I was really hoping for a new female hero

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• Publication: The Daily Telegraph
• Date: 2013-08-07
• Author: Jessica Ebner-Statt
• Page:
• Language: English

'I was really hoping for a new female hero' - an 11 year-old's take on the male Doctor Who;

The most famous women I know of are pop or movie stars, who are packaged and branded as sex idols. A female Doctor Who would have been a great inspiration to girls everywhere, says 11 year-old Jessica Ebner-Statt.

At 7pm on Sunday night, my family crowded around the television, eagerly anticipating the name of the 12th Doctor Who.

My mum and I were really hopeful that the person picked would be different to all the others - perhaps female, black or Asian. However, my younger brother Robert, 8, was adamant: Doctor Who had always been a man with a female companion. Why should things change?

I thought that my brother's statement was totally incorrect and even sexist. Times have moved on and women deserve more recognition than they get. There should be no stereotypes in life, these are just labels and do not reflect your personality in any way.

When Zoë Ball announced the identity of the new Doctor to the nation, I was extremely disappointed. Although I had never heard of Peter Capaldi,I think he will be very good, and different from the other doctors, certainly in terms of age. However, Doctor Who is a character liked by everyone, who is clever and always saves the world, so I was really hoping for a new female hero who would be a great inspiration to girls everywhere.

When the Doctor regenerates (changes into a different person), his identity, style and manner changes, but nothing is said about whether his gender can change as well. I don't see the reason why he can't turn into a girl.

Laurie Penny says that people do not want a female Doctor as they cannot imagine one. I actually agree with this, it's probably the reason why my brother believed that the idea was strange. Isn't it time we are a bit more imaginative?

Nowadays, girls have few female role models to look up to. The most famous women I know of are pop or movie stars who are packaged and branded as hot sex idols. Despite the fact that these women look and sound incredible, many of them make girls become self-conscious about their looks, and dress inappropriately - something that is becoming more and more frequent.

The closest woman equivalent to Doctor Who was Sarah Jane Smith, a character on the CBBC series the Sarah Jane Adventures. Although she was possibly the best female role model on children's TV, she relied more heavily on gadgets than Doctor Who, and was also helped and rescued a lot more too. I really enjoyed watching her and marvelling at her brilliance, but she was definitely not as awesome or inspirational as the Doctor.

I recently went to see the film Monster's University. During the Scare Games (a tournament to find out which team of six monsters were the best at scaring), two out of five teams just contained girls. Both made silly mistakes and consequently neither did that well. The two were one moody team of Goths and one girlie team, all wearing pink. I hate what this says about girls; not all girls love pink or hiss and sulk.

If a woman or black/ Asian person was introduced as the new Doctor Who, I believe that they would bring a new group of viewers to the programme, as well as keeping the old ones, if the new actor portrayed the character well. I would definitely watch.

It is 2013 and time to realise just how important women are. Half of the population is made up of women, yet few get the opportunity to show their excellence to the world. Women are just as good actors as men; it's time to stop looking romantically at the Doctor and move with the times. This is the 21st century.

Jessica Ebner-Statt, 11, has just left primary school. She is a computer-obsessed, chocolate-loving feminist, who also runs a travel blog with her mum called Family Travel Times. It's about the places they go and what they think of them.

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• APA 6th ed.: Ebner-Statt, Jessica (2013-08-07). I was really hoping for a new female hero. The Daily Telegraph .
• MLA 7th ed.: Ebner-Statt, Jessica. "I was really hoping for a new female hero." The Daily Telegraph [add city] 2013-08-07. Print.
• Chicago 15th ed.: Ebner-Statt, Jessica. "I was really hoping for a new female hero." The Daily Telegraph, edition, sec., 2013-08-07
• Turabian: Ebner-Statt, Jessica. "I was really hoping for a new female hero." The Daily Telegraph, 2013-08-07, section, edition.
• Wikipedia (this article): <ref>{{cite news| title=I was really hoping for a new female hero | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/I_was_really_hoping_for_a_new_female_hero | work=The Daily Telegraph | pages= | date=2013-08-07 | via=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=3 December 2024 }}</ref>
• Wikipedia (this page): <ref>{{cite web | title=I was really hoping for a new female hero | url=http://cuttingsarchive.org/index.php/I_was_really_hoping_for_a_new_female_hero | work=Doctor Who Cuttings Archive | accessdate=3 December 2024}}</ref>