All I really want to talk about today is this New York Times multimedia account of what I feel pretty comfortable referring to as a colossal miscarriage of justice stemming from (best case scenario) incompetence and closed ranks. No, that’s silly. LOTS of women who are packing their bags to leave their boyfriends change their minds and instead shoot themselves twice with their boyfriend’s service revolver with their non-dominant hand. CHRIST ON A FUCKING CRACKER BURN IT ALL DOWN.
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I mean, this is not really up there with that, but also you should not feel free to attend the college of your choice while pregnant (and a Marine, and a firefighter), because that’s, you know, absconding with some famous dude’s baby.
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Please do not think this is an acceptable space to discuss the Doctor Who anniversary special, as I am waiting to watch it with a friend over Thanksgiving, but this IS a place to talk about your favourite Companions. Martha and Donna. End of list.
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Are you reading Middlemarch? Discussing through the end of Chapter 12 for Dec. 2nd! You can drop questions for Rebecca in the comments or email me (nicole at the hyphen toast dot net).
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Kurt Loder pointed out you can download 12 hours of “Folk Music in America” from the Library of Congress.
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The victim in yet another vile legal clusterfuck tells her own story.
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A very thoughtful longread on the cyclical nature of inequality.
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Popular Science is killing their comment section.
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K, here’s a lion cub playing in autumn leaves. Cliffe OUT.
Tags: feminism, link roundup, murder, the internet
I recently learned Aeon has started hosting short films as well: http://aeon.co/film/
Agh! OK Nicole, I’m always happy to talk about how much I love Donna.
Related: I just watched the Catherine Tate & David Tennant Much Ado About Nothing and it’s exactly as charming as I hoped it would be!
Nicole! So cruel to bring up the anniversary special and then silence us on the subject. I mean, there’s a whole big internet out there with safe spaces to discuss, obvs, but they’re not The Toast!
Can I just say this one thing that’s not a spoiler in the least, I promise, cross my heart? Tennant and Smith together are too adorable.
I will allow that statement, and it pleases me.
GOD I KNOW so cute! I am probably going to watch it every day for at least a week because of how cute they are.
I went to the cinema on Saturday night for it and have watched it again today on iplayer. I suspect I’m going to watch it again several times.
Right?! They need to star in some kind of buddy comedy together ASAP!
DONNA AND TEN, SPACE BROS 4 LYF
She really was the absolute best.
I am so happy to know that exists! Thank you! 😀 Also yes, of course, Donna is the best.
Ah yes they are SO GOOD in Much Ado together!
OOOhhh between the domestic violence story and the pregnancy story, the NYT was not a happy read this weekend. Here’s the judge on Sara McKenna daring to cross state lines while pregnant: “her appropriation of the child while in utero was irresponsible, reprehensible.”
Appropriation of the child while in utero, yeah, I can’t even.
This is tangential but I feel like things would be a lot easier if there were an option to have babies gestate outside anyone’s body. (Is that the beginning of a dystopia? I’m worried that might be the beginning of a dystopia.)
I’m pretty sure that actually is the beginning of a Brave New World-style dystopia.
Definitely the beginning of both Brave New World and the Matrix.
In Lois McMaster Bujol’ds Vorkosigan Saga, most of the “civilized” universe has gestation machines, where a child is conceived and gestated, it’s only on “backwards” planets where women must carry to term. Beyond that fun fact, it’s actually a pretty great piece of space opera and, dare I say, science fiction for romance readers. Much more focus on the human aspect of a story told across planets and less about the exact model number of the hero’s laser blaster.
/Nerd comment
The Vorkosigan books are pretty much the best.
Haha I came down here to say the exact same thing! Huzzah for LMB!
Aw man. Why have I not yet read the Vorkosigan Saga, or any Lois McMaster Bujold? This is a travesty which needs to be corrected.
I’m kind of surprised we haven’t had a Vorkosigan Saga love post on the Toast yet.
I would love a Vorkosigan Saga post. I am still amazed at the bait and switch she pulled with Ivan.
This, right here, is what finally pushed me over the edge to sign up for a damn commenting account already. Pretty please, Nicole–READ ALL THE VORKOSIGAN BOOKS so we can all lose our collective ability to can together.
Forward momentum! Vorkosigans Victorious! Etc.
