[ SECRET POST #2351 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2350 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 05 pages, 113 secrets from Secret Submission Post #336.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[intrigueing]

It was portrayed as BAD of course, but it wasn't portrayed as sexist. Her being raised to kill and revolve around the Doctor is portrayed as tragic but romantic, not something gross and creepy that she overcame. She never has a storyline showing her throwing off the sexist overtones of her backstory and coming into her own - the plot of her life being all about the Doctor is never subverted. When she goes "fuck you, Kovarian", it's not to reaffirm control over her own life or destiny, it's still all about how she's convinced she loves the Doctor more than the entire universe does. When she thinks she's escaped at the end of Let's Kill Hitler, she doesn't take up archeology because she likes it, she does it to find the Doctor. And none of the characters comment on or discuss the fact that her backstory follows disturbingly sexist patterns, nor does the narrative do it through comparison or contrast or symbolism.

Basically, yeah, her backstory is portrayed as "oh, poor unfortunate River", but it gets really fucking frustrating when the type of "oh, poor unfortunate River" that Moffat chose to write is one with so many glaringly misogynistic stereotypes and messages, and one that involves so many tropes that have been repeatedly, incessantly applied to female characters throughout the years to the point of being pretty offensive. There's a difference between a horrible past that is feminist and empowers the character through her struggles, and a horrible past that is loaded with sexist stereotypes.

Basically, ditto to femn's comment: it's okay to choose to write a troubled backstory these days with sexist stereotypes if you plan to intentionally subvert them, but Moffat didn't. Which makes a lot of people go "and you felt you just had to write this story for the woman who married the Doctor, especially without any other female characters to provide a contrasting example, because....?"

Which is all more a criticism of Moffat's writing choices than of River as a person. It wouldn't take too much extra writing and development to make her character empowered -- which is why I think River Song is one of the characters most ripe for fanfic.

And of course, I wouldn't mind the writing for River Song's character remotely as much if she was the only example. But Moffat writes ALL his female characters with similar issues of varying levels.