#rtd2 electric boogaloo

[cosmic-day]

Well that was shit even by RTD finale standards.

I would elaborate, but I'm not sure that episode deserves it.

[cosmic-day]

#seeing as rtd wrote this he should've been like. well donna i love you and all but i had this friend. her name was yaz we were. together#and you're not replacing her so this will only last 3 eps and it's over

tags by @stewy

the doctor: this new/old face is reminding me of the past,,,,,of old friends,,,,,not the people i saved the world with yesterday tho fuck them

[rjalker]

yeah, Doctor Who has a canon trans character now, cool, great, but are we gonna talk about how blatantly transmisic the "male-presenting" statement is, or are we just pretend that biological and gender essentialism is fun and cool now?

Explain to me how the Doctor as played by David Tennant is "male-presenting" without being transmisic. Go ahead and try. I'll give you a hint: you literally can't. It's literally just transmisia and biological essentialism.

And this is why the terms "female presenting" and "male presenting" have been shit since their fucking inception as labels for you to apply to other people. It's literally just misgendering people masquerading as being progressive.

Once a-fucking-gain. Just because a man is playing the Doctor does not mean the Doctor is automatically a man, any more than a woman playing the Doctor makes the Doctor automatically a woman. That's not how gender works. That's literally biological essentialism and transmsia. Do we have to have this conversation again?

Or does Doctor Who think the only trans people who exist are ones who "pass" perfectly as the gender they identify with? Do these people think all trans people magically transform into "their real body" the moment they come out as trans? Do they think nonbinary people all use she/her or he/him pronouns and "look right" for those pronouns???

So did Russel T. Davies just, decide not to hire a sensitivity writer, or what? It's 2023, there's a fucking canon trans nonbinary character in the episode. How is this much transmisia still allowed to get to the final cut???

[marvellouspinecone]

I'm so glad i can always count on my thirteen are stans mutuals to post all possible doctor who shit EXCEPT about the latest episode, bc you bet my european ass did not watch it at 2am. Thank you girlies (gn) for creating a safe space on tumblr for me🫡

[cosmic-day]

Wow. Well, I was actually enjoying that up until the last, deeply stupid, ridiculously self indulgent twenty minutes.

And hey, I love how Martha Jones might as well not exist as far as RTD is concerned.

[rjalker]

#they don't get that the doctor experiences gender against their will :(

the “he doesn’t get it cause he’s male presenting” was a bit silly to me like. the doctor can’t let things go bcus it’s a character trait for him, not bcus of his current gender presentation. he just be like that

[rjalker]

Anyways, it's 3AM now, and I'm going to bed, but before I do, I want to say one last thing.

Sincerely, genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, fuck Russel T. Davies for introducing millions of cis people to "x-presenting" terminology, and in the most fucking harmful way possible too. I hate what is going to happen next in cis people's perception of trans people.

Hey cis people reading this? Do not ever, ever refer to anyone as "male presenting" "masculine presenting" "female presenting" "feminine presenting" or any other variation unless that person has explicitly asked you to beforehand. Please. If you care about trans people please erase these terms from your mind right now.

Dear trans peole reading this: The exact same thing goes for you. The Doctor as played by David Tennant is not "male-presenting" until the character fucking decides that on screen outloud. The Doctor as played by Jodie Whittaker is not "female-presenting". These are not terms you get to assign to other people, they are terms you can choose to identify with.

Do not normalize this language. It is literally just exorsexism and transmisia and misgendering pretending to be progressive. Do not legitimize that bigoted line by repeating this language. I will scream for all eternity.

[isagrimorie]

Decided to watch the 2 part finale of Ncuti’s season.

Positive things to start:

- Ncuti Gatwa has such lovely charisma and vitality

- RTD is great at making set pieces and titles.

But tldr, this era just isn’t for me.

Either I’m getting grumpier or RTD got more heavy handed with emotionality. All Murray Gold knows to do is compose Swelling Music for every scene to show rhe scene was emotional and important. As if they didn’t trust the audience.

(I miss Segun Akinola and makes me appreciate the Kiners even more.)

This seasons feels like RTD2 Electric Boogaloo down to adding a person or word that pop up every episode and claiming its a season arc.

I am also not into how UNIT is being used. Why the children?

Also I have bug bear.

RTD2 Critical below this line.

Why

Did the Soldier dude

Call the Command Center A “Bridge”?

Are they On A ship? A Starship? No?

Then Don’t Call It that.

My other thing is how weird it is that Rusty made a point not to fashion Fourteen’s sonic screwdriver into the usual fashion because he didn’t want it to look like a gun.

Yet, he gave a 13 year old a gun. The whole team except 15 year old Rose had weapons shooting at Sutekh.

Also, shooting bullets at a cosmic entity— c’mon.

As Superman once said— why? Already know bullets can’t hurt him but still kept using bullets.

Kate Stewart is more than her father but across Doctor Who media they keep forgetting that.

