Companion Relief
So, it’s now pretty much official. Amy is there to be leered at. We now have plots that hinge on Rory being unable to stop himself staring up her skirt.
Let me just repeat that:
Doctor Who, in 2011, has episodes (albeit charity ‘comedy’ ones) in which vital plot points rest on a man staring up a woman’s skirt without her knowledge or consent.
Classy.
To add insult to injury, the episode coyly reminds us that the man in question is the woman’s husband, as though that makes it okay… So spying on a woman’s privacy and getting off on it is permissable as long as your relationship is sanctified by holy wedlock, is that it?
Still, Amy doesn’t seem to mind too much, so it must be okay. After all, if a woman character in a show written by a man makes a sexist comment or displays a sexist attitude, that proves she’s okay with sexism, as long as it’s all, like, jokey and ironic ‘n’ stuff.
But Amy wouldn’t mind, would she? Firstly, she’s Moffat’s meat puppet and viewer titilation service. Secondly, she’s a self-involved, self-adoring harpy… just like so many women in Moffat scripts. But that’s okay ‘cos she’s ‘feisty’… which means that, while she may be an unflattering misogynistic stereotype, she’s an unflattering misogynistic stereotype in a modern, liberated, post-feminist kinda way.
In fact, Amy is so far from minding being leered at and leched over that she deliberately uses her body as a way of getting favours (i.e. driving test passes) from the poor, helpless men she enslaves with her feminine wiles. Women, eh? They really fancy themselves, don’t they?
Well, Amy is now so self-involved and self-adoring that she literally fancies herself. She flirts with her own doppelganger, providing lesbian fantasy fodder for Rory (but that’s okay ‘cos he’s her husband, remember?).
I’m sure Wossy was amused too… if that’s a recommendation these days.
The Doctor then saves the day by twiddling his “wibbly lever”. I can’t help thinking that this is almost too perfect as a metaphor, both for how Moffat now writes the show and for how millions of lechy mysoginist fans now watch it. Stare at Amy, fiddle with the wibbly lever and, before you know it, the episode has reached a satisfying climax.
As the Doctor says: “Euurrrgghh… so this is how it ends…” Not with a whimper even, but with a sexist wank.
Still, it was all for charity, wasn’t it? Fitting. After all, what is Comic Relief but a great big load of sanctimonious, sentimental, self-righteous masturbation?…