My link here. It was repeated on lifeonmartha and the topic has been discussed a great deal on the anti-racism comm deadbrowwalking, not to mention the private LJs of several people, including (off the top of my head) nostalgia_lj, spiralsheep, and more who aren't on my f-list. Nos hasn't tagged, but check Spiral's "Doctor who" tag. Nos garnered several trolls on the subject, including one infamous guy with a sexually-oriented screenname who came in, demanded that we stop discussing the subject, and announced that women are too stupid to understand TV. kateorman first tried to shut the conversation down, then said that she wanted to study it in a comm she started (and which originally had a post telling black commentors that she wasn't talking to them) and now tries to set the standards as to how it is discussed, usually leaving in a huff saying that some people are determined to be haters... ask lizbee. Racial subtext and how certain subtexts always happen to certain characters has been going on since the end of last season.
For instance... let's take maid costumes. Both Rose and Martha and her family all ended up in maids costumes. Well, if it happened to Rose, too, it's just one of those things, right?
Except that when Rose ended up in a maid's/lunchlady costume, she expressly got scenes where she got to express how demeaning she found it, and the worst thing that happened was her alt!verse mother threatening to fire her. Also, only Rose (and Astrid) wore such costumes... Jackie and to date Donna never have. So not every character, not every member of that racial group, not ever family member.
Whereas, within 13 episodes, every single member of Martha's family including herself ends up in one, and under circumstances where anything other than cheerful compliance merits instant punishment - Martha at the school, her family under the Master. Every member of that family. Every member of that racial group (Mickey, as Martha's father, being relegated to mechanics, although in Mickey's case it's by choice.)
So maid's costumes "just happen" if they're needed by plot. But the circumstances around those costumes do not "just happen" and they are weighted with major racial freight.
For another instance.... there are happy white/white couples and there are happy black/white couples, but there are no happy black/black couples. Furthermore, in many of the black/white couples, the black character is running after the white one offering devoted affection and getting distracted secondhand disinterest from the white one. Rose, always treated Mickey as a second-class backup if Jack and the Doctor aren't there. The Doctor, treating Martha as second-best to the point that she leaves him over it (and yet he was over Rose enough to invite Donna along even though Donna was so soon that she was handling Rose's clothing.) Martha's father running after his blonde golddigger.
And to loop back to Torchwood, Tosh running after Owen, who preferred in the premiere to rape a white woman rather than look at Tosh, and would, throughout the rest of his run, only have sex with white women.
no subject
For instance... let's take maid costumes. Both Rose and Martha and her family all ended up in maids costumes. Well, if it happened to Rose, too, it's just one of those things, right?
Except that when Rose ended up in a maid's/lunchlady costume, she expressly got scenes where she got to express how demeaning she found it, and the worst thing that happened was her alt!verse mother threatening to fire her. Also, only Rose (and Astrid) wore such costumes... Jackie and to date Donna never have. So not every character, not every member of that racial group, not ever family member.
Whereas, within 13 episodes, every single member of Martha's family including herself ends up in one, and under circumstances where anything other than cheerful compliance merits instant punishment - Martha at the school, her family under the Master. Every member of that family. Every member of that racial group (Mickey, as Martha's father, being relegated to mechanics, although in Mickey's case it's by choice.)
So maid's costumes "just happen" if they're needed by plot. But the circumstances around those costumes do not "just happen" and they are weighted with major racial freight.
For another instance.... there are happy white/white couples and there are happy black/white couples, but there are no happy black/black couples. Furthermore, in many of the black/white couples, the black character is running after the white one offering devoted affection and getting distracted secondhand disinterest from the white one. Rose, always treated Mickey as a second-class backup if Jack and the Doctor aren't there. The Doctor, treating Martha as second-best to the point that she leaves him over it (and yet he was over Rose enough to invite Donna along even though Donna was so soon that she was handling Rose's clothing.) Martha's father running after his blonde golddigger.
And to loop back to Torchwood, Tosh running after Owen, who preferred in the premiere to rape a white woman rather than look at Tosh, and would, throughout the rest of his run, only have sex with white women.