Femininity in Doctor Who: The Four Companions

So, I don't know if this is apparent to my readers or not, but I am a huge fan of Doctor Who. It's not that I cosplay a Gaga TARDIS or anything... *cough*.... but yeah...

So as a Chick that Digs Timelords, I found it fitting to look at Doctor Who and the lady companions in the show and discuss how their characters are portrayed. Each one has their own unique style and relationship to the Doctor, and each have their own strengths as women. I will focus on the companions in the sew series: seasons 1-5

Rose Tyler

For starting up with the new series of Doctor Who, Russel T. Davies needed a companion who would be the audience's eyes and mouth in order to bring them into the story, and he made Rose. Rose is a simple shop girl who is young and unsure what she wants from life, and then the Doctor comes into it, and becomes a sort of mentor for her as he takes her on his travels. He gives her meaning, purpose, and excitement; while teaching her to be con
fident in herself. Eventually, she finds herself falling in love with the Doctor, and he in love with her.

Now, Jaymie and I have talked about this a bit and we were a bit confused when we first watched it because we viewed Rose's and the Doctor's relationship as a student/professor one, or even a daughter/father one, and then all the sudden they are in love, and it weirded us out a bit. The Doctor thought highly of Rose and found something raw and human about her spunky curiosity, but their relationship didn't seem to harvest a romantic one as smoothly or as naturally as it could have. Don't get me wrong, I like Rose a lot, and my sister Jaymie adores Rose for than any other companion, however, I don't fully understand the Doctor's attraction to her. I think part of her appeal is that a lot of young people don't know their place in the world yet and wish a Doctor could swoop down and save them from the mundane shop-girl life, and this is why she is so relatable.

Physically, Rose is portrayed as a beautiful young blonde with the occasional dark roots in her hair to insinuate she does not have the time or money to dye her hair as regularly. She is quirky and fun and as a result wears her hair down and uses unique flirtacious gestures with her mouth as part of her character. She wears jeans and jackets- she's stylish but not overly so. She's casual and down to earth.

Martha Jones

Martha is my personal favorite companion. Unlike, Rose, she is more secure in her life and what she wants out of it... she's medical student, a little older, and more confident in her abilities and doesn't look to the Doctor as a mentor but as someone to show her adventure and learning on a brand new level. More so than Rose or any other companion, Martha finds herself in situations where she is completely on her own to save the Doctor and the Earth such as in Family of Blood and The Sound of Drums. The Doctor trusts her completely and puts his life and the fate of time solely in her hands. And even though Martha has gained the Doctor's trust and respect in higher way, she never gained his love.

She is the lovestruck fan girl that every girl who watches Dr. Who feels for because she wants to be with the Doctor, and although he has a deep rich friendship with her, it never evolves into love. But the cool thing about Martha is that once she realizes that the Doctor will never love her, she does not play the woman scorned, and she does not stay as a lovesick puppy following his heels, she gets out, and focuses on herself. She gets over the Doctor and falls in love with and marries a man with one heart instead of two. And in a way that delights feminists everywhere, she makes her name Martha Smith-Jones, keeping her last name as will as her husbands, and becomes deeply involved with Torchwood as one of their most respected agents. She continues to save the world and work with alien life, while using her knowledge as a doctor. Her experiences with the Doctor helped her become a better person and arrive at a place in her life that was better and richer than before, and she doesn't lament not being with him. She is happy and grateful for everything in her life, with no regrets. She is a strong sexy badass. And that is why I love Martha.

Physically, Martha is a curvacious, doe-eyed girl of African decent. She usually wears her hair up tight and slick out of her face to show her scholarly-ness and also later on, her warrior-aspect. Even though she has fun, she takes life seriously and her hair is a physical representation of that. When not in a lab coat, she dresses similarly to Rose with jeans and jackets... fashionable, but not outrageously so.

Donna Noble

Donna is a cool character because she has a relationship with the Doctor without any romantic tensions. In fact, unlike Rose and Martha, she does not look at the Doctor as someone superior to her, she views him as an equal... almost like a brother. Although she is amazed by what the Doctor can do, she is not enamored by him in a higher way and she does not feel herself as inadequate in comparison. She feels that if she's there, she has every right to add her input. The Doctor had to hand Rose and Martha the reigns and pretty much say, "no really it's fine, be wonderful" Donna just snagged the reigns out of his hands and said, "watch me!".

