The Allegorical Whiteness of The Bubble

[@Sara_TheFatCultureCritic]

Midsummer Nights Dream is on June 20th. I misspoke

[@Seal0626]

The funny thing is, I almost got it near the beginning - I noticed that everyone in Finetime seemed to be white, but my reaction was "they're usually a lot better with diversity than this, I'm a bit disappointed in Dr. Who right now".

[@selmaunsley6683]

I thought it was bad casting tbf

[@Itcouldbebunnies]

The whole time I was thinking she was just a narrow-minded, selfish person who would learn to be better at the end...and then that ending hit me like a ton of bricks.

[@Velociraptour]

Thank you, that suggested ending is now in my headcanon. It might be a bit of a stretch, but it reminds me of the ending to Fleabag season 1. The problem doesn't get resolved and there is still pain, but there is comfort and there is hope.

[@justinriley]

I remember seeing the primo and thanking, "Oh, geez. Another social media bad episode" Only for Mr. Davies to hit us with that ending.... I loved this one.

[@literaterose6731]

Thank you so much for talking about this episode-I watched it twice, and found it very powerful and unnerving. I especially appreciate your take about the ending, I hadn’t considered the impact of ending on the Black character’s pain, and I agree, it’s too uncritically done much of the time. I really love the idea of him going to be with Ruby’s family afterwards. I’m so excited for the Midsummer Night’s Dream reading! I love the Christmas Carol reading you do every year, this is the perfect counterpoint to it. One question: you mentioned summer solstice, which is June 20th, but you said the date July 20th-just want to be sure I set a reminder for the right date!

[@Sara_TheFatCultureCritic]

Oops. No it’s definitely June. I’ll schedule the livestream soon

[@dharusiokay9426]

Thank you for your thoughts especially on the end of the episode. Something bugged me about it, and i still havent figured it out, but you helped me quite a bit along the way :)

[@MsFeline81]

As a cultural anthropologist, intuitive Eating councelor and fellow fat activist, who happens to be fat too, I must say: thank you for your work. You're doing amazing stuff. Keep going!

[@tonyagibbs1963]

I love your work. Thank you for your take on this episode. Commenting for the algorithm.

[@paralipsis]

I would like to recommend a story from a black, queer author that takes a journey from pain to community in the most explicit sense; Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler. It is unequivocally my favourite novel of all time. I recently re-read it for the first time in a very long time (20 years?), and it haunted me to think about how much more resonant the dystopian aspects of the novel is now, thirty years after it was printed. There is some very weird age-based relationship stuff going on that weirded me out in the 90s, and pretty much counts as a trigger warning in the present day. I don't want to make excuses for that, but I think that misstep wasn't at all borne of prurient intent, which I cannot say of many age-appropriate cis male authors that were her peers.

[@rosecoloredessays]

really good video, I’d been wanting to see some analysis on this episode that goes deeper than “it sure is about racism”

[@Sara_TheFatCultureCritic]

I recommend my friend Vera’s video @councilofgeeks

[@israsaleh]

i don’t even watch dr who but halfway through this video i was thinking “i hope he finds community in a non-white space by the end” and of course he doesn’t 😭

[@meander112]

Engagement for the engagement god!

[@juls_krsslr7908]

I don't watch Dr. Who, but I love your commentary, so I watched this. Your experience with being "just outside" the bubble of whiteness is interesting. I feel like I'm "just inside" that bubble. Or mostly inside. It's very interesting to me to see people squarely inside the bubble struggle with ambiguity. I agree that finding community would be a better ending. A Black friend told me that she wouldn't want to be white, even if life would be easier, because she wouldn't want to lose the community she has. Most white people don't understand that choosing "superiority" means sacrificing something significant.

[@technicallyawriter]

Good analysis, thank you! Also, A Midsummer Night's Dream is June 20th, right? In the video, you say July 20th. I wouldn't want folks to miss out!

[@connielimbrick7054]

Such a good video!

[@ContextWrench]

I struggle with lines between being seen as “unpleasant “ and named disruptive

[@sylvanshroom]

Wonderful video!! Comment for the engagement gods

[@Bunterz]

I first noticed it when she immediately blocked the Doctor but listened to Ruby, however I gave her the benefit of the doubt by a hair. It really is insidious.

[@eepyJay]

Really interesting watch, thank you! ❤

[@efahall._.]