Can I say how shocked I was when I finished Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance and realized that That Idiot Ivan had become my favorite character?
My love of Ivan dates from Cetaganda!
You know the bit I mean…
Totally! I actually skipped Cetaganda at first because when I finished Mirror Dance I wanted to read more about Mark, which ended up being a huge oversight. On the other hand, I had a huge grin on my face while reading about Ivan’s exploits when I did get around to Cetaganda because I appreciated him so much more as a character by then.
Shulamith Firestone proposed, in The Dialectic of Sex, that removing gestation and birth from the female body was crucial to eliminating the cultural significance of genital distinctions and the unequal division of reproductive labor, both of which are foundational to gender inequality.
Oh god I love Shulamith Firestone so much, forever and always.
Removing it from the female body… or adding it to the male body! Male pregnancy for everyone!
Forget dystopia, can you imagine the Mommy Wars? Women who decided to stay pregnant the old-fashioned way would declare women who took the outside-the-body gestation option uncaring and insufficiently involved mothers, brainwashed by the medical establishment. Women who did the outside-the-body gestation would say that women who stayed traditionally pregnant were putting themselves and their babies at undue risk from childbirth. Thank god science can’t make this happen.
IDK, I think I would be much happier in a world where women argued about things like that then a world in which women are treated the way we are now.
On the other hand, I bet the gestation technology would only be available to the wealthy, so it would likely be poor bodies that were forced to follow the traditional method. It’s already the case with much reproductive technology; rich [white] couples are the ones who can pay for surrogates.
But I could totally see it where, one hundred years after gestation technology became the norm for almost everyone, a few rich ladies were like, “No, we’re going to do the OLD FASHIONED way, like the GOOD OLD DAYS.” Kind of like how some people think it’s cool to make their own soap and raise chickens in the backyard of their rowhouse.
Conversely, if anyone were able to be pregnant, or more realistically it was impossible to tell from appearances who could and couldn’t get pregnant*, it would accomplish the same thing without the “feti in laboratory flasks” visual.
*This is already true, so more accurately what is needed is the social acceptance of the fact and the death of the know-by-appearance assumption.
This is a really popular trope in YA dystopias and other speculative fiction from the ’90s and early ’00s, before this Hunger Games trend of post-economic collapse dystopias. (Did that make sense?) Unsurprisingly, though, most of those societies still have hyper-“traditional” (for NOM’s definition of traditional) families and gender politics in every aspect other than baby-making. 🙁
“Absconding with the fetus”?!
Holy hell, I can’t even. *headdesk*
“a closely watched legal battle over the rights of pregnant women to travel and make life choices”
MAKE LIFE CHOICES. I’m just. I can’t. What.
Family Court judges outside New York City are elected to 10-year terms, while those serving in New York City are appointed to 10-year terms by the Mayor of New York City.
This particular referee has a Google-magnetic name: Fiordaliza A. Rodriguez
Oh my god, that first story, I AM LIVID. I hope the New York Times reporting on it helps her family get some level of justice.
I read about two paragraphs before I had to stop because I was about to either cry or smash my computer.
I’m reading it in between doing other things at work and want to just set everything on fire. LOOK AT THIS:
“Two years before Ms. O’Connell’s death, supervisors learned of accusations of domestic abuse against an officer, but followed up aggressively only after his frightened wife fled the house naked, clutching her child, and called the authorities. Dismissal was recommended, but the sheriff kept the officer on staff.
WHAT THE FUCKING HELL
“The report also said the women had confessed to investigators for the prosecutor’s office that they often smoked marijuana together in the evenings and could not remember if they had done so that night. The statement was underlined, in boldface type.
But in the interview, Ms. Boswell said, “That’s not true.” And Leanna Freeman, the lawyer for the second neighbor, said one of the investigators, Robert Hardwick, had confirmed that the women made no such admission.”
WHAT? I mean, most of this article is bullshit of the highest degree, but they outright fabricated evidence and still nothing was done? oqweoiuoiawfjalkdsfjlkdsajfl
Yeeeaaah. I’m about halfway through and am taking a breather. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…
your favourite Companions. Martha and Donna. End of list.
