Given that my profession demands I be inundated with the goings on of pop-culture sludge, I’ve become pretty accustomed to the “keep them out!” mewling that has become a staple of genre properties over the years. Responses to the casting of Jodie Whittaker as the 13th doctor in Dr. Who have ranged from utterly vitriolic, like posting a collection of nude photos of Whittaker online, to amusingly inane verbal barbs, like such gems as, “Dr. Who? More like Doctor Bitch.”
I can at least rationalize this sort of puerile anger in the cases when a male character inexplicably becomes a woman, but one of the defining concepts of the show is the Doctor’s ability to be reincarnated into literally any form – yet even in consideration of that groundbreakingly inspired dynamic, the Doctor has been the same version of white dude for 52 years. You’ve had a Doctor with a dick for literal generations! Can we give Jodie a three-episode head start before we burn her at the digital stake?
Diversity often feels forced amongst the supposed geeks and pariahs that comprise the current nerd culture. One would assume that these varied individuals would be just as willing to rebuke the piddling boundaries that has limited such works for as long as I can remember. Implementing diversity in the world of fiction is about more than the reactionary pseudo-outrage surrounding the casting of Scarlett Johansson in Ghost in the Shell or the bigoted numbskulls that pillaged comment sections in response to Zendaya being cast as MJ. The goal of an equal opportunity society isn't to celebrate or accentuate the differences between us, but to make them wholly inconsequential. Given the long history of misogyny that has permeated nerd culture, this is easier said than done.
Ultimately, the nerds lamenting the death of the Doctor don’t matter, not to me and certainly not to the BBC. But the lack of compunction for speaking out so viciously against something as innocuous as a non-male protagonist helming a show that has canonical rules that pave the way for an array of diverse casting, says to me that we’re not as far along as I thought we were.
Peter Davison , former Doctor, addressed the casting choice at San Diego Comic Con:
“If I feel any doubts, it’s the loss of a role model for boys, who I think Doctor Who is vitally important for.”
Fucking boo dude. What values are going to be lost now that the Doctor no longer has a nutsack? In the context of entertainment, gender is almost always superficial. Can it inform a narrative? Sure. Can it hinder one? Never. Ghostbusters sucked ass because it was made in a lab by a bunch of fogeys, not because of the genders of its leads. Growup dweebs, Doctor Who isn’t real and neither is cooties.
