I thought Karl would appreciate this:


DV on DW
Posted by Daran
Feminist Critics
May 9th, 2008


I have lost count of the number of times Donna Noble, the latest Doctor Who companion, has hit the Doctor. She did so two or three times IIRC in the Christmas Special which introduced her,1 and again in the most recent episode. And didn’t she also hit him in the Ood episode? I can’t remember. If they show it again, I’ll watch for it.

Whatever the exact score so far, it’s clear that this is going to be a recurring character trait. Whenever he falls short of her exacting standards, she’s going to hit him. I find this both disturbing and interesting. Disturbing, because this is a show which is aimed at a family audience,2 and is thus likely to normalise this kind of low-level female-on-male domestic abuse in the minds of children. It’s also interesting. Another recent episode, the last of the previous season, included a male-on-female DV theme, and so provides us with an opportunity to compare, not just how these themes are treated by the show’s creators, but also how they are received by the audience.

Contrasting Depictions

In “Last of the Time Lords“, Lucy Saxon, the Master’s human wife, is shown with a black eye.3 No explanation for this is given in the show, but this has been widely and I think correctly4 interpreted as indicating that the Master has been physically abusing her. This is an example of a recognisable dramatic trope. An evil person may do bad things to men, or to people in general5, but if you want to show that he’s really evil, have him specifically target women and/or children.6 7

Donna Noble is everywomen. She’s “not special… not powerful… not connected…. not clever… not important“. Her original depiction in the Christmas Special was loud, obnoxious, and superficial, but not evil. In the new series, her character has developed and she is no longer superficial, nor particularly loud, (though she still has her moments). She is shown to be insecure, prone to gaffes in an endearing way, witty, and compassionate. She’s much older than previous companions and neither particularly slim nor particularly good-looking. For these reasons, I think many female viewers will identify with her who perhaps couldn’t with the overachieving Martha or the too-perfect Rose.

And she batters men.

Audience Reception

Even a cursory web search confirms my remark above that many viewers recognise Lucy Saxon’s bruising as being the result of the Master’s violence. These cites show that this interpretation goes beyond the mere recognition that “the Master hit Lucy”. It’s conceptualised in the minds of these comentators as “domestic violence” and “domestic abuse”. Moreover it seems to be taken as read that it was intended to indicate the Master’s evil nature. By contrast, Donna’s hitting the Doctor has been greeted with universal approval, and with a single exception that I have been able to find, is not conceptualised as domestic violence.

Conclusion

That the show’s creators were able to convey the idea that the Master was a domestic abuser through such a subtle clue is a testament to the effectiveness of feminism’s campaign over many decades to raise the profile of male-on-female domestic violence as a social problem within the public consciousness. Feminists are rightly to be applauded for this. Unfortunately this has not been matched by any similar recognition of male victims or female perpetrators. The systematic framing, by feminists, of domestic violence as “male violence against women”, has served to erase these other possibilities at the conceptual level.

Given the remarkable number of feminists who are interested in science fiction generally, and the positive reception the recent Doctor Who series have elicited, I am disappointed to have found no analysis or even recognition within the feminist blogosphere that Donna’s behaviour is domestic abuse. I am not however surprised. The erasure of female-perpetrated and male-victimising domestic violence is almost as complete in the minds of the erasors as it is in those of the non-feminist general public at large.8 Equally disappointing, and more surprising, is that I have not found any discussion of it on male victim oriented sites, or, with the single, rather juvenile exception noted above, anywhere else.

One likely consequence of this erasure, this elimination at a conceptual level of domestic violence other than male on female, is that surveys intended to measure the incidence and prevalence of domestic violence are likely to relatively overestimate male on female violence, compared with other possibilities, because both perpetrators and victims of the former have a ready-made conceptualisation of their experiences, one denied to male victims and female perpetrators. This is particularly likely to be the case when the study instrument is explicitly a “Violence against Women” survey. This feminist-created distortion comes full circle when the results of such surveys are used by feminists to justify the claim that DV is overwhelming violence against women.


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I know what you're tryign to do... you're trying to convert me, to get me away from Doctor Who... It'll never work... never I tell you!!!

This story reminds me of a film I saw a few years ago called "Frankie & Johnny" DV is an important secondary theme in the film. The loving couple has to deal with the screaming and violence in the apartment across from theirs.

But in the middle of the film Ms. Frankie takes a bookend (rock) and hurls it at Mr. Johnny's head. He ducks and she misses him by inches, damaging the far wall. Her assault would have easily been fatal if it had connected. Attempted murder.

Like the new Dr. Who character the murderous assault by the female on the man is passed over as NORMAL female emotional behavior. It is entirely unrelated to the DV theme of the film. None of the people I talked to who had seen the film had even noticed that Ms. Frankie was a DV perpetrator who had done a potentially murderous assault on her partner in the center of the screen. The only DV they were aware of was that which had happened off screen and had been depicted by screams and the cinematic black eye.

Female violence is ignored even when its the elephant in the center of the room.

Blessings

Bob

perish the thought - after all Star Trek has the Borg queen, she gives me nightmares