Tag: doctor who

whovianfeminism:

Okay guys, we need to talk about this interview. Because there’s a massive disconnect here between what I see in the fandom and how I see Steven Moffat describing the conversation about the lack of parity in men and women writing for and directing Doctor Who.

I was actually really, really happy with Moffat’s hiring choices for Series 9. This series has two women directors directing two episodes each — and no less than the series premier and finale. It also has two women writing an episode each for the show. That’s incredible. It may not be total parity, but it’s a massive improvement from where the show was and I was so, so happy it happened. And I’ve laid off criticizing the lack of women directors and writers lately because it felt like the show was making progress.

But Moffat’s tone in this interview is unbearably infuriating. Because instead of simply acknowledging the problem, highlighting his steps to fix it, and then moving on, he needs to take a step further and somehow try to portray himself as being the victim in all of this: 

“The only thing I dislike about it is it’s based on an assumption that I’ve been trying to not employ women writers or directors. We’ve employed more women writers, directors, editors and producers than any other era of Doctor Who. Stop assuming that I’m a demon who’s trying to prevent it, as opposed to the man who’s done more to make it happen than anybody else.”

Just…wow.

Look, I’m not going to argue that there isn’t someone out there on the internet who hasn’t taken their criticism of Moffat too far — it’s the internet. But the vast, overwhelming majority of fans haven’t been assuming Moffat is a “demon” sitting up in his high castle keeping out women writers and directors. They’ve just been fairly pointing out that, prior to Series 9, the gender imbalance in writing and directing was appalling.

Before Series 9 started, Steven Moffat had hired absolutely no women writers for the show. That’s four seasons and two specials, for a total of 56 episodes. After Series 9, we’ll have had two women write an episode during the 69 episodes he’s overseen during his tenure as showrunner.

The numbers are slightly better for directors. In total, four women have directed nine episodes. But there were a few Series where there weren’t any women directors at all. When I started focusing on this issue (around the time they were announcing the Series 8 directors) there had only been one woman who had directed two episodes back in Series 5. 

I want to focus on Moffat’s accomplishments in correcting that gender imbalance in Series 9 just as much as Moffat does. But I can’t fucking do that because he gets defensive and attacks his critics whenever that imbalance is brought up. And now I’ve spent most of the day after reading this interview feeling miserable and shitty because I feel like I need to defend myself against the unfair criticism that I’ve portrayed him as some sort of misogynistic asshole. 

But there’s really nothing unfair or out-of-line about pointing out that this imbalance existed. 

Sure, Moffat has some explanations, excuses, and justifications for that imbalance. They’re beside the point I’m trying to make, but let’s look them over really quickly. Moffat said that the imbalance is partly historical — in the past it was more of a boy’s show than a girl’s show. Now because there’s more gender balance in the fandom, he assumes more women will want to write for and direct the show and that the imbalance will start to straighten itself out. I don’t really buy this. I just think that historically, these industries are more friendly and supportive to men than to women. So fanboys who wanted to write and direct for Doctor Who were more likely to get jobs in the industry than fangirls.

Moffat also claims that women writers were more likely to turn down the opportunity to write for the show. Which, I’m sorry, but seriously? Over four seasons and 56 episodes and he couldn’t get a single woman to write a single one of those episodes because they all turned him down? Either he has absolutely the worst luck of any showrunner, or he needed to seriously re-evaluate his strategy.

If I really wanted to try to be fair to Moffat, I could offer up some of my own explanations for this imbalance. In previous posts, I have given him credit for the fact that he is not responsible for the greater gender imbalance in the writing and directing industries in the UK. I’ve been willing to understand that when you’re busy and need to make decisions quickly, you’re going to want to go with people you know can be reliable and who you’ve worked with in the past. Or you’ll want to go to the person who is dogged, determined, and constantly asking for the opportunity — something women are less likely to do because we are conditioned against doing it.

And Moffat is not the only one who hasn’t achieved gender parity with women writers and directors. And if I’d been blogging when any of those other showrunners were in charge of Doctor Who, I’d have criticized them too. But Moffat’s the showrunner now, and now it’s his responsibility. 

Even if Moffat isn’t being a “demon” and deliberately working to prevent women from writing and directing Doctor Who — something which I and the overwhelming majority of fans have never accused him of — he still hasn’t hired nearly enough women to write or direct during his tenure. That’s still on him.

I want to give him credit and praise for saying that the show should have gender parity in writers and directors. I want to give him credit and praise for making serious improvements the past two seasons. I want to keep the conversation moving forward. But I can’t do that if Moffat wants to defensively and unfairly characterize the motives and statements of the people who fairly pointed out that a massive gender imbalance did exist and still exists despite his efforts to correct it.