The Almost People - Amy

[vervet_monkey]

 OK this is more a reaction to reactions, rather than reaction to the episode itself. It is a bit of a rant, but a rant is no fun if no one argues against it, so please disagree (well, or agree) with me.

I knew as soon as I saw the last part of this TAP that people were going to have issues with it. One of my Uni friends refuses to walk through a door being held open by a guy, even if they are just holding the damn door open and I could just hear her head exploding from here.

So we have Amy pregnant and captured and all helpless waiting for her two men to come rescue her. And apparently this strips her of her agency as an independent being and places her firmly in female stereotypes and is bad and all that.

 

But does it? Amy is not frequently the damsel in distress. The first time she meets the Doctor as an adult she hits him over the head and handcuffs him to the radiator, she goes against the Doctor and releases the Star Whale, she joins with Winston Churchill to fight the Darleks rather than sitting and waiting like a good girl, she stands up to the army boys so that she can see this crack, she goes alone to confront the "vampires", it is her choice that the boys must follow, she negotiates with Homo reptilia to share the planet, she acts independently to help the Doctor when he is stranded alone on Earth and she  brings the Doctor back by the power of her mind, she survives 3 months running through the desert, fights pirates and saves her man, stands against the House.

 

Amy is the dominant individual in her relationship with Rory. That's Rory, the male character, who was left at home when Amy went flying off with the Doctor, was relegated to Brother in Venice, killed in Amy's choice, left behind again in The Hungry Earth and killed, again, in Cold Blood, had his entire life made fake. Spent an episode wimpering that Amy seemed to be calling to the Doctor, spent another entire episode being at the mercy of a female character, then died, again. Died again in The Doctors Wife and has just spent 2 episodes being led on by another strong female.

 

To me Amy is not marginalised because she is captured and pregnant, she is not captured and pregnant because she is female (well, OK, pregnant wouldn't work if male I guess, but you get the idea). She is captured and pregnant because it is a good story. To strip Amy's character to this one plot point marginalises her, but that's not Moff or the production teams doing, that's the fans doing, to ignore everything that has come before and define her by her capture.

 

The idea that Amy cannot be captured and put into a place of dependence because she is female seems as sexist to me as the idea that that is the only reason she has been captured is because she is female.

 

Comments

[chloris67.livejournal.com]

I understand where you're coming from but I still stand by my statements. When I say that this storyline strips her of agency this does not mean that I'm saying she is a passive character or has no agency ever. She obviously has a strong personality and it usually not at all passive. However, by its very nature, an Incubator Storyline (especially one in which she is a prisoner and almost unable to even move right now) makes her a victim and one that needs to be rescued. It also in some ways reduces her to the contents of her womb since she would not have been taken if they didn't want her (in some way magical) child. Women are frequently put in the position of the passive victim or considered less important that the child they bear or might bear so it bugs.

I will note that I consider this loss of agency to be similar to Donna having her memories stripped over her objections or the Doctor conspiring to leave Rose in the alt!verse (or just outright doing it in JE) no matter what she wanted. All of these things strip the female character of having a say in their life and how they live it while having another character make decisions for them. This does not mean that Rose or Donna are passive characters just that the storyline is problematic. (Donna especially is quite dominant during most of her time on the show but it doesn't negate that her express wishes were overridden rather forcefully.)

I hope that makes my point of view in this a little clearer.

[vervet-monkey.livejournal.com]

I still stand by my statements

As you are certainly welcome to! Also just in case it came across wrong this was a reaction to a variety of reviews (or every review I read in an afternoon, have now seen others with different viewpoints though!) not just yours.

makes her a victim and one that needs to be rescued

Is this only a problem because she is female? If it had been Rory would it have been OK? Amy had to rescue the Doctor at the end of S5, is this equally reducing?

passive victim or considered less important that the child they bear or might bear

I think this rests on what comes next, Amy hasn't had the chance to respond yet, nor do we know that she is less important than her child. It could be done very wrong (again, see Mr Whedon), but it could also be done very well.

All of these things strip the female character of having a say in their life and how they live it while having another character make decisions for them

I agree, but is that because they are female? Or is it because they are the companions of a character who is much older than they are with much more experience and a lot more knowledge, who just happens to be male?

I'm not attacking your viewpoint, it is entirely valid, just not one I agree with. And also one I enjoy discussing, hence the post in the first place, I hope that's clear and I haven't come across as angry and ignorant...