CORRECT. (Assuming we’re talking about New Who here, otherwise AAAAAAAACE)
Oh yes Ace, Ace forever! (who might have grown up with the Seventh Doctor and wanted to be Ace SO VERY BADLY, oh yes that was me.)
100% yes. The last episode with Donna in it is, for me, the most heartbreaking Doctor Who episode ever created. Even just thinking about it can bring me to tears.
YEP. Donna’s last episode broke me for Doctor Who, I think. It just didn’t hold me the same way after that. I ended up quitting mid-Ponds.
I’ve only ever watched it once, for this very reason. Despite it being an amazing episode, I just can’t handle it.
YES. Ugh, that last couple episodes of Donna just kill me, what with the emotional whiplash from pinnacle awesome to pinnacle despair.
Why does everyone shit on Rose? I LOVE ROSE.
I love Rose with Nine (&&&NINE;;;) but Rose with Ten was super insufferable.
Rose and Nine were THE BEST. Nine is my favorite Doctor.
I too am all about Rose and think Billie Piper is wonderful but also happy/jealous she is married to Laurence Fox (uhnnn such a tall detective) and they seem super into each other.
Hathaway. I adore Hathaway.
I imagine Laurence Fox and Billie Piper with a herd of teeny blond children and it is wonderful.
not to derail the Who love, but this enclave of Lewis-love warms my cockles. plus she’s so petite and he’s so very tall, oh man. Hathaway!
Actually, I was all “Rose, UGH” until this thread and now I know about her & Fox and I am “awww, Rose!” because my fickle heart. Also: LEWIS and HATHAWAY! So great.
Personally, I am less annoyed by Rose — she was totally innocuous — than by the insistence of certain writers that Rose was the One True Best Most Special and Only because Rose… was caring? Unlike all those cold-hearted companions the Doctor had before?
I loved Rose until she became a gimmick to bring back whenever they wanted high ratings for a thing. Her storyline said she was locked away forever, and that had serious emotional weight — so to keep bringing her back just chipped away at that.
I did really adore her, though, especially with Nine. The romantic angle with Ten got old after a while.
I have a special place in my heart for Rose, because my name is Rose too and thus she is the obvious choice for me when cosplaying at conventions.
I LOVE ROSE TOO! Her story arc gives me all the feels. I never really loved Donna or Martha, although I do love Donna’s ‘tude, and now that I’m in my 3rd round of re-watching, she’s growing on me… but Rose/Ten is my OTP.
And we can all agree that Clara is super boring, right?
I WANT TO LIKE CLARA BUT SHE DOES NOTHING. SERIOUSLY, WHAT DOES SHE DO? SHE TALKS FAST AND IS GOOD WITH KIDS BUT WHAT DOES SHE *WANT* AND *LIKE* AND *THINK*
Stephen Moffat needs to just stop already. :\
F’real. As much as I would’ve liked to see a female doctor cast when they announced Smith was leaving, I don’t want it to happen until there’s a different showrunner, because I would NOT trust Moffat with that.
My impression of Clara is that she’s been in like four episodes and died in all of them. This isn’t technically accurate, but it illustrates for me how little her character has done that impressed me or made me feel anything.
Also, “You clever boy,” is a phrase that needs to die in fire.
“I was born to save the Doctor” = epitome of Moffat’s ability to write women
Manic Pixie Dream Giiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrrllllllllllllllll
I think Clara might get more interesting when paired with the new Doctor (I keep calling him Thirteen, but it’s Twelve!). I think she just needs a different Doctor, but I’m also admittedly not a big fan of Eleven.
That’s what I’m hoping for too. Especially now that her “mystery” has been solved and every episode won’t end with the Doctor being all “But WHAT is the DEAL with Clara?!”
I liked Eleven but I’m so curious to see what Capaldi’s Doctor is going to be like!
So boring! I want to like her but all I can come up with is that her wardrobe is really cute. I don’t dislike her, mind. She just doesn’t do anything! She has to actually do things before I can decide if I like her or not.
Also I never understand that thing she keeps talking about with the souffle. It doesn’t actually make any sense!
It’s reference to to the episode where she’s in the Dalek asylum and The Doctor figures out that she’s not being truthful about who she is because she talks about making soufflé. One needs fresh eggs to make a soufflé, but it’s not like you’d find fresh eggs in a Dalek asylum.
YES.
