Progressive’s intention to make Flo into a someone to model your life after- but somehow other people don’t realize that.

Secret Flawless Deodorant

 

I don’t like to be pandered to. This is perhaps the dumbest commercial I have ever seen. Once again the girl is a ditz. This is when I switched to a different brand. During this same time Dove was running ads with women of all colors and sizes. They didn’t stoop to the duncey low that Secret plummeted to. It’s been taken off the Internet in most places for copyright, but you can still watch it at the link above.

Tide

 

This commercial is by far the worst, I am not the only one to think so. There is a lot of controversy about this ad because of that the mother obviously feels about her daughter. I have spoken to people who completely disagree. When the mother says “That’s lovely honey”, I feel that she is dismissing her daughter’s interests. I say this because she only glances down at the block garage and says everything with a completely false tone. Others believe that she is accepting her daughter by saying this. It’s up to you to decide.

Although there is a lot of bad out there in the ad-lands, I have seen at least one commercial of merit. It was a diet ad that featured a curvy woman walking around town. Every person she passed said things like “hey healthy!” and  “Wow, healthy, looking good!” The advertisers changed what would normally be ‘beautiful’ or ‘sexy’ to ‘healthy’. I think that, though incredibly obvious, is a really good message.

Once I see the commercial again or remember what company it was for, I’ll edit this post with the video.

 

- BatCat

Male Feminist Ally: Joss Whedon

So I’m pretty late to be jumpin’ on the Joss Whedon bandwagon. It’s not like I ever disliked Buffy the Vampire-Slayer or Firefly, two of the TV shows that have canonized him in many circles. It’s just that I didn’t really pay attention until recently, a fact that might betray my youth. But now that I’ve started watching Firefly, and appreciating the genuinely strong, not-tokeny women I see on my TV screen, I’m starting to put the pieces together: Joss Whedon always writes strong female characters. It’s like he does it on purpose or something. But what male writer/director ever cares enough to specifically write women like they’re people? Joss Whedon does.

The more I read about him, the more I love him. According to everywhere on the internet, he created Buffy to be an “alternative feminist icon.” (I can’t find the original source of that quote, but it’s reported on many different sites.) During my research, I came across that quote and wondered about its accuracy. More important, the accuracy of Joss Whedon using the F-word in this context. Despite what I’ve seen of his work, my reaction is usually to be a little nervous when someone says they wrote a feminist character.

This is one example of a time I was wrong. Joss Whedon actually minored in feminist film theory at Wesleyan. In interviews, he says things like, “When people say to me, ‘Why are you so good at writing at women?’ I say, ‘Why isn’t everybody?’ Obviously there are differences between men and women – that’s what makes it all fun. But we’re all people. There’s a lot of good writers who are very humanist, but still manage to kind of skip 55 per cent of the race. And I just don’t get that. Not to be able to write an entire gender? To me, the question isn’t how do you do it? It’s how can you possibly avoid doing it?” Obviously the man understands two vital points: one, that women are people, and two, that feminism at its heart is merely the recognition of that seemingly obvious fact.

In the same article, he describes going from the home of his “radical feminist” mother, out into the bleak, anti-feminist world: “It was only when I got to college that I realised that the rest of the world didn’t run the way my world was run and that there was a need for feminism. I’d thought it was all solved. There are people like my mom, clearly everyone is equal and it’s all fine. Then I get into the world and I hear the things people are saying. Then I get to Hollywood and hear the very casual, almost insidious misogyny that just runs through so much of the fiction. It was just staggering to me.” It’s like he read my soul and repeated it back to me.

Armed with all this new knowledge about Mr. Whedon, I couldn’t be happier that he’s writing/directing The Avengers. When that was first announced, I was pretty indifferent. Now I’m pumped! Maybe Black Widow will be there for more than ass-shots and eye candy.

While we’re on the subject of comics, here’s what Joss Whedon thinks of modern comics: Nowadays I’m really cranky about comics. Because most of them are just really, really poorly written soft-core. And I miss good old storytelling. And you know what else I miss? Super powers. Why is it now that everybody’s like “I can reverse the polarity of your ions!” Like in one big flash everybody’s Doctor Strange. I like the guys that can stick to walls and change into sand and stuff. I don’t understand anything anymore. And all the girls are wearing nothing, and they all look like they have implants. Well, I sound like a very old man, and a cranky one, but it’s true.