At first, Donna's character is extremely annoying with all of her jibbering and jabbering, both the audience and the Doctor don't fully know what to make of it. Then as the season progresses one starts to see parallels between the Doctor and Donna, and how they work together in a unique way. The show makes it a point to note that The Doctor needs Donna to stop him once in a while, and in the episode with the Racnoss and Fires of Pompeii, Donna is actually able to change the Doctor's mind and effect change. Rose and Martha viewed the Doctor's word as final. At the end of the season, Donna becomes Doctor Donna and shares his Timelord essence and for a view moments is completely equal to the Doctor. But she cannot live with such thoughts and memories, so the Doctor wipes her memories in order to save her, and this is one of the absolute saddest parts in the show for me. I cried just as much as when Rose and The Doctor where seperated, because not to be with the Doctor is sad, but to have been with the doctor, shared such wonderful adventures, and then never to have remembered any of it happening! That is the worst fate of them all... worse than dying.

Physically, Donna is older than the previous companions being middle-aged and of average curvacious build with a large chest. She is more average looking than bomb-shell attractive and that's part of the appeal of Donna. You don't have to be a young woman with a perfect figure to catch The Doctor's eye and respect. She's a ginger which works with her outspoken charisma, and she dresses in a lot of darker colors like purples and blues showing that she likes the way she looks and dresses nice, but does not draw attention to her body.

Amy Pond

Amy Pond greets the brand new season with the brand new Doctor. She has been enamored with the Doctor since a little girl almost in a Madame du Pompedour sort of way. She has an average middle class life, and is almost in the same spot that Rose was.... She's engaged to Rory but is not sure what she really wants out of life. Her fun sexuality, spunk and youthful charisma does not seem befitting for someone wanting to get married, but here she is engaged. And then the doctor swoops in and puts that all on hold for a while. I think a lot of people, not only women can relate to this scenario for there are many decisions we make in life where we wish we could just hit the pause button and take a long vacation and figure out if it's the right one to make.

Amy seems to have affections for both The Doctor and Rory, and the Doctor, doesn't really seem to like the idea of her getting married or Rory, yet he doesn't really want her for himself either. Amy disobeys the Doctor and will add her input and be part of the team, I suppose in a mixture of Rose, Martha, and Donna, but part of what makes Amy's relationship to the Doctor so easily casual and equal versus seasons 1-4 where the companions and audience had to build up to see themselves as equals with him, is that the character of the 11th doctor is so radically different fro the 9th and 10th in the sense that he is wrong a lot of the time. 9 and 10 where infallible... they were like Sherlock Holmes and saw the world in a way that other people could not. The 11th doctor is a bit chaotic and doesn't seem to have complete control over his brain or the knowledge within it, he will say one thing then change his mind, sometimes just start smacking machinery to fix it and hope that bam it will work. It's because of this more fallible Doctor that Amy Pond is able to have the confidence to add her input and help change history.

Physically, Amy Pond is the most attractive of the companions in my opinion. With pale skin, a flawless face, and fun red hair, she represents the young generation who don't know what they want out of life. She dresses in loose tops with tight skirts, leggings, and boots drawing attention away from her chest area to and to her legs. She's both tomboyish and extremely feminine at the same time.

Cleopatra: Part I

I used to be obsessed with Cleopatra when I was in grade school. I even taught my self shading by copying the cover of the Royal Diaries: Daughter of the Nile, which was my first introduction to the historical figure. The book of course was aimed towards adolescents and was a fictional imagining of Cleopatra at age 12, but after I read that, I kept on going and read the entire appendix about the rest of her life. I researched her at the library just for fun and watched Elizabeth Taylor's "Cleopatra" and became enamored with her even more. Freshman year of high school I did a project on the Egyptian Queen and won a debate with my teacher Mrs. L. about her having a son with Julius Caesar, and for a quiet nerdy girl obsessed with Cleo, this was one of my crowning moments of the year. What fascinates me about Cleopatra is that there are so many different takes on her: some loved her, many hated her... but what is certain is that she was a powerful woman during a time when women were not supposed to be powerful who helped alter the course of history.


Cleopatra was not Egyptian at all but part of the Ptolemaic dynasty who originated from Greece. The royal family spoke in Greek and refused to speak Egyptian, however, what made Cleopatra particularly appealing to the Egyptian people was that she spoke Egyptian and even presented herself as the incarnation of Isis.