I actually don’t like this version of Kate and UNIT. I like UNIT when it’s a beleaguered taskforce, fighting tooth and nail for its existence.

The moment they get way too big, UNIT becomes insufferable.

I kind of now appreciate how in Chibnall era they were disbanded for most of it, so Thirteen wouldn’t be able to use them as a crutch and when they did exist, they get blown up.

Ncuti is great— and I wish RTD stops forcing this intense emotionality with Fourteen.

Rusty is great with set pieces and titles but ultimately leads to nothing.

I’m already over Mrs Flood.

I guess RTD fixed the Flux devastation with that act.

RTD2 just made me realize again that I am more partial to Moffat and Chibnall.

(But god imagine if this was a season led by Maxine Alderton. She’s such a great writer.)

Overall, this era is not for me… so I’m just gonna go back in my corner.

[musical-chick-13]

To that one person who tagged my post a while back as "rtd2: electric boogaloo" I hope you know that I think about this all the time and laugh over it frequently.

[rjalker]

#‘male presenting’ is about current presentation also#like i’m. male presenting; now; but i haven’t always been#so there’s some stuff about Being Percieved As Feminine that i HAVE still personally experienced;;;;;;#n like. we have i assume most of us read the article ‘im a trans woman. i’m in the closet. i’m not coming out.’#i mean rtd hasn’t. probably. but it’s relevant here i think#(having not seen the episode. finals innit)

Article link for those who haven't read it

okay i really loved that ep but did anyone else find the male-presenting comment kinda weird? “something a male-presenting time lord will never understand” like we literally just crucially established that the doctor doesn’t have a gender so why does it matter what they present as ?? it feels like an attempt at “men are stupid because girl power” but…. the doctor isn’t a… they’re not…

[defunct-fadb]

RTD2: Electric Boogaloo

[cosmic-day]

The Star Beast: have seen it and didn’t love it. Thoughts, spoilers and negativity under the cut :

To start with the good: having positive trans representation in a mainstream show like Doctor Who is hugely important in the current climate and the episode was in many ways worth it just for that. Am I getting some innocent amusement from imagining the reactions of NMDs who (somehow) imagined RTD would save them from the show being ‘woke’? Why, yes I am.

The Meep was  a lot of fun, the new TARDIS interior is gorgeous, Shirley Bingham was great and I hope to see more of her.

Despite my issues with Ten, it was fun to see Tennant again. Still not sold on the Fourteenth Doctor as a concept, but give David Tennant credit for playing him just differently enough that I could believe he came after 11/12/13, annoying catchphrases notwithstanding.

However:

I don’t know what the fuck any of this had to do with celebrating sixty years of Doctor Who.

A lot of the charm of this episode for most people will be having Donna back, but as I am the one person in this fandom who is not a Donna fan, that just left the plot and I think the most generous word I can think of is “flimsy”.

Five minutes in and we get the “Rose” fakeout. RTD please shut up about Rose challenge. Also it turns out that Rose named herself Rose because she inherited the Doctor’s memories, oh fuck off. If that’s the reason, it should have been Susan.

Rose being trans/non binary because the Doctor is non binary is a weird way of saying that being trans is a normal part of the human experience.

The whole handwavium around Donna getting her memories back. Look first of all, I’m glad she did, because that ending never sat right with me, but the main reason it didn’t sit right was because of the horrible consent issues around the Doctor removing Donna’s memories against her will, and that is not even addressed.

Also, the execution of it just felt cheap to me. It’s such an RTD move to hype something up and then handwave it away – I mean, does anyone else remember that she already got her memories back in The End of Time and all that happened is she had a nice nap – and so the more they built up the whole “she will die” the more annoyed I got, and sure enough, hey look, she’s just fine!

Now, I could kind of accept that the metacrisis energy had passed to Rose. But the next scene was so cringeworthy and not in a good way. The weirdness of the whole “we let it go” because we are wise, compassionate, lovely women unlike you male presenting time lords was extremely WTF. I don’t know if RTD thought he was attempting feminism with this but it just came across as patronizing. Also, ironically, that kind of gender essentialist “women lovely, men horrible” shit is RadFem 101.

And finally – if you’ve been keeping up with the rumour mill, you will know why I laughed in despair when Donna spilt her coffee on the TARDIS console. There is a leak in the wild which so far has proved almost completely accurate, down to predicting the spilt coffee kick-starting the events of  Wild Blue Yonder,  and if it’s also right about how The Giggle ends, then all I can say is -  buckle up,  kids. Shit’s about to go down.

[rjalker]

Title: "Male-presenting" Time Lord

Created November 26th 2023. Finished: November 28th 2023. Posted December 5th 2023 because I immediately forgot it existed.

Summary: The Doctor is not "male-presenting" just because ler new body is perceived as male. That's not how this works. That's not what those words mean. Donna and the Doctor have a conversation about gender, and not assigning it to other people. They also talk about the consequences of the Doctor erasing Donna's memories without her consent in the first place.

