An Open Letter to Steven Moffat (Head Writer of Doctor Who)

Dear Steven Moffat,

I will begin this letter by assuring you that I am a diehard Doctor Who fan. I really do love the show. I especially love how the show can be used to make relevant social commentary in the middle of deep space hijinks. However since you have taken the helm of Doctor Whothere seems to be a problem. Apparently either you haven't come to the realization that women are people or you are just really bad at writing female characters. You seem to do okay with characters created by someone else such as Donna Noble but when it comes to starting from scratch you seem to fall back on biology rather than humanity as your inspiration for characteristics. All throughout the latest season the character Amy Pond has been a mystery, is she pregnant? Is she not pregnant?

When we find out that she is indeed pregnant and has been imprisoned throughout the first half of the series with a perfect clone replica replacing her with Rory and the doctor. Now if I was Amy and I woke up to realize that I had been imprisoned and unconscious for the last nine months and that the first thing, I noticed upon awakening was that I was in labor, I would lose my shit. I would not go from giving birth completely unexpectedly to an immediate maternal bond with the surprise child. I would probably find it very difficult to accept that this child was in fact mine or feel any particular responsibility for it. If I was not completely in shock from the experience, I might muster some concern about the scary lady that wants to take the child for nefarious purposes but I might not immediately jump to "this baby is mine and I'm keeping it at all costs".

Childbirth is a stressful experience and to find oneself in the middle of it without any warning or knowledge especially with the added stress of captivity would most likely cause most women to have a complete break with reality even if they are as indomitable as Amy Pond.

Women are far more than their ability to our children but you continue seem to not realize this. As a more recent example let us consider this years Christmas episode. There are so many things about this episode that make me want to scream. Now I know that the Doctor is brilliant and aware of it And that this comes with a major superiority complex but was it necessary to make the only reason that the children's mother could save the day while he could not be because she had a uterus. Seriously Mr. Moffat? Just because most women have uterus is does not necessarily mean that they are more nurturing and stereotypically motherly. You could have gone with she was recognized at having great strength for holding her family together through the tragedy of losing her husband and children's father to a horrible war but no she's a woman so it must be because she had a uterus. Women are only powerful because they have uteri. No wonder you can't seem to get away from the ridiculous and becoming very old story line of the love/lust triangle between Rory, the Doctor and Amy. For your information it is completely possible for two men and a woman to have crazy fun adventures without the women wanting to sleep with both of them. How do I know this? Because I have done it many times. Really, you can just keep it the sexual tension between Rory and Amy where it belongs and leave the Doctor and any other man who might happen along out of it. People are not the sum of their sexual organs or desires. Amy has shown herself to be very resourceful and despite her flakiness can be very emotionally intuned to others. She is saved the day without direct help from her uterus many times. So out of respect for all of the bad ass female companionswho come before her and who will hopefully come after please remember that though they are fictional characters they should represent real women who are oh so much more than their ability to give birth.

In closing I would ask that in future when writing a female character no matter how small her role that if at any point her actions or her purpose within a story boil down to the fact that she has a uterus that you seriously rethink that character.

Thank you

PS in the Christmas episode when the doctor asks the mother how she met her husband and she replies "he used to follow me home every day" you might want to rethink that to. Because that makes him a stalker and creepy. I really don't think you want to be teaching the young girls who watch Doctor Who that stalking is an appropriate or romantic form of courtship.

Abortion Access and How It Might Have Been Better If You Were Never Born

This is a blog post I tried to publish on the community blog on www.feministing.com in response to one of their main blog posts by regular contributer Jos about abortion rights which conflict with the disability rights movement the post never made it through review so I'm posting it here.

I must preface this post with the statement that I am staunchly pro-choice but I must admit that there are certain aspects of the pro-choice movement that make me very uneasy. Today there was a post on the main page discussing how Poland had been chastised for refusing genetic testing to a woman whose fetus may have been malformed. As I said in my direct comment to that posting I applaud international support for abortion rights but as a disabled person cannot condone the use of possible congenital disabilities as a valid reason to support abortion access.

Feministing in general does a wonderful job of supporting disability right as a whole and especially as they relate to the women's movement. For this reason it is all the more shocking that a Feministing contributor would say directly that the choice of abortion is always to left to the woman regardless of reasoning. In fairness Jos does mention that there are issues surrounding this reasoning but she does in the end save the choice should be up to the woman.

