A clip from this longer presentation – Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch
Watch this entire presentation – Doctor Who: Feminism in the Whoniverse with Dr. Rosanne Welch
Dr. Rosanne Welch (https://rosannewelch.com) speaks on “Feminism in the Whoniverse” of Doctor Who, the BBC television program now in its 50th year. She reviews each of the Doctor’s female companions and speaks on how they are represented in the program and how they represented the women of their respective periods.
Transcript:
Now feminism had waves kind of like a very good surf. The first wave was when everybody learned how to vote — how to let women vote. That was a big deal — 1920 — we’re tap dancing. We’re voting. We’re all good now. And then they went, “Ok, everything’s perfect, right? Once you can vote it’s all perfect?” And every other group learned that is not really true. It takes a little more time. You have to ask for a few more things. So, by the time we get to when Doctor Who first showed up in the early 1960’s, we’re taking about the second wave and women are now thinking, “Wait a minute. I need some equality of culture. I need to be able to do the things I would like to do and not have someone tell me I can’t have that job because only boys have that job.” No, what’s going on is the whole Women’s Liberation movement is happening right now. In a lot of countries, I’m thinking England, but also America, right, but also, Ah Hah, the biggest invention for women in a long time. Oh my god, a person could decide if they were going to get pregnant. That was a very huge step in the whole female world. It didn’t mean you had to quit having sex, because sec is s good thing. We like that. We juts didn’t always want to have a baby every 2 years. Which, if you were married or 20 years, you probably had 15 kids.
Feminism in the Whoniverse was presented at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library where Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
This is the 4th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who that Dr. Welch has presented. You can find these talks using the links below.
- Doctor Who and Culture
- Doctor Who Regenerated
- “How the Growing Popularity of the English Who-niverse Effected American TV” with Dr. Rosanne Welch
Subscribe to Dr. Welch’s YouTube Channel
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