A fix it fic for Russel T. Davies' The Star Beast episode, because he currently fails at all crucial levels of understanding how transgender people work, so that the moral of the story just jumps straight back to biological and gender essentialism in the worst possible way that gets presented as "progressive". So now literally millions of people, cis and trans alike, think misgendering people by assigning them "x-presenting" language is tootally cool and epic and progressive. I hate it.

Word count: 4,237

Web archive version (Read and download in multiple formats)

Fanfiction.net version (read only because they're boring and outdated)

Tumblr version under the read-more.

(Archived read-more link)

The Doctor was in the TARDIS’ conservatory, lying on a bed of Orbisian nest fungus near one of the tidal pools, head propped up with one arm. Hea was watching the tiny flits of blue and black that were the Quilluci dancing lights flies as they darted through the air, pollinating the flowers of the Venusian trumpet vine climbing a dormant tree a few feet away, while above, in the higher canopy, a Terran boat-tailed grackle whistled and rattled to show off its territory.

All around the Doctor were various shades of every color imaginable, each species in the conservatory competing and synchronizing to form an adaptive ecosystem.

The circadian rhythm of this section was winding down, so the light was starting to dim into an artificial twilight. Already, a few of the more go-getting night-calling life forms were starting to begin their chorus of hoots, chirps, croaks, and buzzes, either trying to attract mates, marking their territories, telling their friends the events of the day, luring in prey or pollinators, or sometimes all of the above all at the same time.

The Doctor had finally changed out of the clothes hea had regenerated into, but hadn’t chosen a new outfit yet. Instead, hea’d found simple pajamas and sandals, since Donna’s family was spending the night in the TARDIS due to their house being destroyed, and the TARDIS being more comfortable, and exciting, than a hotel, and less intimidating than a stay in one of UNIT’s guest centers.

Plus, the TARDIS had refused to take off until Donna came in to catch up with her. She had missed her so much. The Doctor had left the two of them to talk in the control room while hea showed Sylvia, Rose, and Shaun to the rooms they’d be staying in, then gave them a basic tour of the more casual areas of the TARDIS, safe for them to visit with only the TARDIS’ supervision.

Lying there surrounded by singing nature, it was so strange to think that hea and Donna had spent more time apart than they’d known eachother in the first place. Nineteen years it’d been since hea’d last seen her on her wedding day, right before hea’d regenerated out of this face the first time. And now this face, this body, was back, but hea wasn’t the same. And neither was she.

She’d spent all the winnings from the lottery ticket hea’d left her. Gave it all to the poor, the hurt, the oppressed. Left just enough for her to buy her family a house, and then spent the rest on paying for her daughter’s gender-affirming transition so she wouldn’t be forced to wait even longer to be allowed to be happy.

Hea really should have known Donna wouldn’t keep it all. If she had, she wouldn’t be the same Donna Noble he’d come to care about so deeply, and hea wouldn’t care for her nearly as much as hea did.

It was peaceful here, and this was the first time since this new regeneration that the Doctor had been able to stop and rest. Hea was different this time too. This body was older, like it had felt the time that had passed.

Hea was tired. There’d been a lot of running, and a lot of emotions, and that was a lot to take in immediately following a traumatic regeneration. Not that hea could even remember what a benign regeneration felt like at this point…Which just compounded the exhaustion. Thinking about what had led up to this regeneration hurt ler hearts.

Hea laid down more fully on the bed of soft, cushioned mushrooms, fully intending to fall asleep right there in the conservatory, hoping to wake up to happier thoughts. It was the perfect temperature, it was peaceful, the sounds of the wildlife were soothing. And the nest-fungi below ler were releasing the still achingly familiar scent of Orbis, trying to lull ler into sleep, promising dreams of the ocean…

“Are you awake?” Donna’s voice was pitched softly, but still managed to cut straight through the Doctor’s drifting thoughts like a knife, bringing ler back to the present moment so abruptly it was shocking.

Hea opened ler eyes and looked up at ler friend, saying, as though hea hadn’t been about to fall asleep, “Yup, I’m awake.” then, “I was going to take a nap, though.” Something about this new brain compelled the Doctor to be more honest about ler feelings that hea had been the last time hea had looked like this. It was kind of nice.

But hea wasn’t about to turn Donna away just for the sake of sleepiness. “Come on, get in here.”

Hea scooted backward, propped ler chin up on one hand again, and patted the mat of fungus in front of ler invitingly, sending up a cloud of sweet-smelling spores. Donna, slower than she would have done the last time they’d done this, laid down on the mat across from ler, both in matching poses, chins propped up on one arm, a comfortable distance between them for conversation.

There were a few moments where they simply looked at eachother, enjoying the sounds of the nature around them, learning the changes in the other’s old, new face.

