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I love the job that I affectionately call Job 1. It's retail, sure, but for the most part, it's really cool. I get to talk to people about movies and shows that I enjoy and recommend, and sometimes (okay, a lot of times) those people end up becoming customers. It genuinely warms the cockles of my heart when customers come up to me and tell me that they watched something I recommended to them and loved it (and - in the case of tv shows - subsequently need more now). Yeah, this isn't where I see myself being in life, but right now, it's a pretty awesome deal.
As with any job involving customers, it has its down sides. Some customers are (gasp) rude; other customers can be a little creepy; and a few can be frustrating without being rude or creepy. This story falls in the latter category.
At my store, we have a wall of Doctor Who (affectionately called "Wall o' Who" in bad Australian accents by myself and one of my managers). Wall o' Who is AWESOME. (Long story short: Doctor Who nearly DEVOURED our cramped BBC section, making it discouraging for BBC fans who wanted something other than Doctor Who. Throw in the gradual arrival of a bunch of Doctor Who merchandise, and aforementioned manager decided to transplant everything Doctor Who to a wall of its own) People love our Wall o' Who, and generally we love to engage the people who engage the Wall.
Today - as with any other day - a customer comes to the Wall. I say hello and throw out a joke about him finding our Wall o' Who after we so cleverly hid it (note: the wall is at the front of the store). The customer jokes back and mentions that he doesn't like the new guy (Matt Smith), but he likes Tennant - who, according to him, was the Doctor the longest. I'm pretty awesome about differing opinions when it comes to Doctor Who; people are allowed to have different views on these things, just as I'm allowed to have mine. I tell him that generally fans like their first Doctor, and that there are many older fans out there who would disagree and say that Tom Baker - who, I point out casually in the same breath, was the longest running Doctor - was the best. (Aside: He doesn't believe me, so I pick out a Fourth Doctor DVD, which has the years of Tom's run printed on the cover, and show it to him) We chat some more about Doctor Who - it's all pretty amiable.
It takes a turn for the rage-inducing when he leans in and says, "So, did you hear that they're considering a female for the next Doctor?"
I smile and tell him that it's just a rumor on the Internet as of now, and that Time Lords can totally be female - or male - if they want to; it's been canonically established in this last season by Neil Gaiman. "And there's nothing wrong with this," I add, hoping to end this conversation before it goes to an ugly place where I don't want it to go. I'm at work and I have to maintain a level of professionalism and courtesy that does not include a smack down of epic proportions. (PRO TIP: smack downs are not conducive to building a loyal customer base. Yeah, it sucks, but them's the breaks)
No - customer apparently wants to go there. He presses the issue, insisting that blahblahblah the Doctor has ALWAYS been male blahblahblah it will change the whole premise of the show blahblahblah it will ruin the character. The whole time, I remain cheerful and polite, because I'm at work and this guy might buy something and he's allowed to have his opinion, no matter how much I want to punch him for spouting sexist shit. When he's finished, it's my turn to impose my thoughts on him - hopefully as inconveniently as he imposed his on me.
"The next Doctor's gender is up to whoever's in charge of casting," I explain. "Not the fans. At this point, it's still up in the air. The Doctor can be female, as it's been officially established, and has been female non-canonically in a parody - though it was played off as the punchline of a comedic skit. In The Curse of Fatal Death - written years ago by Steven Moffat - the Doctor's final regeneration was Joanna Lumley. And she was AWESOME. The whole skit is great - you should check it out.
"A female Doctor wouldn't ruin the show, either. It won't change the character or the premise or even the show - unless the head writer chooses to go an entirely different direction, which they probably won't. There's nothing wrong with this."
And there shouldn't be. Because fucking hell - if Lucy Liu can play a character that's originally white and male, if a nice chunk of male characters in Battlestar Galactica can be reimagined as awesome strong women (who are way more badass than the originals), if Neil Gaiman can write a gender fluid Time Lord (who remains every bit awesome from regeneration to regeneration) - then the next Doctor or the one after that, etc. can be a woman.
Customer stares at me. I stare back, smile polite but strained and eyebrow pricked - overall expression, "Try it, bro - I fucking dare you." Finally, he says, "Well, they should do a series on the Doctor's daughter instead of making the Doctor a female. She's still around somewhere."
ARGH. By this point, I have to disengage, because continuing to engage him is going to end in tragedy.
"You mean a spinoff? Yeah, that would be nice, too, but there's still nothing wrong with a female Doctor."
And I walk away.
Y'know what? Wall o' Who is an open forum in a sense. It's a place where fans can talk about Doctor Who (and other geeky things) and not feel inadequate or weird. It's a place where I and aforementioned manager (remember her?) can show that, hey, we're the same as the people who browse the Wall and we will totally not judge you if you completely fangasm then and there - we might even join you. It's a place where I can engage fans as a fan and we can respectfully agree to disagree but bond over the fact that we're fans of the same show.
What this customer did to our Wall? He's made it feel less safe. Because he expected me to agree with his opinion - narrowminded and frankly ass backwards - and share in his outrage over the scandalizing notion that somebody would want to interpret the main character of his favorite show as anything but male. (Aside: I didn't engage him long enough to test the waters on the idea of the Doctor being anything but white. I was however sorely tempted to bring up the fact that Paterson Joseph was widely considered for the Eleventh Doctor just to see where it would take this discussion and how much more I could hate this customer and justify breaking my facade to deliver the ill-advised smack down) When I didn't agree and even cited precedent for the possibility of gender fluidity in Time Lord regenerations, he didn't take a hint and drop the issue. No. He made it clear that a female version of the main character would be inadequate because her gender " would mess up the show." When I continued to disagree - with examples and logic and all those shiny things that make a well-rounded argument - he disregarded my opinion and instead tried to derail the conversation.
