Tabloids do it again, first woman lead of Doctor Who's nude shots released
Even Time Lords are not free from the clutches of everyday sexism.
For the first time since its inception in 1963, Doctor Who, the internationally acclaimed British science-fiction drama, will see a woman donning the hat of the Doctor. Taking over from Peter Capaldi, the 12th Doctor, is British actress Jodie Whittaker, an accomplished actor, who fans may remember from the TV show Broadchurch, The Smoke and the first season of Black Mirror, all critically acclaimed British sci-fi dramas.
Of course, male fans across the board were outraged at the very notion of a female Doctor. Sadly, it was all too predictable.
One has to only look a year back at the amount of hatred the all-women reboot of the classic American sci-fi movie Ghostbusters received to figure out just how badly film/TV nerds react to change and just how sexist they can be.
You should see, for example, the amount of racist hate Idris Elba received for being cast as the Gunslinger in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower, or even Leslie Jones for her role in the Ghostbusters reboot. Many justify their bigotry by saying that they want to protect the show’s original feel.
Sadly, fans can deal with the Doctor being changed every season, but they can’t deal with a woman being cast as a shape-shifting alien who travels across time. (Grow up, guys.)
But it’s not the “fan” that deserves the rap. It was in fact tabloids that sunk to a new low riding the wave of fans.
Along with an editorial about Whittaker, after the announcement of her role in the show, The Sun published a collection of nude screen captures from the actor’s previous works, including the 2006 Oscar-nominated film Venus.
The Sun's take on Jodie Whittaker as the new Doctor is as repugnant as you might expect: "SHE STRIPPED! SHE'S GOT TITS AND SHE STRIPPED!" pic.twitter.com/69YhbnikRU
— Ryan John Butcher (@ryanjohnbutcher) July 17, 2017
While the editorial itself was entirely tasteless and repugnant – The Sun’s Adam Postans called this move “virtue signalling” and added that this was “one big cynical publicity gimmick to salvage a programme that’s dying an even slower death than Capaldi’s Doctor”, the obvious winning move was to publish nude photographs of the actor, because why not?
They weren’t the only one.
Daily Mail, another British tabloid, published a heap of sexist rubbish titled, “Doctor Nude! First ever female Time Lord Jodie Whittaker joins her male predecessors in stripping off on camera after having sex on the stairs in 2014 drama”.
Equal Representation for Actresses, a British advocacy group, released a statement after the editorial was published: “We are delighted by the casting of Jodie Whittaker as the 13th Doctor. However, we are surprised and disappointed by the Daily Mail and The Sun’s reductive and irresponsible decision to run a story featuring pictures of Jodie in various nude scenes.”
Slut-shaming famous and acclaimed women, with consensually taken/published nude photographs, is an old trick.
It happen to US First lady Melania Trump after Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States of America. It is one thing to criticise Melania, another to casually slut-shame her for her nude photo shoots (from years ago) just because you don't agree with her husband's political candidature.
In a 2016 editorial in Marie Claire, some poignant questions were raised: “Why is this still the go-to strategy for challenging powerful women? Why is this how we take women down? Why are we game to critique their crow's feet or sexual history before we critique their ideas, their strategies, or their platforms?”
Are nude shoots/film scenes bad? Of course, not. Neither should they be deemed shameful. A nude scene in a movie comes with context and anyone who performs one, both male and female needs to be empowered for doing so.
Are the nude scenes/shoots relevant to Jodie Whittaker’s role as the new Doctor, or to Melania Trump’s rise to the throne of First Lady?
Of course, not.
Despite the fact that nude photos as part of the “page 3” are quintessentially British tabloid, one has to see this more harshly. "Realists” calling all forms of empowerment politically correct gimmicks and liberal appeasement must see the connection that by reducing an accomplished actor to just a few out-of-context nude scenes is dehumanising.
Of course, a woman being cast as the Doctor is still the bigger crime, right?