to hope that the next Doctor Who is female and not understand why this would be so terrible?

[findingme]

My first AIBU - I have used advanced search and can't see an existing post on this so apologies if there is. I don't want to link to DM so please just google "Female Doctor Who" to look at the recent articles about this in the DM and newspapers.

It seems that it is a possibility and I can't understand why anyone would think this is a bad idea. AIBU?

This on Star Trek and equality:

I think it's interesting and cheering, and it is less then three minutes long.

None of the Doctors have been Caucasian (unless Gallifrey has a Caucasus area no one has told us about).

The vast majority of Caucasians (people living in that region around the Caucasus mountains) are not White.

Caucasian to mean White people originated centuries ago in an effort to erase these people and create a fake racist history and false science of a superior White race originating in that area (rather than Africa). It's specifically invented to make racist rhetoric of the time sound more scientific - it goes with the terms Mongoloid and Negroid which I doubt any of us would use. It's fake, false, and continues the harmful erasure of several groups of people.

We can just say White to mean White, no need to dress it up in fancy false language. The term really needs to end it's incorrect use like the others of its time.

The Doctor has always been White, it would be nice for a change or broader range of people in BBC programmes though I'm not sure I trust the writers to handle it (Martha's race was treated downright awful in places - like the Shakespeare episode where the Doctor completely brushed off her concerns).

RealityQuake thank you for that. You're right, using that word there made totally no sense, and I'd never properly thought about its origins. Thank you.

"It stretches scientific credibility and would be silly."

Are you shitting me? In a discussion on the made up regenerative abilities of a made up alien species on a made up tv programme you want to bring scientific balance into it?

i still think it would be totally weird if a grandfather suddenly turned into a grandmother, but I suppose young people nowadays like all this asexual stuff, it's the modern way I suppose. gender doesn't matter. i can't say I'm at all keen, but then I'm more of a fan of the old Dr Whos anyway, I think the modern ones are pretty silly. So if they take it into their heads to have a female Dr it won't altogether surprise me.

Nice clip, Freya :) (I'm not stalking you yet honest!) Nichelle Nichols is still beautiful. I'd like her to advocate for women, people of colour and the elderly!

The Doctor was labelled Grandfather in the first series, which featured a granddaughter. Since she hasn't cropped up a whole lot since then, she could easily think of it as a grand-father but that would be neither here nor there in the overall plot.

Argument dismissed

Meh- if we consider that the Doctor and Susan are speaking Gallifreyan and we are hearing through the Tardis's psychic link, we don't know that she ever called him "Grandfather"! Maybe in Gallifreyan she said, "Pernickety Grandparent 4".

In terms of internal story logic and consistency, it could be done this time around on the grounds that that metacrisis/Doctor Donna bit triggered a sex change a couple of incarnations later. Not that the next Doctor is played by Catherine Tate, but that some delayed wierd shit in the Gallifreyan chromosomes switches on and wooohoo hello Lady Doctor.

And do bugger off with the essentially male and female shit as it's rubbish. Gender may be mostly binary, but there was a case in the paper today of an elderly man finding out that 'he' was actually female on being diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It's a sliding scale: the vast majority at one end or the other but a significant minority in between.

Heh, Good point Jessie

Gender may be mostly binary, but ... It's a sliding scale

Yes, it is! People seem to have such a problem with this, but it's surprisingly common. People can also be entirely one gender in terms of physical construction, but have the genes of the other sex. They only find out if a medical condition calls for analysis, so there's every reason to suppose there are loads of Janes wandering around who are genetically John. And vice versa.

... and that's just humans! There are stacks of Earth creatures that switch gender in real life. Aliens would surely have capacities available to Earth fish & lizards, if they're so highly evolved!

Nemo's Dad could be his mum one day.

I could take issue with the cod-Caucasian argument above, but I shan't as everyone knew what was meant in the thread, so the usage was semantically shifted and thus correct :)

But suffice to say that a 2 hearted alien always pitching up as a modern RP-English speaking thirtysomethingish white human male is probably unnecessary for believability.

Actually, if he has to be all the above AND is 900 years old, his English would sound more like someone with a strong German or Dutch...or maybe even an American accent (as the Colonial accents are echoes of earlier English accents....)

Also my thanks to RealityQuake for the info about 'Caucasians' as I didn't know it either. Though perhaps I should have done as I think the official definitions (in the UK, from my market research days) are now White British, White European, White Other, Black British, Asian British, Afro Carribean, Asian and... actually, sorry, no longer have my category list but it was fairly comprehensive.

Not that it had anything for Gallifreyans apart from 'other'...

I think it was good to point out the caucasian issue. Some commentators in the US are tying themselves up in knots trying to explain if the Boston bombers, from the Caucasus, are or are not white.

www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/04/24/are-the-tsarnaevs-white.html

In the US Census, the definition of white includes 'middle easterners' and 'arabs,' so is similar to the area covered by the term caucasian (not denying its racist origins). I think Europeans generally use white to mean people of mostly European ancestry over very many generations.

problem is, I hate "white" because "white people" are more pink, and when I say "white" I feel I'm buying into the Victorian "white people are superior" delusion. But now it turns out that "caucasian" is worse.

What can I write, that will accurately convey what I mean?

lazyjaney we're hearing him through the TARDIS. So I don't see why he'd be translated with an ancient accent. He's not always RP, either. Christopher Eccleston was northern, one of the others had a Scottish accent, didn't he?

What can I write, that will accurately convey what I mean?

I lived in a place where mixed-up genetics are the norm. It is common there to describe people by their actual skin colour. It's not rainbow heaven; the various shades carry class connotations and "whites" are still called white. To me, it's still preferable to the completely false binaries we use here. I want to be able to describe people as light brown, pale pink, creamy yellow, whatever. Unfortunately, Brits think you're "trying to be funny" if you do that. So I have to call a person with latte skin + frizzy hair "black" but call them "white" if the hair and nose are straight

There isn't really any word that doesn't have a connotation. You can't say 'people who are mostly of European descent over very many generations' because it is too long. You can't say European because lots of people now living in Europe don't consider themselves white (Black British etc). You can't really say caucasian because it sounds like you are describing a murder suspect on an American police show.

I think white is what most people have agreed on in Britain, and I don't think people generally object to it.

Sorry, that had fuck all to do with this topic

Must stop this inconsequential rambling.

GG, a lot of people define themselves as mixed race, mixed ethnicity, mixed heritage etc in Britain now. I don't think you have to fit into very narrow definitions.

GG, this is the second thread that between us we have derailed on to a completely different topic!

I know

To me, it's still preferable to the completely false binaries we use here. I want to be able to describe people as light brown, pale pink, creamy yellow, whatever. Unfortunately, Brits think you're "trying to be funny" if you do that. So I have to call a person with latte skin + frizzy hair "black" but call them "white" if the hair and nose are straight

Humanity=messed up in subtly different ways all over the world. I think in a lifetime of British life, I've seen only one person with actual black skin, and one actual white person (the guy with albinism on Big Brother).