One, two, three, and they're off!

[nineveh_uk]

There are many reasons to consider that Amy might not actually be pregnant, starting with "She knows she has something really important to tell the Doctor, can't remember what it is, and her mind leaps to the obvious cliché". However, "she can't be because it would be irresponsible to show her drinking wine on a Family Show*" and "The Doctor wouldn't take someone who was pregnant on an adventure because it would be risky" are not among said reasons.

*Family Show is an incredibly useful shibboleth in Doctor Who/Torchwood fandom, as it invariably signals someone who is pontificating without a clue.

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

You are right and they are wrong.

[nineveh_uk]

Now those are words I like to hear!

[legionseagle]

Given Amy urged someone to drive a car into a building when she was (apparently) eight months pregnant the logic seems distinctly peccable

[nineveh_uk]

It's the "he wouldn't take a pregnant companion" bit that really annoys me. The Doctor is willing to put humans into all sorts of incredibly dangerous situations, why would he draw the line at an embryo if its owner doesn't mind?

[el_staplador]

Haven't you heard? A woman must climb into a box of cotton wool five seconds after conception, and remain in it until Medicine has decided that it is appropriate to remove the infant from her, a point which may or may not coincide with the baby's views on the matter. The Doctor, being a doctor, must subscribe to this worldview.

[nineveh_uk]

Silly me, I forgot that for a moment. (I've just been told that the Doctor wouldn't take a pregnant Amy in the Tarsis because of our evolutionary programming to protect pregnant women. My evolutionary programming is seeing stone axes.)

[ankaret]

I'm not sure what Time Lords evolved from, but having seen Timothy Dalton's turn as one my best guess is something akin to a Gila monster.

[legionseagle]

Do Gila monsters splutter a lot?

Actually, I seriously wondered on that performance whether the travelling salesman in FIVE (the one with the implausible lisp even by the standards of Jewish characters in Sayers) could have been Rassilon, incog.

[ankaret]

They have venomous salivary glands, and it's only a matter of time before they evolve gauntlets with a variety of Sith-like powers.

[legionseagle]

Are Gila monsters and Komodo dragons related?

[nineveh_uk]

Only the ones in the House of Windsor.

[ankaret]

Oh, win.

[ankaret]

Bristol Zoo says yes. Also the blue-tongued skink, which I can quite see evolving into John Sim.

It sounds like a Shakespearean insult...

[legionseagle]

"The devil damn thee black, thou blue-tongued skink!"

[antisoppist]

I assume mentioning that UK pregnancy advice is still to cut drinking to "one or two glasses of wine once or twice a week" wouldn't help?

[nineveh_uk]

I've tried, but I doubt it!

here from latest things

[copracat]

Actual science? http://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/1010/10100602

Actually, no. Though I haven't read whatever community or post you're referencing, I imagine you have better things to do than engage in fruitless conversations!

Re: here from latest things

[nineveh_uk]

Thank you! I have quoted that, but won't count on any impact... After all, what is science compared to scaremongering and misogyny?

(latest things?)

Re: here from latest things

[copracat]

Ah, good luck.

Latest things is a way of looking at public posts on DW via tags, eg http://www.dreamwidth.org/latest?tag=doctor+who

Or you can just look at the latest public posts: http://www.dreamwidth.org/latest

Re: here from latest things

[nineveh_uk]

Ah, thank you! My navigational powers of DW are not as sophisticated as they might be.

Re: here from latest things

[copracat]

You have to know it's there! It's under the Explore menu in your profile but who looks in those menus?

I like it because it makes up for the lack of a link gathering newsletter in some of my fandoms on Dreamwidth.

[legionseagle]

One of the silliest arguments I saw involved someone quoting the UK guidance and being met with the argument that because the characters in Coupling didn't drink when one of them thought she was pregnant, Moffat couldn't agree with that position.

[nineveh_uk]

That one was quite mind-boggling, not least because the same argument requires Moffatt to approve of men dropping in to back gardens in the middle of the night and inducing seven year olds to run away with them.

[legionseagle]

Which also tells against the argument that he'd never risk a foetus that way...

[legionseagle]

Oh, well, this comment explains a great deal - specifically, the gender pronoun.

I may occasionally go on a bit too much about my evil ex, but I never felt so relieved to be out of a relationship when I spotted him policing everything that passed his partner's lips during her pregnancy and, subsequent, breast-feeding - not just the obvious (eg alcohol, tea, coffee, aspirin, paracetamol, ibruprofen, red meat, cheese, seafood) but the less obvious (eg lentils).

[nineveh_uk]

Care as control, a classic. And so easy to claim you hate the sin, not the sinner, when you know you will never be on the receiving end of the bonfire.

I've been particulary enjoying the comments that say "Amy can't be pregnant because Rory is cautious and wouldn't let her drink wine/go in the Tardis", which demonstrates a particularly delicious total failure to understand both characters as written.

[legionseagle]

"Such a lovely young married couple, the Ponds."

[ankaret]

Is that person seriously arguing 'I can't believe Amy would do this because I wouldn't?' Because if a blue box had crashed into my garden when I was a small child I'd have said 'Bugger off, I'm reading' and that would have been Eleven's first season down the drain.

I do now wonder whether excessive maternal lentil intake is responsible for the behaviour of the feral homeschooled children who always seem to be rushing up and down the aisles whenever I go to the local health food shop, mind you.

[legionseagle]

This person is not only saying, "I can't believe Amy would do this because I wouldn't" but with a rider of "Despite the fact that (absent being bodily transported into bad fanfic) the circumstances under which I would be called upon to make that decision cannot possibly under any circumstances apply to me as a matter of basic human biology."

[ankaret]

*sigh* Is there any objection to administering a bottle of cheap red plonk sharply to the back of his skull?

[legionseagle]

Even cheap red wine can be used to marinate things for fun and profit.

How about a bottle of health food cooperative organic grape juice guaranteed no preservatives?*

*Not that this is necessarily alcohol free by the time the punters buy it, depending on the footfall of the health-food store in question.

[nineveh_uk]

I have a bottle of utterly repulsive lemon and elderflower snaps I would be happy to donate to the cause.

[legionseagle]

Heaven knows, the sooner you deploy it, the better (also, Amy in "the sex trade industry"? What the fuckitty fucking fuck?)

[legionseagle]

Wonderful. The person I was responding to has deleted their posts and the mod has frozen the thread.

[nineveh_uk]

IIRC that particular mod has been an offender in this regard in the past.

[nineveh_uk]

It is a truth universally acknowledged that if fandom can possibly present a female character in a negative light, it will do so. Whilst ignoring the same traits in a male character (and I don't see why Amy is irresponsible at all - certainly if she is, the Doctor is considerably worse, despite considerably more life experience).