Apparently, I can be a fan, but I can't be a fan in the same sense as him on account of my gender. Apparently, I was supposed to smile and nod and agree that woman Doctor bad, man Doctor good and preserves integrity of the program.
I don't even....
As with any job involving customers, it has its down sides. Some customers are (gasp) rude; other customers can be a little creepy; and a few can be frustrating without being rude or creepy. This story falls in the latter category.
At my store, we have a wall of Doctor Who (affectionately called "Wall o' Who" in bad Australian accents by myself and one of my managers). Wall o' Who is AWESOME. (Long story short: Doctor Who nearly DEVOURED our cramped BBC section, making it discouraging for BBC fans who wanted something other than Doctor Who. Throw in the gradual arrival of a bunch of Doctor Who merchandise, and aforementioned manager decided to transplant everything Doctor Who to a wall of its own) People love our Wall o' Who, and generally we love to engage the people who engage the Wall.
Today - as with any other day - a customer comes to the Wall. I say hello and throw out a joke about him finding our Wall o' Who after we so cleverly hid it (note: the wall is at the front of the store). The customer jokes back and mentions that he doesn't like the new guy (Matt Smith), but he likes Tennant - who, according to him, was the Doctor the longest. I'm pretty awesome about differing opinions when it comes to Doctor Who; people are allowed to have different views on these things, just as I'm allowed to have mine. I tell him that generally fans like their first Doctor, and that there are many older fans out there who would disagree and say that Tom Baker - who, I point out casually in the same breath, was the longest running Doctor - was the best. (Aside: He doesn't believe me, so I pick out a Fourth Doctor DVD, which has the years of Tom's run printed on the cover, and show it to him) We chat some more about Doctor Who - it's all pretty amiable.
It takes a turn for the rage-inducing when he leans in and says, "So, did you hear that they're considering a female for the next Doctor?"
I smile and tell him that it's just a rumor on the Internet as of now, and that Time Lords can totally be female - or male - if they want to; it's been canonically established in this last season by Neil Gaiman. "And there's nothing wrong with this," I add, hoping to end this conversation before it goes to an ugly place where I don't want it to go. I'm at work and I have to maintain a level of professionalism and courtesy that does not include a smack down of epic proportions. (PRO TIP: smack downs are not conducive to building a loyal customer base. Yeah, it sucks, but them's the breaks)
No - customer apparently wants to go there. He presses the issue, insisting that blahblahblah the Doctor has ALWAYS been male blahblahblah it will change the whole premise of the show blahblahblah it will ruin the character. The whole time, I remain cheerful and polite, because I'm at work and this guy might buy something and he's allowed to have his opinion, no matter how much I want to punch him for spouting sexist shit. When he's finished, it's my turn to impose my thoughts on him - hopefully as inconveniently as he imposed his on me.
"The next Doctor's gender is up to whoever's in charge of casting," I explain. "Not the fans. At this point, it's still up in the air. The Doctor can be female, as it's been officially established, and has been female non-canonically in a parody - though it was played off as the punchline of a comedic skit. In The Curse of Fatal Death - written years ago by Steven Moffat - the Doctor's final regeneration was Joanna Lumley. And she was AWESOME. The whole skit is great - you should check it out.
"A female Doctor wouldn't ruin the show, either. It won't change the character or the premise or even the show - unless the head writer chooses to go an entirely different direction, which they probably won't. There's nothing wrong with this."
And there shouldn't be. Because fucking hell - if Lucy Liu can play a character that's originally white and male, if a nice chunk of male characters in Battlestar Galactica can be reimagined as awesome strong women (who are way more badass than the originals), if Neil Gaiman can write a gender fluid Time Lord (who remains every bit awesome from regeneration to regeneration) - then the next Doctor or the one after that, etc. can be a woman.
Customer stares at me. I stare back, smile polite but strained and eyebrow pricked - overall expression, "Try it, bro - I fucking dare you." Finally, he says, "Well, they should do a series on the Doctor's daughter instead of making the Doctor a female. She's still around somewhere."
ARGH. By this point, I have to disengage, because continuing to engage him is going to end in tragedy.
"You mean a spinoff? Yeah, that would be nice, too, but there's still nothing wrong with a female Doctor."
And I walk away.
Y'know what? Wall o' Who is an open forum in a sense. It's a place where fans can talk about Doctor Who (and other geeky things) and not feel inadequate or weird. It's a place where I and aforementioned manager (remember her?) can show that, hey, we're the same as the people who browse the Wall and we will totally not judge you if you completely fangasm then and there - we might even join you. It's a place where I can engage fans as a fan and we can respectfully agree to disagree but bond over the fact that we're fans of the same show.
What this customer did to our Wall? He's made it feel less safe. Because he expected me to agree with his opinion - narrowminded and frankly ass backwards - and share in his outrage over the scandalizing notion that somebody would want to interpret the main character of his favorite show as anything but male. (Aside: I didn't engage him long enough to test the waters on the idea of the Doctor being anything but white. I was however sorely tempted to bring up the fact that Paterson Joseph was widely considered for the Eleventh Doctor just to see where it would take this discussion and how much more I could hate this customer and justify breaking my facade to deliver the ill-advised smack down) When I didn't agree and even cited precedent for the possibility of gender fluidity in Time Lord regenerations, he didn't take a hint and drop the issue. No. He made it clear that a female version of the main character would be inadequate because her gender " would mess up the show." When I continued to disagree - with examples and logic and all those shiny things that make a well-rounded argument - he disregarded my opinion and instead tried to derail the conversation.
Apparently, I can be a fan, but I can't be a fan in the same sense as him on account of my gender. Apparently, I was supposed to smile and nod and agree that woman Doctor bad, man Doctor good and preserves integrity of the program.
I don't even....
