Doctor Who: is she driving men to crime?
Tory MP says vogue for ‘gender-flipping’ characters has helped create crisis in masculinity

A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
Thank you for signing up to TheWeek. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Pop culture has long triggered moral panics of varying levels of absurdity, said Ed Power in The Daily Telegraph. But Nick Fletcher, the Conservative MP for Don Valley in South Yorkshire, took things to new heights last week, when he argued that the vogue for “gender-flipping” beloved TV and film characters – having Doctor Who played by Jodie Whittaker, for instance – had helped to create a crisis in masculinity.
During a debate to mark International Men’s Day, Fletcher declared: “In recent years, we have seen Doctor Who, the Ghostbusters, Luke Skywalker and the Equalizer all replaced by women, and men are left with the Krays and Tommy Shelby [the anti-hero of Peaky Blinders]. Is it any wonder that so many young men are committing crimes?”
I can see a couple of holes in his argument, said Marie Le Conte in The Guardian. For a start, “there are still countless mainstream movies in which male protagonists are the good guys, as evidenced by the roughly 7,000 Marvel movies produced in the past decade”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
And there are probably more positive male role models today than ever before: just look at Gareth Southgate and Marcus Rashford. It’s frustrating, because Fletcher’s moment of madness distracted from the important points he made in his speech. Suicide rates for men, he noted, are three times higher than they are for women; 83% of rough sleepers are men; and 96% of the prison population is male.
These are major problems, “but they will not be solved by men who believe that a female Time Lord is turning boys to crime”. Fletcher later claimed that he had been misunderstood, said Ryan Coogan in The Independent. Even so, his assertion made a point which proponents of media diversity have been making for years: “representation matters”. Having positive media role models that people can identify with helps them “feel part of society”.
He’s right too, to be dubious about the vogue for gender-swapping. Representation is important, but rather than repurposing Doctor Who or Star Wars, it would be better to create more original stories featuring female leads.
Continue reading for free
We hope you're enjoying The Week's refreshingly open-minded journalism.
Subscribed to The Week? Register your account with the same email as your subscription.
Sign up to our 10 Things You Need to Know Today newsletter
A free daily digest of the biggest news stories of the day - and the best features from our website
-
'Every parent's nightmare'
Today's Newspapers A round-up of the headlines from the UK front pages
By The Week Staff Published
-
Squirrel kebabs on London menu
Tall Tales And other stories from the stranger side of life
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
Ten Things You Need to Know Today: 28 September 2023
The Week’s daily digest of the news agenda, published at 8am
By The Week Staff Published
-
Why is the UK pushing Germany on fighter jets for Saudi Arabia?
Today's big question Berlin has opposed the sale of weapons to Riyadh on humanitarian grounds
By Arion McNicoll, The Week UK Published
-
Is it time the world re-evaluated the rules on migration?
Today's Big Question Home Secretary Suella Braverman questions whether 1951 UN Refugee Convention is 'fit for our modern age'
By The Week Staff Published
-
Rishi Sunak's tree code: what is the PM's election strategy?
Today's Big Question Conservative leader lining up major policy announcements in bid to rebrand as 'change' candidate
By Elliott Goat Published
-
Pinochet’s coup in Chile 50 years on
The Explainer Half a century on, the former leader still sharply divides opinion in his home country
By The Week Staff Published
-
Hunter Biden: a case of special treatment?
Why everyone's talking about If Hunter's surname weren't Biden, he probably wouldn't be facing these charges, say commentators
By The Week Staff Published
-
Will Rishi Sunak's green wedge issue win over the public?
Today's Big Question The PM draws dividing line with Labour on net zero ahead of the next general election
By Sorcha Bradley Published
-
Industry backlash as Sunak set to water down green pledges
Speed Read Automotive and energy bosses look for clarity after PM backs away from UK net zero goal
By Arion McNicoll Published
-
October by-elections: what's at stake for Labour, Lib Dems and Tories
Parties will contest two former safe Tory seats on 19 October, putting pressure on Rishi Sunak
By Harriet Marsden Published