UGH CLARA so boring so so boring. I think what I hate most, though, is the emphasis on Clara as the Manic Pixie Dream Companion who was fated to meet the Doctor and there was all that weird possibly-romantic tension that wouldn’t be terrible on it’s own merits but there was something about it that undermined how special Rose was meant to be, you know? Like, I know plenty of folks have problems with the Rose storyline (and for good reasons, though I love it) and how she and the Doctor = Twue Luv 4ever but I could buy it, it was believable, and it did carry a certain weight. But now we have Clara so maybe Rose wasn’t all that special after all.
I do feel a little bad that I hate her so much – it’s not Jenna Coleman’s fault. I think she does the best she can with what she’s given, Matt Smith too, but Moffat’s not exactly giving her Grade A material to work with. I am super excited to see how it goes with Capaldi, though, if only because that’s GOT to put an end to the weird romantic tension.
My impression of Clara was much more of a brother/sister kind of duo than a romantic one. I was very, very nervous about there being any more of That Nonsense after Rose, because I think Rose was a good as it gets and I loved her. I realized how pleased I was to NOT have romantic tension between them when Donna showed up – I thought it was brilliant. So refreshing. No longing looks, no smoldering British-ly. Just hijinks and smarts.
That all said, I have yet to warm up to Clara and am not at all certain that I will. I liked Martha, I loved Donna, I loved Amy but loved Rory a little more (and Rory’s DAD!) but I really did love Rose and Nine, especially.
Rory’s Dad forever!!!!!!! <3 <3 <3
I like Jenna Coleman, but unfortunately as with so many of Moffat’s characters, Clara is underwritten. Her life outside of her interactions with the Doctor is really sparse.
MARTHA AND DONNA FOREVER <3 Donna’s storyline is the most heartbreaking thing to have ever happened on that show. It is also right about when I stopped really caring and my slow roll to actually quitting Doctor Who began. (I finally gave up for good after Amy’s baby turned out to be River Song. Just… sigh.)
After all the high romantic drama, Donna Noble, unshakable buddy, was such a pleasant change. And then, of course, they go ahead and just break my heart into a million pieces with her storyline. And can’t ignore Martha Jones, freakin’ genius. I know there’s something nice about the idea behind the whole “even the unremarkable, or seemingly mediocre, people can be adventurers” idea, but man, Martha had serious skills.
Martha, y’all. And I will fight you if you say otherwise (and have). Also her arc on Torchwood should cement how much she ain’t gonna put up with some shit.
Freema forevz.
Ohh, I’d forgotten about that! Now that I think about it, Torchwood Martha >>>>> Companion Martha….
YES. Ace ‘n Donna ‘n Martha forever.
Apparently one of the original plans was to have Ace become a Time Lady. I stopped watching Dr. Who about two years ago, but I would watch every single episode ever made of a show about Ace and her companions Donna and Martha.
Speaking of science trolls (i.e., a big reason why Popular Science shuttered their comments), one of the ‘studies’ most cited by anti-vaxxers was actually a very elaborate fraud. Dear anti-vaxxers: even your crappy ‘evidence’ is faked. Please stop putting us all in danger. kthxbye
http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/01/05/autism.vacci…
The amount of damage that one faked “study” has done is unimaginable. It makes me so goddamn mad.
Yeah, the effects in Great Britain alone were pretty stunning.
If I could punch just one person in the face without repercussions, it would be Andrew Wakefield.
Coincidentally (?), this is xkcd’s comic for today:
Somewhat related: In Australia, the anti-vaxxer group Australian Vaccination Network has been ordered to change their name because it was misleading to parents who thought the group was neutral. A step in the right direction. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/25/au…
Also, found this on their wiki page:
‘The Australian Skeptics awarded their Bent Spoon Award, “presented annually to the perpetrator of the most preposterous piece of paranormal or pseudoscientific piffle”, to Meryl Dorey [the president of the network] and the AVN in 2009, stating that the award had been earned through their “scaremongering and misinformation about childhood vaccination”. In response, Dorey stated that winning the award meant she was “on the right track”.’
…what?! She’s like, yep, indeed, spreading pseudoscientific piffle is what we aim for, thanks for noticing!