She wasn't first in line to the Egyptian throne... She had an older brother Ptolemy XII, and two older sisters Cleopatra Tryphaena, and Berenice. Cleopatra and her father went to Rome and in the meantime Cleopatra Tryphaena seized the throne for herself. Then, after "mysterious circumstances", Tryphaena died and Berenice took the throne for herself. When Ptolemy and Cleopatra returned from Rome, they came with Roman soldiers who helped execute Berenice by beheading, and bestowing the throne to Ptolemy and his daughter Cleopatra as his appointed regent.

After her father died a few years later, 18 year old Cleopatra and her 10 year old brother ruled the country as co-rulers. Although co-rulers, neither of them wanted to share Egypt so they both tried to work their magic to boost the other one off the throne. Cleopatra did tactics like making her face the only one on the Egyptial coin, denied Ptolemy's name on official documents, and tried to start a rebellion against him. However, Ptolemy had the support of the Romans who helped restore the throne to his father, and with Roman support, Cleopatra was ousted from the throne and exiled along with her younger sister, Arisnoe.

If one wanted to look at this from a feminist angle. It's possible that part of the reasons the Romans were so willing to help Ptolemy seize back his throne from his daughters was because the thought of a woman taking the throne was preposterous, not to mention the deviousness of it all. So they sort of played big brother with the Egyptians, like they were their science experiment, and used their influence to keep a male on the throne. It was clear at this point, to both Ptolemy and Cleopatra, that Roman support was the only way to succeed in the world they lived in.

Ptolemy XIII was only 13 when he made the biggest mistake of his life. As an attempt to secure an alliance with Julius Caesar, he ordered the beheading of Pompey and presented his head to the famous Roman General. Now in order to understand the significance to all this, let me delve into one of my other favorite subjects which is ancient Roman history: At the time, Julius Caesar, Pompey, and Crassius were part of the Roman Triumvirate, the governing heads of Rome. They were all political allies and enemies at the same time, all relying on each other to stay afloat in Roman politics, yet also wishing the others would sink so they could receive more power. You see they each had their strengths: Crassius had the money, Pompey had the armies, and Caesar (though he had an army too) had popularity. Pompey and Caesar knew each other well for they governed each other and Caesar's daughter Julia was married to Pompey. So when Ptolemy presented Pompey's head to Caesar with a proud grin on his face, Caesar was more than enraged and took control over Alexandria immediately in his anger and grief. Ptolemy learned that Roman politics were slightly more civil than Egyptian politics... but only slightly.

So as you can imagine, Cleopatra, having learned that Roman support was the key to success and no one was more powerful than Caesar, saw the Roman General's anger at her brother as an opportunity to gain her throne back.

Now before I go on, let me preface this by explaining that the beautiful Cleopatra that we see in the movies portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor and Vivian Leigh and in countless paintings and stories has been fictionalized. Scholars remind us that Cleopatra wasn't a sultry olive-skinned seductress... we see on coins and busts that she was actually a plain woman of Greek origin. What made her beautiful to men of power was that she was well educated, witty, and powerful in a way that separated her from other women during the time period. This simple aspect about her brings me hope and femininity and masculinity and that there is more to attraction than simply animalistic programming.

Legend has it that after Caesar took control of Alexandria, the exiled Cleopatra snuck herself into his chamber by rolling herself into a carpet that was presented to him as a gift. Caesar was immediately taken with her and they became lovers. She gave birth to his son named Ptolemy Caesar aka Caesarion. Caesar's armies fought and killed Ptolemy XIII and his soldiers and set Cleopatra back on the Egyptian throne along with another younger brother Ptolemy XIV.

Caesar's relationship with Cleopatra was quite a scandal because not only was she foreign, but he was married to Calpurnia. Cleopatra wanted Caesar to name their son as his heir but he refused, which in my opinion was wise due to their unpopularity, and named his nephew Octavian his heir instead. Then during the Ides of March 44 B.C, Caesar was assassinated. Cleopatra and her son were in Rome at the time of his death, and fled back to Alexandria where Ptolemy XIV had been poisoned by Arisnoe and Cleopatra made her son Caesarion her co-ruler.

It's important for me as a woman to look at Cleopatra and her life as an example of what works and what doesn't work, as a showcase of femininity and masculinity pulling and tugging at each other the way they were intended. I think Cleopatra really struggled with her gender identity... I mean, she had to arrive at a place where she was masculine enough to be taken seriously, but feminine enough to persuade. She used the more socially masculine traits such as ambition in some areas, and she mixed them with socially feminine traits such as persuasion. By straddling the spectrum in a sort of androgynous way, she was able to succeed in winning hearts and power. It was a delicate line to walk, and she balanced well.