It was Danny Baker who exposed the ludicrous furore about the actor Jodie Whittaker becoming the first female Doctor Who. Very predictably, the lecherous, lurking male journalists in the gutter press were desperately trying to find photographs of Ms Whittaker without her clothes on. Even more predictably the Sun and the Mail managed to find some and printed them in order to titillate the masturbatory element of their readership. Baker pointed out that he had no recollection of the same newspapers in the dim and distant past desperately scratching around to find photographs of Tom Baker’s arse when he first climbed on board the Tardis.
In a week that has revealed a wide disparity in earnings between male and females at the BBC, reported by a horrified Sun and Mail, of course, we are reminded of the purpose of women in society by the men who largely control the media. Ms Whittaker’s role is apparently not just to play the role of one of the great TV characters, but also to be lusted after.
Now I am not blind to Ms Whittaker’s good looks. I do not judge her on her looks when I watch her performing on TV but, yes, she is an attractive woman. I don’t think there is anything more wrong with that then a woman finding David Tennant attractive. (Other forms of sexual attraction, other than “straight” are available.) That is, surely, not the same thing as lecherous journalists feeding a faux frenzy about how Ms Whittaker looks in the buff. I have always had a thing about Andie McDowell, for example, but her looks don’t come into it when I see her performing quite brilliantly in Four Weddings and a Funeral and, especially, in Groundhog Day. Then she becomes a highly talented actor, that’s all.
The gutter press wants to see the female Doctor Who as sexy woman rather than Doctor Who. How dare such a major TV role be handed to a mere woman? It has already judged her on the size of her breasts and not the size of her acting ability and that is where women are today. Page Three may be resigned to the dustbin of history but the principle, or rather the lack of it, remains.
With so many TV shows featuring the huge talents of women, you might have thought the age of equality might be much nearer, but yet again our pernicious media proves otherwise. It’s been okay to pay women less than men, it’s be perfectly fine to judge women on their looks and not their talent. The BBC has been rocked by revelations about the salaries of its female talent but the Beeb is actually in the forefront of equality. The gutter press is still locked in the past, with dirty old men in raincoats deciding how women should be paid and presented.
Danny Baker is right. When Tom Baker was chosen to be Doctor Who, no one wanted to see pictures of his arse. That the red tops were desperate to see Jodie Whittaker’s tells you just how far we have to go.