I don’t mean to keep filling this post with great quotes, but I just want to make absolutely 100% sure that everyone gets how gosh-darn cool Joss Whedon is. I can’t help but gush about these quotes, because he’s a man involved with comics, sci-fi, shows with supernatural elements, etc who actually, really believes women should be written as people because they are people, and is really outspoken about it. Whedon doesn’t seem to give a damn what anyone might think about his attempts to empower women and girls. He doesn’t care if people reject him and his work because they hate feminism and feminists, because he knows feminism is relevant and more important than playing nice with sexist Hollywood.

And, I mean, look at him.

How could he not be a nice guy?

Interestingly, Joss Whedon’s outspoken feminism hasn’t hurt his career too much. It seems like everything he does develops a cult following, including many people who would never actually admit to being feminists themselves. I think this proves, among other things, that today’s culture has corrupted the meaning of feminism so deeply that people who actually at heart are feminists don’t realize that they are.

I wish I’d been watching Joss Whedon shows and movies all along, instead of now having to retrace his filmography. Still, better late than never, right? As for Joss Whedon himself, I wish him and his genuinely empowered female characters (and his not-sexist-pig male characters) the best of luck. I hope they continue to make the worlds of sci-fi, comics, TV, and film a much, much better place.

-Joanna

More Thoughts on The Doctor’s Companions

Recently, I’ve been re-watching the new Doctor Who chronologically. In a previous post, I expressed my disdain for Amy Pond’s non-character, and hinted at my nostalgia for the way the show used to be. This post is basically an appendage to that, with some thoughts on the companions individually and the show generally.

Unlike Amy Pond, Rose Tyler is many things, but, as The Doctor tells Satan in “The Satan Pit,” she is not a victim. Victimization has been and remains today an important facet in understanding pseudo-empowered female characters. If the character, in an attempt to save herself and others, formulates her own ideas and successfully carries them out, she is probably not a victim. In “The Satan Pit,” Rose thinks she and the Doctor might be separated forever (not an uncommon occurrence in the show). She is in the middle of a life-or-death crisis on a ship impossibly orbiting black hole, and neither she nor the crew know exactly what evil is among them. So what does she do? She doesn’t let the crew or herself wallow in self-pity, instead forcing all of them to think their way out of the situation, using the bits of information given to her by the crew to solve the puzzle. She doesn’t simply sit there and cry, wishing the Doctor were there to save them, and cursing him for not being there. She pulls herself up by her bootstraps, as the saying goes, and helps to save the universe.

Now, after reading this testament to Rose’s capability and smarts, you might be under the impression that I really like and admire Rose. That’s not exactly the case. Before Amy Pond, I really didn’t like Rose. Basically hated her. I found her personality grating and her sorta-kinda relationship with the Doctor pretty annoying. I also disliked her possessiveness of the Doctor; she tends to act like she is entitled to be with the Doctor. (Boy, was I to learn what a person could be like when they’re really possessive of the Doctor!) This time around, I was able to understand a few things about Rose. For one, she’s only nineteen/twenty. Of course she falls in love with the Doctor and thinks being with him is more important than being with her family. I also never realized how capable and clever Rose is allowed to be. While she may be just an ordinary chav working in a shop, she does have a brain and tends not to panic. When Rose does wander off, it’s usually to try to figure out something for herself. She clearly follows in the show’s tradition of using your brains, not your brawn, in order to get out of sticky situations/save the universe.

And that, dear reader, is how I grew to appreciate Rose. The Doctor’s next companion, Martha Jones, was a much easier character to love. Martha, a med student, is extremely intelligent, which impresses the Doctor when they first meet. Her intelligence and capability remain an important part of her character, even after she chooses to leave the Doctor. Less intelligent, but no less lovable, is Donna Noble. As I expressed in the previous post, Donna is funny, deeply empathetic, and twice as sassy as Amy Pond could ever be. All three of these women prove to be useful counterparts to the Doctor, and never allow themselves to be damsels in distress.

The show is sometimes accused of being sexist. I would perhaps call it heteronormative instead. It’s a mainstream, family-oriented British TV show; what about that says radical? I don’t think it promotes misogyny, but it obviously doesn’t do much to challenge gender norms. In my ideal world, Doctor Who would have even stronger female characters, a more equal villain-to-gender ratio, break down the barriers of race, gender identity and sexuality. But that’s my ideal; what’s real is much easier for most people to digest. And what’s real isn’t bad, but could be so much better.

