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:
The other thing they tested, when they did this, was the two male writers of the program of the last generation of it. Russell Davies, who I mentioned already is an out-of-the-closet gay man in England, has a better scale of passing this feminist Bechdel Test then does Steven Moffat, a heterosexual, married guy. A man who spends his life with a woman does think about how women are represented in his work, nearly as much as the gay man.
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.
From 1966-1968 NBC aired The Monkees on Mondays at 7:30pm, opposite Gilligan’s Island on CBS and Iron Horse on ABC. During that time Raybert Productions, headed by Bert Schneider and Bob Rafelson, produced 58 half-hours of what Time Magazine contributor James Poniewozik recently described as “far better TV than it had to be.
During an era of formulaic domestic sitcoms and wacky comedies, it was a stylistically ambitious show, with a distinctive visual style, absurdist sense of humor, and unusual story structure that was commercial, wholesome, and yet impressively weird.”
Originally, the producers conceived The Monkees as a response to the youth and music movement of the early 60s, a time when every young person seemed to be slinging a guitar on their back and hoping to change the world. In the shadow of Hard Day’s Night the producers cast four relative unknowns who could act, sing and play instruments – Davy Jones, Micky Dolenz, Peter Tork and Mike Nesmith – and hired Jim Frawley to teach them improvisation and become their in-house director. Beyond mere fame, The Monkees deserves ranking as a TV Cultural and Comedy Classic because, according to Micky Dolenz, “It brought long hair into the living room and changed the way teenagers were portrayed on television. It made it okay to have long hair in the same way Henry Winkler as the Fonz late made it okay to wear a black leather jacket and Will Smith in Fresh Prince of Bel Air made it okay to be to be young, black and like rap.”
From an artistic standpoint the show introduced a new generation of viewers to the kind of fourth-wall-breaking, slapstick comedy created by Laurel and Hardy and the Marx Brothers as well as to the idea of friends in their late teens living on their own without adult advice or supervision, a powerful idea at the height of the Vietnam war.
While there is continued controversy over the fact that the musical group has yet to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, time has shown that the television show deserves the accolades it earned. Now it deserves a deeper reading and that is exactly what The Metatexual Menagerie That Was The Monkees will provide.
Go beyond the fandom and delve deeply into what The Monkees meant to “the young generation” and to our current world.
Chapters will include:
Introduction: I’m (Still) a Believer
Sweet Young Thing: Contextualizing The Monkees with a Short History of Teenagers on Television
Authorship on The Monkees: Who Wrote The Monkees and what was that Something They Had to Say?
Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow: Counter-Culture Comes to Television and Middle America via The Monkees
The Kind of Girl I Could Love: Feminism, Gender and Sexuality in The Monkees
Shades of Grey: An Ethnic Studies look at Minority Representation on The Monkees
We Were Made for Each Other: The Monkees Menagerie of Metatextuality
We Were Made for Each Other: The Sequel: Nascent Television Aesthetic Techniques on The Monkees
A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You Identity Construction and Confusion on The Monkees
9 Theme(s) from The Monkees: Narrative Structure, Literary References and Themes on The Monkees
Salesman / What am I Doing Hangin’ Round? The Cultural Collateral of The Monkees
Music Innovation and the seeds of MTV
I’ll Be True To You: Fandom and The Monkees
Dr. Rosanne Welch teaches screenwriting in the RTVF Department at California State University, Fullerton and for the Stephens College MFA in Screenwriting. As a television writer/producer her credits include Beverly Hills 90210, Picket Fences and Touched by an Angel. She has been published a chapter in Torchwood Declassified: Investigating Mainstream Cult Television (I.B.Tauris); and an essay in Doctor Who and Race: An Anthology and co-edited The Encyclopedia of Women in American History (ABC-CLIO). Her fondness for The Monkees began while sitting in front of a small, black-and-white kitchen television at the age of five.
Why Monkees Matter: The Writing Staff of The Monkees Brought the 1960s Counter Culture to Pre-Teens
Presented at the Cal Poly Pomona President’s Symposium
Dr. Welch is available for interviewa on Why The Monkees Mattered and The Monkees in general. She is a long-time fan of The Monkees and extremely knowledgeable on both The Monkees television show and their music. She has given several presentations on The Monkees in college classrooms across Southern California at the Cal Poly Pomona President’s Symposium.
Update (July 3, 2016): Why The Monkees Matter Now Available on Kindle Reader, Smartphones and Tablets! –
Checking Amazon.com just now, I see that “Why The Monkees Matter” is available for purchase in Kindle format.
You can read the book immediately on your Kindle device OR on your smartphone, tablet or personal computer using the free Kindle App or web site.
(The print edition is still marked “Pre-Order” on Amazon, but I expect that to change after the July 4th holiday).
You can buy your copy of “Why The Monkees Matter” and start reading in seconds — perhaps while you enjoy some holiday hammock time on your own “Pleasant Valley Sunday”!
Update (June 30, 2016): I have received reports that people who pre-ordered directly from the publishers have started to receive their books. Yea! The book is also currently available as an Amazon Kindle Editon for your immediate purchase and download. Amazon still shows the Print Edition as Pre-Order but I expect that to change any minute.
Update (April 8, 2016): Our first level of pre-orders are open today! You can pre-order “Why The Monkees Matter” directly from the publishers, MacFarland, on their web site. — Pre-Order “Why The Monkees Matter” today!