I CANNOT EVEN
I am not a fan of Donna (though I do admit that she is one of the few Companions to point out when the Doctor is being inhumane or otherwise an ass, as opposed to watching in awe) because I find her personality tiresome, but Martha is aces.
I didn’t love Donna the first time I watched, but I rewatched all of 10’s seasons this summer and Donna really improved for me on 2nd viewing. I love that she refused to put up with any bullshit, never put the Doctor on a pedestal, and – most excitingly – wasn’t in love with him, even a little bit.
Donna Noble forever and ever amen. She is the most important woman in the universe, after all.
To me it goes like this: Donna Noble > Martha Jones > All other New Who companions in whatever order, really, I don’t care > Amy Pond
I love that Popular Science is shutting down their comments section. I feel like news organizations should do the same.
And her chemistry with Ten is just perfect. They’re buddies!! It’s awesome. Ahhh, I could babble on about Donna forever…
And yes, I do love Martha, too. But Donna is just SO.FUNNY.
Can we talk about how Moffat kind of ruined that show? Because yes.
If by “kind of” you mean “definitely,” sure. 🙂
Haha, I was trying to be diplomatic?
The Ms. O’Connell piece makes me all ragey, and yet grateful. When I was much younger, my aunt’s 2nd husband was a city cop, and pulled some DV shit that I’m not exactly sure of the specifics of, but not my story to share anyway.
So, he never got in trouble for it, my cousin (kid from her 1st husband) acted out in school a lot, but has since bounced back, and since she left the husband while he was still a baby and he doesn’t remember it, and for whatever reason, it’s Not Spoken Of, my littlest cousin worships the ground his father walks on. That boy is gonna be so heartbroken when he figures out is dad is simply charismatic scum.
I’m very, very happy that incidents are being given light.
And on the happier side of things, my local theater is playing the Who special tomorrow night, and I am praying I get off work on time to go see it. Also, you are correct that Martha and Donna are the best companions of New Who. However, I propose Sarah Jane Smith was the best Companion OF ALL TIME!
(at least, in the Pertwee years. Bad, bad things happened when she was with Baker.)
Another interesting link from this morning: Morning-After Pill Doesn’t Work for Women Over 176 Pounds
Once again, really glad I have an IUD.
WELL JESUS.
Because women over 170 lbs don’t even have sex? Because the drug companies can’t imagine women over 100 lbs? Having blinding anti-patriarchy rage…can’t go on…
Gaahhhhh why did I go into the comments, if I wanted to read a whole load of fat-shaming and men announcing their sexual preferences as if they matter… wait, I never want to read that. Ever.
Yeah I thought maybe the comments would be insightful since it’s MoJo… nope.
I mean, I’m most astonished by exactly what these people seem to think 176 pounds looks like.
Seriously.
Also, MoJo commenters, let me tell you how many dudes I fucked at 176lbs. And how many I have fucked since becoming heavier than that.
My weight is stable between 175-177 actually, so the oddly specific “176 pounds” is weirdly personal and made reading the comments totally surreal. Like, whatever these fuckfaces are imagining, I guarantee it doesn’t look like me.
YES, me too!
I love that because every once in a while I overhear someone talking about 176 (or thereabouts) like it’s grotesque and I get to say ‘really? cause that’s how much I weigh’ and they have to backtrack and be shamefaced and proffer empty compliments the next 87 times they see me while I laugh and laugh and laugh in my soul.
ikr? This is like the second time I ever looked at a comment thread there NOPENOPENEVERAGAIN
THEY ARE EVEN WORSE THAN I HAD IMAGINED
Also slut-shaming! How dare women want to have sex.
I am literally angry with rage. Plan B was fifty fucking dollars when I had to buy it, and I was a poor grad student at the time and I cannot believe I pissed away a bunch of totally useless drugs. I mean I did not get pregnant anyway so it would have been useless even if it had been useful. but you don’t know that in advance.
also even that fucking article is incredibly uninformative as it starts out talking about weight in absolute terms and then goes into something about ineffectiveness for women with a higher bmi. those are two entirely different things! which is the risk factor for failure? either? both? who cares, it is only women’s health. perhaps they are reckoning all this on a standard female height, the way you have ideal nose-to-tail length for a standard show poodle or whatever.