Allowing this sort of thinking to continue within the feminist movement can only lead to damaging the disability rights movement. Supporting a woman's right to choose to abort a disabled fetus that would otherwise have been wanted child allows stigma around disability to grow. In this case I must firmly stand on that future child's right to the chance of life.

there are already movements (though small ones) that support parents right to choose after the birth of a child whether to euthanize said child if they are born disabled. I do not think that is at all illogical to suppose that if a parent should be allowed to abort a child based on fetal abnormality that said parent if they are not informed before the birth that they should be allowed to euthanize or at least abandon said child on the basis of disability alone.

In addition Feministing has a long history of commenting on India's major issue of sex selective abortions. In none of the articles found on Feministing that I have read in regards to this issue to the contributors ultimately conclude that it is sad that these female fetuses are being aborted but ultimately it is the mother's choice after all. On the contrary the contributor usually calls for there to be more work done in raising the status of women in India so that this unfortunate occurrence no longer happens.

The same should be said for fetuses who develop abnormalities be they genetic disorders like down syndrome wer simply a birth defect that results in the loss of a limb. The only exceptions I would find to this necessary movement is that if the malformed child once born were simply going to die regardless of medical intervention.

I do not deny that children with disabilities require extra work and more effort on the part of parents (but to a certain extent so do girls warned families in India). I know that you are not identical in situation but they are not so different that comparisons cannot be drawn. It is for this reason that I call for all Feministing contributors to cease forth with him ever again using the possible disability of a fetus as a reason to support abortion rights.

Ableism at University and Reactions to It

Yesterday was my second day of classes this semester. I was taking two language courses; a second level Spanish and Introductory German. As a disabled student who receives accomodations through an accessibility resource office, I am required to speak with all of my professors about what I'll need in each course. Language courses are very structured so I rarely require accomodations. My German prof was eager to help me out in any way possible and even reticent to deny me any of the listed accomodations. She only agreed to not force them on me after I assured her that I would inform her immediately if I was having difficulty.

This first situation certainly shows how people may think disabled people need help to succeed whether the disabled person does or not. She obviously didn't understand that my needs are not static and can therefore change depending on the situation. The encounter was at most annoying not least because I didn't feel that I could admonish her for trying to give me help I didn't need. This scenario also pales in comparison to what occured when I approached my Spanish prof.

I was already nervous about taking my second Spanish class because several years had passed since my last class. I had intended to take them back to back but every time prior to this semester, any course I enrolled in had been cancelled. I had excelled in the first class and was hoping that I would be able to catch up quickly. When I approached my Spanish prof to discuss any necessary acccomodations and identified myself as a disabled student she immediately yanked me out of class into the hallway and told me that in light of my disability it might be better if I repeated introductory Spanish. I was shocked and had no idea what to say. I tried to defend my right to be in her class but ultimately decided after that days course was over that I was now to uncomfortable to continue in her class.

The part of this situation that makes it so unforetunate is that she could have sad the same thing without citing my disability as the reason. She could have suggested that in light of my long absence from learning Spanish that I might benefit from a refresher course as she wasn't sure I could catch up during class time. Instead I was made to feel that my disabilities would always hold me back academically not because they affect my ability to learn but because others think that they do.

I would be interested to hear from others about their experiences with being disabled and a student.

Later when I posted about the second encounter on facebook, I was further disheartened when people began defending the prof, saying she probably didn't mean it like that. When I asked how the comparison of my disability with poor academic achievement could be interpretted as harmless they said I was reading to much into it.

Introduction

I started this blog several years ago and only managed to post once. I am hoping to recreate this blog with better longevity.

I chose the name because at the time of my first blog attempt, I was working on forest trails in Quebec. There were two women, myself and one other and it was clear that our male overseer did not always feel we were up to the tasks set to us.

One day when it was to wet and rainy to work on the trail we were asked to debark branches to be made into walking sticks. We were supplied with the sticks and knives. After several hours of this repetitive activity, I got a very large blister. I was wholely unconcerned but my boss insisted that I discontinue working and that I should wait in the house while his wife phoned health services for medical advice. Remember I just had a blister.

I intend to use this blog to talk about issues I'm passionate about like social justice, feminism and disability rights. I will also discuss how these issues intersect, how they can benefit one another and how they can occasionally create barriers for one another.

So here's hoping I go ahead with this and that it won't all end here.