The Doctor was so happy she was okay. That the metacrisis had been resolved without her death. But hea couldn’t help but feel the hurt that was festering somewhere around ler hearts from what she’d said just two hours ago, and all the things that went along with it. It was shockingly upsetting, and hea couldn’t seem to shake it.

Maybe it was the recent regeneration, and everything that had come with it, maybe it was the scent of Orbis clinging to ler clothes, maybe hea really was tired...or maybe it was just that ler friend had hurt ler without realizing how deep it would cut.

Donna’s expression changed as she watched the Doctor, growing more concerned with every heart beat. “Doctor, what’s wrong?” She finally asked gently.

Once upon a time, the first time hea had had this face, the Doctor would have brushed the question off, avoided answering, avoided facing ler feelings, avoided admitting them. But that was then, so many years ago, and this was now, after so many things had changed.

Hea said, keeping ler tone soft to match hers, “What you and Rose said before. You said --” Hea closed ler eyes for a moment, trying to remember the exact wording. “You said, ‘It’s a shame you’re not a woman anymore, she would’ve understood’, and ‘something a male-presenting Time Lord will never understand’.” Hea opened ler eyes again to gaze across at ler friend. “That, well, that really hurt me, Donna. Deeply.” The fact that hea could just say, out loud, how much it had hurt, was still astounding. It helped, saying it out loud.

Donna’s eyes widened, her mouth falling open slightly in clear shock. “But I – you --” she said uncertainly, clearly lost and upset. “But I don’t understand? Which part hurt you? I didn’t mean to hurt you, I...I was just trying to make a joke...”

“I know you didn’t mean for it to hurt.” Hea said gently, “But it did. And I’m not…” It was getting harder to speak, but hea pushed on. “I’m not ‘male-presenting’,” Just the taste of the words was wrong. “And I really wish you wouldn’t call me that. It—” Ler voice broke a little. “--it really hurts.”

“I’m sorry—” Donna said, confused, regretful, “But I thought...you...I mean…but aren’t you male? This body? Isn’t it male? And the way you…” She trailed off, tongue tied, eyes begging for an explanation.

The Doctor knew what she was trying to ask. Of course hea knew what she meant. That was the whole problem.

Hea sat up, and the sweet smell of Orbis’ southern sea perfumed the air.

“This is my body.” Hea said, gesturing with ler freed hands at ler body, clothed as it was in a simple pearlescent nightgown. “Its DNA is randomly assembled when I regenerate. There is no part of this body that I chose for myself, or that I have any control over.” Hea lifted a hand to ler head, and tugged on a lock of short brown hair with a hand that was noticeably shaking. “I can’t grow this out. It stays this same length until I regenerate again. It would take hours upon hours to even dye it a little, and it’d probably fade within the day.” Hea gestured at ler chest, which was as flat as a board. “I didn’t choose this shape, this face, these hands.” Hea held them up for her to see. “I didn’t choose this.” Ler hands were both shaking now, so hea lowered them. But all of the rest of ler was trembling with emotion as hea continued, “I’ve never been able to choose.”

Hea was almost crying as hea said it, overwhelmed suddenly. It was like this regeneration had brought out all ler pent up emotions, dammed up for hundreds of years, now finally given an opportunity to break free. If only...

Donna had sat up to match the Doctor, and reached out to take ler hands in her own. Her hands were warm and conforming as she held lers. “Oh, I’m so sorry,” she said with heartfelt regret, “I never realized! Do you, I mean, do you want me to use she/her pronouns for you?” There was a little bit of desperation in her voice.

The Doctor wanted to drop ler head into ler hands, but Donna was still holding them, and hea didn’t want to pull away from the comfort she provided. She still didn’t get it. So many of them didn’t understand.

Hea shook ler head, suddenly unable to speak past the lump in ler throat. It took a few painful moments of trying and failing to finally get out the words, “Donna, I’m not a woman just because I’m not a man. I’m non-binary. I am not presenting myself as male or female, other people decides that for themselves based on what my current regeneration looks like, without ever asking me what I identify as.I don’t use she/her or he/him pronouns, or they/them, either. I—” And hea couldn’t speak again, struck still by hundreds of years of endless pain hea’d had to quietly endure.

Donna stared at ler, concerned, upset, still holding ler hands, massaging them soothingly. A thought flickered across her face, and she leaned forward, squeezing the Doctor’s hands as though in apology. “Doctor, I’m sorry, I should have just asked instead of assuming it was one or the other. My pronouns are she/her, same as before, just so we’re both clear. What pronouns would you like me to use for you?” She spoke the last words like they were a well-rehearsed script, and with a trans daughter, maybe they were.

There was a long, painful pause while the Doctor considered the pros and cons of being honest. On the one hand, it had been so long since hea’d had anyone who knew and used ler real pronouns. On the other hand, Donna seemed to only know about she/her or he/him pronouns, and maybe they/them.

How would she react to hearing pronouns that weren’t yet well-established in early-21st century British English?

