The Treatment of Black Women Characters in Media

In class we talked about the intersectionality of being a woman and being African American when we discussed Anna Julia Cooper. We also talked about how Women of Color in Cooper’s time period often face both racism and sexism in almost all parts of their lives. I’ve noticed in various fandoms of shows that feature WOC, the racism and sexism is still prevalent. One prime example is Martha Jones from the SciFi show Doctor Who. On the show Martha is a medical student, who ends up on the moon with the alien Doctor, who is the title character. In her first episode she gives what seems to be her last breath to save The Doctor. She then, throughout the whole season, demonstrates her intellect and her sense of adventure. She also developed a crush on The Doctor, and in the end, left him because she realized she deserved better than him.

If you search Martha’s tag on Tumblr, a popular blogging site, you’d finds that the majority of posts that are tagged with her name are people complaining about her, saying she is useless and ignorant because she fell for The Doctor. It is worth saying that the woman who traveled with The Doctor, Rose Tyler, a white woman, fell in love with him but is lauded by the fans for this love. While the majority of fans read The Doctor as loving Rose Tyler back, he does not actually state that he does love her back. The Doctor is still getting over losing Rose when he meets Martha, which some people use to justify their hatred of Martha. It is also worth noting that Rose has a boyfriend when she meets The Doctor, while Martha is single at the time of meeting The Doctor.

During her travels with The Doctor, Martha is subjected to The Doctor taking her to places that would be unsafe for her. For example, The Doctor takes Martha to Shakespearean England, where Martha worries about her safety. The conversation she has with The Doctor about it goes like this:

Martha: Am I alright? I’m not going to get carted off as a slave or anything?

The Doctor: Why ever would you think that?

Martha: Well, not exactly white, in case you hadn’t noticed.

The Doctor: Well, I’m not exactly human. Just walk round like you own the place, always works for me.

            The Doctor’s blatant disregard for Martha’s safety and mental well-being is also shown when he takes her to World War I England, and does something to make himself forget he is an alien. He takes a job as a professor, and Martha is forced to work as a maid in his school – not only does Martha face racism at the school, she also faces sexism and classism. One of my favorite moments from this episode is when the school nurse tells Martha no way a woman of her class or color would ever train to become a doctor and Martha, who is trying to save the school from an alien attack, lifts up her hand and lists all the bones in her hand. You can find the video here. I once had someone on Tumblr tell me that she is useless, and I responded by listing all the amazing things she did here.

Regardless of the evidence to the contrary, fans of the show still call her useless and vilify her for falling in love with The Doctor, and then vilify her again for leaving him when she realizes he will never love her back. Martha leaves The Doctor for her own mental health, but the fans hate her for leaving The Doctor when he is also sad – they seem to expect Martha to forgo her own mental health and happiness for him, which is something we see in the expectations of black women characters all across the board.