-Joanna

A Look at Japanese Girl-Buddies

I’m a sucker for a buddy movie. Stick two people, who either are best friends already or learn to be BFFLs, in a movie, preferably on a road trip, and chances are I’ll end up watching it and probably liking it. Unfortunately, there aren’t too many buddy movies that feature female best friends. Usually in movies, women have an adversarial relationship to their friends, or the friends are there to help them cope when they’re between boyfriends. Few movies put female best friendship at the forefront, instead assuming that, between women, friendship is expendable, or at least not the top of the priority list.

So, when someone sat me down and put 2004′s Kamikaze Girls on the TV, I had mixed feelings about how it was going to go. On one hand, I thought: Buddies! Buddies! Girl buddies! Yay! On the other, I was concerned because, in my (admittedly limited) experience, Japanese movies don’t necessarily have the best track record with women. But, luckily, my fears were proven wrong.

Kamikaze Girls follows a small-town teenage girl named Momoko who dresses in Lolita fashion and meets an unlikely new friend, a hot-tempered Yanki called Ichiko. The film, which is based on Novala Takemoto’s novel, follows a well-worn plot-line: two people, total opposites, begin with a rocky relationship that, through the joint overcoming of obstacles, becomes a close relationship. Momoko and Ichiko even ride off into the sunset on Ichiko’s motorcycle.

The film is funny, weird, touching, and thoroughly enjoyable. But above all, it shows that friendship between women is valuable and important. Men never come between Momoko and Ichiko. No one can, not even the all-female bike gang Ichiko becomes estranged from. They end the film by kicking ass, just the two of them against the whole gang. At the end of the movie, you know Ichiko and Momoko will be best friends beyond the credits, happily a part of each other’s lives.

Unfortunately, that assurance isn’t present in the anime Nana, another story of female buddies. (Note: Nana was based on a manga and also turned into a live-action movie. My comments are only about the anime, as I haven’t read the manga or seen the movie.) In Nana, the two girls, both named Nana (conveniently one of them is given the nickname Hachiko to avoid confusion), meet through a series of coincidences and end up sharing an apartment together. The two are also very different, Nana being the hot-tempered punk rocker who dreams of being a famous singer and Hachiko the adorable ex-art student who really only wants to take care of people.

There are many problems with the anime. Hachiko is too much the typical burden-bearing woman: she thinks she is being selfish when she, for once, does something she wants, she allows herself to be used by men and blames herself instead of them, etc. Nana is less problematic, because she wants success on her own terms and through her own hard work, but never becomes cruel, like too many motivated TV-women. The problem with Nana is mostly that she, for some weird reason, can’t dump her pretty heartless boyfriend. Various characters also mock her inability to cook, and say she isn’t feminine because she’s tough.

Regardless of its faults, not only is Nana entertaining, but it does delve into the complexities of friendship, including how friends can become possessive of each other. Without it being anyone’s fault, sometimes, as seen in Nana, boyfriends and drama get in the way of friendship. When things get in the way of Nana and her boyfriend, it hurts, but it doesn’t seem to consume her the way obstacles between her and Hachiko do. Nana’s dream of becoming a singer are amplified by Hachiko’s support. Hachiko, for a little while anyway, stops letting men use her because she is empowered by Nana’s friendship and their mutual love.

At the end of Nana, Nana and Hachiko don’t get together again, after being separated by so much drama I can’t even explain it briefly in this post. The reason why they stay separated is one of the many threads that don’t really come together at the end, which makes me wonder if the ending really was cobbled together last-minute. There isn’t a good reason why Nana and Hachiko can’t be best friends in their daily lives, rather than from a distance. If the anime had ended earlier, it probably wouldn’t have been so disappointing.

Despite the big let-down at the end, I’m glad I watched Nana. Not only is it nice to have anime where the boobs aren’t so prominent they should be their own characters (I’m talking to you, Witchblade), but it’s nice that Nana, though traditional in many ways, was also a little non-traditional. Though they aren’t together in the end, they also never fought amongst each other. It’s not their cattiness that keeps them apart, but the cosmic awfulness of the universe. You get the idea that they should be together, and regret that they aren’t. Though it’s less obvious than in Kamikaze Girls, even Nana shows us that best friendship between women is full of love, not backstabbing, and something valuable that all women should want.

-Joanna