Originally Posted by Theophile:
“I have noticed this trend in modern TV/Cinema and it always breaks the fourth wall for me. Take Prometheus for example, you have 20+ men and two women. The men die like flies and guess who is standing (well, running) at the end? The two women. When I can say before the fight who will win or at the beginning of the movie who will survive, it removes all dramatic tension for me. And this has become so noticeable in Doctor Who that it damages the viewing experience for me. For example, in the Christmas episode with Santa Claus, I knew from the get-go that all of the women would live, but the only male would die. Thus, the tension and drama were ruined.
Also, they have replaced every single male of importance in the show (except The Doctor) with a female. Yet, the women almost never die. Clara doesn't die; she lives forever. The Master is now The Mistress. The Brigadier character is now his daughter. Even the lone Gallifrean male General must be killed and regenerate, wait for it, into a female. It has become a self-parody.
Anyways, I am waiting eagerly for Series 11. Series 10 barely interests me at all since the show-killing Moffat will still be at the helm.
P.S. You care less about the men dying than the women anyways? See, that is part of the problem, men are considered by modern media as expendable, as if we were worth almost nothing. On the other hand, despite the fact that we are supposed to be equal, women are considered smarter, better and we are supposed to care about them more. As a male, this bothers me greatly.”
It's behavioural evolution. A survival strategy.
Males
are more expendable than females for a successful survival strategy. Once they've done their job and got their selfish gene into the next generation their next role, on behalf of the selfish gene, is to protect females and offspring and, in the extreme, sacrifice themselves so that the offspring (actually, the gene) has a better chance of continuing. Females are more expendable than their offspring and will often exhibit similar behaviour to males only when the offspring are threatened. The rest of the time, females tend to nurture their offspring. It's why successful males (in the parenting sense) tend to be protective of females and why successful females tend to be protective of their offspring.
Other survival strategies exist in nature, but it's the one that successful human societies encourage and successful human parents exhibit.
"Women and children first" is a real life example of this strategy.
A classic fictional example would be
Ripley in
Aliens. Her motivation in taking on the alien queen, and everything she does once she's met Newt is to help Newt (a substitute for Ripley's own child) survive. It's why, as we watch the film, to most of us, Ripley's behaviour rings true and seems credible.
”
