Who?

I'm not the confrontational type. At all. It generally requires getting all ornery and agitated and whatnot, and that sounds too much like work to me. Frankly, I'd rather kick back, mumble "Laissez-faire" or "Que sera, sera" or something to that effect, and get on with my life. Because apparently I speak in French when I'm being lazy . . . Interesting . . .

But I recently read this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2013/mar/27/doctor-who-female-writers

It's all about how the TV series Doctor Who (my favourite of all time - ha ha, see what I did there?) needs female writers because . . . well, no real reason was given other than the fact that it currently does not have any. And people I follow on Twitter were passing the link to this article around, nodding their heads in a twittery way and saying, "Right on!" and stuff like that.

Me? I disagreed. A lot.

See, I'm a woman. And I'm in favor of all the awesome strides women have made in this century. We are AMAZING, and it shows. One of the places it shows, is in the episodes of Doctor Who. A show that portrays women as being witty, strong, clever and compassionate. A show where women save the day at least as often as The Doctor himself does. In fact, the role of companion is filled by women who are his saving grace, his desperately needed support in his travels and ultimately, the rather frequent saving of the universe as we know it.

So I read that article and thought, umm, those male writers, they're doing a pretty fabulous job, yeah? So what's all the bother about? I'd rather shout at the writers of shows which objectify women. Shows that push the cause of feminism back several decades, if not centuries. Some of which have, you guessed it, female writers on their staff.

Television shows should not be defined by the GENDER of their writers, but by the CONTENT of their stories.

I could go on at length, but the simple truth is that I don't think a television show should be bullied into seeking out female writers, simply because its writers are men. Are there qualified female writers out there? Too right. Could they do just as good a job as the male writers? Quite probably. Would I think it a good thing if they found some? You bet. But that said, the male writers are doing a FANTASTIC job and I think that ought to be acknowledged, even if it's just on this wee little blog here.

VanderVision Tip of the Day: Just because you have a favorite brand of awesome, doesn't mean the others aren't awesome too. Just sayin'.