Well...there was only one way to find out.

“Hea/ler”. Hea said, and cracked a teary, self-mocking smile in spite of lerself. “Can you tell I’m running on a theme?” The relief of just saying the words out loud almost managed to overwhelm the anxiety. It was silly. It was beyond silly.Hea was over a thousand years old. Hea shouldn’t, and normally didn’t care what people thought, but this was something so personal, and this was Donna, one of the best friends hea had ever had.

She gave a little laugh at ler joke once it registered, then pulled one hand away to hold it up as though for a pause. “Okay, healer. Hea/ler...” she let out a breath, and waved her free hand to gesture in a roundabout way. “So if your pronouns are hea/ler, that means instead of he like a man, I’d say hea, which sounds the same, but like a doctor. And instead of him or her I’d say ler? Have I got that right? What about the rest of it? Like his or hers?”

“They’re used the same sort of way as she/her, actually.” The Doctor said, starting to regain some composure now that she seemed to be accepting. This was the easy part, in comparison. “You’ve got ler as in, ‘that’s ler over there’, but you also use ler for the possessive – ‘that’s ler TARDIS’.”

Hea paused for a beat to see if she was following, and she nodded for ler to continue, so hea did. “And then like how you’d say ‘the TARDIS is hers’, you say ‘the TARDIS is lers’. I’d love tell you the grammatical terms for all this, but my brain can’t seem to remember that part right now.” Hea waved a hand around ler head for emphasis. It still felt weird having these hands back. Especially that one. Oh, almost forgetting -- “And then when you’d say ‘herself’, you just say ‘lerself’.”

Donna abruptly stood, startling the Doctor. Or at least, she tried to abruptly stand, but had to slow down with a wince, and struggled to get her knees to unbend fully. When she’d sucessfully stood up, she stepped backward and look down at the confused Doctor.

She squinted, then waved her hands as she spoke, as though illustrating her words. “So, alright, let me try this, and you tell me if I’ve got it right -- ‘This is my friend the Doctor, hea’s an alien, and hea’s not from Mars, hea’s from Gallifrey, which is so far away I forget the numbers. The Doctor is a...a...uhh, okay if I wanted to say like, ‘man’ or ‘woman’, what do you want me to use? Would just person be okay?” She looked at ler for guidance.

The Doctor pushed lerself to ler feet, and hopped over the rest of the fungi mat to join her. “If gender matters,” hea said, shoving ler hands in the pockets of the night gown and rocking forward and backward on ler heels, “Then you can say ‘non-binary person’, or ‘othran’ if you want. It’s a term that starts getting used around this time in English. Oh! Or enby! Enby’s always fun. You get it? Enby, N-B, short for non-binary, isn’t that fantastic?” Euphoria was buzzing through ler veins, just like little bees. Hea hardly felt tired at all now. “If gender isn’t relevant, then, yeah, person’s fine. Or Time Lord, if it’s a medical setting.”

“Alright,” Donna smiled back, “So my friend the Doctor is an enby who flies around in the TARDIS, who, by the way,” She raised her voice a little louder to address the TARDIS, “Is looking absolutely stunning, if may I say so myself!”

The TARDIS, in response, sent a pleased thrum through the floor, and made the Venusian trumpet vine glow with streaks of yellow and blue to show her appreciation.

“She says same to you.” The Doctor translated with a smile.

Donna came over and put her arm through the Doctor’s, leaning against ler side and resting her head on ler shoulder, still smiling. The Doctor leaned ler head on hers in return.

“Alright, which ones did I not do yet?” Donna asked, quieter now, “I got hea -- and, actually, I think I only did hea? I can’t think of any example sentences right when I need them! Rose even gave me a whole notebook full of them so I’d practice and remember her new pronouns, and now I can’t remember any of them!”

The Doctor laughed. Hea couldn’t help it. “How about if I make some for you?” Hea suggested, then took on a playful tone. “My friend the Doctor is the luckiest enby in the universe, because hea gets to have me as ler friend, and I am one of the best friends ever to exist, and no one could possibly be luckier than to be my friend. How’s about that?”

Donna was by this point blushing and grinning, trying to shake her head. “That’s not even using your pronouns!” She said, then held up one hand to cover ler mouth, “Shh, shh, shush! My turn!”

And, in an accent clearly attempting to mimick the Doctor’s she said, “My friend Donna is actually the luckiest woman alive, because she gets to have an amazing othran like the Doctor as a friend!” She threw her free hand out in front of her for dramatic affect. “Hea’s amazing, and brave, and kind, and selfish, and was the first person I ever met besides my granddad who treated me with respect.”

She seemed to be confusing who she was supposed to be speaking for now, but the Doctor was not going to interrupt, there was so much raw emotion suddenly in her voice.

