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:
Another look at — Mary Tamm can be intellectually as smart as he is and do all the things he does, but look at this fluffy piece of stuff she’s got to wear. He never wears anything full of feathers. We never see him come out in his boxer shorts after a shower on the Tardis. This is a problem. Right? This is a problem. So, this is Mary Tamm, Romana I, who gets changed into this actress Lalla Ward. Now, think about the difference in these two women and what they’re giving us. They cast this actress specifically “to get a softer, less bossy, woman. They wanted someone less — and bossy is a big word these days, right? We’ve been talking a lot about what does bossy mean and why are girls bossy and boys are not. Boys are leaders. Girls are bossy. This is nonsense. So that’s a perfect example of how they went. They went forward and they got slapped back — a little bit. Happens all the time. A couple steps forward. A couple steps back. What’s really sad about Lalla Ward is she’s mostly famous because she married Tom Baker. So completely identified by the man in her life who is actually the man she married and then they got separated.
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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