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Jack Graham

Jack Graham writes and podcasts about culture and politics from a Gothic Marxist-Humanist perspective. He co-hosts the I Don't Speak German podcast with Daniel Harper. Support Jack on Patreon.

5 Comments

  1. Lucy McGough
    February 20, 2013 @ 2:59 pm

    I agree.

    Reply

  2. Anonymous
    February 21, 2013 @ 4:35 am

    I would question the idea that the Doctor is "championing the heteronormative at every turn". He's far more friendly with Canton Everett Delaware III than he is with Nixon in their story, the former being the person who lost his position because he wished to enter into a gay marriage. He, that is, the Doctor, is also friends and allies with Vastra and Jenny, who are a lesbian couple.

    Reply

  3. Jack Graham
    February 21, 2013 @ 6:16 am

    Heteronormativity isn't necessarily the same thing as homophobia.

    Reply

  4. Anonymous
    February 21, 2013 @ 6:37 am

    No, but assuming that we are defining it as a belief or culture in which heterosexuality is the norm, I'm not sure how depicting the existence of homosexual partnerships or marriages can be said to be upholding the former as a principle more obviously than any previous era of the series. As the thrust of your comments seems to be that the series is "playing its part in the upswing of reactionary content of narrative media culture" in this way in particular, which implies a moral degradation from a previously higher standard, this was the aspect which I was addressing, rather than an accusation of homophobia. Even if we consider it in comparison to the RTD era, that also had plenty of heterosexual marriages either portrayed or stated – Jackie and Pete, Donna and Lance and Shaun, possibly Rose and double Doctor, Martha and Mickey – in addition to the various references or depictions of homosexual partnerships.

    I am sorry if I am still misunderstanding something but, after all, I can only go on what you have actually written, so if you have some other angle pertaining to it in mind as part of your point of view, I cannot assess anything about it, as it remains unclear to me by nature of it being unspoken.

    Reply

  5. Jack Graham
    February 22, 2013 @ 7:51 am

    Well, you have a point in that my statement about heteronormativity in today's Who relies on some unstated assumptions… fully explored in something I haven't written or posted yet. 😉 I think I’ve been waiting for Josh Marsfelder to write it first, saving me the bother of doing it half as well as him.

    I will just say a couple of things. First, never before in the show’s long history has there been a heterosexual married couple travelling on-board the TARDIS… nor any married couple in the show upon whom so much focus and importance has been placed (I mean, Amy's marriage to Rory is literally bound up with he recreation of the universe!) Nor has the Doctor ever been married to a woman before (at least not on TV). So there are very obvious, in-narrative differences in the show’s representation of heterosexuality now to previously.

    I'm not sure I'd use the somewhat loaded phrase "previously higher standard" because that's not really what I'm getting at. I'm going to post something rambly and off-the-cuff about this today. 🙂

    Reply

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