“Hea helped me gain the self-confidance my mother spent my whole life tearing down and ripping to shreds, and I am so grateful I got to meet ler, not just once, not just twice, but three times. I don’t know what sort of person I’d have been if I’d never met the Doctor, but I know I would never have been as happy—”

Her voice caught, and it was a few moments before she could continue, clearing her throat heavily.

“I spent years not being able to remember ler. Hea erased my memories, even though I didn’t want ler to. Hea erased my memories to save my life, but they never really went away. A part of me was still missing, and it hurt so much…”

There was a vice around the Doctor’s hearts, squeezing tighter with every word she said.

“Every time I’d close my eyes, I opened them expecting to see someone, even though I could never figure out who. I would dream of other worlds, horrible or beautiful or empty or peaceful. And I’d always wake up, not knowing what I dreampt of, only that I’d dreampt. Not knowing who I was missing, but knowing I was missing someone. I felt like I was losing my mind. Sometimes I’d hallucinate, see or hear things that weren’t there, that no one else heard or saw.

“I lost my best friend in the whole world, and didn’t even get to remember what I’d lost. Because hea took it from me, even though I begged ler not to.” Her voice was breaking, and the Doctor knew without having to look that she was crying. Ler own eyes were burning with the threat of tears.

And Donna kept on talking, baring her soul to the person who’d hurt her so badly. “Hea sent me back to my abusive mother, without any memory of what it was like to be away from her, to be free and happy and feel like my life was worth something more than her disappointment.”

She threw her other arm around the Doctor suddenly and pulled ler into a hug, burying her head in ler shoulder as she began to cry, deep, gut-wrenching sobs of sorrow and pain and anger.

The Doctor couldn’t hold back ler tears anymore even if hea’d wanted to, and this regeneration seemed to have no desire to subdue its emotions. Hea was sobbing right along with her as they held eachother in an embrace that had waited so many years of sorrow to come.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” Hea said over and over again into her hair, “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t let you die. I couldn’t watch you die, I couldn’t let it be my fault. I’m so sorry I was so selfish. If I’d just been – been braver, we could have had time to fix it. But I was a coward, I was selfish. I’m so sorry I hurt you like that, and for nothing.” The pain was heartbreaking. “All we’d needed was just a little more time.” And worse so because all of it had been for nothing. Hea’d lost ler best friend, and caused her a world of misery, for nothing. All hea’d needed to do was listen to her. But hea’d been selfish, and terrified of losing her. And so hea’d hurt her, just to spare ler own feelings.

Hea hadn’t thought about what it would mean for her, back then, having to go back to her abusive mum, hadn’t considered how deeply the scars of the abuse ran.

Hea’d known Sylvia didn’t treat her with respect, hea’d known Donna’s self esteem was at rock bottom, and for a reason. Hea’d known that suddenly waking up and losing more than a year’s worth of time would be shocking and traumatic.

But hea hadn’t wanted to think about those parts. Hea had just given her the lottery ticket and told lerself that it was for the best, that she was happy, that this was the best that could be done for her.

Donna mumbled into ler shoulder, “Don’t you ever do that again, space-enby…” She trailed off. “Space-othran.” A pause. “Martian.” said so tiredly.

“I’m not from Mars.” Hea rejoined automatically, laughing a little through ler tears, feeling the same wave of weakness that had clearly taken over her. Hea was back to feeling just as tired as hea had been before Donna had woken ler up.

At that moment, she somehow managed to pull the Doctor even tighter into the hug, then released ler, her face blotchy and red with crying. She punched ler lightly on the shoulder and said, mock-angry, “I know you’re not.”

Her eyes and shoulders were drooping, and the Doctor didn’t need the TARDIS’ helpful scan to know that she was exhausted. So many things had happened to her today that just on their own would have been enough stress for a week. It was a wonder she was still on her feet. It was a wonder any of them were. The Doctor could sense through the TARDIS’ scan that Shaun, Rose, and Sylvia were still taking a tour of the library.

“Come on,” The Doctor said gently, taking Donna by the arm to lead her out of the conservatory, “Let’s get you to your room—”

But Donna pulled away, shaking her head. “Huh-uh, no way. I’m sleeping right here.” She pointed to the Orbisian nest-fungus. “Do you know how long I’ve waited to sleep on this heavenly plant again? I dreampt about it so many times that I can only remember now. I literally slept in my dreams. And it was the second most peaceful sleep I ever had.”

“Ah.” That was where the Doctor had planned to sleep. “I’ll...just go somewhere else then.” Hea wasn’t going to make Donna go and find another bed of fungus, hea was the one who knew where they all were now, not her. Hea started to walk off, only for Donna to grab ler sleeve, keeping ler in place.

“Space-othran…” She suddenly seemed nervous. “I actually wanted to sleep here with you, if that’s okay.” Her eyes searched lers. “I know it sounds silly, but I’m afraid if I go to sleep you’ll disappear.”

