Sexism In SuperWhoLock-- Doctor Who

I hate Steven Moffat. Not just because he kills all my favorite characters (although that does play a big part in it), but because he's really sexist and annoying. His male characters are interesting with complicated backstories, but his women are perfect and sometimes treated like objects. The male historical figures that he's written into the show (Winston Churchill, Vincent Van Gogh) have all been treated as interesting, complex characters with important roles in the universe. All of his female historical figures (Queen Nefertiti, Madame De Pompadour, Queen Elizabeth I. Madame de Pompadour was in the Russell T. Davies area, but the episode she was in was written by Moffat.), while awesome, have been treated as two-dimensional women acting as little more than love interests for the Doctor.

Exhibit A
Image courtesy of Screenrant

There are lots of things I enjoy about Peter Capaldi's doctor; he's different, more serious, a little bit edgy, and to-the-point. But what I really don't like about him is the way he treats Clara. He insults her appearance frequently, calling her fat in at least half of his episodes. And another thing: most of this isn't Moffat's doing, but don't you find it a little strange that time lords can change their entire appearance when they regenerate, but the Doctor has always been played by a white man? Now that the master is a woman and we've found out for sure that time lords can switch sexes, there's no excuse to not make the next regeneration of the Doctor a woman. Russell T. Davies treated his female characters a lot better than Moffat, sexualizing them less and having more developed stories for them (Agatha Christie, Queen Victoria).

There have been about three major characters who are people of color in New Who (Mickey, Martha, and Danny), and every single one of them has been black. The thing is, nobody seems to remember Mickey, everyone hates Martha for some reason, and Danny got killed off after about 5 episodes. The way the episode Turn Left treated the Asian character was pretty dang racist, and the two main black characters in the Russell T. Davies era were married off to each other (Martha and Mickey), despite having no previous connection to each other besides the Doctor.

Another thing that RTD wasn't much better than Moffat as was queer representation. He had slightly more canon characters, but they still weren't treated very well. There was that one couple of two old ladies in Gridlock, but they were only in one episode. And of course we have Capt. Jack Harkness who is a super rad character, but he fulfills that bisexual stereotype of flirting with everyone, which is harmful in that it promotes a false stereotype. The only queer representation we've gotten with Moffat is Jenny and Vastra, which is a little, um... weird. Vastra isn't human, first of all, which kind of reduces a lesbian relationship to something that isn't normal. The way it's portrayed also gives off a pretty abusive vibe. Vastra usually acts dominant over Jenny and orders her around in everyday life, and this is heteronormative because it perpetuates the idea that in a queer relationship one person has to be more "masculine," and the other must be more "feminine." Jenny always calls Vastra "ma'am" and has referred to her as her master on multiple occasions.

Despite RTD's flaws, I still like him a lot better than Moffat because I believe that he would have progressed with these issues over time, compared to Moffat laughing it off and making rude remarks and invalid excuses when someone calls him out on his crap. I just really want Doctor Who to get a new showrunner. Although I enjoy some of Moffat's writing, I think the show would really benefit from a new head honcho.

I get all of my Doctor Who statistics and stuff from Who-ology, which is a really great objective look at trivia from all 50 years of Who.