Update (March 7,2016): The “final” title has been approved and, unfortunately, the publication date has been moved back to Fall 2016. That said, this still allows you to make it a great Holiday gift for all your Monkee Fan friends and family — Rosanne
Dr. Rosanne Welch presents “How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity: A Study of the Doctors and their Male Companions” at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library. Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
Transcript:
But now, our generation is starting to look also at how do they parent? Will this person make a good father to the children I might have and we’re going to see that reflected in Doctor Who. Then, of course, all of them mentioned good hygiene, which we all know is a code word for hot looking and I think that’s true of most of our Doctors. Then ambition and honesty is a pretty basic one. Of course, if you flip that, it’s really all the stuff that men are looking for in women, as well. So, it’s just really what makes a quality human being and I think that’s really of interest to us. The other thing I would say is that that, as I said, is reflected in all of our guys.
A clip from this 5th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who presented by Dr. Welch. You can find Dr. Welch’s other Doctor Who talks using the links below.
“When I co-wrote The Friends theme song, “I’ll Be There For You”, we were told to write something Monkees-ish. The Last Train To Clarksville definitely pulled into the station during those sessions.”
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:
This is, likewise, what test we put to Doctor Who and these were the results — only with the modern companions. they didn’t have time to do everybody, right, modern companions. Notice, Donna wins. The one character who had no interest in having sex with The Doctor becomes the one, for the most part, spoke of other things when she was in scenes with other women. I think that’s really interesting. Notice, Martha’s next in line. Rose, after that and Amy is pretty low on the scale. That’s pretty interesting, if you think about it. Now, a lot of episodes she had to deal with Rory, so she’s not always in a scene with another women, so there’s an issue there and I have to think about how that balances out. The marriage was a good thing, so I don’t know if not talking to another woman can be taken against her.
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.
Dr. Rosanne Welch presents “How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity: A Study of the Doctors and their Male Companions” at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library. Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
Transcript:
When you’re talking about what men are — I prowled the Internet to discover what women want in men, because men are the thing that women want them to be because they generally want to be with women. This is in no particular order. I put Intelligence first. it did show up on all the lists that I found, so thankfully that is a good thing. Respect. Humor showed up always within one, two or three. Always, that was a thing that women were looking for and I think we’ll see that obviously reflected when we’re talking about Tom Baker a minute ago. Empathy, I think is a new one. I know it’s on some lists and not other ones and that’s really going to be something we see reflected in Doctor Who. Didn’t used to be vulnerability. Empathy wasn’t something we thought men should have and yet no we’re going “Now that would make you completely human so why shouldn’t you have it. So, I think that’s a big one. Being a good parent or a possible good parent and likewise being a good son to your parents and that’s actually an old adage, if you marry a man, don’t do it until you see how he treats his mother, because that’s how he’ll treat you. So, that’s been an old wive’s tale about what to look for in men.
A clip from this 5th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who presented by Dr. Welch. You can find Dr. Welch’s other Doctor Who talks using the links below.
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:
Her name is Alison Bechdel and she is a cartoonist who writes a cartoon called “Dykes To Watch Out For.” She happens to be a lesbian. This cartoon has become viral in the film world and this will help us discuss who is the most feminist character. In this cartoon, one day, she discovers her requirements for going to a movie — what a movie required — and it’s now come to be known as “The Bechdel Test” of movies. And her requirements are…1. It has to have at least 2 women in it. Think about some movies that don’t have 2 women in them. 2. They have to talk to each other — that’s point 2, not just the boys in the movie and 3. They have to talk to each other about something besides a man. Those are the questions she asks herself before she pays money to see a movie. That’s “The Bechdel Test.” So, now you have to think about movies that you like and whether or not they pass.
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.
Dr. Rosanne Welch presents “How Doctor Who Redefined Masculinity: A Study of the Doctors and their Male Companions” at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library. Dr. Welch teaches in the IGE (Interdisciplinary General Education) program.
Transcript:
What I thought was perfect for me was “Day of the Doctor” – their 50th Anniversary Special started with a quote by Marcus Aurelius. “Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one!” Which is really very close to “Do or Do not. There is no try.” It’s always the same kind of ideal, let’s just go do these things. so, I think that is quote wonderful. We come to this quote in this episode celebrating the entire series and I’m going to talk about how I think that is reflected.
A clip from this 5th talk on various aspects of Doctor Who presented by Dr. Welch. You can find Dr. Welch’s other Doctor Who talks using the links below.
I’m hard at work completing my upcoming book on The Monkees, The Monkees – A Made for TV Metatexual Menagerie for McFarland Publishing. The book is scheduled for release in Spring 2016.
You can join my Monkees mailing list to receive future updates and notification of the books release.
Here are the current chapter titles, although this may change in the final publication. I hope you’ll check it out when it hits the stores!
Introduction: I’m (Still) a Believer1. Sweet Young Thing: Contextualizing The Monkees with a Short History of Teenagers on Television,2. Authorship on The Monkees: Who Wrote The Monkees and what was that Something They Had to Say?3. Look Out, Here Comes Tomorrow: Counter-Culture Comes to Television and Middle America via The Monkees4. The Kind of Girl I Could Love: Feminism, Gender and Sexuality in The Monkees5. Shades of Grey LAn Ethnic Studies look at Minority Representation on The Monkees6. We Were Made for Each Other: The Monkees Menagerie of Metatextuality7. We Were Made for Each Other: The Sequel: Nascent Television Aesthetic Techniques on The Monkee8. A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You Identity Construction and Confusion on The Monkees9 Theme(s) from The Monkees Narrative Structure, Literary References and Themes on The Monkees10. Salesman / What am I Doing Hangin’ Round? The Cultural Collateral of The Monkees11. Music Innovation and the seeds of MTV