The Doctor opened ler mouth, surprised, closed it, then opened it again. “But…I mean...” Hea scratched the back of ler head, befuddled. “Won’t your husband have a problem with that? I may not be a man, but you’re still married, and…”

To ler surprise, Donna cut ler off by laughed outright, loudly, complete with putting her hand on her belly and throwing back her head, like hea’d said the most hilarious joke ever to be told.

“What?” Hea demanded, completely bewildered.

“Oh, no, wait, you, you don’t know, do you?” She laughed breathlessly, and shook her head wildly. “Doctor, my beloved husband, Shaun Temple, is the most cuddliest person you have ever seen. I literally have to get my own bed when we have friends stay over because they literally all sleep piled on top of eachother like cats and hog all the blankets.

“Not only will he have no problem with us sleeping together, he’ll be sad if we don’t invite him. So, to formally ask your permission, my best friend the Doctor, would you consent to sleeping with me, and my husband, and probably my daughter too, because she inherited the cuddle-bug from her father, on this amazingly soft, dream-scented plant from another planet? I do have to warn you that you will probably wake up with an arm numb because Rose latches onto you like a koala bear and getting her to let go is a chore and a half. You probably don’t have to worry about sharing with my mum, she likes her own space. Please?”

She even pulled out the puppy dog eyes.

And how could hea possibly say no to that?

The last time hea’d had this face, hea would have grumbled about it, at least tried to joke about not wanting to. But a lot had changed since then. Including ler.

So hea asked the TARDIS to let the rest of Donna’s family know where they were, and to send blankets their way, and, smiling as hea stepped forward to take her hand, hea said, “I would love to, Donna Noble.”

[rjalker]

Welp, since the OP turned off reblogs on the original post:

My original reblog:

Okay, I know RTD has fucked all of this up by using the words "male-presenting" in this way, but male-presenting is NOT a synonym for "looks like a man" or "wear's men's clothing".

Saying that butches could be considered male-presenting is just. flat out wrong. That is not what these terms mean.

You can IDENTIFY yourself as male-presenting or female-presenting. You cannot assign those terms to anyone else, which is one of the major things RTD did wring with this scene!

No one asked the Doctor how hea identifies, everyone just went "well you're played by David Tennant now so you look like a man so that means you're purposefully presenting yourself to the world as male" and that's not how this works! At all!

Trans women not being out or able to socially transition doesn't mean they're male-presenting.

"male-presenting" is not a synonym for "looks like a man" or "assigned male at birth" or "wears mens clothes".

It is not something you get to assign other people, it is strictly a self-identification term, saying that you are choosing to present yourself as male, or masculine, or whatever descriptor is being used.

And I'm not even going to bother getting into the whole "the Doctor was a woman (because Jodie Whittaker had the role) five minutes ago" because again, that's literally not how gender works. Looking like a woman because a woman is playing the character does not equal "the character is a woman now" when it's just been established in this episode that the Doctor is nonbinary.

You can, and should, point out the biological and gender essentialism in this scene. But you shouldn't be ignoring the fact that the Doctor is being misgendered by being assigned male-presenting by people who have not asked, and are literally just deciding that for themselves because they think the Doctor looks like a man.

Do not use "x-presenting" language for other people --including fictional characters, which as we can all see from the fallout from this scene makes people think they can do this to real people-- unless it's something that person self-identifies as.

Calling anyone "male-presenting" or "masculine-presenting" or "female-presenting" or "feminine-presenting" without them first telling you that's how they identify is literally just misgendering people but pretending to be progressive about it.

Which is the most fucking damaging impact of this scene. And I'm getting really tired of having to explain this over and over again when people have been talking about why these terms are not okay to assign to other people for years now. Russel T Davies just came along and fucked it all up by making people think this kind of misgendering is okay when it's not even remotely.

= = =

@daily-sloop-john-b:

Okay, I'm —ing confused.

@rjalkers-polls can you please send me where you're pulling the "presenting" definition from?

And what's the word(s) for referring to that outside shell to which onlookers ascribe a gender?

No animosity meant at all; you seem to have a very specific idea of it's usage, and I'm curious what community it comes from.

= = =

Me:

this isn't a definition you're going to find in any dictionary, because it's not an "official" thing in any way, it's what many trans and nonbinary people have been talking about over the years.

I can link some posts of people talking about it if that'll help.

in no particular order:

4 days ago

September 2023

June 2019

2 days ago

November 2021

December 2021

And there's a whole lot more on my blog but tumblr doesn't want to let me find them at the moment, mostly because I didn't think to create a tag specifically for it.

Try searching any of the variations on tumblr or google.

Before November 25th 2023 you'll find a mix of people using them as self-descriptors, people talking about how it's misgendering to be called it without permission, and a few people assigning them to other people thinking it's okay.

And now after November 25th 2023 you'll see a massive surge in people throwing these terms around willy-nilly in the most absurd and bigoted ways.

