Doctor Who Will Do Just Fine Without You (An Open Letter To Whiny Sexist Twits)

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So they announced the next Doctor today, and it’s GASP!!! a woman! An icky woman creature about to get her icky PMS ridden womanly cooties all over the TARDIS!!! And menfolks are OUTRAGED!!!

And I’m having SOOOOO much fun mocking all the whiny misogynist men and self-loathing quisling women crying about the 13th Doctor’s gender. I mean really, it’s delicious seeing all these sad closed-minded men and women whinging and crying about how PC Culture has ruined the show and they’ll never watch it again and this is the nail in the coffin that will finally permanently kill the show.

But all this sad sexist “the show is ruined forever WAHHHH!” bullshit is missing something, it’s not seeing something that Ghostbusters and Wonder Woman have proven in spades that is all but guaranteed to happen now; the women will come out in droves to take their place.

For every one douchebag asshole sexist prick who abandons Doctor Who in disgust over a woman being cast as a fictional alien who can change his entire body right down to every individual cell, there will be 10 women and/or little girls who will happily fill that viewership void. We’ve seen it in photos of the audiences at premieres for both films I just mentioned. Little girls, teenage girls and grown adult women coming out in droves because they’re not the sidekick or the love interest anymore, who came dressed up in costume, who were happy to see the movie. That’s what will happen here.

Because all those little girls and teenage girls and adult women? They’ll see themselves as the hero in the single longest running adventure on television. They’ll see Jodie Whitaker and they’ll feel like they themselves are being seen. They’ll know that they can strive and push and grow and achieve and win and do it on their own terms, because they’ll see The Doctor, a woman just like them, onscreen telling them they damn well can so do all of that. That they can.

That’s not even counting all the trans woman who are going to glomp onto this show if they hadn’t already, because with the male main character basically undergoing a sex change, they too will feel represented. In fact if there is any genuinely valid complaint to be had here, it’s that we’ll still have to wait for the Doctor to be a POC. But for now, this is still change. Good, positive change. Change that could have gone further? Yes. But still positive change. Women everywhere, regardless of anatomy, have a hero to feel a connection to, to show them they CAN, whatever it is they’ve been told they can’t, the Doctor says you can.

So I’m not worried. Let the douchebags abandon the show. Ratings will spike because GASP!!! women watch sci-fi too! And, quisling women filled with internalized misogyny aside, WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR DECADES!!! Hell the BBC have been pondering doing this since Tom Baker’s replacement casting began. It’s NOT a new, PC/SJW Culture idea. It’s long overdue but it isn’t some cultural feminist zeitgeist conspiracy to ruin your manly fun. The BBC simply FINALLY pulled the trigger on an idea they’ve kicked around for decades anyway.

So by all means douchebros and haters, abandon Doctor Who. Leave in droves. Swear to NEVAR EVAR watch the show ever again. I have absolutely no doubt we’ll not only do just fine without you, we’ll do BETTER. Doctor Who will thrive, and the only people you douchebags will hurt are yourselves, because you’ll be missing out on all the awesome.

Congratulations Jodie. I’m sure you’ll be an amazing Thirteen.

Penny is a now divorced intersexed disabled lesbian in BC Canada. She's been watching wrestling and reading comics since she was a kid, and knows her stuff. She lives with her pets and passes her free time writing, drawing, doing paid photoshop work (including logos done for Pulse's Own Mike Gojira), and is a part-time Queer model.