Why I Don't Much Care if Douchebags Abandon Doctor Who

So they announced the new Doctor today, and it's Jodie Whitaker of Broadchurch fame, a woman.

And I'm having SOOOOO much fun mocking all the whiny misogynist men and self-loathing quisling women crying about the 13th Doctor's gender. I mean really, it's delicious seeing all these sad closed-minded men and women whing and crying about how PC Culture has ruined the show and they'll never watch it again and this is the nail in the coffin that will fginally permanently kill the show.
But all this sad sexist "the show is ruined forever WAHHHH!" bullshit is missing something, it's not seeing something that Ghostbusters and Wonder Woman have proven in spades that is all but guaranteed to happen now; the women will come out in droves to take their place.

For every one douchebag asshole sexist prick who abandons Doctor Who in disgust over a woman being cast as a fictional alien who can change his entire body right down to every individual cell, there will be 10 women and/or little girls who will happily fill that viewership void. We've seen it in photos of the audiences at premieres for both films I just mentioned. Little girls, teenage girls and grown adult women coming out in droves because they're not the sidekick or the love interest anymore, who came dressed up in costume, who were happy to see the movie. That's what will happen here.

Because all those little girls and teenage girls and adult women? They'll see themselves as the hero in the single longest running adventure on television. They'll see Jodie Whitaker and they'll feel like they themselves are being seen. They'll know that they can strive and push and grow and achieve and win and do it on their own terms, because they'll see The Doctor, a woman just like them, onscreen telling them they damn well can so do all of that. That they can.

That's not even counting all the trans woman who are going to glomp onto this show if they hadn't already, because with the male main character basically undergoing a sex change, they too will feel represented. In fact if there is any genuinely valid complaint to be had here, it's that we'll still have to wait for the Doctor to be a POC. But for now, this is still change. Good, positive change. Change that could have gone further? Yes. But still positive change. Women everywhere, regardless of anatomy, have a hero to feel a connection to, to show them they CAN, whatever it is they've been told they can't, the Doctor says you can.

So I'm not worried. Let the douchebags abandon the show. Ratings will spike because *GASP!!!* women watch sci-fi too! And, quisling women filled with internalized misogyny aside, WE HAVE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOR DECADES!!! Hell the BBC have been pondering doing this since Tom Baker's replacement casting began. It's NOT a new, PC/SJW Culture idea. It's long overdue but it isn't some cultural feminist zeitgeist conspiracy to ruin your manly fun. The BBC simply FINALLY pulled the trigger on an idea they've kicked around for decades anyway.
So by all means douchebros and haters, abandon Doctor Who. Leave in droves. Swear to NEVAR EVAR watch the show ever again. I have absolutely now doubt we'll not only do just fine without you, we'll do BETTER. Doctor Who will thrive, and the only people you douchebags will hurt are yourselves, because you'll be missing out on all the awesome.

Congratulations Jodie. I'm sure you'll be an amazing Thirteen.

Good Riddance 2016

So 2016 is over. If anyone is interested, let me recap my year of pain and he'll and sadness.

This year an abnormally large number of celebrities died. Most were just "oh that's sad, I feel badly for their lived ones". A few really mattered to me and made me sad, but didn't utterly shatter my wotprld. One in specific broke my heart beyond all measure more than any other.

But there were other deaths this year, not of celebrities, that gutted me more. A self loathing asshole shot up a nightclub and tried to blame it on Muslims and I list a dear friend among the over 50 killed. A warehouse nightclub was set on fire and I lost two more friends to the flames.

This year was my first full year of out living my only grandchild. I have still not quite figured out how to cope with that. I'm not sure I ever will. I know my mom has somehow figured out how to live her life with two of my brothers in urns in her closet. I'm not there yet. I had only just figured out how to get on with my life after losing my fiance and my stepson 11 years ago. I don't know how to move on from my grandson too.

This year I buried three rats and a big fluffy dog. I decided I will not accept anymore rescues unless the alternative is unthinkable, because I'm getting really tired of burying my furbabies.

This year someone I love but who was dating someone else, someone I have kept my feelings to myself about and just supported and been a shoulder for whenever I was needed, had their heart broken by an emotionally abusive gaslighting coward, and in my insecure paranoia as I've given them space and time to heal, I've begun to feel like they subconsciously blame me for the breakup and are beginning to slowly push me away. And I'm terrified to say anything about, both because I don't want to derail their pain by making it about my feelings, and because if I'm wrong and just being paranoid it would hurt their feelings. (Worse, if I'm not being paranoid and I'm right and I say something, they might confirm it and ask me to stop talking to them). I hate my anxiety and insecurity, making me all stupidly paranoid when I just want to be there for them and help them.

This year I suffered the fifth physical assault rooted in transphobia of my life, and the second in which a stranger felt my being trans justified using a fucking boxcutter on me.

This year a tantrum throwing buffoon bought an election in my neighbouring country and I am utterly terrified how much worse 2017 is going to be for my yank friends of colour, of queerness, and of varying genders, and for the rest of us who will be hurt by the aggressively stupid capitalist bigotry of president Babyhands. This year white bigots used that victory to justify open acts of racist violence. The new year will only get worse.

This year I watched the world only care when white people in France were murdered while ignoring thousands more brown people in Syria and Sudan and other places getting bombed and butchered and slaughtered. I watched people who never tave a flying fuck about homeless military veterans and queer youth before suddenly use them as an excuse why we shouldn't shelter brown foreign Muslim refugees. "Oh we can't shelter them, we need to worry about the veterans we suddenly care about!"

This year was absolutely horrible in so many ways.

And this coming year stands to be a whole fucking lot worse.

But at least this coming year my daughter is coming home. So I'm going to focus on that as best as I can and hope the rest sorts itself out through the activism of myself and everyone out there like me who refuses to shut up and ignore everything broken in the world that needs our voices to fix.

So happy new year. Never stop fighting for something better.

Not now. NOT EVER.