Something was off for me the whole episode through, I couldn't place it, the astounding _whiteness_ of Finetime struck me but I didn't complete the thought to _supremacy_ until I saw the first minute or so of your video. I went back to rewatch it before finishing your video to really try and sit in it and figure out why I didn't see it. I am queer, autistic and poor so currently do and have been on the receiving end of so much prejudice for as long as I can remember. I am white and while I don't harbour any specific anti-black prejudice I am in my own sort of bubble that is the privilege of being in proximity to whiteness. I also have acquired physical disability and while I never held specific anti-disabled prejudice I never realized the implicit ableist privilege I had in not having to really think about the barriers that people with disabilities face in accessing the world, until after I faced those barriers myself. It is almost as though standing at a couple intersections of oppression doesn't mean that you don't benefit from other forms of oppression (shock!) On first watchthrough I thought that Pepperbean was insufferable but I couldn't understand why and I was literally utterly confused by the ending; as I mentioned I am autistic so have trouble understanding human interactions and anything that isn't direct/explicit, but I don't want to use that as an excuse -- it highlights to me that although I have been trying there's work that I need to continue to do to remove my blinders. To your point in that this story is maybe one that could only be told by Doctor Who, the Doctor as a person who went from whiteness to Blackness I see similarities to going from being able bodied to disabled (obviously being Black is not a disability, but in that we don't fit that _white ideal_ ). Or similarly going from being seen as cis to seen as trans. Or going from straight sized to fat. There are all kinds of ways that a person can be abjectified in a supremacist hierarchy.

[@itsmarthai]

Happy Pride to you too

[@Rik77]

Thanks for this. I really liked this episode and the path the story takes and how it plays with expectation and misdirect. But the only thing I felt aware of was that a story about a horrible racist might work even better if Lindy was presented as a nicer person. But for many of us watching, we picked up on the subtle micro aggressions quickly and so the story became, oh a horrible person is racist, ok fine. That said, I think you've hit the nail on the head. It's not really about racism (though that is part of it), it's about whiteness. And also I'd say people who just saw it as a dig at young people on tiktok, maybe missed that "bubbles" existed long before social media. The allegory could have been written before we even had social media. The fact it was a under 27 community, isn't a dig at young people, it's part of the general vainness and disdain of others. For the doctor its the first time he has ecperienced it personally, and he is devastated but also laughing because its ridiculous and pointless.

[@clouduponthemoon530]

I had to hold off on watching your vid while I finished the last few episodes, so I know I'm really late to the comment pile. I DIDN'T catch it. Even after the episode ended, I just sat there confused. I am glow in the dark white. Ancestry aside because it does not impact how the world views me, I present as fully white. And I did not understand. I thought the distain centered on the fact that the Doctor and Ruby are not rich. I thought it was classist. It was not until I went online to look at reviews that I even considered white supremacy.

[@Aneurin_Hunt]

I personally did miss the fact it was ultimately about racism on first viewing. I still hated the Finetime residences still was thinking they aren't worth saving. I was putting down the ending to them being outsiders and these being rich kids so a much more socioeconomic reading. Cause if one thing is for sure super rich people want to avoid poor people like the plague. But I was a bit annoyed about the doctors reaction at first. In retrospect I see it as the first time he has properly experienced racism. That is completely different from seeing it. So he is at a loss. He can't save these people and could so easily. They are choosing death over being saved by him. When I heard it was supposed to be racism it I was like oh that's makes so much sense. People who say it came out of nowhere lack media literacy. Cause looking back on the episode Lindy was constantly racist. She immediately blocks the doctor and not Ruby. There's is even a big unsolicited request warning for the doctor and not Ruby. There's her shock they are in the same room and calling it a conspiracy. I put that down to the fact they are always using the dot but in retrospect. She says "I hate yo I hate I hate you" to the doctor when she can't walk out of work unassisted. She says how the doctor "isn't a stupid as he looks" and "he will be punished I can't wait". So the clues were there. They also only had white people in it. Also tons of people are acting like Ricky September isn't racist. He would be probably might be a bit less racist but everyone there is a rich white supremacist kid. Part of why they are sent there is to get away from undesirables for which their definition is bigoted. Edit: On first viewing Finetime residence gave some real coloniser vibes. That comment about their god given duty to maintain the living standards of Finetime. They will all die within a day or two. from being unable to eat or something. They need to be told to pee. So they basically immediately off screen.

[@Rik77]

Interesting you being up UK culture. I'm from London so I tend to feel a bit different from general English culture. But yes, people are friendly, but as a queer person I from a young age saw beyond the smiles. I think when you don't quite fit in, suddenly the world comes into focus because you pushed of the bubble as it were. That's why I see my queerness as a gift actually. Otherwise I might have been one of those WASPS you describe, I mean maybe not but I'll never know. Our politics is full of it, and i hate it.