I am within the acceptable physical range for effectiveness now but if I need it again sometime I don’t know if I will be able to stomach giving those fuckers another $50. Maybe I will just clench my fallopian tubes super hard while having a rage spasm and that will do the trick.
I know, I know. I just exploded with rage when I read it, for all the reasons you list. Like, this is literally useless for 3/4 of the women I know. And the bit about lack of dose-dependency was the kicker, you can’t even pay a fat tax and buy two and have it work. So you have no options, I guess, but to wait and see if you need an abortion? Fuck this and fuck the researchers responsible. Feminists fought so hard to have this available and now the people it’s available to it’s likely not to help them anyway.
Well, it’s not really the researcher’s fault. Or, maybe it is the fault of the original researchers who developed the pill for not bothering to test on larger women (although even then it’s really the regulator’s fault).
Well, I don’t work in the pharmaceutical industry and don’t know what horrifying obvious blind spots they do or don’t have, but the idea that dosage might have to be calibrated to body size or body fat percentage or BMI, or else that it couldn’t be, does seem like something that should have been one of the first questions answered, not the last. With all the hand-wringing over whether or not teenage bodies were too tiny and frail and hormonally fraught to be able to safely take this drug, it stuns me that this wasn’t all considered and tested and worked out.
Around the same time as I apparently set $50 on fire for no reason, I was heavily invested (as a NARAL volunteer and then intern) in the push to make emergency contraception available OTC for minors and also to keep pharmacists from supplying or denying it to women depending on who they felt like punishing that day — also to keep them from refusing to sell it to men, which some people wanted to do because it’s super important that a man be explicitly forbidden to take financial responsibility for the consequences of his contraception failure, even if he wants to.
Anyway, because of that, I am twice as enraged, because EC access was and is a huge enormous deal and while as far as I know all the things I was trying to convince people of about its safety are true, and I know all the things I was trying to convince people of about how it works are true, apparently a lot of the things I was saying about its efficacy were not true at all. So I feel that I got played for a sucker in more ways than just the personal. This is something that even if they didn’t know about their product, they absolutely should have known.
If you do decide to use it again I highly recommend getting it from planned parenthood. Last time I was there they gave me it for free (I wasn’t even pregnant, I just inquired about the pill) and they gave me several to hang on to in case I or a friend needed some. All for free.
This may start something, but…Martha? Really?
Also, thanks to those two Times pieces, my rage quota is filled for the day.
Martha was Done Wrong by the writers, what with the bizarre hopeless love storyline, which always felt weirdly inorganic and off-key, but she is a companion with actual, honest-to-god skills; serious, useful knowledge, instead of just spunk and pluck. The moment when she names all the bones in the hand is a moment of splendor.
Yeah, the whole “super-in-love with the Doctor who doesn’t notice or care because he’s too busted up about Rose” business constitutes criminal mis-management of a potentially awesome character…
OK so I read that New York Times piece last night when you linked to it on Twitter, Nicole, and yes it is a horrible awful miscarriage of justice and I am so sad for her family (so relieved when I found out he doesn’t have their daughter, SO RELIEVED), but can we just acknowledge how Dusty Rodgers is the most perfect name that a real human being apparently possesses for a second?
That one with the baby lion getting smacked in the face with leaves….it’s everything to me.
It’s my desktop background
Nicole, I think you were the one who told us to watch a movie called Big Night? I did last night and it was adorable. (although only Stanley Tucci and Isabella Rossellini are actually Italian, right? that was a little weird).
It also makes me want to ingratiate myself with / potentially date one of the members of the charming Italian family that runs a restaurant right by my office. There’s a son around my age, I think……
big night is sooo goooood
YES. Also, I just watched The Imposters and want to watch nothing else ever again. Big Night, The Imposters, and I suppose to keep Isabella in the loop I can supplement with her delightful Green Porno
Donna is the best companion so naturally she got the worst ending. 🙁 *shakes fist* MOFFAT!!!!
Moffat is guilty of many crimes, but Donna’s fate is all on Russell T. Davies.
EXCUSE ME. WILF.
Am I terrible if I say End of Time makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit?
If you are then I’m awful too. Though I will say the bits of it that don’t trigger my gag reflex are Wilf related.
That Bode Miller article… I just can’t. “I have lost my ability to can.” RAAAAAAGE.