The proper way to describe people without assuming and assigning gender to them is to describe them in factual statements. Are they tall? Short? Fat? Thin? Long hair? Short hair? Big chest? medium chest? Flat chest? Light skin? Dark skin? Round face? Angular face? Eye color, ect.

And if you know someone's gender, you can call them by that. A man, a woman, a nonbinary person, an enby, ect. At no point is it necessary or okay to describe them as "x-presenting", because as I say above, that's taking your internal bias and saying it's something they're doing on purpose.

If someone calls me female-presenting because they think I look like a woman, that's misgendering. I'm not presenting myself as female, I'm literally just existing in a body that happens to have boobs, through no fault or choice of my own.

= = =

@walks-the-ages:

Here's a post I reblogged nine years ago that captures the essence of why using “x-presenting” language is misgendering; you’ll notice that the post makes no mention of x-presenting language, because that only really started popping up in the last…. hmm, maybe three or four years? It became a popular way to describe someone whose gender you didn’t know, but was thankfully shot down pretty quick when trans and nonbinary people pointed out this is just a new way of misgendering someone but trying to sound progressive, by looking at someone’s appearance and assuming that what you think they look like (aka, like a man, or like a woman, or androgynous) “must be!” what gender they are.

[ID: a text post by user Viciere, posted October 31st 2014, that reads: “if somebody wears a dress and copious amounts of makeup and has ass-length pink hair and they say they are a boy you call them a boy gender stereotypes are not an excuse for misgendering someone it doesnt matter what gender you think they “look” like. respect the gender they ARE.” End ID]

If you look at the tags and replies of many of the posts made about the “male presenting” line in the Star Beast, you will find countless, countless trans, nonbinary, and even cis people expressing how they have personally been misgendered by people referring to them as ‘x-presenting’ based purely on their clothes or their physical appearance, which is especially hurtful to trans and nonbinary people who already suffer from negative body image and body dysphoria, especially if they can’t afford or physically cannot safely get top or bottom surgery, wear a packer, or padded bra, or even safely wear a binder.

TL;DR: “X-presenting” language should only be used as a self-identifier, or exclusively for those who have given you express permission to refer to them as such. Using “x-presenting” language for someone you don’t know is the same as misgendering– if you don’t know someone’s gender, just ask :)

[rjalker]

Yeah, just saw someone on Reddit (IDK how to link to the specific comment) refer to Cassandra from Doctor Who as "non-human-presenting"

Proving without a doubt that literally none of the people assigning other people "x-presenting" terminology have any fucking clue what they're talking about.

Describing Cassandra. From Doctor Who. As nonhuman-presenting.

When she identifies as the only real fucking human left in the universe.

So can you people please just fucking admit that when you call someone X-presenting, you are literally just admitting that you're saying they look like a man or woman to you? Because that's what this shit has always meant when you assign it to other people and it's getting fucking absurd.

Calling the person who literally identifies so strongly with humanity that she considers all other humans to not be really human "nonhuman-presenting". Wow, it's almost like describing other people as "x-presenting" without their permission has literally nothing to do with their identity, and is just about what you think they look like!!!

Do not call people male-presenting unless they explicitly ask you to!

Do not call people masculine-presenting unless they explicitly ask you to!

Do not call people female-presenting unless they explicitly ask you to!

Do not call people feminine-presenting unless they explicitly ask you to!

Do not call people anything-presenting unless they explicitly ask you to!

Do not fucking call disabled people nonhuman-presenting unless they specifically identify as nonhuman! My fucking gods!

Please make sure everyone you know knows that doing this is blatantly transmisic and misgendering people. Please. for the love of gods.

[rjalker]

while i get what he was going for and it was definitely not as egregious as other examples. why does a trans character's introduction always have to include a "did you just assume pronouns?" gag. like again it didnt seem mean spirited here but like, idk its just such a common trope. really think Russel should've consulted an organization like GLAAD or talked to some trans people before writing. not the worst writing of a trans character ive seen but like its still very cis-flavored writing

Assuming this is about the "did you just assume he as a pronoun?" line, yeah.

Like, it doesn't make any sense. Rose is literally trans. Why would Rose not have asked the Meep's pronouns as soon as she met the Meep? Why would she not introduce herself to the Meep with her pronouns if she's then going to get mad at people for assuming pronouns?

If you don't want people to assume pronouns, you make a habit of asking people their pronouns! Why is anyone assuming the Doctor's pronouns besides Sylvia? There's a trans kid right there! Why aren't they all in the habit of introducing themselves with their pronouns to normalize it if she's going to go around telling people not to assume pronouns?!

It's just not how this works in real life. And isntead of making it a "haha trans people get mad you assume pronouns" joke that cis people can't get enough of, it should have been...literally just normalizing asking for pronouns.

Including asking the Doctor. Instead of just assinging he/him when played by a man and she/her when played by a woman.

But I guess even in 2023, with canon nonbinary trans character, leaving open the possibility that the Doctor might not be the gender society wants to assign to them is asking too much.

Sigh.